The car buying industry is nothing like it was ten years ago. Mobile phones, and the Internet have completely changed the market. The market is now designed for the quickest and most efficient selling tactic. 

What Does This Mean for your F&I Department?

In 2015, autotrader.com conducted a "car buyer of the future study", where it polled 4002 people about the changes that they want to see in the car buying process. Several people weighed in on changes that they would like to see such as

• Begin the deal structuring the process online, then being able to take it almost to the end of the buying process.
• More freedom with test drives. (i.e. without supervision, longer test drives, and longer distances.)
• Test driving several different models, and being able to work with "product specialists" instead of sales representatives.  
• Completing their paperwork online in order to shorten the amount of time that they have to spend at the dealerships.

The leading thing that was found was that having superior automotive finance and insurance training and large amounts of product knowledge are still the most important thing when buying a car.

• At the end of the day 84% of people would still rather deal with a sales person than dealing with a computer.
• 54% said that they purchased a car from the sales representative that had the most experience. 
• 65% said that they would drive a longer distance to buy a car for a cheaper price, but 73% said that they would go even farther for a sales representative with the most experience. 
• While people like learning things online they still would rather feel validated by having the questions and their thoughts answered in person at the dealership.

The modern customer is better educated than those in the past. They know what they want and they have a good idea on how to get it. If you offered both online information and experienced salesmen that will be key. That is the main reason that good training is so important. A good training program offers the following. 

1. Regular meeting times
2. Regular training sessions.
3. An up-to-date certification process.
4. Regular compliance reviews to protect the business.

Contact us at Vanguard Dealer Services in order to put an efficient finance and insurance training system into effect.

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