May 2010

Cover Stories

- 2 ratings

Leedom BHPH Convention Will Help Dealers Build Their Success - Featured

Industry Releases - page 1

(SARASOTA, Fla. May 12, 2010) — Known across the U.S. for its expertise in Twenty Groups, automotive retail consulting, dealership financing, and dealer-centric tools, products and services, the Leedom Group will host its 16th Annual Buy Here-Pay Here National Convention Sept. 20-22 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

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- 2 ratings

Successful Sales Event Illustrates ROI on Advertising - Featured

Peter Salinas - page 1

Collectors always tell dealers the path to buy here-pay here success runs though their department, but anyone in sales knows for a fact without sales, collectors have little to do.

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- 3 ratings

Reform: Dealers Lobby Congress for Exemption - Must Read - Featured

Peter Salinas - page 32

More than 100 franchise dealers from across the country went to Washington D.C. late last month to lobby their elected officials for exclusion from the U.S. Senate version of the sweeping financial reform bill working its way through Congress.

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Our Point of View

- 2 ratings

Automated Payments: Use New Technology to Maintain, Build Relationships - Featured

Peter Salinas - page 8

Leedom Group Twenty Group members have a Proprietary Online Forum in which they can ask each other questions, discuss their composite data and share news about their businesses and their families. While I don’t generally comment on the discussions, I do read them and sometimes provide answers to questions when I may have one, or gather information for a dealer who needs some.

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Online Best Practices

- 3 ratings

Social Networking Collections: It’s Not Just for Farmville Updates Anymore ... - Featured

Staci Striegnitz - page 38

Social networking sites, including sites such as Facebook, have become a main staple for communication for generation Y and Baby Boomers alike. Not just for social networking, or marketing, Facebook has become a helpful tool for collectors. If your collection department has attempted to use social media to trace skip customers, but haven’t had any luck yet, there are a few Facebook features to know to help recover the vehicle.

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Of Interest to Dealers

- 3 ratings

2010 Tax Season: Fewer Dealers, More Deals - Featured

Peter Salinas - page 25

There was pretty much a general consensus that Tax Season 2010 for buy here-pay here dealers was much stronger than 2009 and on par with 2007 and 2008, but anecdotal information such as that is sketchy at best.

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Corner Office

- 2 ratings

Collections: The Most Important Thing You Can Do in BHPH - Featured

Chris Leedom - page 4

The theme of this issue is one that I believe often gets overlooked when it comes to operating a BHPH dealership — collections.

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Financial Insights

- 2 ratings

Pay More Attention to Cinderella - Featured

Dr James Garvin - page 14

Collections is a piece of our industry that is the poor stepchild, but the reality is, collections happen to be the Cinderella of our business kingdoms. We pay a lot of attention to the ugly stepsister, that is, sales, but the bottom line is, you can sell your butt (I think I can say that) off, but if you can’t collect it, you just wasted a whole of time and a lot of money.

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Legal and Legislative

- 2 ratings

Payoffs and Punishments: Pay Attention Unless You Like Making Plates - Must Read

Emily Beck - page 24

Sometimes, it seems like I might as well have my “fine-tooth comb” surgically implanted. After all, we compliance folks spend an awfully large amount of time talking about the little things that can get dealers in trouble with the law. Is the contract disclosure in the right-size font? Did the creditor wait the appropriate number of days before repossessing the collateral? Can you charge a $20, or a $25 fee in that state? When you zero in on issues that closely, it’s almost easy to miss out on the big picture.

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Buy Here - Pay Here

- 1 rating

CalAmp to Introduce Its Latest Automotive Finance Payment Reminder and Asset Protection Systems at NABD Conference

Industry Releases - Web Exclusive!

OXNARD, Calif. — CalAmp Corp., a provider of wireless products and engineering services, will exhibit the very latest in its Aercept™ line of advanced payment reminder and asset recovery systems at the National Alliance of Buy-Here-Pay-Here Dealers (NABD) conference in Las Vegas, May 10-13.

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- 2 ratings

CarHop Taps Former Sears Manager As Vice President of Operations - Featured

Industry Releases - page 27

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – CarHop recently announced that Steve Titus, formerly a senior manager with Sears Holding Corp, has joined the company as the vice president of operations.

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- 3 ratings

Put Service Back into Customer Service - Must Read

Chuck Bonanno - page 6

It seems that the older I get, the more good service means to me. My wife assures me that the fact that bad service bothers me is one of the telltale signs you are getting old. It makes me feel even older when I complain that service keeps getting worse all the time. I even say “it wasn’t like this in the olden days.” I think I’m becoming my Dad. Whether I’m 100 percent right or only partially right, I do know that there is no room for poor service in our industry. We are in the transportation service business and our “accounts’ are our customers.

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- 4 ratings

Collections The key to Success for Any BHPH Dealership - Must Read

Peter Salinas - page 10

A wise buy here-pay here Twenty Group moderator once said, “If you can’t sell a vehicle to a customer with limited means, a small down payment and who rarely pays anyone back on time, then you probably shouldn’t be in sales.” In other words, if you’re a buy here-pay here dealer, your in the finance and collections business, you just happen to sell vehicles. This month DBJ takes a look at three dealers who set the benchmarks in collections for their Twenty Groups.

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Industry Articles

- 1 rating

Westlake Expands Partnership With National Creditors Connection

Industry Releases - page 29

LOS ANGELES — Westlake Financial Services announces an expanded partnership with National Creditors Connection Inc. (NCCI), a field contact service provider, after a successful three-month test program showed a 10 to 15 percnet improvement in contact and payment rates of delinquent accounts.

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Guest Columnist

- 2 ratings

Recovery Industry Takes Action - Featured

Les McCook - page 16

Currently, there is a bill being debated in the U.S, Senate that could literally eliminate an entire segment of the recovery industry.

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Hudson Cook, LLP

- 3 ratings

Collections Questions? Here’s a Legal Checklist ... - Must Read

Thomas Hudson - page 22

So you’re a car dealer and you’ve decided to go into the buy here-pay here business. You’ve attended a BHPH industry conference, and you’ve had experts tell you that as a BHPH dealer, you’re no longer in the car business, but are, instead, in the collections business.

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Learn to Lead

- 4 ratings

How to Build Your Brand: Secret Weapon to Beat the Competition - Featured

Dave Anderson - page 12

I recently produced a 35-minute DVD for our monthly DVD subscribers titled, “Your Brand: The Secret Weapon to Beat the Competition!” The feedback was excellent, so I want to share a handful of the strategies with you in this space.

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Special Finance

- 4 ratings

Time for Fun in the Sun - Must Read

A.J. Ager - page 18

So you’ve caught up with all of your former flames from high school all winter on Facebook. You’ve watched the wind blow trash through your lot while old man winter kept the customers away. Now the sun is coming out, construction workers are going back to work, kids are home from college, and the business is starting to get fun again. Now is the time to get out of your comfort zone and try something new and start banking some money. Summer time is dough time and time to make sure that when next winter arrives your pockets are lined with “Benjamins.” This can be accomplished in a few steps.

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