With more turnover in the finance department, inadequate hiring practices, a growing number of customers with a slow pay history, continued use of questionable sales tactics and a lack of attention to detail, it’s no wonder dealers are seeing slower funding . . . or in too many instances, no funding at all. Errors and omissions in contracts in transit are costing dealers thousands in unearned profits every month.

 

In many dealerships, the general practice is to spot deliver the car, get the customer out of the marketplace and figure out what is needed later. Dealers allow sales managers to call the shots, believing that their finance managers should never make spot decisions. The problem, of course, is that some of these overzealous sales managers are so eager to get the car delivered, they instruct their finance managers to contract the customer without merit and without the proper supporting documents—such as proof of income, residence or insurance. Their catchphrase is: Get the customers out of the marketplace today and have them come back tomorrow with the required supporting documents. Unfortunately, few of those customers return the next day with the required stips and the dealer sits on contracts for weeks before they ever get funded it at all.

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When aggressive sales managers drop the ball and do not insist on retrieving the stips and instead go on to next deal, their finance managers compound the problem by hastily forwarding contracts to the banks, without the required supporting documents. They cross their fingers and hope the customers return with the stips, so they can forward them to the banks belatedly. Some banks will hold the offerings until these supporting documents are collected, but many others will not. Too often, in dealerships like these, the back office hasn’t been properly trained on what stips are necessary for quickly funded transactions; they rely solely on the finance managers to validate the transaction prior to sending it the bank. And so the vicious cycle begins and continues. Everyone cuts corners and the contracts in transit are either delayed or not funded. 

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If you have more than 10 deals on your contracts in transit list, then something iswrong. I have the experience and talent to figure out where the problems are and will come to your store to fix them. I will get your CIT list back down to zero, train your employees and staff and install a system that won't have you in this situation again. Can you really afford not to call me? Call me now or download AFTERSALE, my CIT management app.