I wrote a blog post about a week ago on the growing use of alternative payment methods in Buy Here – Pay Here. My good friend Ken Shilson, president and founder of the National Alliance of Buy Here Pay Here Dealers, just wrote an article on the subject, as well. He has granted me permission to republish it here. It Should Be Called, “Buy Here, Pay There”! by Kenneth B. Shilson,
Managing a Buy Here – Pay Here dealership can be like walking a tightrope. A manager needs to balance creating a friendly atmosphere against the need to maintain a business relationship. Potential customers should feel welcome when they come in to purchase a new vehicle and current customers should feel like the dealership cares out about them and what is going on in their lives as they make their payments.
It is a standard practice in the Dealer Controlled Financing business to charge the same interest rate to all customers at a particular dealership but the methods for determining that rate vary widely. There are 3 basic methods for deciding on a rate: 1. Charging the maximum allowed by state law Every state has a law limiting the amount of interest a dealership is allowed to charge. This maximum rate
For many years the prevailing philosophy in the Buy Here – Pay Here industry was to sell only to customers near your dealership who could come in every time they got paid and pay you in cash. That philosophy was based on a couple of facts and/or beliefs: If a customer lived more than a 30 minute drive from the dealership, they were more likely to mail in their payments
“In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way.” Many BHPH dealers find themselves in a dark place. Any tax season rush is over, sales are down and delinquency is up. Now is the time to take a good, hard look at your dealership and determine where it can be improved. There are numerous industry magazines, websites and other sources where you can find
We all know that cash flow is the lifeblood of the Buy Here Pay Here business. Without a steady stream of customer payments coming in, inventory begins to shrink, sales dry up, and the dealership withers and dies. But what is it that keeps this lifeblood flowing? It’s your data. Without your data, how would you know which customers still owed you how much money? How would you know what
In previous articles I have discussed the dilemma dealers face regarding Cash In Deal with the current high state of wholesale vehicle prices and additional potential sources for BHPH inventory. This month I’d like to take a look at inventory pricing. After all reconditioning has been completed; the person responsible for establishing the selling prices of your inventory should drive the vehicle. Only after driving the vehicle should he then
Would you like to make more money? If you answered no to that question, you can stop reading. If your answer was yes, you should consider entering the Buy Here – Pay Here business. Retail Cars You Currently Wholesale Buy Here – Pay Here offers you the ability to retail vehicles that you currently wholesale and make more profit. Taking trade-ins that don’t meet the standards for your retail sales
In the most basic terms, there is nothing in the world so completely useless and so utterly frustrating as a computer or software system that doesn’t work. Computer or software downtime leads to increased overhead costs, lost productivity, lost customer satisfaction and sometimes even lost revenues. The quality of the technical support provided by your software companies can minimize the frustration and lost productivity when you do have problems, and you
As I analyze data and visit Buy Here – Pay Here dealerships, I am constantly amazed by the amount of overage inventory some dealerships insist on maintaining on their lots. They seem to be unaware or unconcerned about the costs that are associated with this overage inventory and how it can be dragging the performance of their dealership down. Let’s look at a few of the ways stale inventory can
