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When Findlay Volkswagen Flagstaff’s general manager, Neal Coppola, right, needed more F&I help but not a dedicated, full-time staffer, he trained salesman Phil Deasy, left.
Dealers hate to think about experienced F&I staffers leaving. Being short-handed in F&I not only can ding profits, it can create a dilemma: Is it best to look inside or outside the organization for a good replacement?
Promoting from within sparks opportunities for employees, but the selection must be made carefully. F&I requires finesse that is difficult for some employees to attain, dealership executives say.
Neal Coppola, general manager of Findlay Volkswagen Flagstaff in Arizona, looked in-house for a candidate when he needed more F&I help but not a dedicated, full-time staffer. He trained one of his top salespeople, Phil Deasy, on F&I. Now Deasy handles F&I for his deals and fills in as needed on F&I for the sales manager and Coppola.
“It works for [Deasy] because it gives him a chance to grow and increase his income opportunities,” Coppola said. “It works for the customers because they don’t have that transition from sales to F&I manager.”
The proof is in the numbers. Deasy has a 72 percent F&I product penetration rate for his customers and a 64 percent rate when he handles F&I for other salespeople.
“We found that very interesting,” Coppola said. “That disproves the conventional wisdom that customers [who are passed from a salesperson to F&I staff] are more willing to buy.”
Sensitive role
Coppola says there were some bumps, mainly on time and project management, as Deasy merged his sales and F&I duties. Once Coppola worked with Deasy, the latter’s vehicle sales returned to their previous levels. Although some salespeople might need to rework some of their selling strategies to best suit F&I, Deasy had the personality and detail-oriented skills that eased the transition, Coppola says.
Bob Tasca Jr., owner of Tasca Automotive Group in Cranston, R.I., also says promoting from within for F&I can be successful. But he cautions that candidates must be carefully evaluated because of the F&I role’s sensitive nature.
“We are very careful,” he said. “We have menu pricing. We want to make sure everything is done according to plan. I had to fire one person, the biggest producer in my company, because he was [hard selling F&I] products. We only want to sell products when they are beneficial to the customer. That’s what my company is all about.”
When the right person is selected, though, as happened at Findlay Volkswagen Flagstaff, it’s a win-win for the employee and the dealership.
Coppola says Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal has made it especially difficult to keep successful salespeople. Allowing Deasy to take F&I training and gradually increase his responsibilities and earning potential has benefited him and the store.
Niche issue?
Still, some dealers think it’s unwise to promote from within for F&I.
Jeff Grossman, general manager of Norris Acura West in Ellicott City, Md., who has two experienced F&I managers on staff, says that if a vacancy arose, he would hire an experienced F&I manager.
“I’m sure there are some places that works,” Grossman said of promoting from within for F&I. “But you need such a level of expertise to [excel] as an F&I manager, we will hunt for the one that can fit right into place.”
Tasca agrees that, in most cases, those who excel in F&I or sales are best suited to their niches. “If I had a salesperson that wanted to do F&I, hypothetically, I wouldn’t have a problem promoting them,” he said. “But most salespeople want to remain salespeople. And most F&I people want to remain F&I people.”
Tasca says that in his experience, most salespeople lack the accuracy and attention to detail needed for F&I. He’s found that those who work in finance, as cashiers or in similar positions have those qualities.
“We had two younger [staff members] who showed an interest in F&I. We sent them for training and they came back and are very, very good in F&I,” he said. “One nice thing is that they don’t have any bad habits [that they’ve carried over from other dealerships]. We’ve given them life-changing opportunities to go from earning $25,000 to about $100,000. They are very, very loyal to our dealership.”
Such success doesn’t just happen, though. Tasca says giving the employees plenty of internal and external training is key to ensuring success.
“You have to put them in the position to win. You have to train them extensively,” he said. “Without training, they will fail. But once they’re trained, it’s ideal.”
Choose carefully
While it’s impossible to know how employees will work out until they are in the job, dealers and general managers who have had success promoting from within for F&I offer these 5 tips.
1. Use extreme caution when promoting hard-charging salespeople. F&I requires a less aggressive approach than auto sales. Even if top-producing salespeople want the post, they may come across as too forceful in F&I. Explain to top producers why their skills may be best suited for the sales floor.
2. Look for detail-oriented, organized candidates. You can train people to sell. It’s much more difficult to train them to overcome a natural tendency to cut corners on paperwork or diligently follow regulations. If paperwork is done improperly, it can unravel the best dealership.
3.Don’t skimp on training. Yes, consultants, trade groups and schools offer F&I training, but your help is also important to most newcomers. Make sure you carve out time to work closely with new F&I staffers to continually evaluate them and immediately correct errors.
4. Ease new F&I staffers into the role, focusing on time and project management. That’s especially true with salespeople moving to F&I who have developed habits on the showroom floor. Have new F&I staffers do 20 percent of the job 20 percent of the time and spend 80 percent of their time in their past position. When they have 20 percent of F&I duties down, allow them to do 30 percent of the job 30 percent of the time and so forth.
5.Have an escape plan. If you pluck staffers from their current positions with great fanfare and they fail at F&I, it’s demoralizing for them, you and other employees. Allow those who don’t excel in F&I to easily return to their past positions.
F&I vacancy? How dealers find the best fit
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