There are two scenarios: Promoting or hiring a newbie into the F&I department and training them from scratch. Hiring a trained F&I director from another organization. Both have different cost structures, but they both need training and management oversight for a set time. If they are a newbie, they have to learn all the lending … Read more
The 80/20 rule applies to a lot of business factors at the typical dealership. I’m sure you can name 3 or 4 right off the top of your head. One 80/20 rule that may not come to mind is in your F&I Department, where 80% of your deals reach maximum profit and 20% fall short. … Read more
The chip shortage has created an inventory shortage that looks to be getting worse. It may be some time before the OEM’s get back on track with a steady supply of vehicles for dealers. The lack of new vehicles has increased the cost for the dealers to get used vehicles as well. The price increase … Read more
Why do we accept $1,500, $1,800, or $2,100 in F&I profit as ‘good enough’? We all know the ‘good enough’ mindset leaves profits on the table. Traditionally the work needed to capture the additional $40-$120 PVR most dealerships forgo has outweighed the profit reward. Thus, ‘Good Enough’ has become a dollar figure per unit sold. … Read more
The F&I managers do a great job of selecting the best lenders to submit a deal. They instantly have a good idea of what each lender looks for and what they will accept. Choosing lenders for the deal and getting callbacks is easy and fast for most F&I managers. The time-consuming part is breaking down … Read more
If you are an F&I manager and looking to increase your paycheck, experts and trainers recommend doing additional work to increase your income. Let’s think about that for a second before we jump into the recommendations. You are likely already very busy, and adding additional work and processes to your schedule seems a little unrealistic. … Read more
Customer downtime is a big issue when customers want the buying experience to be fast. I have heard F&I experts talk about keeping customers busy by printing out the declination or accept/decline documents for the loan term the customer accepted and an extended loan term while the F&I manager is getting the product menu ready. … Read more
When you are running a dealership, you review data frequently. Number of online leads Number of ups Inventory Floorplan and age Marketing ROI to drive leads and sales Number of leads that turn into sales Cost structures and accounting data You use software to manage the data and to help you find opportunities to increase … Read more
Process change is often a scary idea in the automotive F&I industry. When dealers make the vast majority of their front-end revenue in the F&I department, changing any part of the F&I process is often interpreted as risky. Potentially disrupting current revenue and profit margins with a process change causes many managers to have instant … Read more
How would you feel if you always had a green light in front of you as you drive? Could you make it to work ten minutes earlier? 20 minutes earlier? How much time would you stop wasting every day? Every week? Every month? What if you applied the green light scenario to reviewing lender decisions … Read more