The financial and insurance division (F&I) of the retail automotive industry has a wide selection of consulting firms designed to improve dealership’s profitability. Many of the F&I firms offer a full service menu of consulting items. However, the majority of their strategies involve improving all aspects of the sales process in order to improve F&I penetration. For the most part, the F&I department in any dealership has a very important but limited function. It is this specialization that allows F&I consulting to thrive.
However, this type of consulting can only help dealerships so much. Obviously there are many other areas that dealerships need to improve besides their F&I department.
We have gotten several emails from readers asking if there are any places to receive used car or used car management training. Unfortunately, there is no outlet that currently offers these services. Personally, I think there should be such a place. Nearly every major metropolitan area in the United States has some type of school for first time car salesmen, but nothing for used car managers. Nearly every city in this country has a school for paintless dent repair, but no used car manager training. If these schools or academies are deemed important for brand new sales people and reconditioning technician they should have value for used car managers.
Running a used car department requires several different skill sets. First you must be good at purchasing used cars. You must also be good at controlling reconditioning costs and times. Further, an effective manager has to be good at managing their sales teams and other dealership employees. Clearly, being a used car manager is a demanding job.
There are also thousands of dealerships across this country that are used car dealerships only. These independent lots face their own unique challenges and receive very little support outside of their independent franchise associations.
The retail car industry is very competitive. The best performers will make large amounts of money while the ineffective used car managers will continue to struggle. This situation requires constant job skill improvement. We at the Used Car Voice try to bring you the latest in Used Car Management information and techniques, including the used car professional’s guidebook, Used Cars 101.
The Used Car Voice is committed to improving both the used car industry and the lives of the people who comprise this industry. Any service that would raise the quality of a used car professional’s abilities is positive in our opinion.
The bottom line is this; learn all you can because the better you are, the more money you will make.