UCN Used Car News

BHPH Class Offers Game Plan for Dealers

By Jeffrey Bellant

Auto dealers seeking education on the buy-here, pay-here industry spent a couple days in Dallas last month for the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association’s Buy-Here, Pay-Here Academy.

NIADA’s Senior 20 Group moderators Bill Elizondo and Ben Goodman led the teaching, which drew dealers from various backgrounds and different areas of the industry.

Elizondo spoke with Used Car News by phone shortly after the event ended.

“We had a great group of individuals ready to learn, understand and get more knowledgeable in this business,” Elizondo said.

One attendee had been in the auto business for a long time but was new to BHPH. Another individual came from the franchise side and wanted to understand what this BHPH segment was all about.

Another person had been in BHPH for a decade but still took back a lot of new information that she didn’t know.

The academy even drew a vendor who brought along two people to the event. Elizondo knew the vendor from previous training events he had done separate from this academy. The vendor’s past experience at the previous sessions convinced him that the education and information from this academy would be valuable to their business, Elizondo said.

“At the end of the day, if they can understand the buy-here, pay-here industry well enough, they’re going to be able to help the people they’re doing business with who are doing buy-here, pay-here today,” he said.

It also helps them speak the BHPH language to their dealer clients and give them better insight into their customers and know best how to provide them the right products and tools that boost their business.

The group’s instructors were men who’ve been around the business for a longtime.

“Between Ben Goodman and I, we’ve got over 60 years of experience,” Elizondo said.

The academy presented a big overview of the BHPH business and discussed how to navigate the various parts of the business that help make a BHPH dealer successful.

Sessions on sales, operations, collections and benchmarks were some of the topics.

At the start of the two-day session, Goodman and Elizondo covered recent economic trends, pointing to growth in the BHPH segment.

According to data from Experian and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, bankruptcy petitions increased by 7 percent in September 2022. “Filings are going up because people can’t afford payments,” Elizondo said.

Even as finances are tightening, the labor market remains strong. Unemployment is still at a 50-year low and people still need transportation to get to work. This is creating additional opportunities for BHPH dealers.

“This is the absolute best time to get into buy here-pay here,” Goodman said.

Continued on page 5

3/6/2023