Over the many years I have spent working with agents and F&I product providers, I have gotten a pretty good insight as to the best time to call on your dealer accounts. I’ll share the benefit of my anecdotal observations here.

Narrowing the Field

First, it’s not good to call on dealers in a week that begins or ends the month. On the last few days of the month they are busy trying to get as many deals done as possible to “make” their month. The first few days of the month are bad because they are closing out the previous month and figuring out what the month’s first paycheck will look like.

That leaves the middle three weeks, but even then, you have to be strategic

First, it’s not good to call on them on Monday. They are finalizing the deals from the weekend and don’t have time to see you. Friday is also bad, because they are looking forward to the weekend and are, as you know, distracted. You like to start your weekend early anyway, so it works out.

That leaves Tuesday through Thursday, three weeks out of the month. That’s a nine-day window, folks, and we’re not done yet.

Because the managers you need to see work weekends, they will very likely take Tuesday or Wednesday off. It makes no sense to visit the dealer unless you can see all the managers, right? Thursday is a better day.

So that leaves just Thursdays, three weeks out of the month. That’s three short days a month.

However, dealers tell us that they expect their reps to spend Thursdays doing some training, spend some time with their people and maybe take them to lunch. That takes most of the day. When you add driving time, you really can only service one account per day if you do it properly.

So that leaves three days for three accounts. That’s all you can really expect to cover in a month.

However, the dealer would like to see you more than once a month. After all, he makes you a lot of money, right?

So it looks like you need to limit yourself to one dealer account. That way you can provide the level of training and service the dealer has every right to expect.

Of course, you’ll have to figure out how to pay for the gasoline to get there.