We have been with a company for many years that has offered a program to make our extended service contracts refundable in the event the customer doesn't make a claim against the warranty. It has been a great program for many years and has helped us to sell extended warranties at a pretty high level. Unfortunately, this company has now lost its backing and is closing up shop.

     The reason for my post is two-fold. 1- I want to know if there is any other company out there that offers a product to make service contracts refundable. They need to be a reputable, well-established company in order for us to consider them for the fact that we don't want to deal with this again.  We have done a little bit of research on our end and couldn't really find any company that seemed like a good candidate. 2- I want to know if the majority of the dealerships out there use such a product and offer refundable warranties. We have been selling our warranties that way the entire 9 years I have worked at this store. When I did finance, the main part of my warranty pitch was explaining how great the refundability was and I think it really helped me be successful as a finance manager. I couldn't imagine selling warranties and never being able to make them refundable at the end of the term.

     Let me know what you guys think. We would love to get signed up with a comparable company so we can sell warranties the way we know how. Otherwise, we may have to change our warranty pitch and re-train our finance department. Any input would be great.

      We have been with a company for many years that has offered a program to make our extended service contracts refundable in the event the customer doesn't make a claim against the warranty. It has been a great program for many years and has helped us to sell extended warranties at a pretty high level. Unfortunately, this company has now lost its backing and is closing up shop.

     The reason for my post is two-fold. 1- I want to know if there is any other company out there that offers a product to make service contracts refundable. They need to be a reputable, well-established company in order for us to consider them for the fact that we don't want to deal with this again.  We have done a little bit of research on our end and couldn't really find any company that seemed like a good candidate. 2- I want to know if the majority of the dealerships out there use such a product and offer refundable warranties. We have been selling our warranties that way the entire 9 years I have worked at this store. When I did finance, the main part of my warranty pitch was explaining how great the refundability was and I think it really helped me be successful as a finance manager. I couldn't imagine selling warranties and never being able to make them refundable at the end of the term.

     Let me know what you guys think. We would love to get signed up with a comparable company so we can sell warranties the way we know how. Otherwise, we may have to change our warranty pitch and re-train our finance department. Any input would be great.

     I consider our accessories department a necessary evil at our dealership because I know we can’t do without it and I know we can’t get rid of it due to the fact they generate extra profit for the dealership.  With all that said, I would still love to get rid of it!

      As a sales manager, I get paid on the front and back end profit of each deal. I don’t get paid a dime on what the accessories department does. My main complaint is our accessories manager gets a chance to sell his crap before the customer gets into the finance office and sometimes the accessories that are included into the financing make it to where our finance managers can’t be as profitable as we need them to be. I find that I am purposely sabotaging the accessories manager’s opportunity to sell product by lying to him and telling him the deal is maxed out. I do that so our finance department has more than enough room to sell their back end products and still have a buyable deal with the banks.  My other complaint is he is constantly pissing off our customers and tanking my salesguys’ surveys.

      Anyway, the point of all this is that I think there has to be a better way to set this up to where I don’t hate dealing the accessories department.  I get the argument that he needs to talk to the customer before they go into the finance office so the accessories can be put into the financing but that is the part that bugs me the most.  Maybe the solution is to make it where salespeople and sales managers get paid extra on deals where accessories are sold. Or maybe there is an alternate way to get the accessories financed. Who knows! Any ideas you guys have would be great because I’m sure that they are better than the current process that we have!

     I consider our accessories department a necessary evil at our dealership because I know we can’t do without it and I know we can’t get rid of it due to the fact they generate extra profit for the dealership.  With all that said, I would still love to get rid of it!

      As a sales manager, I get paid on the front and back end profit of each deal. I don’t get paid a dime on what the accessories department does. My main complaint is our accessories manager gets a chance to sell his crap before the customer gets into the finance office and sometimes the accessories that are included into the financing make it to where our finance managers can’t be as profitable as we need them to be. I find that I am purposely sabotaging the accessories manager’s opportunity to sell product by lying to him and telling him the deal is maxed out. I do that so our finance department has more than enough room to sell their back end products and still have a buyable deal with the banks.  My other complaint is he is constantly pissing off our customers and tanking my salesguys’ surveys.

      Anyway, the point of all this is that I think there has to be a better way to set this up to where I don’t hate dealing the accessories department.  I get the argument that he needs to talk to the customer before they go into the finance office so the accessories can be put into the financing but that is the part that bugs me the most.  Maybe the solution is to make it where salespeople and sales managers get paid extra on deals where accessories are sold. Or maybe there is an alternate way to get the accessories financed. Who knows! Any ideas you guys have would be great because I’m sure that they are better than the current process that we have!

     We just recently increased our spend with Cars.com and Autotrader.com for both our new and used inventory. The increase gave us several features including chat leads. Both reps are pushing to get me to get set up for chat so we can get our sales guys working on it. I see the value in having my guys available for chat at all times but I have some reservations.

Here's my 2 issues:

1- My sales guys struggle with manning the phone desk at all times during the day. I worry it would be a constant battle to make sure someone is available at all times to respond to the chat leads. I push them hard enough to follow other processes so I worry they wouldn't be that committed to responding to the leads in a timely manner (which I'm sure would just piss off the customer and they would shop elsewhere).

2- We currently get chat leads and have a 3rd party company handle the leads and set up appointments. Even with a dedicated company working the leads, we get little to know activity and we don't close at a very high percentage. I'm guessing I would get the same or worse results if I choose to set up the other chat leads and get my guys to work on them.

     Just wondering if anybody out there has had a positive experience with chat leads from cars.com and autotrader.com? I down with trying anything so long as I feel like it will make a positive impact and be worth the battle I'm going to have. Let me know what you guys think...

     We just recently increased our spend with Cars.com and Autotrader.com for both our new and used inventory. The increase gave us several features including chat leads. Both reps are pushing to get me to get set up for chat so we can get our sales guys working on it. I see the value in having my guys available for chat at all times but I have some reservations.

Here's my 2 issues:

1- My sales guys struggle with manning the phone desk at all times during the day. I worry it would be a constant battle to make sure someone is available at all times to respond to the chat leads. I push them hard enough to follow other processes so I worry they wouldn't be that committed to responding to the leads in a timely manner (which I'm sure would just piss off the customer and they would shop elsewhere).

2- We currently get chat leads and have a 3rd party company handle the leads and set up appointments. Even with a dedicated company working the leads, we get little to know activity and we don't close at a very high percentage. I'm guessing I would get the same or worse results if I choose to set up the other chat leads and get my guys to work on them.

     Just wondering if anybody out there has had a positive experience with chat leads from cars.com and autotrader.com? I down with trying anything so long as I feel like it will make a positive impact and be worth the battle I'm going to have. Let me know what you guys think...

We have started doing key replacement on our new and used cars. We pre-load the product and give it away for free for 1 year. We decided to introduce key replacement and test it out for a little bit to see if it could be a viable replacement to the Etch product that we currently have.

It's gone pretty good so far and our finance department has done a good job with the product. They have the option to upgrade the customer to a 3 year or 5 year program. There is pretty good gross in both plans. Obviously the higher they can penetrate,  the more profit we can make on the back end of the deal.

They have been at about 55% for an upgrade. Our understanding is that some dealers are penetrating at 80% when they offer the key replacement as a giveaway. I think our finance guys are pretty good, so I'm starting to think that the 80% mark is unattainable. Is there anyone out there that is aware of a store doing 80% on key replacement? I would love to know if they are.

We have started doing key replacement on our new and used cars. We pre-load the product and give it away for free for 1 year. We decided to introduce key replacement and test it out for a little bit to see if it could be a viable replacement to the Etch product that we currently have.

It's gone pretty good so far and our finance department has done a good job with the product. They have the option to upgrade the customer to a 3 year or 5 year program. There is pretty good gross in both plans. Obviously the higher they can penetrate,  the more profit we can make on the back end of the deal.

They have been at about 55% for an upgrade. Our understanding is that some dealers are penetrating at 80% when they offer the key replacement as a giveaway. I think our finance guys are pretty good, so I'm starting to think that the 80% mark is unattainable. Is there anyone out there that is aware of a store doing 80% on key replacement? I would love to know if they are.

Like everyone knows, the finance department is arguably the most important department of the dealership. Dealerships are relying more and more for strong #'s from their finance department in order to be successful. With that said, the GM has asked me to spend time with our 2 finance managers and evaluate the entire department. I am going to review their #'s over the last 12 months and find areas where we can improve the department both in overall gross and product penetration. I'm happy to spend as much time as is needed with them due to the fact that I get paid on the overall gross generated from the sales department. If they do better, I do better.

     Here's what we expect out of them:

1. Warranty penetration: 55% with $1000 in markup
2. Gap penetration: 30% with $400 in markup
3. Credit life penetration: 12% with approx $150 in markup
4. Chemical penetration: 25% with $200 in markup
5. Etch penetration: 85% with $261 in markup
6. Finance penetration: 75% with approx $350 reserve

In total, the goal is $1500 per car. That is new and used combined.

Lately, our finance reserves have been significantly higher than the $350 that we expect out of them. They are still averaging around $1500 per car but the majority of their other penetrations have been below the required penetration levels.

I was just wondering what other stores require out of their finance managers. Are the percentages that we forecast for attainable in today's market? Is the amount of margin attainable? Let me know what you guys think so I can determine if we need to make some adjustments.

Like everyone knows, the finance department is arguably the most important department of the dealership. Dealerships are relying more and more for strong #'s from their finance department in order to be successful. With that said, the GM has asked me to spend time with our 2 finance managers and evaluate the entire department. I am going to review their #'s over the last 12 months and find areas where we can improve the department both in overall gross and product penetration. I'm happy to spend as much time as is needed with them due to the fact that I get paid on the overall gross generated from the sales department. If they do better, I do better.

     Here's what we expect out of them:

1. Warranty penetration: 55% with $1000 in markup
2. Gap penetration: 30% with $400 in markup
3. Credit life penetration: 12% with approx $150 in markup
4. Chemical penetration: 25% with $200 in markup
5. Etch penetration: 85% with $261 in markup
6. Finance penetration: 75% with approx $350 reserve

In total, the goal is $1500 per car. That is new and used combined.

Lately, our finance reserves have been significantly higher than the $350 that we expect out of them. They are still averaging around $1500 per car but the majority of their other penetrations have been below the required penetration levels.

I was just wondering what other stores require out of their finance managers. Are the percentages that we forecast for attainable in today's market? Is the amount of margin attainable? Let me know what you guys think so I can determine if we need to make some adjustments.