Comment

Comment by Otto Sales on September 29, 2009 at 4:10pm

Soon after meeting your guest...you should know how the car will be paid for...
My mentor drilled into us Anyone can sell a car it takes a special person (modified here)
to deliver it.Listen from the git-go....The goal is to deliver the car...start with that in mind..
Listen to the words ..watch what the guest is doing..it is no accident that they look at what
you may think is too much vehicle...follow the signals..
Get close to the back end department...

Comment by Chris Hanson on September 29, 2009 at 11:18am

So here's what I did like clockwork.....when I was showing the vehicle, I would "plant the seed" like Roger mentioned.

Either when they asked about what type of warranty it came with or when I brought up what kind of warranty it came with.....

This vehicle comes with a 3/36....and 5/50 powertrain. So here's what I did with my car....Since it already has a powertrain warranty, I upgraded it to cover a bunch of other items but the cost to upgrade was lot less because it already had the 5/50 on it. Works out great, I end up with a warranty that covers, this, that, etc, etc.

I talked about a few other things as well, when my wife drives the car, goes on a trip, etc.

So when they ask "how much is that" which they always do...I say, here's what I'll do for you, I'll get the info and pricing on the same one I put on my car for you.

Then when I bring the customer to finance, I say, Hey Mr F&I Guy, Mr and Mrs Smith are interested in upgrading their warranty. Can you please show them the same warranty I have on my car?

This is what my F&I guy and I did which worked AWESOME for us. I was the only salesperson who would do this 100% percent of the time and it payed off big time. Since I was the top salesperson, year in and year out, this made for some good extra F&I money for me and of course was huge for my F&I guys paycheck.

We worked together as a team. Yes, we would get into it once and awhile :-) but we worked together as a team.

And if you are wondering, yes, I really had upgraded my warranty and would pull out my warranty card to show them.

Hope that helps.

Comment by William Bryant on September 29, 2009 at 10:49am

I always had the highest backend in the store. I always plant the warranty seed before we drive when I go over the factory warranties, and I found out their hot buttons so I could prep the finance guy so he could tailor his presentation. And never ever discussed rates, but you knew that.

Comment by Doug Stahl on September 27, 2009 at 3:45pm

Comment by Doug Stahl 1 second ago Delete Comment I think it's a good topic to ponder; however your sales people should be selling the "vehicle" as the product, not the "back-end products." The front-end is totally the vehicle and the back-end is up to our finance managers. I do a lot of the desking lately and I do allow room when I quote payments for finance products, etc.

I get as much as I can on the front and my finance managers are still averaging over $1300 per finance delivered. Our finance folks are trained and brained by Zurich and our guy who trains is awesome!

I've seen other methods when closing customers, but allow each manager to take control when it's his or her turn in the process. But remember, "Nothing happens until someone sells a car!"

Comment by Roger Michaels on September 23, 2009 at 12:35am

I think you should 'plant the seed' by mentioning these products early on in the sales process. This can be done indirectly and in a suggestive manner. For example, if you are presenting a low mileage vehicle that still has the factory warranty, you can point out that the car is eligible for a new car warranty, which costs less and can extend to 100K miles. This way, when the time comes to offer these products, the customer will likely remember your suggestions and make a favorable decision.