Set Up a Profitable Special Finance Department: Plan and Prepare, and Ask for a Budget
I’m in the process of talking to a dealership about setting up a special finance department (actually I have my pitch meeting today at three). It’s a GM store, and these days I know that there isn’t a better challenge than this when it comes to trying to hammer a profitable subprime department together.
I’ve always advocated that the best way to start a department is to first get the buy-in from the dealer principle or general manager by giving them a good plan of attack. By first visualizing to them the profit potential of your efforts, and showing them a respectable ROI, it’s much easier to say, “Hey, I need support. It takes money to make money. How about a budget?” That’s why I created the spreadsheet that I later wrote about on this blog.
Having to use it today, I realized that there was no good place for me to place the costs associated with different marketing channels like special finance leads, subprime mailers, bankruptcy lists, etc. So, I had on of my guys update the channels to show a few extra marketing sources (like email marketing) and to show the cost associated with each marketing effort. We’ve also adjusted the formulas to calculate the totals for you. It takes less than 20 minutes to completely fill in the forecast, and it gives you a real good looking and effective visual description of just how you plan to make money for your dealership in special finance.
If you want the report, subscribe to the TheSubprimeReport here, or click the image on the right sidebar, and I will personally send it to you free of charge. Note to consulting companies: if you want the report, do me a favor and send me a link on your website. :) Shameless request for backlinks.
Take care.
Jim
