DENVER – Where are the car dealership mentors of 20 years ago?
Auto retailing veteran George Benzing asks that one as he extols the benefits of seasoned dealership staffers taking the time to show new employees the ropes.
“They are there,” he says of potential mentors on the premises. “They’re just not coming out like before.”
Benzing’s auto-retailing career spans almost three decades. Much of that time was spent as a dealership finance and insurance manager. He now is national sales director of The Oak Group, an F&I provider.
He gives a presentation entitled “The Importance of Mentoring the Sales Team” during an inaugural EFI Conference here. The event is put on by the Ethical F&I Managers, a Facebook group that promotes professionalism and integrity.
“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for three (mentors), including a dealer who gave me a shot selling cars as a young man,” Benzing says. He showed early promise, becoming an F&I manager at age 21.
Would-be mentors will find willing students, he says. “We all see these employees who want to be groomed. We can tell who has passion. It stands out.”
The tutoring can occur in groups, teams, one-on-one sessions and role-playing exercises, Benzing says. “When you have that training, the work flow becomes easier.”
At the conference, he encourages F&I manager attendees to participate in the mentoring, even if it is outside their department. Young car salespeople on the floor can use all the help they can get, he says.
Benzing offers advice to salespeople (and F&I managers). Among his tips:
- Establish trust early on during a customer needs-assessment interview. “Bring out the buying motive,” he says. “Ask what attracted them to the car they’re interested in.”
- If it is a used vehicle, talk about reconditioning. “Let them know if you spent $1,200 or $1,300 on reconditioning, and factor that into pricing.”
- Ask customers how much time they budgeted for the vehicle purchase. Unexpected lengthy stays at a dealership are customer turnoffs.
- During the vehicle walkaround, note options but don’t at that point try to sell them. “This is a time to build value.”
Benzing advocates empowering salespeople. That includes giving them a certain degree of price-negotiating responsibility to avoid the situation of a salesperson repeatedly leaving a customer in order to confer with the sales manager. Such repeated abandonments, however brief, are another customer turnoff, according to car-shopping studies.
“If a customer balks at the price, there’s always the second or third pass,” Benzing says. “The manager comes in after a third pass.”
When a tentative purchase agreement is reached on the sales floor, the customer typically meets with the F&I manager to seal the deal and review aftermarket products and services.
The fun begins in the F&I office. At least according to Benzing. “When the customer gets to F&I, it is ‘Welcome to the House of Happiness.’”
