Dealership Corridor - Dealership Corridor

EFG Companies’ National Consumer Research Reveals Keys to Increasing eLead Conversions

Post author By efgmarketing
Post date March 20, 2018

Online Reviews, Pricing, & Quality of Vehicle Inquiry Responses Can Make or Break a Sale

EFG Companies, the innovator behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program, announced today the results of its second national consumer research study revealing the critical role of a dealership’s online presence in making a sale. According to the 1,457 respondents, their buying research process goes well beyond simply narrowing down their vehicle selection, and the smallest mistake can eliminate a dealership from consideration. The softening market coupled with a growing Millennial/Gen Z consumer, demands an increased focus on the dealership’s digital eLead process to increase conversions. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2GGG93K.

The research revealed seven key data points on the average consumer’s first point of contact with a dealership:

50 percent of customers check a dealer’s online customer reviews prior to considering them for a potential vehicle purchase.
71 percent compare dealership website prices before deciding which dealership to visit.
83 percent expect a response from the dealership within 24 hours of sending an online vehicle inquiry, and 16 percent want information immediately or within the hour.
43 percent say the more information you can provide online, the more apt they are to visit the dealership.
45 percent rank poor spelling, grammar and punctuation as a top three reason to eliminate a dealership from consideration.
Only 9 percent want a phone call from the dealership after they’ve submitted an online request.

Dealership Training

How to Qualify Customers on the Sales Floor

Post author By efgmarketing
Post date March 14, 2018

Contributing Author: Eric Fifield Chief Revenue Officer, EFG Companies

Are your sales and F&I teams at odds with each other?

Do you often hear sales team members complain of getting their front-end margin slashed when customers go to finance?

Or, do you hear finance managers’ despair over having limited back-end flexibility for F&I products?

When sales people go through our F&I training, their feedback is often that all sales people should go through this training, as it would completely change the way they approach sales. Many sales professionals have no idea what goes on in the finance office, or how their efforts at securing a sale impact F&I.

So, what does go on in the finance office?

Any F&I manager will tell you that their job consists of securing financing that will cover both the cost of the vehicle and the sale of F&I products. They take customer information, submit loan applications, review lender bids, select a lender that meets the needs of both the dealership and the customer, and present the financing options and available F&I products to the consumer. While much of their time is spent on paperwork, the majority of their effort is spent on selling F&I products to increase the dealer’s back-end profit.

What effect does the sales process have on F&I?

The answer to this question is everything. Think about it like this. A sales person lands a customer on a $35,000 vehicle. When the finance manager pulls the customer’s credit and runs the numbers, they see that they will not be able to get a loan for more than $35,000. This makes it almost impossible to sell F&I products, which significantly reduces the dealership’s overall ability to maximize profit on the sale.

Compliance

The Other Side of the Domino Effect

Post author By efgmarketing
Post date March 5, 2018

Contributing Author:
Steve Roennau
Vice President
Compliance
EFG Companies

In July 2015, BB&T Dealer Financial Services announced the launch of flat fees as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced the expansion of oversight to larger non-bank auto finance companies. BB&T became the third auto finance lender to change their dealer participation practices, after Chrysler Capital and Santander USA. A domino effect quickly took place, with American Honda Finance Corporation, Fifth Third Bank, and Toyota Motor Credit joined the growing number of lending institutions either reducing their cap on dealer participation, or implementing flat fees.

In February, BB&T became the first auto finance company to reverse the trend, stating in an interview with Subprime Auto Finance News that the bank would be abandoning its flat-fee dealer compensation program and introduce a more traditional auto pricing program mid-March.

While BB&T plans to eliminate flat fees, we can still expect them to be more circumspect on the dealer participation cap than in previous years. In fact, Brian Davis, BB&T’s director of corporate communications stated, “BB&T remains firmly committed to the auto finance industry and to the fair and equal treatment of all consumers.”

The fact of the matter is that it is highly unlikely that the auto finance industry as a whole will raise their dealer participation caps back to pre-CFPB levels. After all, the concept of treating customers fairly isn’t go away.