Aug. 11, 2008 – Free courses provide basics of financing

GE Money has begun offering free online training courses that are designed to be a first step in terms of finance education.
The courses, online at www.training-resourcecenter.com, come as a result of requests GE Money has received from its dealer advisory boards.
The short courses, which take between 8-12 minutes each to complete, cover a range of topics, from how to process finance transactions to how to integrate financing messages within marketing. General sales topics also are addressed, including how to overcome common customer objections. The courses are not designed specifically for one member of a dealership as GE Money was hoping these would be used by a variety of different staff.
“I think where this will have the most traction in the powersports industry is in the smaller dealerships where they are not as sophisticated around F&I,” said Jeff Karls, vice president of marketing for GE Money.
Karls also expects larger dealerships to use these courses, either as a way to provide training opportunities for established staff or as a way to introduce new employees to financing.
“As you hire new staff, it’s a great way to bring them up to speed on the basics,” he said of the courses.
GE Money will augment these online courses by providing other types of training that will cover more technical applications. Some of this training, either in-store or via Webinars, has already occurred in some instances.
The new online courses include terminal processing, integrating financing into your business and techniques for selling financing. psb