100% Turnover To Finance For Fun And Profit - "TO" Done Right

By Myril Shaw, Dealer Profit Services

Your salespeople have one job, and one job only. They need to sell the customer the unit that they interested in with options that make sense at a reasonable profit (where reasonable means at the target level set by your internal policy.). To the extent that you provide your salespeople with tools to know just how much the customer is qualified to finance (using soft credit pull, pre-qualification tools), they should be guiding the customer into the right best unit for them. 

Beyond the unit sale function, the only other job that the salesperson has is to make sure that 100% of their customers talk to the finance manager/business manager/delivery coordinator. That’s right…100%, no exceptions, no matter what. 

There is a pretty simple protocol or procedure for making 100% TO a reality is to have the customer meet the delivery Coordinator BEFORE they start looking at units. Your salesperson will greet the customer and then have this simple conversation, “Mr. Customer, before we get started, let me introduce to Bob, who will be your Delivery Coordinator. Once we have found your dream unit, he’ll be going over some things with you to make sure that the entire delivery experience is fast and easy." 

Done. 

Now the customer knows that they are going to see Bob again. Once the salesperson has done their job before the customer can say or do anything else, he or she is reintroduced to Bob, and Bob takes over. The delivery coordinator should have been trained on how to work with both finance and purported cash buyers. 

No matter how the customer ultimately completes the transaction, they will have been presented with finance options and all of the available and relevant optional protective products. 

What about the role of the salesperson in introducing and discussing the optional protective products? You should have signs, props, samples and brochures for these products and to the extent possible, those should be available in every unit on display. The customer may well, in fact, should see these they may well ask about them. 

How about a sign/brochure with a picture of someone waxing their unit with the message, "Rather be playing than waxing – never wax again!" 

What about a fake cup of spilled coffee on the floor? 

Somewhere there should be a bent trailer tire hub with a flat tire and a sign that says, "Do you want to fix this? You don’t have to!" 

Attractive, eye-catching brochures should be highly visible for your engine/accessory warranty products. 

The customer will, inevitably, see one or more of these and ask something like, "What is this all about?” “Gosh, that is a really popular option with a lot of my customers. I really don’t have all the details, I just know that once we apply our product to your unit, it protects against chalking and yellowing and eliminates the need for waxing. Bob has all the details, we will be sure that he mentions those to you.” The salesperson never talks terms, price or details on optional protective products…the intent is to plant the seed and then let the delivery coordinator do their job…with a pre-disposed customer. 

So, now you have well-prepped customers being turned over to finance 100% of the time. What is the consequence of that? 

Backend products should be sold between 60% and 70% of the time whether to a cash or finance buyer. In general, the profit on the sold optional protective products should be at least 5% of the amount financed or sold. That means that at least 60% to 70% of the time, you will add a 5% net profit to your sale. Customers should finance about 60% of the time, and when they do, the average reserve should be 5% or more – another 5% of the amount financed. 

If your sales process provides the proper turnover procedure, you should be averaging an additional 7% - 10% net profit across all of your deals! 

10% more net – now that sounds like profit and fun to me!

Dealer Profit Services, LLC can help. Whether you want someone to take over your F&I and just drive profit to your store, help you some of the time, need some quick advice or just provide F&I Training/Consulting, we are here to help you. Contact us anytime at info@dealerprofit.com or give us a call at (470) 326-0966.