Bob Harwood, Sales Manager, and our Controller Dorothy Donaby-Juntunen had placed a bet on a sales goal that Dorothy had forecasted and been right about! So how did Bob have to pay the debt off? By shining Dorothy’s shoes! His team encouraged him and cheered him on as he got to work. We hope you enjoy the pics as much as we enjoyed partaking in them!

How long have you been with the company?
2 years.

What is your role at IFMG?
Regional Account Executive for the Southeast region of the US servicing Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Montana, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington DC

What does your role entail?
Maintaining and enhancing dealership profits, as well as consulting dealers in how to structure deals and get maximum call backs from banks and enhancing their inventory. I also train dealers on how to handle customers face to face and how to use our FUEL and DOLLAR systems, which help with follow-up and emails and contact reminders.

What do you enjoy most about your role?
Taking individuals and dealerships to the next level. I enjoy helping them reach and exceed their goals.

Are you currently working on a new project and if so what is it?
I am currently working on introducing and signing on independent dealers, where we haven’t really done this in the past. So far it has been successful, as independent dealers are open to the idea of having a consultant and trainer that they can reach when needed.

What do you do for fun?
Playing competitive poker!

Tom resides in Richmond VA with his wife of 29 years and 3 kids. He enjoys cars, football, food, and movies.

Tom points out, probably correctly, that trigger leads may become a legal hot zone at some point.  My honest reaction is that I don’t really care too much about that, because we don’t sell ‘em.  I do care, however, about how they affect the performance of my customers’ operation.  I’ve been working with auto finance leads for years, and I haven’t found anyone yet with a successful track record working trigger leads.

The sales pitch always sounds great, something like “you know that these people are in the market for a car. They were just in a dealership.”  Sounds like a no brainer you’ll sell cars, right?  Wrong.  When I talk to car dealers who have taken the leap they tell a much different story.

If you put yourself in the position of the consumer, you can imagine how some of the conversations go (if you are lucky enough to get a phone number, since at least ½ of the leads don’t have one).  Instead of having a friendly conversation about helping someone find the perfect car that fits their family’s needs and budget, your sale staff is answering questions about how they got someone’s information and why they are calling.

The companies that provide these leads can’t even tell you if someone already bought a car or not, so you’re also going to waste some time chasing people that bought a car a few days ago.

Like I said, we don’t sell this kind of lead, so maybe the stories I hear are the vocal minority and there are people out there printing money using trigger leads.  If you’re one of those people, please let me know and educate me on how you make them work.  If you’ve tried them and not had success don’t fret, I’m pretty sure you are far from alone.

A 14 year veteran in the car business, Mike brings knowledge and wisdom to the company. We hope you enjoy getting to know him a little better!

How long have you been with the company?
I have been with the company for 7 years

What is your role at IFMG?
I am an account executive

What does your role entail?
Maintaining relationship with current clients, signing up new clients

What do you enjoy most about your role?
Working with the dealers in helping them be successful with our program and taking care of any concerns that may come up.

Are you currently working on a new project and if so what is it?
The only new project is forecasting next years budget

What do you do for fun?
I am an outdoors kind of guy. I enjoy fishing and camping. I also enjoy remodeling things in my house. The house I am in now I am working on remodeling the entire house and flipping it.

Mike has been in the Richmond area since 1989 and spent 14 years in the car business in Richmond. He started out as a salesman and worked his way up to GM. Mike was an Army dependent and got to travel as well as live in Europe for 4 years, which he enjoyed every bit of it. His family is from Massachusetts and he has 2 great daughters Sarah 21 and Christina 25. Christina works for a law firm here in Richmond. Sarah attends VCU and is in the Nation Guard and works full time, busy young lady.

Luckily the assembled cast represented the full spectrum, from polished special finance professionals looking to hone their skills to a dealer principal who knows that he needs spi fi but doesn’t know how to get it up and running.  When I came back to the office and started reading through the notes I had taken, the generally accepted ingredients for success were:

• The store must commit to sub prime from the top down
• Have the right cars
• Have the right banks and understand their programs
• Constantly train your people

This seems so simple on paper, but every dealer I speak to that tells me they can’t make special finance work is deficient in one of these areas, often without realizing it.  Lenders really seem to be the biggest stumbling block, and the differentiator between successful special finance shops and those that struggle.  This was pointed out in stark detail as I listened to three folks discuss the same lender.  All three were from the same state, but all had very different experiences.

Dealer A said that they couldn’t get a deal hung with the bank to save their life, Dealer B said they were OK, but didn’t buy a majority of the deals she sent, but Dealer C swore by the bank and said that if not for this bank their secondary department would be in trouble.  Same state, same bank, same program, very different results, so why such different results?  Dealer C knows the bank’s programs inside and out, and structures his deals to fall in their sweet spot, while the other two structure their deals generically and shoot them to a few banks hoping for a good call.

If you haven’t spoken to your bank reps in a while, take a few minutes to pick up the phone and call them.  Find out what their perfect deal looks like, and how you can tweak what you’ve been sending to get some better calls.  Remember, those folks get paid on how many deals they book, so they want your business and will take all the time necessary to help you understand their programs.

When presented with the opportunity to join IFMG, he relished the chance to utilize his skills and competitive nature and has been doing so ever since. We hope that you enjoy learning more about Mr. Matthews.

What is your role at IFMG?
Account Executive/Manager

What does your role entail?
Locating and bringing on dealers that are qualified to help our consumers secure financing and an automobile and then maintaining a relationship and servicing any issues the dealer may have.

What do you enjoy most about your role?
Developing relationships with people and thinking outside the box in order to create solutions that result in a win for the consumer, the dealer and IFMG.

Are you currently working on a new project and if so what is it?
I am looking to find strategic partners in markets where our websites are producing 100+ proactive customers a month.  I am specifically targeting independent dealers and franchise dealerships that recognize the value of the growing less than prime consumer market.

What do you do for fun?
I enjoy playing and watching sports.  I play soccer and basketball and my favorite sports to watch are NFL football and college basketball

What is something that no one would ever know about you?
My parents were 42 and 45 when I was born.

Brian, who was raised in Mechanicsville VA, currently resides in Richmond VA where he likes to spend as much time as possible playing with his 11 month old son.

What are your thoughts on this?

UPDATE: GM filed their IPO paperwork, as expected, on August 18th. Definitely keeping the industry on their toes…

Mike, who was raised in California and Tennessee, moved to Virginia in 1990 and has been here since. Mike has brought many successes to Carloan.com with the help of the other Special Finance Lead Consultants and we hope that you enjoy getting to know him.

What is your role at IFMG?
Regional Account Executive.

What does your role entail?
I am tasked with developing new business and consulting with existing customers to make them successful and help them “SELL MORE CARS”.

What do you enjoy most about your role?
Everyday is new and different and my challenges change daily. I believe I get the most enjoyment from helping a struggling dealer become successful with our program.

Are you currently working on a new project and if so what is it?
My current project is probably the same as the other account executives…finding banks that are buying deep and sharing those banks with our dealers. We interact with many dealers on a daily basis and it is my project to share success stories with other dealers. This project has not changed and it never will.

What do you do for fun?
Hanging out with my kids, fishing, golfing and playing music.

What is something that no one would ever know about you?
The past is in the past…..I try to get all I can get out of today.

Mike currently lives in Richmond with his wife of 12 years, daughter, son, 20 fish, and a dog. His children’s hobbies are his own and he enjoys ice hockey, football, gymnastics, I-Carly, and video games.

Recently, our marketing folks had a “eureka” moment. Why rack our brains trying to create the next silver bullet? We already have a suite of products that pretty much runs the gamut to help the Second Chance department be successful, so let’s just find a way to make them all work well together. The result is our new SELL MORE CARS!® System.

I’ve never used this space to sell products, and I’m not going to start now. But I do encourage you to take a look at what our marketing folks came up with. The new system really creates an easy flow through the process for both the consumer and the finance manager. Under this new program we:

• Do the online marketing to capture the auto finance applications
• Validate those auto finance leads to make sure that they are real people who actually want to buy a car
• Engage those car buyers and allow them to set their own appointment to come see our local dealer
• Train the dealership staff in best practices for getting appointments in the door
• Provide a free ILM to manage the traffic
• Buy the deal

I’ve looked at it from every angle, and I’m not sure what else we can do to make things easier. I’ve told many dealers over the years that there is no silver bullet and that success in Special Finance takes hard work.

I still believe that, but this might be as close to that silver bullet as you’re gonna get.

We kick off this spotlight series with Mark Fernandez.  Mark is a native of New York who has been in Richmond since 2003.  Before coming to IFMG Mark had worked for the New York Stock Exchange for 8 years.

How long have you been with Carloan.com?
I was with IFMG for four years before opening my own business.  I’ve been back now for 2 months.

What is your role?
I am an Account Executive/Manager for fifteen states.  I serve Nevada, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Hawaii.

What does your role entail?
I solicit new business in markets that can produce leads for car dealerships. I train those dealerships how to work our process and I manage business by forming long term relationships with my clients.  I’m invested in their success every step of the way.

What do you enjoy most about your role?
The sale and the partnerships I create; seeing my customers have success.

Are you currently working on a new project and if so what is it?
I am giving my house a siding makeover.

What do you do for fun?
I enjoy playing basketball,watching movies and recording music. In addition to recording music I am also a collector. Another hobby of mine, and my family, is traveling. We have been all over in the past ten years.

What is something that no one would ever know about you?
That I was born in Jamaica.

Mark resides in Richmond with his wife of 10 years and their 6 children. In addition to Carloan.com employment Mark owns a record store called 106 & Mark (also called ‘The Throwback King‘) in the area.

Contacting Mark Fernandez:
804-521-8579 (Direct)
804-521-8600 (Fax)
mark@carloan.com