Tag: F&I training

Categories
Dealership Training

Is Your Training Investment Paying Off?

Steve Klees Blog HeadshotHow often have you heard the following statement?

“I paid for my people to go through training. While sales were up the first week out of the chute, we’re now back to our previous levels. What a waste of money!”

Structured training can be an effective means of improving sales performance, however just as any investment takes research and planning, so does training.

Before sending your team to any training course, it’s important to evaluate the effectiveness of the training model and whether it pairs well with your current performance culture.

In your research, ask how the instructors measure the success of their program:

  • Do they measure satisfaction and participant reaction?
  • Do their participants retain the stills learned in the classroom?
  • Do they evaluate behavior before and after the program to determine behavioral transformation?
  • Do they provide measurable business improvement metrics, like increased sales or product penetration rates?

Lastly, it’s important to take those business improvement metrics and compare them to the cost of the course to forecast the potential return on investment.

In order to ensure the dollars you spend on training is an actual investment, think of training as a performance culture shift for your dealership. The strongest training courses always include personalized follow-up as well as dealership management buy-in. Before the course begins, discuss the current situation within your dealership, develop goals for measuring success, and discuss how managers can reinforce the lessons learned in the classroom. After the course ends, you should expect you’re a representative from your product provider to visit your dealership to evaluate your team’s success, provide a re-fresh, and even, if necessary, work with your team as they complete sales to provide a refresh on what they’ve learned.

The fact is a training course is only as effective as the dealer who implements it. In order to truly reap the benefits of any training course, be it sales or F&I, the dealership needs to reinforce the skills learned in a classroom setting.

Sending your people to an offsite course and then plopping them back in the same environment as before is a sure way to negate most things they learned. Instead, evaluate how you can evolve the dealership performance environment to foster your team’s growth and success once they get back, as well as other support positions that are also a part of the sales process.

In addition, after you’ve sent your team through a training course and everyone is on the same page, consider putting in place a mentorship model where more seasoned staff continue to provide guidance to new recruits. It is also important to set achievable benchmarks to measure each team member’s success as well as actionable steps to improve performance.

No matter whether you send your team to an offsite course, or have an instructor come to your dealership, the skills learned in the classroom setting need to be reinforced in the dealership in order to generate successful results.

With almost 40 years of working hand-in-hand with dealerships, EFG Companies has perfected a specialized training model that goes far beyond typical sales training events that fuel sales teams temporarily without changing dealership culture or team behaviors and attitudes. Find out how our expert trainers can put your team on the fast-track to profitability.

Categories
Dealership Training Economy

Make More Money on Returning Lessees

Contributing Author: Stephen RoennauRe-stating the obvious

  • Consumers held on to their cars much longer than normal during the recession or simply did without.
  • Post-recession consumers slowly came back into the car market. However, they were much more wary. Leases and used cars did better on average than new-vehicle sales.
  • Now, those lease terms are coming to a close, and dealerships can expect an influx of returning lessees, whom they can turn into new-vehicle owners.

What this means for 2014

According to “Automotive News”, General Motors saw those lessees start returning in November and they have only continued to grow.

Returning lessees pose a huge opportunity for dealership profit in 2014. Why? Because you’ve already done the legwork.

You’ve already built an ongoing relationship, bringing these consumers back to the dealership on a regular basis. Lease customers are on the hook, now you just have to reel them in with superior service and products.

What do we mean by service?

First there’s the follow-up. Evaluate your contact strategy for this audience. When do you begin contacting them? What is the contact frequency? What are your messages for this audience?

Remember, you don’t want to spam them, but you do want to stay top-of-mind. This is most easily done with your content rather than frequency. For example, many people, especially first-time lease customers, do not fully understand the process for lease-end. Educating them on the available options and inventory can go a long way toward influencing their purchase decisions.

You can also use your email communication to invite the customer in for a free trade appraisal to see how well the vehicle is holding its value. Simply getting them back to the dealership dramatically increases the chance of retaining lease customers. Remember, the customer who leased three years ago may be able to take advantage of better options. Many captives have stronger lease offers. Residual values in general have increased and the market has stabilized. Also, some lease programs waive the acquisition fee or security deposit on a re-lease or have other incentives for loyal lease customers. All these things add up to a greater opportunity for you to retain that customer.

In addition, it’s important to evaluate their experience in the showroom. You already have a database filled with information about their needs.

  • You know the current make and model of their car.
  • You know how many miles they drive.
  • You know their service history.

With these data points in mind, you can do much more than show them the new version of their car. You can offer suggestions on other makes, products, or financing options that might fit their needs better. When they come in, how prepared is your sales staff to meet their needs and exceed their expectations?

What about those products?

As with every customer in your dealership, returning lessees want the most for their money. After all, that’s the whole reason they chose to lease in the first place. Now is the perfect time to re-evaluate your F&I products and your provider. So, talk to your service advisers. They can tell you how quickly claims are processed, whether your admin is professional and courteous, and how many claims are approved. Those F&I products not only reflect back on you. Outside of the upsell opportunity, they can also help or harm your service drive, depending on how much red tape your service advisors deal with on a daily basis.

EFG Companies knows the importance of customer service combined with superior products. Everything from training to product administration has a single goal in mind – to be your partner for go-to-market success. Our agile product innovation and customization is backed by unmatched partner engagement and industry leading claims administration.

Make EFG your key to driving business. Contact us today.

Categories
Dealership Training EFG Companies F&I The Transcend Group

F&I Training: Four Ways to Keep the Customer Engaged

A crucial part of F & I training is learning how to keep customers engaged while they’re in the finance office.  At EFG Companies, we recommend offering extensive training to your new staff to make the process as efficient and productive as possible.

Every aspect of the sales process should focus on the importance of building a relationship with the customer rather than simply trying to push a sale.  The time spent in the finance office is no exception.  The first step is to make sure that you are always mindful of respecting the customer’s time.  Offering F&I services should be done efficiently so that the customer doesn’t lose interest before the products or services are even offered.

  1. Ask a series of simple questions to determine which products or services best fit the customer’s needs, and focus on those rather than overwhelming the customer with a detailed description of everything.
  2. Offer the customers a variety of options that fit their driving habits and needs.
  3.  Clearly explain how each option could benefit the customer in the long term, based on their identified needs.  This is another opportunity to build a lasting, trusting relationship with the customer.
  4. Before you attempt to respond to any resistance, listen and clarify the objection, make sure to justify your point based on their specific circumstances

It is critical that dealers select the right F&I products for their dealership in order to maximize dealership profitability.  As the innovators behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program, our industry-leading assortment of products includes everything from Vehicle Service Contracts to our Drive Forever Limited Lifetime Powertrain Protection. 

For more information about EFG Companies, feel free to contact us or join our social communities.