Finance More of Your Deals
Prevail Against Higher Prices & Rates by Financing More Boat Sales
Wouldn’t it be nice to exceed customer expectations and increase dealership profitability in your F&I department? With current market challenges such as higher prices, customer objections, and stringent loan approvals, maximizing F&I profits can be difficult. Offering financing to every customer and improving lender and outsourcing company partnerships is crucial to avoid losing sales.
MRAA DATA on FINANCING
Maximizing your F&I profits can be difficult, especially when high interest rates can be a deterrent for some of your customers. How does your dealership stack up against your industry peers when it comes to financing your boat deals? Check out the results from marine dealers we surveyed in the April MRAA/Baird/TradeOnly Pulse Report.
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Control the Sale from Start to Finish
Help your team take control of the F&I process by learning to control the sale from start to finish, even with interest rates climbing. In this video, Jared Zimlin of Elite Recreational Finance shares strategies you can implement to encourage your customers to finance with your dealership. Learn to maximize your team’s chances to boost back-end profits and create a better customer experience. There’s also a handy supportive script for your team.
Three Strikes and You’re NOT Out in F&I
MRAA Training ‘N’ Tactics — You and the customer have agreed on the boat purchase, but it’s now time to hand them off to your F&I Department. It’s here where you’re team will be going to bat for finance, GAP, service contracts, paint and fabric protection and ancillary products. That’s why it’s important to practice your “swings” so you know how to react when your customers keep saying no to everything you offer them.
Luckily, you get a bunch of swings at this stage of the game. Your practice cuts will make you stronger, so your team’s real cuts will make contact more frequently. Subject matter Expert DJ Stringer says it’s the number of quality swings — from small hacks to home run whacks — you’re willing to take that will make the difference between having a F&I Department that’s whiffing and one that is world class.
Silver & Gold Members ONLY:
Not a Silver Member? Learn more about Silver Membership!
How to Build a Pre-Qualified Program
How can you deliver better results within your dealership’s consumer financing strategy for both you and your customer? Adding a pre-qualification program is big step in the right direction.
Now if only you could find a resource that shares best practices and spells out exactly how to build a pre-qualification program. We got your back and it’s why the MRAA partnered with MRAA Education Champion 700Credit LLC to share their expertise in this free step-by-step guide.
Expert Advice on Securing More Boat Loans
As banks tighten their boat-loan criteria, boat dealers face challenges with hesitant buyers. To secure boat loans for more prospective buyers, it’s crucial to know how to work well with today’s bankers and leverage F&I department strategies.
The MRAA Ask the Expert Webinar features MRAA Education Champion Elite Recreational Finance’s Jared Zimlin and Jimmy Delegro and our very own Liz Walz.
Silver & Gold Members ONLY:
Not a Silver Member? Learn more about Silver Membership!
Leverage Credit-First Soft Pulls to Improve Your Dealership’s Results
Shopping for a boat can be stressful for your consumers due to the credit verification process and worries about their credit score. By learning to leverage soft-pull credit checks you can provide a less stressful situation for your customers and help you finance more deals.
22 Tips to Tackle High Rates & Finance More Deals
Recent MRAA Pulse Report Survey comments from boat dealers say higher interest rates are impacting customer financing for boats. It would be nice to have a checklist of sorts to help your dealership ensure your F&I process is buttoned up. This list of 22 tips can help your dealership do just that, so your team can finance more deals and improve the purchasing and ownership experience for your customers.
F&I and the Impact on Customer Experience
Since F&I is one of the last to interact with the customer, you and your team have a heavily weighted impact on the overall customer experience. Keeping these new customers coming back and referring their friends is critical to our continued growth and success.
To be successful in the Finance & Insurance Department, you will need to continue to pivot with the market and fine-tune your presentations to prosper in this ever-changing, demanding world.
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Not a Silver Member?
Help Your Customers Understand Ownership Costs and F&I
Some customers arrive at your dealership thinking they don’t need F&I or additional warranties and services. It’s crucial to provide them with resources that educate and set realistic expectations for ownership costs.
Discover Boating provides you with resources that will help!
Get Discover Boating Resources:
Re-Envision Your Dealership’s Approach to F&I
3 Blogs to help your F&I Department understand messaging and working in advance – with the correct mindset – to meet your customers’ needs.
- F&I Stands for Fun and Inspiration — Enable the Lifestyle (And Make Some Money, Too) — Everyone involved with the customer’s F&I experience must fully internalize the fact that they are not ONLY pushing profit – they are enabling and delivering a lifestyle – they are delivering Fun and Inspiration.
- Why F&I is Critical to the Customer Experience — Having dedicated F&I can greatly affect your customer’s buying process and ultimately how they perceive your dealership. With that said, it is not enough to just have an office – it is also essential that your processes and products are at a level of quality that your customers deserve. By Maxwell Haning of Innovative Dealer Services, Inc., a partner member of the MRAA.
- Improve Customer Experience with this Consumer Financing Strategy — You can offer the consumer an answer to the question “what can I afford to buy?” before they even think to ask it — and even before you’ve recorded that consumer as a lead — thanks to the online pre-qualification programs available to dealers. By Liz Walz, MRAA Vice President of Education
Bolster Your Finance Department to Withstand Disruption & Uncertainty
5 Key Areas to Tighten Up to Help Your F&I Department Find Future Success By Jared Zimlin, Elite Recreational Finance
- Improve Your Digital Credit Application
- Take Advantage of Soft Credit Pulls
- Learn to Read Credit
- Understand Your Lenders
- Keep Up With Compliance
F&I Solutions — MRAA Partners & Industry Leaders
To win your customers’ trust and improve F&I profitability, implement a process that rewards your team and customers. Use resources and MRAA Partners’ best practices to refine your F&I approach and finance more deals. Meet F&I experts in person at Dealer Week 2024 in Tampa, Florida.
View the list of F&I Partners below:
Finance Providers
- Northpoint Commercial Finance
- Wells Fargo
- Elite Recreational Finance
- Huntington Distribution Finance
- AppOne, Inc.
- Shore Premier Finance
- Bank of the West
- Bank of OZK
- Epic Finance LLC
- First Approval Source
- Innovative Dealer Services, Inc.
- Medallion Bank
- Merrick Bank
- Paradise Capital
- Priority One Financial Services
- RecFi, LLC
- Relentless Dealer Services
- Sebrite Financial Corporation
- ServiceGuard Systems, Inc.
- Sheffield Financial, a division of Truist Bank
- Triad Financial Services
- Truist Bank
- Wake Lending
Insurance Providers
- Global Marine Insurance Agency
- Bukaty Companies
- Belter Insurance Agency
- Priority One Financial Services
- ServiceGuard Systems, Inc.
- Wake Lending