3 Ways Your Digital Retail Platform Should Make Closing Deals Easier - AutoFi

3 Ways Your Digital Retail Platform Should Make Closing Deals Easier

Selling a car can be a tedious process that requires significant effort and back-and-forth. And as the saying goes, time kills deals (and profit too). Dealers that use technology to power their sales process enjoy a more efficient, streamlined process that enables them to close deals faster, with less time and effort. In fact, 30% of deals that start with AutoFi close within one day. Here are some ways that top dealers use AutoFi to make car selling easier:

Address affordability challenges

With higher interest rates, an increasingly large percentage of car buyers are priced out of the market. Car buyers are looking for digital tools that will enable them to understand what they can afford. In fact, AutoFi data shows a 29% year-over-year increase in customers filling out digital credit applications so they understand how far their credit will take them. AutoFi Dealers lean into a few capabilities like digital pre-qualification, deal configuration, digital credit application, and instant lender approvals to help customers move past their affordability concerns and move forward in the car buying process.

Overcome car buyer distrust and hesitation

The reality is that the trust gap between car buyers and dealers is still prevalent despite the significant strides dealers have made to be more customer-friendly. Many car buyers will question everything and are hesitant to move forward in the process. It’s important for dealers to remove these roadblocks and use technology to build credibility with the customer. After all, some car buyers will believe what’s on a monitor or screen before the words that come out of your team’s mouth.

AutoFi dealers lean into the platform to build credibility with the customer. Customers put up less roadblocks because they are involved in the deal and the “technology” is presenting the numbers or rates. Here are a few scenarios where technology can disarm the car buyer:

• Most shoppers are payment shoppers and top AutoFi dealers allow the customer to interact with AutoFi’s payment configurator (online, over the phone, or in the showroom) to manipulate aspects of the deal (e.g. finance vs. lease, down payment, term, etc.) that don’t involve price discounts.
• Some customers refuse to come into the dealership until they understand their payment. AutoFi dealers can send a remote deal link that enables the customer to configure a payment on their own or with the salesperson’s guidance. And the beauty of technology is each interaction the customer has with the remote deal is tracked leaving valuable “bread crumbs” on their preferences and intent.
• With interest rates higher than ever, dealers are often the bad guys when they have to deliver a high interest rate, particularly for a customer with good credit. However, customers feel better about the rates when they are returned back directly to the customer from the banks that they trust.

Save Time in the process

Today’s dealer process still involves a significant amount of handoffs and back and forth to the desk. AutoFi powers the dealer’s website and sales process with solutions that speed up the process. Here’s a few ways dealers use AutoFi to mitigate this situation:

Car buyers often have champagne dreams on a beer budget when selecting a vehicle. And your dealer sales staff often wastes time demoing a vehicle that the customer can’t afford. AutoFi dealers use the digital credit app or a soft pull to understand the consumer’s credit profile earlier in the process and land them on a car they can afford.

On any given weekend, there is a significant bottleneck at the sales desk. AutoFi dealers arm their teams with the technology to first pencil, configuring an initial payment, side-by-side with the customer, with management guardrails that protect profitability and enable the manager to intervene.

We know that powering your website and sales process with digital technology creates easier sales with more profit. Reach out to us and we’d be happy to show you how AutoFi can help your dealership.

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Kerri Wise is the Chief Marketing Officer at AutoFi