Thursday, July 31, 2008
Finance Conversion tips
If you have read the headline story, but are unsure of how to apply that information to gain more finance sales, this article tells you in plain English how to utilise the knowledge to make the best of every retail opportunity, how to sell more finance cases, and how to improve your F&I pens.
OK, this section is down to qualification and rapport.
Rapport:- if you have good dialogue with the customer, and they trust you enough to buy a car from you, then it is fair to assume that they will be ok to discuss funding options with you. It is important at this stage to ensure you DO NOT start talking about how absolutely brilliant your finance is over personal loans.
Qualification is the next key step, put your pen down, pay your customer 100% attention, and ask them how they are going to fund their purchase.
As they start to tell you, remain focussed on them, and ask relevant open probe questions, such as which Bank are they using for the loan, why are they using that Bank, is it their main Bank, have they been with them long, do they use that Bank for all their major purchases ?
These line may seem cheesy, but they work in this current climate, and this is why. Your customers may have a 100% clean credit record, but for exactly that reason they will in all probability have lost use of a couple of credit cards, or had credit limits reduced on cards, or had their unused overdraft limit reduced, and that will be undermining their confidence in their financial situation.
Now is the time for a tell, tell them what the Banks do, how they price on rate for risk & how they advertise a rate but the customer rarely gets that rate. This services their own fears and expectations of their financial standing and links in their mind to ‘the Credit Crunch’.
Tell them that you offer a fixed rate, fixed term deal, with full protection of the Data Protection Act – ensuring 100% confidentiality, along with full protection under the Consumer Credit Act, which they DO NOT get with a personal loan, and finally, tell them they will get a guaranteed rebate on the outstanding interest if they decide to pay it off early.
Please remember – it is at the Banks discretion to offer a rebate on a loan, and according to the regulator, in 2007 only 7% of all personal loans were rebated in the event of early settlement. Finance, which is what you are selling your customer, has a 100% rebate record – because we have to under the Consumer Credit Act, protection your customers don’t get with a personal loan.
Finally on this piece, you may want to reassure your customers that the funder you are using is owned by a major bank, or you may want to reassure them that if they fail to make payments (job fears are creeping back into the media) the only thing that can be taken is the car.
DATED: 31.07.08
FEED: PTL
OK, this section is down to qualification and rapport.
Rapport:- if you have good dialogue with the customer, and they trust you enough to buy a car from you, then it is fair to assume that they will be ok to discuss funding options with you. It is important at this stage to ensure you DO NOT start talking about how absolutely brilliant your finance is over personal loans.
Qualification is the next key step, put your pen down, pay your customer 100% attention, and ask them how they are going to fund their purchase.
As they start to tell you, remain focussed on them, and ask relevant open probe questions, such as which Bank are they using for the loan, why are they using that Bank, is it their main Bank, have they been with them long, do they use that Bank for all their major purchases ?
These line may seem cheesy, but they work in this current climate, and this is why. Your customers may have a 100% clean credit record, but for exactly that reason they will in all probability have lost use of a couple of credit cards, or had credit limits reduced on cards, or had their unused overdraft limit reduced, and that will be undermining their confidence in their financial situation.
Now is the time for a tell, tell them what the Banks do, how they price on rate for risk & how they advertise a rate but the customer rarely gets that rate. This services their own fears and expectations of their financial standing and links in their mind to ‘the Credit Crunch’.
Tell them that you offer a fixed rate, fixed term deal, with full protection of the Data Protection Act – ensuring 100% confidentiality, along with full protection under the Consumer Credit Act, which they DO NOT get with a personal loan, and finally, tell them they will get a guaranteed rebate on the outstanding interest if they decide to pay it off early.
Please remember – it is at the Banks discretion to offer a rebate on a loan, and according to the regulator, in 2007 only 7% of all personal loans were rebated in the event of early settlement. Finance, which is what you are selling your customer, has a 100% rebate record – because we have to under the Consumer Credit Act, protection your customers don’t get with a personal loan.
Finally on this piece, you may want to reassure your customers that the funder you are using is owned by a major bank, or you may want to reassure them that if they fail to make payments (job fears are creeping back into the media) the only thing that can be taken is the car.
DATED: 31.07.08
FEED: PTL
