Houston Independent Automobile Dealers Association April Issue: Spring Cleaning | Page 21

with a financial person who understands how this will greatly impact your ability to grow your business!

K- reported that he is seeing equity reductions in Dealerships!

From the floor Primalend says they are already requiring dealers to maintain a Loss Reserve of on average 30%.

K&G- Both indicated they were seeing Credit Markets tightening. Dealers will need to forecast and build into their performance budgets for the impending increase in Interest rates. Dealers need to start pricing up to offset these changes.

K- Much of the cheap money is slowing down.

K&G- We are always going to have competition. You are going to have to embrace technology changes to impact your operating overhead in a positive manner!

K-Cheap money Lenders are not going away! They will learn what to change to be successful.

In Today’s Market K&G said:

Operating costs are rising, we are in an inflationary period, Dealers have gone to higher cost vehicles.

Dealers have to go back to the Basics!

Customer relationships are Important.

Must offer Good Customer Service.

You have to work to get more cash flow!

It is going to take time and you have to stay on task, and constantly review your actions!

G&K- One of the most important things a Dealer has to do is...to use technology to create "More Looks before your Book!"

The customers we are seeing are more challenging, you must look at more info on the customer than you have used in the past.

Social Media makes a difference but not as big as you think!

You still have to do the Basics Correctly!

Dealer Education is important! The Dealer has to be able to use the tools that are available to him in the marketplace!

Bottom line, "if you continue to do what you have always done, which has not brought you the success you strive for, you have to change what you are doing!"

Most of you know me, and know that I am privileged to be inside many dealerships every week. In so doing I run across dealers who are benefitting from a better way of doing things. You might be interested to know that several of my clients are benefitting significantly from Customized Dealer Financial Solutions based in Dallas. CDFS provides underwriting predictive modeling to drastically reduce quick repossessions, without reducing your sales volume, and resolves all of the issues covered at this meeting.

Respectfully submitted by Bill Murphy, CP Insurance Associates, Board Member of HIADA!