The Road to ROI with F&I

As a dealership owner, resources for realizing long-term revenue are a crucial part of your business. This is where the concept of dealer-owned reinsurance can play an important role.  This financial mechanism can greatly assist with warranty obligations as well as give dealers an upper hand over their business. 

Good marketing is crucial to the success of any business. From print media and digital ad campaigns to social media marketing- these all play a significant role in creating a brand image. However, there is one thing that is perhaps the most important tool for spreading the word about a business. That is great customer reviews. 

If you want to meet your sales goals, you are going to need more customers. That may sound logical, but it's not necessarily the case. According to recent findings, the success rate of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is only 5-20%.

A motivated sales force operates like one cohesive unit; all parts pull together to be effective, productive, and successful in achieving goals.  On an individual level, motivation is tied up in our essential nature as humans to strive for excellence, personal growth, and a sense of purpose.  Being motivated is linked to creativity, better relationships, and job satisfaction.  Without motivation, we see a decline in wellbeing and an unwillingness to productively take on new challenges.

You see customers entering your dealership, and some buy cars while others don't. There are ways to get more customers in the door and improve your sell-through percentage. Your dealership has the vehicles people want in stock, but you are looking to increase your sales quota and grow your business. Improving your level of customer service and building long-term relationships can help. Here are a few ways to improve your dealership's customer service:

For any business operation, hiring is a costly process. Putting effort and time to attract, hire, and retain the right team members will prove to be the best return on investment dealerships to make in today's tech-savvy world. 

For a dealer, selling a vehicle is a process, not an event. For salespeople to be successful, they need to understand all the essential parts of the sale. Each element of the sale, from building rapport with customers to understanding objections before they arise, is like adding a brick in the wall. The fortitude of those building blocks and strength of the bricks will always matter. Just how well-honed is your team at its sales process? If you want to unleash a team of unstoppable sellers onto your lot, you will need to constantly provide them with updated, empowering, effective sales training.  

Going digital in auto dealerships has become more of a priority with COVID-19 wreaking havoc on customer’s willingness to venture to a dealership and/or allowing customers on-site. As a result, having to offer retailing through online means is becoming a new norm.

While communication is vital to the success of any organization, keeping a clear flow of communication between the F&I Department and the Sales Desk is essential in a dealership. Negative communication can deliver a stormy impact on employee morale, the profitability of the dealership, and affect the reputation of the dealership's brand. The dealership must make sure that the communication flow between their F&I Department and Sales Desk are active and ongoing. Cohesiveness is necessary to ensure all things needed to keep the dealership in a high-profit margin and a high-level reputation of the dealership's brand. It's equally crucial to keep employee morale high and healthy.

While there are no laws that require you have to hire a compliance officer, there's a chance that without a hyper-focus on compliance, you could wind up breaking actual laws as a result.

Let us explain.