In the ever-changing world of automotive sales, keeping your F&I department truly profitable is a constant struggle. Recently, F&I Magazine published a great article by Rick McCormick that points out some of the common errors your sales team might make. They follow it up with some great suggestions on how to become a problem solver rather than a product pusher. Let’s take a look at the relevant points of the article.
The ability to use creativity to identify the customer’s problems and solve them, is the key. You need to be asking the pertinent questions and listening closely, before taking any action. You need to be able to see the problem from the customer’s point of view. This will create the opportunity to communicate the problem to the customer in such an urgent manner, that they will pay you to solve it.
Instead of focusing efforts on overcoming customer objections, the successful F&I professional will use a 3 step, systematic method to find customer solutions. Here is how to accomplish this.
- If there is more than one problem, find the right one – As Mr. McCormick says in the article “you need to ask the right questions and then listen.” This is more detailed than it sounds. In the article, because the F&I manager asked the right questions, he could guide a couple in the right direction during their purchase. Early on in the conversation he discovers the couple currently has very low levels of debt, but they had two teen aged children, one 14 and one 15 years old. This made the F&I rep realize that even if their debt levels are low now, they are about to be entering “the most expensive six years of their adult lives.” Hence, finding the right problem and making the right sales.
- Create the Urgency - However, rather than putting the emphasis on the urgency to sell, you give the customer an urgent need to ask for more information. Instead of making product presentations at the customer, you need to be having conversations, answer their questions, and build relationships. Instead of trying to turn no’s into yes’s, try putting an "urgency statement" into play. Mr. McCormick uses this example: “That’s fine. These are just options. You can take some, all, or none of them. However, that does surprise me, especially since you are buying a vehicle built since 2010.” Now, you have just created a new interest where there previously was none.
- Custom fit your solutions - Using this method, you don’t lay out all the great products and services that are available, but instead, find a customer's specific reason for buying a particular option, and make it apparent to them why it is a great fit for them. Effectively, you have just turned an atmosphere of selling into one of helping. This will multiply your success rate by 3 in one felled swoop.
By using the time-tested steps above, you move out of the realm of making a profit, and into the world of amassing a fortune. As Mr. McCormick points out so gracefully, "you can make money selling products, but you can make a fortune solving problems" and a successful F&I department can change the way they make money from a trickle into a tidal wave.