Four Keys To F&I Formula
F&I is far more than a paper mill. It is a critical function with the ability to cement a permanent bond between the customer and the dealership.
A fully informed finance representative working in tandem with a positive process can add critical dollars to the bottom line and increase customer satisfaction with the purchasing experience. Results are evident in F&I production, sales volume and service after the sale.
The first key to F&I success is having the right products to meet the customer’s future needs. Finance office products should drive future service business. These products, when properly demonstrated, add to the customer’s positive financial experience. Most customers want to enjoy worry free driving with high utilization and low aggravation. Evaluate the product mix in your store. Walk the aisles at industry exhibitions to locate innovations that will serve your customers. There is no productivity without product.
A second key is to identify the steps in the F&I process and then enable sales and F&I personnel to work in concert to implement it. Teamwork is tough without a playbook.
The third key is a professional presentation. When do your F&I representatives practice their presentation? Do they practice with teammates, or do they practice on their customers? PDR — Practice Drill and Rehearse — is essential to perfecting any performance.
Post-play evaluations turned Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers into world-class champions. After each game, every player wrote an analysis of his opponent’s moves. Today, F&I producers can adapt this fourth key strategy to complete a post play report on each of their customers. In every sales situation someone gets sold; either we sell the customer, or the customer sells us. The post play evaluation reveals who sold and who bought, how the sale occurred and word tracks used to generate the end result.
F&I representatives can access these four keys to the F&I formula through the resources of teammates, mentors, F&I 20 group members and dealership vendors. Don’t sell yourself short this year. Keys are easy to lose when they aren’t part of a link.
Dealer Marketing Magazine, February 2005, p. 20