Early interviews save time, F&I trainer says
F&I trainer Gerry Gould believes customer showroom interviews are a must.
He says taking a bit of time early in the process to learn about customers is more efficient in the long run than pitching products they aren't interested in.
F&I managers need to get out from behind their desks, find out the customer's driving and buying habits, and tailor menu presentations to the customer's needs and wants, he says.
Gould is director of training for F&I training and consulting firm United Development Systems Inc. in Clearwater, Fla.
He has more than 30 years' experience in dealership training and retail, including a stint as regional F&I director for AutoNation Inc.
Gould spoke by phone last week with Automotive News Special Correspondent Jim Henry.
You talk to F&I managers all the time. Is there a particular topic that's on everybody's agenda?
There is one thing everybody is talking about right now, and that's the interview. Should we qualify the customer prior to giving an F&I presentation?
By qualify, do you mean formally qualify, as in check somebody's credit score to make sure they can afford the vehicle?
It's not so much their credit. I mean what his driving habits are, how many miles he drives and how far his daily commute is. How long do they keep a car? What it boils down to is: What products and services would best benefit this customer?
Such as an extended-service contract?
Right. If I don't know how many miles somebody drives, and I'm trying to sell them something that takes them out to 10 years, 120,000 miles, the reaction you get is: "I'm not paying for that. I wouldn't use it." If they only keep a car five years, 70,000 miles, they're going to say, "I'm not paying for that; it's ridiculous."
What other things do you need to know?
In qualifying your customer, you might want to ask: "What's your insurance deductible?" If it's $500, that's something you may want to bring up later on: "What if you could avoid having to pay that deductible?"
Who should do this interview, the salesman or the F&I manager? It's a problem if the salesman does it and then the F&I manager starts asking the same questions.
The F&I manager should be doing the qualifications. The hard questions are: Do we have the time, and is it necessary.
It sounds like you support qualifying the customer first; the sales pitch comes second.
Should it be done? Absolutely. You've got to know the customer's driving habits and buying habits.
Is the amount of time it takes to go through the process an issue? Everybody is trying to make it faster. But J.D. Power's Sales Satisfaction Index shows people also don't like it if you rush through the process.
The problem with F&I right now -- the biggest challenge -- isn't how long it takes to do the process once the deal gets consummated. It's the waiting, the time they have to wait for an F&I manager.
Once they've agreed on everything, they get to the counter, and they're all excited. They just bought a new car, and they're told to wait.
You can see people sitting there, trying to see: "What's he doing? What's going on? What's taking so long?" It's not unusual to hear about people sitting 15, 20 minutes waiting for an F&I manager. I've heard cases where people sit for close to an hour.
But after all that waiting, you still need to interview them.
They don't want small talk. They don't want to hear "What about the Green Bay Packers?" or "How about those Red Sox?" They already went through all that with the salesman. They want to get right down to business.
By "get down to business," you don't mean going straight into a sales pitch, right?
Right. Initially, we're not selling, we're telling. The F&I manager needs to get and use the information from the driver and get to know the driver's needs and driving habits, and then they can tell the driver about the features and benefits. When I say get down to business, I mean no small talk.
That takes some time. But you're saying it's a more efficient use of time?
Exactly. The most important thing F&I managers need to do is get out from behind their desks and introduce themselves to the customer as early in the process as possible. It needs to be businesslike. We need to build credibility, which is not the same thing as building rapport.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20110713/FINANCE_AND_INSURANCE/1107...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ed Wilczek on
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I agree with John, to an extent. I think that salespeople should sit down with their F&I department from time to time, maybe 10-15 minutes a week, just to brainstorm together and find way to help setup F&I to maximize their opportunities. Few stores do this, and I feel like it's a missed opportunity for F&I to maximize back-end gross. By coming up with a few questions to ask your customers during the initial needs assessment, you can get a feel for what products a customer might be receptive to when they get to the box. Most of the time, I'd be able to feed the information to F&I when the customer needed a few minutes to make their final decisions. In doing so, I was able to nearly double my back-end gross on my deals over 6 months.
As far as the wait time, I also agree with John. Wait times can sometimes be ridiculous. You can easily reduce the appearance of the wait by reorganizing some of the other closing tasks, like vehicle presentation. I had a practice of not calling my deliveries to get ready until my customer was in the box, because this allowed me to improvise if I needed to kill some time. Cross-training, however, can be tricky. If your salesperson isn't on the same page as your F&I department, it could wreak havoc by contradicting what F&I tells a customer, in some cases.
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Permalink Reply by John Fuhrman on
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The reality is, if a dealership sets up an interview policy for F&I, the wait time is cut way down. That's because the customer needs, as the article mentions, are clear BEFORE they ge into the office. The interview should take place atthe salesperson's desk and last 3-5 minutes. Now, depending on traffic in the showroom, the F&I manager must manage customer expectations. If they can get them in the office in less than 15 minutes, they should say so. If it will be longer, then that should be stated as well.
If it is a long wait, the salesperson can cover things like the manuals, do a service walk (there's a new one right), and go over the car one more time. By the time they are finished, the F&I manager should be ready. It's also a very important piece of this puzzle that the sales manager(s) be better at traffic control. They have to be aware of how things are flowing so they can control the deals that are working so that F&I isn't jammed up.
When I work with dealers in F&I, I let them know that the results of this type of a policy are tremendous. In fact, I tell them, if I can't improve your &I performance by 30% and get your deals delivered in 30 minutes or less with higher CSI, you owe no fee. That's how confident I am in our system. But, as the article states, none of this works without the customer interview taking place on the showroom floor.
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Permalink Reply by Bobby Compton on
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Spot ON.................
There's no question about it; Early interviews and Management involvement saves time and increases profits - front and back!
Without hesitation, I concur with Ed Wilczek in regards to sales consultants training for F&I process.
Time Kills Deals - It's that simple...
Outstanding share Jack....
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Time does kill deals. If F&I does a good job on the front end interviewing a customer about some of their hot buttons and heartburns, then the actual F&I process moves much smoother. Instead of spending 30-45 minutes trying to sell something that a customer has either no interest or ability to purchase, they can spend 15-20 minutes actually focused on the products that best fit a customer. In this, it's sometimes good to do a soft presentation (i.e. aftermarket items like remote starters and bedliners, planting seeds for warranties/GAP/prepaid maintenance/etc). I created a full aftermarket powerpoint presentation with my customer while F&I was busy loading the deal. This way, I could load up the customer with info on what things are available, let the customer decide which items best fit their needs, but left the final selling to F&I.
You're right -- sometimes you can go thru everything on the vehicle, do a service walk, go over the books, shine their shoes for them, and F&I *still* isn't ready. But I find that to be more the exception than the rule.
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