"Through our continuous development as well as our relationships with lenders we have seen our approval ratio remain the same from 2007 to 2008 which is actually a 7 percent increase from 2006," said Leigha Taber, marketing coordinator for Priority One Financial Services. "What makes this so impressive is that we, like other dealers, have seen some of our strongest lenders leave the market during this time. Additionally, with automatic approvals no longer being an option, every approval is more and more difficult to obtain."

What is even better for RV dealers is that Priority One has seen an increase in dealer gross margin of about 4 percent on every deal. "To dealers this means an increase of $100 per deal in their pockets over 2007," said Taber. "With fewer units being delivered this extra profit can really make or break a dealership. Whether we handle the financing, sell an extended service contract or any other back end product, the dealer makes extra profit that they wouldn’t on their own. When it comes down to it, there is really no reason why a dealer should not be capitalizing on each and every sale to make this additional profit.”

Taber said Priority One has seen a slight decrease in total application numbers last year, compared to 2007. But the percentage of loans being approved by banks has not changed.

"With fewer customers coming through the door, dealers truly need to capitalize on every customer that does want to buy. Given the current environment with lenders leaving and automatic bank approvals being a thing of the past, we have put a lot of focus on continuous sales and approval training of our certified business managers to make sure they can be effective advocates for dealers," she explained.

The business managers and business administrators at Priority One recently completed an online training program offered by Reahard and Associates, a leader in F&I training for the auto industry. The training enables the staff to work more effectively in getting loans approved for dealers, said Taber.

For more information on Priority One, call 727.822.7171 or visit www.p1fs.com.