3 Things to Improve Finance Penetration

Download the full transcript here.

What are the 3 keys to improving finance penetration?

In the fast-paced world of the dealership industry, achieving favourable finance results is paramount. However, it requires a comprehensive approach that involves salespeople, business managers, and sales managers. In this blog post, we will explore the key factors that contribute to successful finance outcomes and how each role can make a significant impact.

Salespeople: Initiating the Finance Conversation

Are you bringing up finance with every lead that you speak to? Whether it’s a walk-in or on the phone. Are you having that conversation? Is it an effective conversation?

Hopefully, you’re not just saying “How are you paying for the car, Mr. Jones?” because what do they say? Cash!

You need to come up with better questions. I’ll share one with you for now. It’s quite simple, “John, do you mind if I ask—have you already organised your finance, or is that still in progress?”

With that question, it can generate a conversation. Perhaps you can introduce your business manager and get them involved. All of a sudden, you’re bringing in more money to the dealership and increasing your chances of getting a sale.

Business Managers: Providing Expert Guidance

For the last couple of weeks, I put through a whole heap of business managers through the DISC profile (something I’m accredited in) and a lot of business managers in this case were over 90%.

They come out, and rightly so, as what’s called high C behaviour. That’s their primary behavioural style, which in DISC language is conscientiousness.

I change it for the motor trade to what I call ‘Suspicious Sarah’ so they sometimes lack trust. It takes a while to build trust.

But the positives of the business managers are good attention to detail. You need to be good at finding problems or issues and solving them. They are also very task-oriented. What’s the downside of that?

Well, being task-oriented business managers, are you often quite happy to sit in your office all day long and wait for leads and deals to come to you? No! If you do that, you’re limited with how much business you can bring in.

What you’ve got to do, especially if you are that high C behaviour, is mixing daily with your sales team. You should be in daily meetings with your sales team and showing them how you can benefit them, and how you can help them sell more cars. That’s what you should be doing.

It’s outside your comfort zone, but you’ve got to do it if you want that extra income and you want to be the best you can be in your role.

Sales Managers: Integrating Finance into the Sales Process

I was talking to a sales manager. As I mentioned, he was complaining about the finance not being where it needs to be.

He’s got one salesperson who’s been there for a very long time, very experienced. This salesperson—let’s call him ‘Peter’ (not his name).

Peter’s finance results weren’t even bad. They were pathetic.

But what the sales manager said was, “Yeah, but that’s just who he is.”

No, you’re a sales manager.

Your job is to manage the salespeople and the sales process. It is part of their role to introduce finance, just as it is after-market, warranties when selling the car and doing everything that’s involved in that.

Your job as a sales manager is to make sure that’s happening with each and every person.

It’s a pain in the ass, but you got to bring it up every single day until it is conditioned until each of your sales team is doing it regularly.

The next level of that is doing it effectively.

When you’re doing those three roles, the three things that we can control because we can control what we do and what we say, then your finance results or your aftermarket or your warranties, all that stuff just takes care of itself.

Your results will go through the roof.

Keep those three keys in mind, and you’ll be thankful that you did. If you need help with that, simply reach out to us at support@automotivestars.com.au