In this market, it is time to sharpen your skills. When the going gets tough, the tough keep going. Sharpen your skills on closing, handling customers, buying inventory that allows profit from the “less desirable” inventory (not SUV’s or full-size trucks), follow-up and customer satisfaction. Don’t hesitate to ask for referrals every time. All of the basics will make you money.
Now is not the time to crawl under your desk and not spend money on training. You need training more now than ever. It’s what will drive us to survive in the current market.
If your department is selling less and less, it is time to reach out for education. In this market, we need all of the innovative ideas we can get.
Getting Back to Basics
It does not matter whether you are riding a horse in competition or selling cars, there are basic elements for each discipline that will give you the foundation to be successful. I participate in horse-riding competitions and when I lose a class, I always reflect on what I did wrong. Most of the time, I have skipped the basics.
In sales, this process is no different. When sales are sluggish, are you being proactive? Are you calling your previous customer base? Are you prospecting everywhere you go? Are you working the steps to the sale? Are you sending out a newsletter to your customers? Are you following up with clients sold within the year and not just prospecting people you think might be back in the market? Remember, customers buy from people they like. Are you taking care of every client after the sale? In this market, you need to have everyone saying good things about you. While you cannot make 100 percent of the people happy 100 percent of the time, making an effort will get you a long way.
Handling your Finance Companies
Are you rehashing every deal? When you see that red “X” on DealerTrack, how many times do you click on it to see what was said? It might say they need to verify the Social Security number, which could turn it into an approval. If they turn the deal down for a reason you can dispute, call. The worst they can do is say no.
Do you have the proof of income in your possession? I estimate that 60 percent of the applications I see have net income stated, not gross. This will cost you deals. Get a check stub on every deal that warrants proof of income. When figuring debt ratio, make the bank go through the payments with you and add them up; the bureaus do make mistakes—often. Interview the customer. I got a 398 score done with a recent delinquent auto. No, I am not superwoman, but I talked to the customer and got the REAL story. I had a finance company willing to listen to reason who verified the story and we sent the customer home in a nice vehicle.
Rehashing is a technique that when mastered, will make more deals. My motto is: No means maybe yes. Give the finance company a reason to buy the deal. Give them the reason you think it is a deal. Don’t do it on every customer, just the ones you really believe they missed; you know what they say about the little boy who cried wolf. I can go on forever on the rehashing subject; 50 percent of the deals we deliver were declines originally. You can bet I spend a lot of the time on the phone!
Have you gone back to the basics yet?
Vol. 2, Issue 5