The Road to ROI with F&I

A sudden vacancy in your business can be disruptive and damaging to your bottom line. It's always important to plan for such eventualities by finding ways to keep your business running until the vacancy is filled. And that's where fill-in F&I specialists come in.

Every word shared between salespeople, sales managers and the F&I Department carries with it the power to affect the bottom line. Details are crucial and as one sales manager once wisely suggested to his salesperson, "Land the plane!" 

While the ignition is the key to starting a vehicle, the sales desk is the key to approaching and earning a customer's trust. It's that trust that helps customers feel confident to commit to purchasing a vehicle. Beyond the commitment to purchase a vehicle, a customer's journey within your dealership is only just beginning.

Businesses can prosper when they focus on their sales processes and provide excellent customer experiences. This is especially true for automobile dealerships, where the quality of service provided is crucial to customer retention.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." These Abraham Lincoln words still vibrate in the minds of those who have sold themselves over to win. Every sales manager or any other business executive overseeing a sales team understands that preparation is necessary for success. Therefore, they spend time sharpening their teams to achieve stellar results.

Staying up to date with the Finance and Insurance field is demanding. Look at it this way: F&I conferences are a yearly investment that reaps benefits in worker productivity and competence. These conferences also provide a venue for networking, promoting brand recognition through product placement, and learning about relevant new technologies.

Many benefits accrue from partnering with a focus forward Finance and Insurance (F&I) provider when you are in the auto dealership business. With better-managed sales and F&I departments, you can expect high F&I profits for all your vehicle sales. Your company also retains customers due to high CSI and enjoys a reduced employee turnover.

Being an F&I Manager has never been easy—and the younger generations are making it more difficult than ever. Dealerships are becoming a last resort for Generation Z, who grew up through the recession of the late 2000s. Burdened by student loan debt and inflation, these younger customers often feel that dealerships are a relic of a previous era. Here's 5 ways to get them engaged and interested in the car buying and F&I process.

Changed to Speed Up Your F&I Sales Process with 3 Simple Steps

SPEED IS KEY

According to a study done by Autotrader, the average dealership takes 61 minutes (or the time it takes to learn 20 foreign words and phrases) to complete the finance and insurance portion of a sale. The study also concludes that customers are happiest when the entire process, from walking into the dealership to leaving in a new car, takes only 90 minutes total.

Finance and Insurance Departments are a staple of any dealership. They bring in revenue and are a key piece of customer service. But just as the dynamics of sales have changed with technological advancements and online consumerism, F&I is a competitive field that requires active engagement and constant learning to stay ahead. A good way to stay abreast of the best practices in the field and grow your business network is by attending yearly F&I Conferences and Expos with your team. Listed below are 4 reasons an F&I Conference can improve your dealership.