Many dealerships were affected by the pandemic and the global chip shortage that hit between 2020 and 2021. However, the industry was well on the road to recovery by the end of 2021, with many businesses and dealer finance services already back in full swing and planning for growth.
Whether you’re new to the industry or a seasoned veteran, you should know what successful dealerships are doing to grow their business and complete more deals. Approximately 17 million cars are sold each year in the US, which means tough competition. So, knowing the tricks around closing a car deal can come in handy.
Selling is less complicated than most people think. It’s not about persuading or convincing someone to buy a car, but rather listening and responding by providing the service they need. The best way to close car deals is to make sure your customers feel they’re getting great value for their money. If you can do that, you’ll have a higher chance of completing the transaction and creating a satisfied customer.
We’ve compiled some of our best articles on auto dealer financing for independent dealerships and how you can close deals faster with dealer finance services.
Why It’s Important to Offer Financing at a Car Dealership
While it’s important to understand the ins and outs of selling cars, you’ll also need to understand the financing portion of a car dealership. Customers have come to expect in-house financing options in most, if not all, dealerships.
If you don’t offer financing options, you may lose customers before they even walk through the door. Financing should be part of the experience you’re offering. The more options you offer, the better they’ll feel about buying from your dealership.
Financing can also help you close more deals faster. With in-house financing, you won’t have to send the customer to another location for financing or have them wait hours at your dealership while you help them locate one.
How to Secure Financing Options
Securing a retail financing source for your independent dealership can be a daunting task. You’re looking for a partner with various lending programs that offer competitive rates and flexible terms suited to your business circumstances.
Some lenders cannot work with independent dealerships, so you’ll first have to determine your eligibility before applying. The next step is ensuring you have all the information ready. This includes details on your inventory and business plans and strong business references. These factors play an important role in successfully securing financing options.
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of potential lending partners and have the information ready, you can contact them and fill out the application paperwork.
Essentials Steps to Closing Car Deals
You can grow your business by perfecting the art of closing car deals and structuring them for success.
Avoid a “hard sell” technique and instead opt for a more relatable approach. Build the customer’s confidence by reassuring them that you’re there to help them instead of just selling them a car. Address all their concerns and create mental ownership between them and the vehicle they’re interested in.
When you can demonstrate how a vehicle can answer each of their concerns, you establish trust with the customer. Once you have that trust, it won’t be long before the customer decides to buy. Find alternative ways to make them comfortable and simplify the transaction, so the customer doesn’t feel their time is wasted waiting around for paperwork and processes.
After you’ve perfected the art of closing car deals, the next step is to structure deals to maximize profits in your business. This means you and the F&I manager need to understand the components of deal structuring and their lender’s requirements for various loan approval levels.
The F&I manager should work closely with the lending officer to deliver the best and quickest solution to your customers. This will also speed up the process of closing a car deal.
Tips and Tricks on Improving Sales
The best way to grow a business is to boost your sales numbers. This means attracting more customers to visit your dealership so you can close more deals.
Think about improving your website. Research shows that 97% of people begin car shopping online before walking into a dealership. Make sure you have a clean and functional landing page that leads to other pages describing your available products and services. You’ll also want to ensure customers can easily find your contact details and physical address on your website.
You can also highlight certain F&I popular products in the industry on your website—for example, vehicle service contracts and GAP protection. Be descriptive about the additional services you’re offering, as these will be one of the selling points of your dealership.
Once you have an online presence, you will need to manage and maintain your online reputation. You can do this by engaging your customers and prospects. Respond to their questions and any feedback they may have. If a customer has had a negative experience in your dealership, address it directly and work to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Showing customers that you care about their opinion will help you build trust within the community.
How Vantage Finance Can Help You
Understanding the importance of F&I and how it can help you close more car deals can mean the success of your independent dealership. If you’re looking for more ways to expand your financing portfolio, here’s how Vantage Finance can help you:
Low-Risk Solutions
A professional relationship with a reputable finance company can help mitigate risks for both you and your customer. Our virtual finance broker will help you run customer finance applications through several criteria to ensure you are financially stable and able to honor payments. This protects your business and ensures you don’t have to utilize more resources following up on delinquent payments.
Increase Confidence and Trust
A trusting and loyal customer is valuable to any business. By offering flexible payment plans at affordable rates and alternative finance solutions, you’re building the trust of your customers. Vantage Finance can help you with these solutions by connecting you to various reputable lenders you may not have access to.
We provide you with the ability to offer additional products in your F&I portfolio, which translates to closing more deals and higher profits.
Attract Wider Range of Customers
Expanding your F&I offerings will also attract more buyers to your dealership. With various finance and payment options, you’re opening the doors to a larger target audience than if you were only to offer a limited range.
Increase Value of Sales
The average customer increases their spending by 15% when offered credit. 93% of first-time customers who purchased a vehicle with financing will return. That is because many are surprised to find out how much more they’re eligible to borrow, especially if there’s more than one financing option available.
This means if a customer is ready to spend $10,000 but is eligible to borrow $20,000, they’re more likely to increase their spending at your dealership.
Vantage Finance is a virtual finance company that can help with F&I for independent dealerships. We’ll do the research and only connect you to lenders who can work with independent dealerships and understand your business goals.
Vantage Finance offers decades of experience in the automotive and auto dealer financing industry. We have the means and skills to help you grow your business by closing more deals faster. Contact us and let us help you on your journey to improving your bottom line.
Thinking of expanding your business and closing more deals? Contact us today, and we’ll help set you up with the best vehicle financing.
