Tag: F&I training

Categories
Dealership Training

Responsibilities of an F&I Manager

Jason Hash Training Manager EFG Companies
Jason Hash
Training Manager
EFG Companies

When you think of an F&I manager’s responsibilities, what comes to mind? What do your sales people think the F&I manager’s responsibilities are? What do lenders think?

As a dealer principal or general manager, you probably think the F&I manager is responsible for increasing your gross profit, maintaining lender relationships, and ensuring compliance. And, that’s a fairly comprehensive outlook. Meanwhile, ask any sales person and they might say something more like this, “The F&I manager just sells products.” And, lenders might describe the F&I manager’s role as, “structuring financing arrangements”.

While each of these descriptions touches on some of the F&I manager’s responsibilities, they fall short in representing the total importance of an F&I manager’s position in dealership operations. And, while that’s not technically a bad thing for people to define F&I managers differently, giving everyone in your dealership a baseline overview of the F&I office’s function can actually help enhance dealership performance and foster a greater level of teamwork.

So, what exactly are the responsibilities of an F&I manager?

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Categories
Dealership Training F&I

Overcoming Objections Starts with Sales

Hollis Goode Blog Headshot

 

Contributing Author: Hollis Goode, Regional Vice President, Dealer Services, EFG Companies

Overcoming objections is quite possibly one aspect of the F&I office that is focused on the most. Classes abound on this topic. Dealers, in tune with their teams, provide one-on-one coaching sessions on this alone. After all, the more successful an F&I manager is at overcoming objections, the better their numbers, resulting in increased profit for the dealer.

I’d posit that many training courses/one-on-one sessions start something like this:

“The vehicle service contract is too expensive. Go.”

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Categories
Compliance

Rolling with the Times!

Karen Klees, Certified Consumer Credit Compliance Professional, EFG Companies

 

Contributing Author: Karen Klees, Certified Consumer Credit Compliance Specialist, EFG Companies

Recently, U.S. Bank issued a letter to its dealer partners describing the Bank’s policy in regards to fair and responsible lending. Well, that in itself is not news. Lenders have been issuing letters of that nature for the past few years. However, this letter did mark a significant milestone in the CFPB’s regulation of the automotive industry. In this letter, U.S. Bank became the first lender to explain a monitoring program with a heavy focus on how F&I products are priced and sold.

To date, dealers have had substantial leeway with F&I pricing practices. The only minor cap dealers have as far as marking up products is concerned, is how much money lenders are willing to fund. So, it’s natural for dealers to pucker when a lender like U.S. bank says they are watching for potential discriminatory practices in F&I.

However, from a lender standpoint, U.S. Bank is taking proactive steps to protect itself before any regulatory decisions are made. And, it’s possible that other lending institutions may follow suit, especially those who’ve already felt the influence of the CFPB.

As a dealer, you could simply say “Good Riddance!” to any lender who tries to restrict F&I product markup. However, you could be losing quality lenders in the process. And, then there’s the potential eventuality that the CFPB will have all lenders monitor F&I product pricing. Rather than purely reacting, a better option might be to begin the process of preparing your dealership now for industry trends that could impact your business.

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