His Madness offers a four-point plan for winning over customers whose insurance companies are trying to steal your F&I product sales.

If you’ve spent much time in the F&I office, you understand how difficult it can be to work deals over the phone. So much communication is lost. I try to avoid it. But sometimes you can’t, which is why it’s critical that you be prepared.

A recent customer of mine is the perfect example. In our initial phone conversation, he wanted to compare our finance offers against his bank of choice, which happened to be one of my rivals. He resisted my invitation to drop by the store so I could show him the various plans. He wanted to either bring in a check or be prepared to sign our finance documents with just one visit. To further complicate matters, he also wanted precise information about the various service contracts available.

This customer had vast experience in the field of insurance, so his questions were very precise. You see, he is a retired insurance agent from a well-known company that’s very aggressive in financing their customers. Their agents also solicit them for various protection products and even offer “free” GAP coverage. But that’s a story for another time.

The customer was buying a used F-150 and was armed with a finance offer from his former employer. I submitted his application and worked the lender hard so I could capture the financing. Boom! I got a lower APR and the customer’s undivided attention.

He then wanted a comparison of coverage between our vehicle service contract (VSC) and the insurance company’s “Platinum” plan. Since it was obvious the deal hinged on my being able to provide value with not only the financing but also the service plan, I decided to do some investigating. I asked if I could call him back and, after a few minutes of Google sleuthing, I found the plan he was referring to. Turns out the service contract wasn’t even underwritten by the insurance company he had so much confidence in. So I decided to exploit that fact.

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