OUTSIDE THE BOX BY REBECCA CHERNEK BREAKING THE BARRIER I MY ROOTS ARE IN F&I The pay plan was simple: The driver was being compensated a higher percentage of payout for service contract sales. The higher the penetration of vehicle service contract sales, the higher the percentage of the total payout. You don't have to be a math whiz to figure out that the more service contracts I sold, the higher my paycheck. I was skilled at presenting service contracts and overcoming objections. I used to call myself the Warranty Queen! If I could sell a vehicle service contract to a Honda customer, you can bet selling a vehicle service contract to a Cadillac customer would be easy. By Understanding Service, F&I Understands the Benefit of the Service t seems like just the other day that I was first hired as the F&I manager for a Cadillac dealership in Bethesda, Maryland. Time flies when you're having fun - and what an incredible opportunity it was to run that department! MY OBJECTIVE WAS TO MAX OUT THE PAY PLAN The objective was to exceed sixty-percent vehicle service contract penetration to max out the pay plan. I sold additional service contracts by reaching out to customers who hadn't purchased a service contract at the time of the sale. I literally wrote them a letter inviting them to rethink their decision, and I sweetened the deal by offering incentives. MEETING MY GOAL INCLUDED ESTABLISHING MYSELF WITH THE SERVICE DEPARTMENT To set up this additional communication, I visited the service department and met with the director and service writers. This had never been done before. To this day, it still blows me away that the F&I manager had never taken the time to meet with members of the service department. I asked the service director if I could slap a sticker on the repair order or ticket to remind the 56