An Intentional F&I Manager does things with a purpose, and on purpose!
It's an exciting day in the F&I Department and many F&I Professionals are reaching record performance levels. As the economy struggles and the prices of everything from gas to groceries rises sharply, people are more watchful of their money. They will only buy things that have real value to them. That's exactly the kind of customers I want in front of me!
The "Intentional" F&I Manager does things with a purpose and on purpose! The F&I Professional has a well-developed belief in his products. He knows what they cover and how they benefit the customer.
Other, less "Intentional", F&I Managers complain how tough it is and make excuses for under-performing. When you ask these F&I Managers what went wrong last month, most are quick to point out that their failure was due to some external factor, which prevented them from achieving their goal. "Poor performance by Sales Managers, sales people and those darn local credit unions are killing us", is what you will hear. The only thing you can be guaranteed to achieve in F&I without purposeful effort is failure! Having visited dealerships around the country, there emerges a distinct difference between the successful F&I managers and the under-performers. The successful F&I Manager does a lot more things intentionally than their under-performing peers. Let's take a look at the path of an "Intentional F&I Manager".
Have an "Intentional Strategy"
A professional football player that does not know the playbook and a professional baseball player that refuses to take batting practice have one thing in common. They are destined to fail! An F&I Professional must have an intentional strategy by setting goals, practicing his craft and working to consistently hone his skills or they are destined to fail as well!
The path to an intentional F&I products always begins with setting goals. Daily, weekly and monthly projections should be thoughtfully made to encourage growth and provide a target to shoot for. Goals must be shared with the dealer or GM to enable them to hold us accountable in our efforts to increase our production. Reviewing these on a daily basis will keep our month from going adrift and keep us on track. In my experience, I have found there to be three types of Goal setters: Risk-Takers, Care-Takers and Under-Takers!
The Risk-Taker is always searching for more product knowledge and will work consistently to improve his skills so he can provide a customer focused and value building presentation. These are the managers who are fun to work with, because they are always hungry for knowledge, and continuously strive to become better at their craft.
The Care-Taker wants nothing to do with the pressure to improve. If they can just keep the status quo and continue to stay at their current level of production they are happy. All of their energy is focused on making sure numbers don't go down, not on working to see them go up
The Under-Taker is the manager that troubles me the most. Their desire to learn and improve died a long time ago. Their primary motivation is to find an F&I position at a dealership where no one expects much. Minimal performance expectations, no pressure to improve, just complete the paperwork, and sell whatever the customer wants to buy. Whatever they sell is unintentional, because the customer wanted it.
It's time for these managers to find something else to do.
Examine your production over the last 90 days and determine how intentional your strategy has been and make a determination to become a Risk-Taker! Your chances for success increase in proportion to the time you spend training, planning and preparing for your next customer. You must become very intentional with regard to scheduling training activities as part of your daily routine.
Customers today demand knowledgeable professionals. They want someone who cares about their particular situation, and who has the expertise to help them make good decisions.Unless they find a professional in the F&I office, they will dismiss the experience as irrelevant, and a waste of their time. People will gladly pay for genuine expertise. It is your responsibility to give it to them!
Every week, you must spend time developing ways and improving your ability to effectively overcome customer objections through the use of visual aids and better needs-discovery questions. You need to role-play, videotape and review actual deliveries to gain insight on your presentation, or arrange an in-house consultation by your dealership's training provider in order to have your consultative sales techniques evaluated. You should schedule 20 minutes into every day to practice your craft. No Excuses!! You can't raise your income level any higher on the outside than you grow on the inside.
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