This is the first piece I have been asked to provide for Motor
Finance, and already I’m off on a rant – Graham Hill would be
proud.
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Used cars, I love ‘em. I love stocking, selling and funding
them, as each stage has a variety of unique challenges, to ensure
the job is done right.
It is such a shame that many dealers still don’t see an
impressively strong link between all three aspects of this chain;
all they see are full stops, or more specifically three absolutely
separate transactions.
Professor Pete in a recent article (MF Aug 08) delivered a
blinding line that should be etched onto the desk of all motor
execs: “Increasingly the vehicle market is becoming a financial
services product – never more than now”. How right do you want
someone to be before you take action?
There are only three aspects to a retailer’s business that you
actually need: the stock to sell, the customers to sell to, and the
means to facilitate the sale. This is why I love used cars, and
used car customers. There is a strong element of spontaneity that
exists in a well-run used car operation, where dealmakers marry
customer requirements to actual physical stock, right here, right
now.
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By GlobalDataIf customers are in the showroom, they are in the market to buy
a car. Granted, for some of them this visit is a pipeline dream,
but treat them well – pipeline dreams often come good, and
tyrekickers often come back to buy from where they were handled
professionally. It’s also a great opportunity to keep team energy
‘up’, and if managed well, gives them a great chance to polish
their sales skills.
Talking about finance
The job of the dealmaker is to match the needs of the customer
to the stock – impossible without quality qualification, which
includes (after a good slice of relationship building) the burning
question – how are you going to pay for your acquisition?
I fail to understand why anyone in the industry has an issue
asking this question. The purchase probably represents a
culmination of poor experience with current car, many hours over
the dining table talking it through after the kids have gone to
bed, and much persuasion by Him that Her common sense to the
purchase is needed, but a new car is Important/Necessary/Absolutely
Bloody Vital My Love.
I would suspect that those that have a problem asking the
funding question haven’t got anywhere near the customer’s
confidence, and they innately know it, hence their reticence.
In a nutshell, the dealmaker needs to know, and I mean know the
customer’s requirements for the two aspects that they are able to
manipulate, the customer being the first, with the second the
funding and ancillary products that can and must be offered every
time to every customer.
It’s a simple instruction that everyone knows, but most have
forgotten – the 300 per cent rule. 100 per cent of your products,
to 100 per cent of your customers, 100 per cent of the time.
The author is director of Profit Training Ltd, www.profit-training.co.uk
