When dealerships are struggling with F&I production, there is plenty of blame to pass around. From training to pay plans, from process to personnel, there are multitude of reasons performance can be lacking. If everything seems to be in place, you may want to assess your showroom’s culture.
In many cases it is the disconnect between sales and finance departments that causes inconsistent or poor F&I performance. What makes things difficult is, when you are very close, this disconnect can be hard to detect. If left unchecked, however, it will lead to a showroom where sales teams are not engaged with your F&I process and have developed apathy toward your F&I department.
If your showroom floor is suffering from the F&I apathy, here are three ways your team can create the F&I friendly culture that brings value to F&I.
1. Team environment starts with you. First of all, let’s establish that F&I is a team sport. The proactive support of a sales team will turn an average F&I manager into a top producer. On the flip side, apathetic sales team can torpedo a top producer’s efforts and turn them into an average one. Most importantly, team environment is a two-way street. Too many F&I managers either forgot it or never knew about it. The “bow down and kiss my ring” mentality will not take you far and most likely destroy your efforts. Let’s face it, the most important thing for your sales team is to sell cars. They don’t really care about you selling a single product – “just sign them out.” Your confrontational approach will definitely make it worse.
Start with what is important to them. When you begin helping your team to sell more cars, take great care of their customers regardless of pay method, and treat everyone with respect, your sales team will reward you back. The old saying proves it; “you get more with honey.” Team sport means you have to give first and sometimes expect nothing in return. Go ahead and take first steps that will lead you to helping them sell more cars. It will pay huge dividends.
2. Educate your staff. No one likes to look stupid in front of a customer. If you don’t know or understand something, you will simply avoid talking about it. The same goes to your sales people. They will not endorse something they do not know much about or do not understand. When was the last time you took time to train F&I product knowledge with your sales people? How well do they understand your product offering? Most sales people are familiar with service contracts and they understand Gap. Majority, though, have little to no knowledge about your ancillary offering. For instance, do they understand a T&W or Combo product you offer? In other words, can they talk about its value to their customers? Can they speak intelligently about benefits and function of those products?
To create value in F&I, show them the value their customers receive when they take advantage of protection products your dealership has to offer. Once they learn about what is available, take time to train them on how to plant seeds for F&I products during their sales process to prepare customers towards your presentation.
3. Gamify incentives. If you have F&I incentives for your sales team, ask yourself – “how long have they been around?” Do they motivate your sales force? In many cases, incentives are stale and not visible to sale people. No one is tracking them, and they magically appear on their paychecks hidden with the rest of incentives. This form of “out of sight out of mind” makes it difficult for their behavior to stick. You may or may not be able to redesign your incentives, but, you don’t have to change much to gamify your current incentive program and create a fun competitive environment to engage your sales team. From football game points to casino chips, from rolling the dice to “Mario Cart Racing” there are plenty of ideas to create a game-type atmosphere and let your team win. Turn your stale incentive plan into exciting game and watch their participation increase and apathy disappear. Keep track of their scores and use various rewards methods to motivate their performance.
Creating the F&I-friendly culture does not have to be difficult or frustrating. Realize this, fixing the F&I apathy at your dealership has to start with your F&I team. To change your sales team’s behaviors, you first must win their hearts and their minds. Do so, by helping them sell more cars first, educate them on your total offering, and finally gamify your current F&I incentives to eliminate the F&I apathy from your showroom once and for all.
Key learning objectives:
- Develop a comprehensive career pathing plan for your dealership’s F&I pipeline, which will include pay plans, job titles/descriptions, and training/performance objectives.
- Create an effective hiring strategy for your dealership in order to attract and hire the best candidates for your F&I pipeline from outside of the industry. Part of this hiring strategy will include an adequate onboarding process.
- Design a step-by-step training regimen for new recruits that will include courses in the following areas: administrative, compliance, product knowledge, F&I process, and F&I sales skills.
Join Tony Troussov at Digital Dealer 26 Conference & Expo for his presentation, “Building an F&I Performer Pipeline.” During this session, you will learn how to create an employee development program that works.