Dealership Development, LLC Blog

Have you ever looked up vehicle service contracts in a search engine? The top articles and posts you will find are filled with words like, scam or skip, and most of your customers are reading these articles before they even walk in your door.

This puts your dealership at an immediate disadvantage at the negotiating table, which is why understanding how to properly position your vehicle service agreements to car buyers is so important.

A decade ago if a customer lost their car keys it wasn't a big deal. They could call a locksmith or go to almost any hardware store and get a new car key for relatively little money. Unfortunately, car keys can now be very costly to replace. 

It has often been said that any company's best asset is its employees. Successful companies have recognized and implemented that truth into their business models. Every staff and organization has individuals who can be utilized in particular roles with great success. There are also among those members, some special talent. A considerable portion of a company's growth and success can be attributed to finding that talent early. Grooming those people to lead and step into financial services and management roles benefits everyone.

Life is full of surprises and unfortunately, not all of those are pleasant. Having to suddenly come up with $1,000 or more for an unexpected bill definitely qualifies as unpleasant. While we all like to think that one-thousand dollars is semi-manageable, but the truth of the matter is that more Americans would have trouble coming up with that money on the spot, than you'd think.

Managing a team of automobile sales professionals is a complex pursuit with a simple objective: to meet or exceed the dealership's sales goals. Our 10 point checklist for the successful sales manager will help you stay on top of the most pressing issues you face.

Products that promote future trips to your dealership's service department remain crucial in today's competitive retail environment. Prepaid maintenance plans offer a customized appeal for your customers. Typically, about one fifth of customers return to visit the service department at a dealership. When you offer a prepaid maintenance plan to your customer, you may double, or even triple your return visits.

Your F&I department is ever-changing, and it is important to stay ahead of the game. You need the knowledge, the familiarity, and the skills from experience. You need to keep abreast of the latest developments and industry trends that keep the finance & insurance department healthy and successful.

No matter what the changes to the industry, or your own dealership, there are a few core ideas that build a successful F&I department.

Throughout 2016 we found BIG improvements amongst our clients who are keeping up with the ever growing list of strict government regulations that are put on car dealers today.  From installing safeguarding policies to regular auditing and training, these dealers are finding that not only are they keeping themselves and consumers’ safe from thieves looking to steal their confidential private information, they are turning a profit by enforcing compliance in their finance department, one example of this is through proper menu use, presenting the menu to every customer, 100% of the time.

Considering dealerships often differ only marginally from one another your employees are the biggest factor that determines whether you're ahead of the competition. This has become a major issue as it is estimated that inexperienced and untrained employees cost dealerships billions of dollars every year.

As stated in this recent article by Automotive News, hiring is one of the biggest struggles that all dealerships face, whether they are big or small. The article further indicates that this goes beyond simply finding a new candidate. Retention is an integral part of hiring that dealerships have traditionally overlooked and as a result a great deal of money is being lost annually on "wasted search and training expenses; inexperienced sales staff; lack of continuity with customers; and, ultimately, lost vehicle sales."

Are you focusing on ALL of the important components that make your dealership truely successful?

If you think running a dealership is only about selling cars, you may be over looking some of the many factors that go into making a dealership successful, and you could be loosing money.