Tag: Steve Roennau

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EFG Companies Names Steve Roennau as Vice President of Compliance

Steve Roennau Headshot WebPosition increases focus on boosting dealership profitability through compliance

EFG Companies, the innovator behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program, announced today the appointment of Steve Roennau as Vice President of Compliance, reflecting the company’s ongoing mission of driving operational compliance for its retail dealership clients.

Roennau brings a 30-year history of driving bottom-line results in automotive F&I, sales and product management, giving him strategic insight into the compliance hurdles facing both dealers and lenders. His experience includes compliance consulting and training/operational development for Chrysler’s Five Star initiative, Chrysler Capital, Santander Consumer USA, Hyundai, General Motors, Ford, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, and numerous dealer groups throughout the country. He is an AFIP Senior Certified Professional in Financial Services, and has conducted numerous training courses.

“Today’s dealers are facing a much greater level of compliance oversight, affecting everything from finance margins to advertising practices,” said John Pappanastos, President and CEO of EFG Companies. “Dealers need forward thinking partners who can successfully navigate the myriad of changes on local, state and federal levels. With Steve leading our compliance initiative, we are in a strong position to stay ahead of upcoming changes and proactively prepare our clients. In 2014, EFG’s dealer clients rated compliance as one of EFG’s top three areas of performance. In 2016, we expect Roennau to raise the bar for our clients and the industry.”

“At EFG, we are committed to facilitating the highest levels of operational compliance for our dealer partners,” said Roennau. “Our very progressive work will provide our clients with a sophisticated analysis of their current compliance procedures, and prepare them for upcoming changes that will enhance customer service, compliance alignment and increased profitability.”

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Dealership Training

Creating a Culture of F&I

Contributing Author: Steve Roennau Vice President Compliance EFG Companies
Contributing Author:
Steve Roennau
Vice President
Compliance
EFG Companies

Q4 is here and that means it’s time to reflect on where your business is today and plan for what lies ahead in 2016. Many dealers not only forecast their future business, but also develop plans to create a cohesive team and workflow between all functional areas of the dealership.

Everyone knows the F&I department is an important driver of profitability – they get deals bought, sell profitable protection products, and ensure the delivery of the vehicle. Successful dealers don’t just think of F&I as a department, rather they adopt a culture of F&I throughout the dealership.

A culture is a way of life of a group of people – the behaviors, beliefs and values that they accept and pass along. As a dealer, do you understand the benefit of having your sales and service teams adopt an F&I culture? Where the employees believe in and accept the value of the F&I process and products as a way of doing business and impart it on everyone in both the showroom and service drive?

It’s obvious for dealers to see the value of training your sales team on F&I products.

Your sales people know many of their customers today work on a tight household budget. With a culture of F&I, they also know how a VSC helps them stay within that budget when their car unexpectedly breaks down. Or, that GAP protection will ensure customers can pay off their vehicle in the event of a total loss.

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EFG Companies F&I Featured

EFG and AFG Partner to Expand Balloon Financing with DrivingSense™

Hybrid financing product gives consumers the protection of a lease, lower fees and a title that is in their name.

EFG Companies, the innovators behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program, announced today a strategic partnership with Auto Financial Group to increase market share for its DrivingSense™ program, a highly relevant, post-recession consumer finance product.

DrivingSense is a residual based, walk-away, balloon loan program that provides consumers a more friendly financing option with no down-payment and lower monthly payments. Currently, residual-based financing accounts for almost 30 percent of the new vehicle market. While consumers look to their financial institutions for the best rates on conventional loans, they frequently choose captives or other competitors for residual-based financing options. With DrivingSense, financial institutions are now positioned to recapture those consumers’ loans by providing a credible residual-based financing option from a source they trust.

“Lenders and Dealerships are hungry for new financing programs that increase sales and loan volume by directly addressing the consumer needs” said Stephen Roennau, Vice President, EFG Companies’ Transcend Group. “With that in mind, DrivingSense is primed to tip the market.”

To understand DrivingSense, consider the difference between balloon financing and leasing. With balloon financing, consumers can make a very low down payment, or have no down payment at all. They get the vehicle’s title in their name and agree to make small monthly payments over the term of the loan. The last payment, known as the balloon or residual, is one large payment at the end of the term that pays off the loan.

Consumers typically have three options prior to loan maturity and at loan maturity:

  • trade in the vehicle, i.e. sell it and use the vehicles end-of-term value to pay off the loan;
  • refinance the vehicle; or,
  • pay the vehicle off and keep it.

DrivingSense provides the same protection to the consumer as a lease with the guaranteed future value, but the vehicle is titled in the consumer’s name giving them the tax benefits of balloon financing. DrivingSense also has lower fees than traditional leasing and lower costs for excess mileage.

“We approached EFG not only because of their demonstrated success in implementing distinctive market-differentiation programs and customized training, but also because of their strong engagement model,” said Richard Epley, CEO, Auto Financial Group. “EFG understands how to successfully position game-changing products and penetrate the market aggressively.”

AFG is partnering with EFG to provide ongoing training for their lenders and their indirect dealership clients to increase their market-share in residual-based lending with DrivivingSense. EFG is developing a behaviorally-based guided-discovery training curriculum for market implementation. The hands on training includes how to present the DrivingSense option to consumers and how to quote payments using AFG’s user-friendly customized web-based CarBuilder calculator.

DrivingSense is available on both new and pre-owned vehicles up to 4 years old. With mileage terms of 12,000, 15,000 and 18,000 and finance terms of 24-72 months DrivingSense will make sense to any consumer!

Contact EFG to find out more about this ground-breaking partnership!