If you’re reading this, you probably fall into one of two camps: 1) those who are riding the returning wave of special finance success, or 2) you’ve heard things are getting better but aren’t quite sure you’re ready to dive back in yet.  If you fall into the first group, you might as well move along and see what Tom has to say about lead routing or BDC services, ‘cause I’m not going to tell you anything that you don’t already know.  If, however, you’ve taken off your socks and you’re on the edge of dipping your toe back into the waters, read on.

The most frequent calls I get in the last couple months are from former clients, most of whom begin the conversation with some form of “I got a call from one of your salesmen and I finally have a budget to get some leads, but before I commit the money I need to know what has changed in the last couple years while I’ve been out of the special finance game?”  The direct answer is “no”. The days of Centrix buying any deal with a pulse probably aren’t coming back.  Yet the same commitment and disciplined approach to process are the same.  We have yet to meet anyone who has a new silver bullet for spi-fi.

If you’ve been on the sidelines for a little while, you’ll soon see that nothing has changed.  If you want to do well you still have to get everyone in the door and sort them out from there, and the folks that are talking about credit score or inventory on the initial phone call still aren’t selling any cars.  If you had a process that worked well two or three years ago, it will still work, and if you didn’t have any luck then you still won’t, because in our business there is no luck, only good and bad practices.

Happy hunting and we look forward to your calls.