When Ringo Starr sang, “You Know It Don’t Come Easy,” truer words could not have been written about success. If success was easy to come by, everyone would be successful.  It takes hard work to make the grade, and it’s especially hard in sales. That’s because you have a considerable amount of [...]

Given the disparity in lenders’ considerations, customers who fit the general nonprime category can’t be defined by a credit score alone.  A better way to identify a nonprime customer is to look at his or her credit report. Customers who have experienced one or more of the following events are often [...]

The customer has probably spent several hours with a salesperson, and now is introduced to a new individual who has the power to make, or break, the transaction. The fear of the unknown is always scary, so there is bound to be some trepidation on the customer’s behalf. To help put [...]

While franchised new-car dealerships have been mining F&I gold for more than 30 years now, their used-car counterparts have been slow to follow suit. There are reasons for this, of course. At smaller independent dealerships, there is less distinction between job duties, with one person often wearing the hats of many. [...]

Did you know that approximately one-third of all new-vehicle transactions are leases? In today’s highly competitive automotive market consumers are looking to get the most car for their money and leases are they way they are doing it. Leasing provides a number of potential benefits to a customer: Generally, the amount of up-front money necessary [...]

Handling Objections By the time the customer has reached the Finance Department, he has agreed to purchase a vehicle for a substantial amount of money that, in most cases, he doesn’t have. Now the finance manager is going to spend more of the customer’s time in an effort to get him to [...]

Kiko Khounvichith knew he needed specific training before he would ever be successful in the finance and insurance department of a dealership. So early in 2006 he booked a plane ticket and reserved a spot in a one-week training course in Texas. But shortly before his departure, he saw a brochure about the Automotive Dealership [...]

Jacqueline Bodnar Market Drive News Nov. 26, 2006 Many people who have worked in a dealership know that one of the hardest positions around is the one that F&I managers hold. They meet challenges on a daily basis that keep them more on their toes than those on “Dancing with the Stars.” But when they know what might [...]