All right, time for a new topic. We spend a lot of time talking about this particular one, since we offer special finance leads to the members of the Carloan.com Dealer Network. But let's take a step back and introduce this phrase to people who may not know what it means. When you say "special finance" to an auto dealer, it has a really specific connotation. There are dealers who flat-out say that they don't do Special Finance, a term that people throw around interchangeably with "subprime." That last bit might explain some things to the newbies. Generally speaking, consumers who fall into the Special Finance category for a dealer are people in that subprime credit tier, which means that their credit scores are around 650 or below. What that also means is that a lot of banks were too scared to lend to those kinds of customers for the past several years, something that is changing right now. The "special" in Special Finan...

  Over the past two weeks, I've covered best practices for handling consumer information both offline and online. In case you missed it, here are the high points: Offline: Set store policies on using consumer information in the financing process and enforce them Be selective about how you receive and handle consumer information Dispose of all hard copies in a timely and secure manner Do not pull credit without consumer consent Online:  Publish a privacy policy on your website that describes how and when you will be using the consumer's information Use encryption technology for your finance application to make sure that their information is secure Do not pull credit without consumer consent (it's in here twice on purpose) Read the longer posts for more detail -- offline here, online here -- but always consult your lawyer if you have any questions about working with consumer financial ...

  Last week we took a look at best practices for handling consumer data offline. This week, we're taking a closer look at online practices. Remember, always consult your lawyer when working with consumer data -- we've got best practices for you and your best interests at heart, but they're the ones who will make sure you've got all the legal questions covered. On we go!   Privacy Policy As thrilling as it is to watch you dealers migrate your store marketing to the web, there are still some places where you need to do your homework. Featuring a privacy policy on your website is one of them. (Wrote about this recently, too.) If you’ve been paying attention, you know that you need a privacy policy if you’re collecting consumer information. The U.S. federal government requires that you describe what you’re gathering and why, and how it will be used. Your website visitors also need to be able to find it easily, which mean...

  Continuing with our Consumer Privacy Awareness theme, I want to take a step back and go back to the basics. What do I mean when I talk about "compliance" when it comes to consumer privacy? When you applied for your state license to sell cars, many aspects of consumer protection were explained in the requirements for doing business. You and your legal team have reviewed the appropriate statutes and structured your store to follow the letter of the law and safeguard your customers’ personal information. When looking at consumer privacy considerations for your dealership, there are two primary categories to take into account: how the information will be handled offline, and how it will be protected online. In this post, we'll take a closer look at offline best practices. (Note: this post is not intended to replace legal counsel from your compliance attorney - rather to get you to revisit how you're operating. If you have serious questions...

It's unofficially Consumer Privacy Awareness month here at Carloan.com, which means we're focusing on how auto dealers work with sensitive customer information. As I wrote about earlier, this is a topic close to our hearts because of the sheer volume of  car loan applications we work with on a daily basis. Each one of those applications is a person who applied online, in good faith, expecting to be able to talk to someone about buying a car. They put their trust in us to handle their information confidentially and make sure that we are not putting them at risk for identity theft. We work hard to make sure that we're upholding our part of the bargain. So I turn the question to you out in the field: what are you doing to protect your customers when they provide you with all the goodies that come on an application for financing? We'll provide you with some tips and best practices as this series of posts continues, but here's a little food for though...

I opened this topic a couple of weeks ago when I wrote a blog post to remind you that you should never pull a consumer's credit without their permission. That post led me to think about one of our evergreen subjects here at Carloan.com -- consumer privacy. Think about how the process of financing a car works in your dealership. Throughout the steps of the process, how do you handle the consumer's sensitive personal information? Are there any ways you might be inadvertently putting their identities or even their financial future at risk? That applies not just in your store, but on your website, too. Fortunately for you, we've got some great posts in the blog archives to give you some food for thought: Get Up to Speed -- Protect Online Consumer Privacy Now! Tips on Keeping It Private We'll be exploring some more best practices around consumer privacy in posts to come. In the meantime, you can check out the privacy policy we us...

  Over the past several weeks, I've been writing about best practices for working auto finance leads. We've covered setting the appointment, training your team, and getting folks in the door before pulling their credit. You've walked your team through this initial part of the sales process, and they all understand how important it is to follow these steps. Theoretically. What are you doing to make sure they're making the calls and following the process? Do you have a CRM? Do you have access to your call switch data, or do your sales people self-report their call and pipeline activity? We encourage our partners in the Carloan.com Dealer Network to use a combination of all three, if they can, in order to get a full picture of how their sales team is using the finance leads they're getting from us. [Full disclosure: we've got this great ILM called DOLLAR that has fantastic reporting capabilities that we train all our deal...

  Here at Carloan.com, we live at the interesting intersection between the consumer experience with automotive online marketing and the way that dealers work with those consumers who raise their hands. That means that we've not only seen enough over the years to put together best practices for dealers, we've fielded our fair share of consumer complaints. People who've applied for a loan at Carloan.com but didn't talk to a dealer before a hard credit pull hit their credit report. Big no-no. Besides "make contact quickly" and "sell the appointment", the best thing you can do is "don't pull credit first." Think about it from the consumer's perspective. If they are not actively engaged with you and see a hard credit pull on their report with your dealership's name on it – and many of them will – they will interpret that as a fraudulent action on your part and potentially sue you. As far as they know...

  In my last post I made a comment about all of us being consummate sales professionals. That got me to thinking - how did we get here? We had to start somewhere, right? I'm in marketing now, but I spent five years working the phones as an inside sales rep for a software company out in Silicon Valley. Not quite the same as working in sales at a car dealership, but bear with me. A key part of getting up to speed when I moved from operations into that sales role - besides understanding the product and our target customer better -  was understanding the sales process from both sides of the table. For me, it was a combination of mentorship, training and straight up experience in working the phones that got me to where I needed to be. As a result, by the end of my first year, my regional sales team was consistently outperforming and earning President's Club trips (the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua was really nice and Atlantis was killer, bu...

  Catching up with my reading on DrivingSales.com yesterday morning, I came across a post called "The Secret to My Success." (I also tweeted about it with the comment "Shh...it's 'answer the leads' - don't tell anyone!") I was astonished to see some of the facts and figures in there, including: 2 out of 10 leads never were responded to. 2 out of 3 weren't invited in for a test drive. 75% of the leads weren't quoted a price when requested. Better than you might expect, actually, but there's still opportunity being missed left and right. It's been a while since we've discussed best practices, and it's time to revisit that. We train dealers on how to work our auto finance leads using the 14-Day Quickstart when we bring them on board. It's been nicely encapsulated in a video on our YouTube channel called "Top 5 Best Practices for Foll...

  For most of us who have to file a tax return, "tax season" means pain and suffering. But for a lot of consumers, it's the one time of the year when they know they're going to have a big chunk of change to put down on getting into a car -- their tax refund. And we write about this every year because it's important every year.  Car dealers plan inventory and staffing around this 5th "season" to take advantage of this influx of cash into the car-buying market. According to the National Retail Federation's 2012 Tax Return Survey results, just released last week, 12.3% of the consumers expecting a refund were planning for a major purchase, such as a car. The best quote in the release: "For some, tax season is a way to reward themselves, for others it is the perfect opportunity to get ahead on their bills or other expenses," said Pam Goodfellow, Consumer Insights Director, BIGinsight. &qu...

  Auto Dealer Monthly has published the results of their field survey, and it's more evidence that the great automotive subprime numbers we've been reading about in the paper are being seen in the street. We've been seeing it on our side too, with a jump in the number of people applying for car loans through our sites. The article has a great chart that gives a five-year overview of Special Finance activity for both franchises and independents. You can see the dip for the recession and see how the numbers are recovering, particularly in the grosses. Here's my favorite part of the article: Over the last three months, compared to the same period in 2010, 55.5 percent of franchise dealers said their subprime credit volume is better or much better, and 30.1 percent said it’s about the same. Among independents, 75 percent said their subprime credit volume is better or much better. This indicates the subprime market i...

  Following our own advice and getting our ducks in a row to prepare for the big NADA show in (gulp!) two weeks. There is a wealth of breakout sessions to choose from at this year's show, as usual. There are seven different tracks in all, and you can find a great summary/description over on the Dealer Marketing Magazine website here. Here are some I'm particularly interested in: "Ten Digital Marketing Strategies That Work Now" - Brian Pasch, CEO of PGB Digital Marketing "How to Digitally Engage Car Buyers" - Kim Stonehouse and Peter Leto, Google Inc "The New Science of Used-Vehicle Sales and Stocking" - Dale Pollak, Founder & Chairman of vAuto "Eight Ways Mobile Can Improve Your Bottom Line" - Len Critcher, President & CEO of eCarList "Proven Social Media Strategies of Top Dealers" - Shaun Raines, Natioanl Director - Automotive of DrivingSales.com ...

So we've all had a couple of days to adjust to signing "2012" on our checks and can take a little bit of a look back at the end of 2011. Great news featured by Bloomberg this week with the headline "Dealer's Best December in Five Years Follows U.S. Sale Ads". Consumer confidence is climbing and looks to be about to continue its momentum into Q1. Couple that with the rebound by the Japanese automakers recovering from the tsunami that knocked out production capacity in March, and inventory looks to be on track to meet the demand. Now it's on to 2012 - if you're looking for a more complete summary of 2011, check outthis article from Ricky Beggs at Black Book, featured on Auto Remarketing. There's are two 2012 predictions in Beggs' analysis that I'd like to highlight here: “We expect new-car sales levels to continue to climb, hopefully to at least 13.5 million,” he continued. “This creates an...

  Although it's a couple of months away, everyone in the industry is talking about it. And when I say talk I mean blogging and tweeting. A Google search of 'NADA convention and expo 2012' resulted in over 300k hits.     On Twitter when you search #NADA2012 that too also resulted in many posts about the event.     A great way to stay in the know is to follow those accounts who are Tweeting about anything related to your industry. An example would be the Digital Dealer conference-  #DD11- that took place this year. Since we did not attend, we still kept up with what was going on through blogs and tweets that attendees were posting. Not only did those posts make us feel as though we were there, but it also gave us the opportunity to interact with attendees, as well as gain more followers. Keyword: followers! We gained about 40 new followers from #DD11 simply because we participated on a digital level, thus letting others kn...

Caranddriver.com named their top 10 cars of 2012 recently and of many candidates the following were chosen. 1. Audi A6/A7 3.0T Quattro - This car looks great, drives great, and at what some consider a practical price of around 50k+ - it's a great all around pick. 2. BMW 3-Series/M3 - Sporty, sexy, and with an 8300-rpm V-8 this car has yet to be knocked off it's pedestal. 3. Cadillac CTS-V - Definitely a car with "swag." While it's not designed for a fast getaway it's definitely made for smooth sailing. 4. Ford Focus - Although the Focus has had its share of issues in the past we got to give to the the 2012 Focus for its sensational ride handling and admirable power/mpg index. Only warning: don't do the MyFord Touch system! 5. Ford Mustang GT/Boss 302 - Having the name Boss in your title says it all. This car screams "HOT"! Definitely a favorite. It's loud, it's fast, it's... perfect )and at a price...

  NADA released the December 2011 edition of their Used Car Industry Update this week, and there are several bits that I like to see: “Looking ahead, we’re anticipating that used car and truck prices will remain relatively flat through the remainder of the month and into January before moving upward again per the seasonal norm as we head deeper into the first quarter.” (p.5) This is a change from the usual pattern, where used car prices slump significantly in Q4 in response to slackening demand due to the holiday season. However, this year, strong demand from people who are finally giving up their old cars, coupled with tight inventory levels, has been keeping the prices relatively stable: “In addition, used vehicle demand indicators remain strong, which when viewed alongside an anticipated ~8% reduction in year-over-year used supply supports the view that used prices will remain firm through the end of ...

  "In a ruling that could literally alter the lifestyles of millions of Americans, the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended states completely ban the use of all mobile phones and other portable electronic devices while driving except in emergency situations." Do you agree with this ban? Read these articles from this past week concerning the ban on use of electronics while driving, and weigh in on your thoughts. Effective or exxagerated? NTSB To Drivers: 'Stop Texting And Get Off The Phone:'  According to the National Highway Safety Administration, nearly one put of every 100 motorists is either texting, emailing, surfing the Web or otherwise using a handheld electronic device at any given time. NHTSA says drivers are more than 24 times more likely to crash their cars if they're texting while driving. In 2009 (the last year statistics were available), nearly 5,500 people were killed and 450,000 more were injured in dis...

  “According to [our] automotive credit analysis, 21.87 percent of all new vehicle loans went to customers in the nonprime, subprime and deep subprime categories. The largest percentage increases were in the two highest-risk segments — deep subprime, which jumped 17.3 percent, and subprime, which jumped 17.8 percent.” – Experian Automotive, December 1, 2011 Music to our ears. We’re seeing a lot of activity in the special finance leads market, and this latest data from Experian shows us that the finance lead business is booming because more dealers are getting back in. It’s been a rough couple of years, but dealers who have stuck with it and know how to handle this kind of consumer are seeing some really nice numbers these days. Including the members of the Carloan.com Dealer Network. What’s your strategy for getting into this part of the market? If you're already in it, what are you doing to grow your share? ...

    With Thanksgiving and Black Friday approaching, MSN Autos have published a an interesting list of what they consider to be "automotive turkeys." So before you hit up the auto dealers on Friday looking for a good deal be sure to check out this top ten list of vehicles to avoid: 1. 2012 Fiat 500c - Great car, too bad it's overpriced! $4,000 additional for the folding roof is a bit much. 2. 2011 Ford Explorer EcoBoost - The frustrating MyFord Touch system in addition to a weak engine makes this car a no-no. 3. 2012 Honda Civic Si - not necessarily a turkey, we just aren't happy that they didn't leave it as was... why mess with perfection? 4. 2011 Lexus CT 200h -Just because it looks like a chicken and clucks like a chicken doesn't mean it's a chicken! "A luxury car — an interior that could live in a Toyota Camry." Ouch! 5. 2013 Lexus GS 350F Sport - Nothings really wrong with it.. it&...

  So Motor Trend has named the Volkswagen Passat the 2012 Motor Trend Car of the Year. How did it win exactly? Yahoo attributes that to a few things including: Advancement in design: According to engineering guru Chris Theodore the exterior is”tastefully executed with really tight shut lines and nice detailing.” The result is sort of a time-release appeal that blossoms upon close scrutiny or when hand-washing the vehicle. It’s a less flashy design than the Sonata’s, but way more cohesive than the Accord’s. Engineering Excellence: Theodore again admits,  “It’s the best-tamed VW I-5 application ever. The thrashiness has been masked, and the engine is very quiet. A fine choice for middle America in real-world driving conditions.” Jim Hall, product expert, declared  “hands down, my favorite” Efficiency: With a recorded fuel economy stat of 34.3 mpg,  exactly halfway be...

  Read some interesting articles ondealerrefresh.com and autonews.com about Google basically entering in the automotive lead business. In February of 2010 when Google made a presentation to a select group of industry leaders about their intentions to get into the auto lead business. Some questions answered include: How will it work for the consumer? Basically Google will establish a Web page for vehicle shoppers. Dealers will bid, through a Google auction, to be one of about three dealers listed on the page when shoppers fill out a discounted price request for. The shoppers will then choose which of the listed dealers will receive the lead and provide the price. When does it start? Google is initiating the program with a handful of Bay-area dealers but has set no date for a national launch. How will bidding work on the dealer side? The minimum bid for placement on the Google vehicle-shopping page is $10 per lead generated and could go well above $...

  When last we met, I wrote about the feedback I'd gotten on what some dealers think when I say "third party leads."  The bottom line was that anything that came from online advertising outside the dealer's direct control was considered to be a third party lead. Following that line of discussion, I'd like to take a moment to make the distinction between an inventory lead and a finance lead. Both can be delivered from an online ad or other lead generation source, but they're fundamentally different in terms of the information delivered and the intent of the consumer. In the broadest sense, an inventory lead from a vendor like our sister company GET AUTO® will deliver someone who has searched for a shiny blue 2009 Mustang and selected a matching vehicle from your dealership's online inventory. They are looking for that car in particular, regardless of whether they are qualified to buy that car.  (That being said...

  In my last post, I wrote about the term "third party leads".  I shared it with the community here on DrivingSales.com, and I did get a few responses. The bottom line was: according to the folks who commented, it's a lead that comes from properties outside their direct control and is the result of online advertising by someone other than their dealership or their OEM.  Think AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, KBB, etc. That's borne out by our experience in the real world, where our sales reps talk to dealers about finance leads and where they fit in with their advertising strategy and budget.  On a good day, those discussions end up becoming more about us getting a piece of the marketing budget, comparing our programs to other online advertising programs and determining which one will best fit the structure of the store and the make up of their sales team. The challenge comes in highlighting the difference betwe...

  Every dealership has one of these personalities. So why not dress them up?! Costumes that are sure to entertain the guys and 'ghouls' - moohahaha   Persona: The Slasher Quote: "slashing prices left and right!" Ideal candidate: your sales reps on the floor Personality traits: this person is a customer pleaser. They go above and beyond to please the customer and make the sale.           Persona: The Sleezy Sales Guy Quote: "bada bing bada boom, fa'get about it!" Ideal candidate: your sales reps on the floor Personality traits: This guy can either be a real smooth talker or make you feel very uncomfortable. Either way you won't forget him.           Persona: The Race Car Driver Quote: "I wanna go fast! (Ricky Bobby)" Ideal candidate: Finance manager Personality traits: They want to get you in a car and on the road ASAP. They take charge and m...

    In marketing and in your general life, appearance means everything! People typically base their first impressions of you, right away, off of appearance. That usually will determine if they want to hear what you have to say. If you go into an interview with wrinkled slacks or scuffed shoes, you may lose your interviewers attention, and no matter how intelligent you are, their focus will remain on something other than your 'content' (like the huge coffee stain down the front of your shirt or the hot pink streak in your hair). When interviewing, like marketing, you must always impress with your presence and your articulation. You must be confident, engaging, clean, and easy to understand. Here are 3 interview 'musts' that you can apply to your email marketing efforts. 1. Clean nails and face: is your database clean? Make sure you have current emails to avoid high bounce rates. Is the html in your template clean? This also is important so that the ...

Inventory leads? Finance leads? Internet leads? How about all of the above? Sitting here writing in my office in Richmond, it never occurred to me that there might be some confusion around that term. I should have gotten a clue when DrivingSales.com eliminated the "Third Party Leads" category from their product listings and moved us under "Used Car Advertising". That is not what we do, and I don't think anyone would know to look for our finance leads there. We might get lucky if they search for "Carloan.com" here, if they know us already and think to do that.

  Checking out data from CNW that came out last week -- they've got tons of data going back years and years, it's amazing. There's one report in particular that caught my eye: "Approval Rates by FICO"  - document 1483 for those keeping score at home. Wish I could share it with you, but you have to subscribe to get the insider info. (Maybe Art Spinella will give us some sound bites in the coming weeks.) What this Excel spreadsheet shows is the absolute destruction of the loan approval rate for the subprime segment  -- from a height of 46.29% in August 2006 to the crushing low of 4.16% in December of '08. The numbers are reflective of what we know, which is that lenders voted with their feet when it came to financing a car for anyone with a score below 620. Fortunately, there's been a slow climb back up since then...all the way to a whopping 8.92% approval rate for car loan applications in the subprime category fo...

Earlier this week, Special Finance Insider published the results of a study conducted by AutoUSA that polled the Internet sales staff at dealerships around the country to find out how they're doing. Not surprisingly, their findings state that "the economy is having a significant influence on customers' abilities to buy cars."  What was surprising was that "72% of respondents do not plan to cut back on their Internet marketing budgets this year." That's good news. It means that they know that what they’re doing is working. The other bit that looks good is item #1 in the list below, though that might be because I'm not an ISM at a dealership: “What are the biggest challenges for your Internet marketing departments?” Keeping up with lead volume: 31% Quality of staff: 28% Staff’s failure to adhere to written processes: 23% Lack of management buy-in: 21% Lack of staff acc...

TGIF! I wante to touch briefly on the Facebook madness (literally mad) that has transpired these past couple of weeks.   Facebook is making some changes and people, surprise surprise, don't like it. The outcome of this will be that like most other changes Facebook has made- most complain, eventually get over it, and ultimately learn to love it. But than again, Google+ wasn't around in the past, and now it's open to everyone. Basically 'Facebookers' now have the option to go elsewhere. But will they? Quite frankly if they are not accepting of changes within a channel they are very familiar with, such as Facebook, it will be harder to adapt to something completely new like Google + so my take on it is that most will stick to Facebook for now, but perhaps acquire a Google+ account, just in case. Why the fight against change? Well most users are students and/or in the 18-35 age range and use it for leisure. They want it to be as simple as possible and m...