A Financial Center Fitness Plan
Now that 2005 is over, the files should be archived to make room for 2006 business. How did your F&I department perform last year? Were your expectations met, were they exceeded, or did they fall short?
I have heard some F&I directors say, “We do not like to make package presentations or use a menu. Our personnel are long-term, experienced employees. If our production is falling short of expectations, we need to have someone light a fire under us.”
Process fitness
Here is some food for thought: If production is down, you may want to examine the process you are using before you strike a match. How are the products introduced and presented to customers? Doing the same old thing will yield the same old result. Changing employees is not always the answer. Changing their processes will often produce the results you are looking for.
Customers will buy the same item for very different reasons. People do not buy what a product is, they buy what it can do for them. Listen to the current F&I presentations. Is the presenter making a valid case for the product, or do they simply run through the list of features without any mention of the difference they can make? Customers need to hear benefits before they buy.
In our seminars, we make a list of benefits each product and service offers to customers. By the time we are finished with the exercise all the attendees begin to have their faith renewed in their own products. You see, faith not only moves mountains, it also creates value and invites the customer to say yes. Each yes received adds dollars to the bottom line.
Educational fitness
Off-site education is an outstanding way to light a fire under a current employee. An off-site educational experience is not interrupted by day-to-day business. The participant can focus on learning rather than wondering what situation will be coming through the door. Yes, off-site education takes a person away from home, family, and the dealership. And yet a change of venue is often the best way to clear one’s mind from the “old way of doing things.
What kind of shape does the dealership’s training budget take? Does it match the advertising budget? Advertising is important, so is having fine-tuned personnel who are ready, willing, and able to maximize the opportunities advertising initiates.
Now is the time to schedule the personnel tune-up. And yes, there are a thousand reasons for not attending an educational event. I can also show you millions of dollars in a dealership’s bank account as a result of those who did make time for training and implemented the strategies they learned.
Fiscal fitness
If you are looking for dollars, look to education. Schedule the time, budget the funds, and then take action.
Dealer Marketing, February 2006, p. 28