How To Sell More Vehicles On Finance

Here at First Response Finance, a common question we are asked by members of our dealer network is "how do I sell more vehicles on finance?".

As each dealership’s business, sales process, advertising, and setup is different, there is no straight forward answer. However, there are a few things that you can do, that should have a positive effect on your finance penetration and at the very least, lead to a greater awareness of how many finance deals you actually process.

Is your finance message visible?

A good place to start is to ensure that you are informing your customers, that finance is a service that you offer wherever you advertise. Consider reviewing your own website, social media channels and other websites where you list your vehicles for sale and ensure that your finance messaging is visible, consistent and meets FCA regulations. The more aware customers are that you offer finance, the more likely they are to apply, enquire or ask questions directly, rather than go through a lender or broker themselves.

Know where you are now, and where you want to be

Data truly is king, and if you want to increase you finance penetration, one of the most important aspects is understanding how many you are selling on finance now, so you can measure whether any changes you have made have had any effect. An easy way to do this, is to record all your sales and how they were paid for, whether in a spreadsheet, on a whiteboard in the backroom or in a simple notebook you keep in your drawer. However, a spreadsheet is the most efficient way to capture this information.

This will give you real data on what your finance penetration is and will allow you to set a real goal of how much you want to increase it by, and a method of measuring if you are successful in selling more vehicles on finance or not.

Tweak and Measure

It can be very easy to want to change what you are doing frequently, especially if you don’t think you are getting the results that you want straight away. The best advice I would give, is to wait and measure results over time. If you change your finance messaging too frequently, you will not know which advert has contributed to an increase or not, and you can always make small tweaks and then measure the results.

Keep what works & get rid of what doesn’t

When you have captured data over time, the data will inform you what works and what doesn’t, and data is always better than guesswork. Simply keep what works and change what doesn’t. The key to success in selling more vehicles on finance is to know where you are, what you want to achieve and measure those successes, whilst changing anything that doesn’t work based on the data.

Once you know how much you are selling on finance, and what has contributed towards increases, keep doing it until the data you capture indicates that it no longer works. It is at this point, that I would suggest changing the style or contents of the advert.

If you inform your customers that you can offer them finance, measure what works and what doesn’t, and implement changes based on data, you are a lot more likely to sell more vehicles on finance! If you would like to discuss this with our marketing team, or would like more advice on how to sell more vehicles on finance, please drop us an email to marketing@frfl.co.uk

Working with First Response Finance

If you run, own or work in a Car, Van or Motorbike dealership, and you would like us to help you sell more on finance, you can visit the link below to get setup with us: