Category: Dealership Training

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Dealership Training

Creating a Culture of F&I

Contributing Author: Steve Roennau Vice President Compliance EFG Companies
Contributing Author:
Steve Roennau
Vice President
Compliance
EFG Companies

Q4 is here and that means it’s time to reflect on where your business is today and plan for what lies ahead in 2016. Many dealers not only forecast their future business, but also develop plans to create a cohesive team and workflow between all functional areas of the dealership.

Everyone knows the F&I department is an important driver of profitability – they get deals bought, sell profitable protection products, and ensure the delivery of the vehicle. Successful dealers don’t just think of F&I as a department, rather they adopt a culture of F&I throughout the dealership.

A culture is a way of life of a group of people – the behaviors, beliefs and values that they accept and pass along. As a dealer, do you understand the benefit of having your sales and service teams adopt an F&I culture? Where the employees believe in and accept the value of the F&I process and products as a way of doing business and impart it on everyone in both the showroom and service drive?

It’s obvious for dealers to see the value of training your sales team on F&I products.

Your sales people know many of their customers today work on a tight household budget. With a culture of F&I, they also know how a VSC helps them stay within that budget when their car unexpectedly breaks down. Or, that GAP protection will ensure customers can pay off their vehicle in the event of a total loss.

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Dealership Training Economy

Positioning Leasing vs. Buying

Hollis Goode Blog Headshot

Contributing Author: Hollis Goode, Regional Vice President, Dealer Services, EFG Companies

Leasing continues to gain considerable ground in the automotive space as manufacturers place greater emphasis on lease incentives. Is your team taking advantage of this trend?

According to a recent report from Experian, leasing hit a record of 26.7 percent of U.S. new-vehicle volume in the first quarter of 2015. This represents a 1.1% year-over-year growth and the fourth time in the past five quarters when lease penetration topped 25 percent. With this growing trend, we can expect more manufacturer lease incentives in the second half of this year, meaning now is the time to ensure your sales team can not only close a sale, but also a lease.

Ask yourself, does my team know how to positional leasing versus financing? Not sure? Refresh your team by focusing on the basics.

Help customers understand depreciation. While they probably know that all vehicles depreciate as soon as they leave the lot, they probably don’t make the connection that vehicles depreciate at the same rate whether they lease or buy. The only difference lies in what they pay for. With leasing, customers only pay for the time/miles they drive. However, with buying customers commit to the entire cost of the vehicle, no matter how far they drive it or how long they keep it.

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Dealership Training

Tips to Shorten the Car Buying Process

 

Hollis Goode Regional Vice President EFG Companies
Contributing Author:
Hollis Goode
Regional Vice President
EFG Companies

One of the biggest questions on every dealer’s mind right now is how to shorten the time it takes to buy a car. While consumers are demanding to get in and out of a dealership in 30 minutes or less, dealers have a myriad of processes to work through from the moment a consumer walks through the door. Each of these processes takes time – and it doesn’t help that there always seems to be new compliance steps to implement each year.

While your knee-jerk reaction might be to say “it just can’t be done,” I ask that you take a minute to look at your processes and ask yourself:

  • Are my sales representatives adequately conducting the first interview to truly understand the needs of the customer?
  • Does the sales manager meet every customer in the dealership?
  • When does the customer meet the F&I manager?
  • Is my team structuring the buying experience based on the customer’s needs from the onset?
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