By Jamie Stafford
Maximizing through marketing
“ It fascinates me that most independent dealers are not focused at all on F & I ,” says John Wooden , owner of River Valley Marine , a Top 20 Dealer based in Red Wing , Minn . “ We ’ ve always made F & I important . What we ’ ve found is that what makes F & I successful is focusing on it really early in the sale so that we ’ re not talking about a $ 100,000 boat , we ’ re talking about a boat that costs $ 799 a month . We talk about monthly payments ; we don ’ t want to talk about the price of the boat .”
This proactive approach to marketing F & I is promoted by DealerProfit Services as well . “ Your F & I success starts before you ’ ve ever met the customer ,” comments Shaw . “ As a dealer , you need to be advertising ‘ competitive financing available ’ in every ad . The intent is , you want your customers as soon as they start seeing you to know that you are an effective one-stop-shop , and they don ’ t need to go shopping at their credit unions or their local lenders . They can just come in and sit down and do business . That ’ s where it starts , because you ’ re going to get more potential finance customers by doing that .
“ The second part is that as soon as that customer does come in , the salesperson needs to have a conversation even before they start looking around that says ‘ hey , as soon as you find the
Nicole Armstrong unit you ’ re falling in love with , you ’ ll be talking to our business manager .’ That way , whether the customer is thinking they ’ re going to pay in cash or finance , they ’ re expecting to talk to someone after they ’ re done .”
The takeaway for dealers is this : be proactive and be responsive . “ You have to be responsive to the customer ,” says Markle Janner , operations manager at Priority One . “ You have to speak to the applicant , and you have to get to know them . There has to be more than just a buyer-seller relationship . You need to create a relationship with that customer . We also have to make sure to set a realistic expectation about what that customer is going to encounter during the F & I conversation . It ’ s better to over deliver and under promise . Dealers also need to have a diverse spectrum of lenders to handle all types of credit and the F & I department has to be adept at reading the credit profile , asking the right questions to determine credit-worthiness and determining which lenders will be appropriate for the application .”
“ The truth is , most of the customers out there looking to buy a boat are going to need financing ,” Armstrong adds . “ Most customers will need financing , so why not make sure your dealership offers the most convenient financing available ? It ’ s really about having a beginning , middle and end to the sales process . I really ask dealerships – what is your customer ’ s experience like ? Do you have it documented , and does every employee at your dealership understand that process ? If this can ’ t be answered consistently by every employee , you have an area of opportunity . It ' s all about your consistent customer experience .”
“ Once you have a customer that comes in and chooses to spend money with you , it ’ s in your best interest to provide them all the resources possible so they can make those decisions inhouse ,” says Markle Janner , operations manager at Priority One . “ Once that customer walks out the door , you ’ ve lost control over the end result of that sale .”
Dealer resources
While it ’ s the dealer ’ s responsibility to provide the customer with the resources they need , there is no shortage of help that dealers themselves can draw upon to help navigate the waters of finance and insurance .
Matt Gruhn
“ The nice thing about this industry that I see more than in other industries is really leveraging their product line groups , those partnerships across the country , and really reaching out to the network available to them ,” says Armstrong . “ So many dealerships have been doing this for generations . They have contacts out there – take a walk , take a visit to another dealership . Call your manufacturer rep . Ask around and don ’ t be afraid to see what others are doing !”
The MRAA remains an organization that dealers can look to for resources and guidance . They are constantly creating educational material for businesses to draw upon . “ There are lots of potential partners to which marine dealers can turn for assistance when looking to grow their finance and insurance offerings , from marine industry F & I service providers like 700 Credit LLC , Dealer Profit Services , Elite Recreational Finance and Global Marine Insurance to 20 Group facilitators such as Spader Business Management , Garage Composites and Parker Business Planning , which can provide best practices from other dealers with experience in this area . Dealerships can also tap into the F & I area of MRAA ’ s Resource Center , which features resources such as a Boat Loan Calculator , the MRAA Mini-Guide to Reading a Credit Report and the MRAA Guide to Creating a Compliance Process .”
www . boatingindustry . com february 2023
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