Some dealer advocates say “whatever you do, don’t hand over the reigns to the customer.” Becky warns this might not be the wisest thing to do.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Hi, this is Becky with your tip of the day. I know several dealer advocates who say whatever you do, don’t hand over the reigns to the customer. Wait until the customer comes into the dealership to talk payments and financing options. But this may not be the wisest thing to do. First, you must know that the third party providers offer customers the ability to obtain some sort of pre-approval prior to coming into the dealership.
Third party providers are the disruptors in our industry. If you hold back from offering the customer the ability to self desk, you will stand a chance of losing the deal to your competitor. Why wouldn’t you want the customer to have the ability to get some sort of preliminary payment options in advanced, instead of coming into the dealership, landing on the wrong car, only to discover that the customer can’t handle the payment or the PTI doesn’t work out?
Providing the customer with the self desking capability earlier on in the process will save you time, reduce the overnight bottleneck, and help you to maximize profits. Don’t be afraid to let up on the reigns a bit.
You know, I remember a time, some time ago, when we advertised bad credit no worries, call Wonder Woman and drive out your new car today. I was Wonder Woman, and responsible to handle the sub-prime deals. What was ironic, this was in a town that no one ever expected to find a sub-prime customer. Guess what? Sub-prime today makes up for nearly 57% of consumers in the United States.
I’ve performed analysis, and I validated the customer information, such as confirm the POI and the POR, or whatever steps were necessary for every customer I got on the phone. Because I did all this in advance, I was able to obtain a preliminary approval prior to the customer coming into the dealership for delivery. Now, once the customer arrived, it was just as easy to go ahead and confirm the payment, and put the customer on the vehicle that fit within the deal structure.
Online self desking takes the guesswork out of it for both the deal and the customer.
