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Boost Your New Car Sales Through Leasing

Leasing: Does Your Team See the Light?

Contributing Author: Stephen RoennauLease incentives are around the corner, just in time to take advantage of record lease penetration. Recent vehicle registration data released by Polk stated that new cars accounted for 29 percent of all sales through May, which puts the year on pace to top last year’s rate of 27.6 percent. This is the highest penetration of new cars in the last five years. According to Edmunds, leasing is behind this breakthrough accounting for 25 percent of new cars sold.

At this time, it is vital that your sales team is trained to not only close a sale, but also a lease. The most important question to ask yourself is, “Does my team know how to position leasing vs. a traditional loan?” If you don’t know the answer, then these tips will help refresh your team until you register for EFG’s lease training workshop.

New vehicle sales are outpacing last year’s totals. Why? According to Edmunds, the reason is the surge in leasing, which is on track to smash last year’s record penetration rate of 22%.

Everyone knows that all vehicles depreciate in value as soon as they are driven off the lot. However, few consumers make the connection that their vehicle depreciates at the same rate whether they lease or buy. The only difference lies in what they pay for. Think about what most customers say is their single biggest expense is in owning a vehicle. They either say their monthly payment or gas. The truth is that their single biggest expense may be the hidden cost of depreciation.

Most customers don’t learn about this expense until it’s too late – at trade-in time, when dealerships offer them less than what they expected or needed. Offering them a lease is a great way to manage the depreciation expense and make the trade-in process easy.

When positioning leasing, just as with purchasing, your sales team needs to understand their customers’ needs.
If they have a predictable lifestyle, drive a low average number of miles, properly maintain their car, and want to make trade-in easy, then leasing may be a good option. Top selling points for a lease include:

    • You are protected from market risks that affect the value of your vehicle.
        • Rebates
        • Bad press
      • Discontinued model
    • You may lower your monthly payment without being stuck in a long loan.
  • You get to drive a newer model car with the latest technology and safety features.

Advise your customers that when they buy, they commit to the entire cost of the vehicle – no matter how many miles they drive or how long they keep it.

While leasing is on the rise, there will always be people who prefer to buy. That’s why it’s important to ask the right qualifying questions before positioning a lease, such as:

    • How often would you like to trade in your vehicles?
    • When was the last time you paid off a vehicle and kept it for a while?
    • How many miles do you drive per year?
    • Do you trade your vehicles or sell them outright?
  • When was the last time you were happy with the amount offered for your vehicle at trade-in?

In the end, your sales team needs to help their customers decide what matters to them. The decision to lease or buy depends entirely on their lifestyle and what they feel comfortable with.

With more than 35 years of insight into the consumer mindset in the auto retail space, EFG’s Transcend Group knows how to train your team to readily position the benefits of leasing compared to 3, 4 and 5 year retail loans. They also gain a deeper understanding of how closing a lease benefits them and the dealership.

To take your team members beyond the fundamentals of leasing, register for our Lease Training Workshop today before it’s too late!

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Dealership Training EFG Companies Featured

Leasing is Booming. Is Your Team Taking Advantage of It?

Contributing Author: Stephen RoennauAccording to a recent article by the Associated Press, even though interest rates are low, many consumers are still choosing to lease their new car or truck rather than buy.

“Lenders have seen overall stability come back to the market since the recession and leasing has gradually returned as a larger part of many lender strategies,” said Melinda Zabritski, senior director of automotive credit at Experian Automotive.  With leasing on the upswing, the market is predicted to double in the next year.

With OEMs releasing their lease incentives this fall, it’s time to make sure your team is fully prepped for taking advantage of this fast-moving trend and increase future sales opportunities.

While sales business will always remain the backbone of a dealership, you know there is no business Leasing-on-the-rise-Callout lease business, especially with August lease incentives around the corner:

  • Leases keep customers returning to the dealership like clockwork for their service appointments
  • Leases help maintain an inventory of recent-model used cars
  • Leases have the significant opportunity to create customers for life

But, does your team have the knowledge and tools to close a lease?

With over 35 years of insight into the consumer mindset in the auto retail space, EFG’s Transcend Group knows how to train your team to readily position the benefits of leasing while understanding their individual benefits of closing a lease and the bigger picture of dealership profitability.

Find out more about our Lease Training Workshop and register today!

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Dealership Training

Five Tips to Strengthen Your Sales Force

Contributing Author: Stephen Roennau

In a high-energy and competitive sales environment, it can be difficult to recognize when it is necessary to strengthen your sales force strategy. It doesn’t have to be that way. It is crucial for sales-driven companies to understand the challenges that can sneak up on their team and how to combat them. Training a team, much like exercising, must be a continuous tactic for strengthening a team and determining the success of their sales force.

Tips for a Strong Sales Team

Sales training is a crucial component of empowerment. To that end, identifying weaknesses in your sales team and arming your team with tools and concepts they can use to improve are important in helping to ensure

success. Here are five things that you can do to help strengthen your sales force.

Do you know your sales team?
◦ Do you ever feel like you are speaking to a brick wall when trying to groom a salesperson into what you want him or her to be? You’ve tried several ways to explain the “right” way to do something, only to find that he or she doesn’t succeed, even with coaching. The problem might lie in hiring the right person, but for the wrong job.

◦ Team profiling helps you understand who the top performers are, what roles they should be in, and where you need to optimize existing strengths.
Stop wasting time and precious resources trying to fit a square peg where it doesn’t fit.

Are you communicating the “right” information?

◦ Have you ever said to your sales or service team: “We need to increase sales by 30 percent this month”? What does that mean to the team, and to each individual?

◦ Establish specific goals for your sales team. Whether long-term or short-term goals, document and define the desired goals for your team and outline how those goals should be achieved. Don’t write the goals on the wall and walk away; revisit them regularly to ensure everyone is working toward the same set of goals at all times.

Is your approach the problem?

◦ Is it a drag to come into work every day because you know you’re going to spend your day correcting everyone’s mistakes? Perhaps you’re taking the wrong approach—spinning your wheels on an approach that simply isn’t working.

◦ Motivation matters. Any general manager, sales manager or service manager who is knowledgeable, motivating, and engaging can make the difference between seeing a vast improvement in sales and witnessing dissension among the ranks. Create an environment filled with positivity and energy. That environment starts with you. People are motivated in different ways; experiment and find what works best for your team.

Is your training strategy a “once-a-quarter” event?

◦ EFG knows training—our experts in The Transcend Group are the first step in getting your team on the right track. We can show up and train your sales force, but what really matters is you ensuring that training doesn’t stop there.

◦ Training is an everyday activity. Concentrate on those who need it most, but don’t neglect reinforcing the lesson to top performers as well. Be brilliant at the basics, make sure lower-performing sales reps do the basic steps “right” every time.

“Build value in the product.” “Slow the customer down.” We’re sure you’ve said something like this. But did you tell the salesperson HOW?

◦ Be specific in your feedback. Don’t just say, “Don’t do that” without also explaining how to do something correctly. Teach your team about the products and services you offer, and also teach them why those products and services are valuable to customers. Show them by doing.

Learn more about tools you can use to strengthen your sales force strategy by contacting The Transcend Group today. Visit our website, call us at 877-884-6661, or join our social communities for more information.

Special thanks to Steve Klees, our Senior Vice President of Specialty Channels, and Chuck McGraw, our Senior Vice President of The Transcend Group, for co-authoring this blog.