Digital Dealer - February 2019 - 38

S A L E S & VA RIABL E OPS: F &I

DD26

Three Ways to Fix
"F&I Apathy" on
Your Showroom
When dealerships are
struggling with F&I
production, there is plenty of
blame to pass around. From
training to pay plans, from
process to personnel, there
are multitude of reasons
performance can be lacking.
If everything seems to be in
place, you may want to
assess your showroom's
culture.
In many cases it is the
disconnect between sales
and finance departments
that causes inconsistent
or poor F&I performance.
What makes things difficult
is, when you are very close,
this disconnect can be hard
to detect. If left unchecked,

however, it will lead to a
showroom where sales
teams are not engaged with
your F&I process and have
developed apathy toward
your F&I department.
If your showroom floor
is suffering from the F&I
apathy, here are three ways
your team can create the
F&I friendly culture that
brings value to F&I.

1. TEAM ENVIRONMENT STARTS WITH
YOU. First of all, let's estab-

lish that F&I is a team sport.
The proactive support of a
sales team will turn an average F&I manager into a top
producer. On the flip side,
apathetic sales team can

torpedo a top producer's
efforts and turn them into an
average one. Most importantly, team environment is
a two-way street. Too many
F&I managers either forgot
it or never knew about it.
The "bow down and kiss my
ring" mentality will not take
you far and most likely destroy your efforts. Let's face
it, the most important thing
for your sales team is to sell
cars. They don't really care
about you selling a single
product - "just sign them
out." Your confrontational
approach will definitely
make it worse.
Start with what is important to them. When you

CREATING THE F&I-FRIENDLY
CULTURE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE
DIFFICULT OR FRUSTRATING."

38

FEBRUARY 2019

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

FEATURED SPEAKER
By Tony Troussov CSP
Owner Principal,
Meze Dealer Services, LLC

begin helping your team to
sell more cars, take great
care of their customers regardless of pay method, and
treat everyone with respect,
your sales team will reward
you back. The old saying
proves it; "you get more with
honey." Team sport means
you have to give first and
sometimes expect nothing
in return. Go ahead and
take first steps that will lead
you to helping them sell
more cars. It will pay huge
dividends.
2. EDUCATE YOUR
STAFF. No one likes to

look stupid in front of a
customer. If you don't know
or understand something,
you will simply avoid talking
about it. The same goes to
your sales people. They will
not endorse something they
do not know much about or
do not understand. When
was the last time you took
time to train F&I product
knowledge with your sales
people? How well do they
understand your product
offering? Most sales people
are familiar with service contracts and they understand
Gap. Majority, though, have
little to no knowledge about
your ancillary offering. For
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