Car sales reps and CFOs often operate in silos, with little incentive to work together to sell finance and insurance products.
But at the nine Sacramento, Calif.-area dealerships owned by Niello Co., a compensation plan rewards salespeople for products sold by finance managers and also motivates those managers to sell more products, Dennis Gingrich said. , director of sales and finance of the company.
“At most dealerships, salespeople are strictly concerned with selling cars, not what’s going on in the finance because there’s no money for them,” said Gingrich, who has extensive experience. Fi nally. “Also, they’re a bit jealous of CFOs because they make more money.”
With his compensation plan, Niello aims to break down the “silos and infighting” that often occur between CFOs and salespeople in the industry, Gingrich said. He noted that the tension is often a direct result of the “terrible compensation plans” that are typically used.
“But we line them up as much as possible,” he said. “We train sellers to plant seeds during the sales process that F&I leaders can build on. … It helps when sellers have some skin in the game.”