Growing Your Dealership Revenue
With CustomerFunding.com Inc.

By James Hawks, COO CustomerFunding.com Inc.

In today's market with diminishing sales, declining profits, and falling consumer credit how can dealers increase revenue. One simple answer is internet leads, even more specific sub-prime internet leads. Only a small percentage of dealerships can truly handle sub-prime customers. Many dealers say they do sub-prime but ask yourself can you help someone who just had a bankruptcy, foreclosure, or repossession? Can you help someone with a credit score in the 400's? Can you help someone who is a first time buyer? If you answered no to any or all of these questions then you are missing out on a large population of car buyers that is growing everyday. There are many lending programs tailored to these consumers that dealers just don't know about or just simply refuse to participate in. I have heard all of the excuses about these programs, "they charge too much", "I don't make enough", "I don't want those kind of customers on my lot", etc. We all know that when you sell a car you do not choose from a multitude of customers to maximize profit. Why would a dealer pass on a customer based on profit? Profit is profit whether it is $2500 or $1000. Would you rather push 100 units at $2500 or 350 units at $1000?

Three very important aspects that make a successful sup-prime department are inventory, lenders, and a desking tool. With all three of these any dealer can maximize profit on a sub-prime customer. Now one major part I left out, customers, and this is where CustomerFunding.com Inc. can help. Customer Funding specializes in advertising on the internet for sub-prime leads and has been doing so since 1997 with its flagship consumer website www.AutoCreditFinders.com. Customer Funding strives to generate a high quality car buying customer and employs a large call center that attempts to contact every customer to insure the dealers are getting what they paid for. With every dealer account Customer Funding assigns a regional account manager whose only job is to help the dealer succeed. Customer Funding also has a large Direct Mail department to aid dealerships with lead generation. The Direct Mail department was created with state of the art technology which includes a customized website, an 800 number with tracking and recording, delivery of customers into any lead management system, and a response guarantee with every Direct Mail order. Customer Funding plans future expansion into TV, radio, and print in 2008 and will be a one-stop shop for all a dealership’s marketing needs.

Many dealers try and fail with "Internet Leads" whether the leads are sub-prime or not. The biggest mistake that dealers make is a lack of follow-up with these customers. The most successful dealerships employ a BDC department to handle all contact and follow-up with internet leads. Dealerships with BDC departments triple the number of sales than dealerships without them on our programs. This dedication to follow-up insures that every customer is contacted promptly and professionally and no customer slips through the cracks and in turn this maximizes the number of sales from internet customers. Another big mistake that dealerships make is trying to sell a car over the phone. The only focus should be to get the customer on the lot. Trying to sell a car over the phone only empowers the customer to continue shopping and gives them no motivation to buy a car from you. Another major mistake dealerships make with sub-prime internet leads is telling a customer they are approved over the phone. By telling a customer they are approved you are telling them they can go anywhere and buy a car. These are customers that put their information on an application with the hope of being helped. Again the only focus should be getting the customer down to the lot to ensure they buy a car from you.

Every customer you receive as a dealership has the potential for several more car sales. You need to treat every customer with dignity and respect. Every person has family and friends that they will recommend to you if you make efforts to get those referrals from your customers. 200 internet leads can turn into an extra 50 leads just from referrals. No one will ever refer you as a dealership if you do not call your customers in a timely manner, if you tell your customers to only come down if they have $1000 cash, or just simply treat them bad because of their credit situation. This social networking is a big aspect of Customer Funding's most successful dealerships.

These tips and programs are only a small part of what is available at CustomerFunding.com Inc. Customer Funding offers programs to bring new lenders into dealerships, programs to improve customer loyalty, and programs to improve/implement a BDC department. We will continue to partner with our dealerships with the goal of making every dealer successful with our marketing programs and making strives to help every dealership grow their revenue via the sub-prime department. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to send me an email at james.hawks@customerfunding.com or call us at 1-877-784-1030.