Category: Dealership Training

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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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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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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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