SF SuperStar - March 2009

 Darren Taylor 

Describe your duties. What’s a typical day for you?
We start the day opening up everything from the day before, checking to see what the bank is requiring on a deal, meeting with the sales staff, going over the deals that we had not gotten an opportunity on the day or two before, [looking at] what was missing…and then following up with those customers and getting them back in…interviewing customers, getting applications, working with our credit analysts at the banks, contracting and getting [deals] out.

If you’re moving 50 units per month in a stagnant economy, you must have decent traffic.
We do, and I don’t know how to explain this other than I feel like Central Texas is a rather unique market. I just always saw us as an auto-economy—not to mean car economy; in bad times when the rest of the nation is suffering, it doesn’t seem to affect Central Texas the same way.

Darren Taylor Special Finance Manager 10 Years Dealership Experience 2.5 Years in Special Finance   Dealership Stats: Mac Haik Ford Lincoln Mercury Georgetown, Texas Average SF Deals per Month: 50 SF Sales to SF Leads: 13-14% SF Sales to Total Sales: 20%

Is there anything special you’re doing to generate traffic?
Basically, what we rely on is floor traffic; there’s a six-lane highway out in front of us. We do have, of course, our Web site and we do send e-mails periodically…[We have] a blurb in the newspaper whenever we run a Saturday ad that says, “Bad credit, no credit, bankruptcy—come see me.” And I send out a bankruptcy mailer every Tuesday…within a 90-mile radius of Georgetown.

What other factors contribute to the success of the department?
The process [we have] in place. We…bring people in the office and we talk about where they are, what happened, how things have changed … We have certain indicators so we know when a customer needs my help. We bring them in and sit them down before we ever put them on a car… I like to have them greet a customer with, “Hey, are you here for our program to reestablish or establish credit?” That’ll get it out in the open real quick.

Finance sources have really tightened up their criteria for special finance. How have you dealt with that?
We started doing more business with the finance companies we had better relationships with. We’re going to send car deals to the people that want them. We understand we’ve got to get aggressive as far as down payment…Zero down doesn’t buy cars these days.

What’s important to maintaining good relationships with your finance sources?
Being straightforward. Honesty. I’ve been told by the guys who I do have a good relationship with that the reason they buy so aggressively for me or Rusty is because they know that when they’re talking to us, we’ve had that conversation with our customer, so if I give them a story, I got that story from the lips of the customer and I believed it. We’re not putting them in a bad deal and you always want to know how your portfolios are performing with these banks. I don’t have a bad one out there.

Things have gotten really tough since you started in special finance in 2006. A lot of guys have gotten out of it. Why do you stick with it?
I guess I don’t see the entire picture. You’ve got guys dropping out that are in really, really bad economies, I guess. I’ve been selling cars most of my life; [special finance is] no different than selling cars, to me. You’ve got to be a professional at it, you’ve got to qualify your customers, you’ve got to put them on a car that works for them, that works for the bank and you’ve got to get money out of them. It’s what I know how to do. I could go do something else, but I wouldn’t make the money I make.

Is there anything in particular about it you enjoy?
I guess more than anything it’s seeing a person who was despondent and didn’t feel like they were going to be able to buy a car…how excited they are that they are actually driving away with a car, and they were treated like a person, you know. That makes me feel good.

The special finance business is always changing. What do you do to stay on top of things?
I listen to my analysts at the banks. I read a few of the trade publications…What I don’t do [is] listen to the news.

Totally random question: If you could meet any person, living or dead, who would it be and why?
Lee Iacocca. I just admire him for what he did with Chrysler. He has a brilliant mind and I’d just like to pick. I’m sure Chrysler would like to get him back too.

Vol. 3, Issue 2