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Hiring and retaining the right employee at your dealership Hiring and retaining the right employees is a challenging task. While the challenge is not a new one, it has become more critical than ever due to new generations- Young millennials and Gen Z, entering the workforce. Consequently, bringing with it a new set of values, beliefs, and expectations. The new generation is the true digital native and brings fresh ideas and skills to your workforce. Still, it could lead to problems if you do not manage employee satisfaction appropriately. Therefore, it demands critical considerations to hire, develop, and retain employees at your dealership. In addition, employee turnover is on the rise in the auto industry now more than ever, as per a Deloitte Report. The sales and F&I employees often move from dealer to dealer in search of better products to push and bigger commissions to take home. It leads to constant new hiring that could potentially disrupt the profitability if the right person is not working in the right role. Hence, attracting and retaining the right talents is not a preference but a necessity for every dealership. The process of identifying and placing the best talent takes work. How to identify and hire the right talent for your team? Before we dive into approaches to find, develop, and keep the right talent, let us look at the type of employee you should be looking for based on their motivation and mindset. Generally, there are four kinds of team members in an organization’s workforce— undertakers, caretakers, playmakers, and game-changers. The behavior associated with each group goes beyond the skills, experience, and knowledge. Instead, they are primarily motivated by one’s mindset. The mindset, in turn, determines how well and consistently the skills, experience, and knowledge are activated. As a matter of fact, everyone usually spends some time in each group depending upon their circumstances. However, one of the four mindsets dominates a person’s time, reflecting in their performance and contributions. The undertaker: The undertaker brings negative value to the organization. The longer you hold them in your store, the more damage they do to the culture, team morale, and overall growth. S/he may be nice enough as people, but someone else has to constantly carry their load, clean their mess, or perform damage control for them. The caretaker: The caretaker is a “just enough” performer. S/He does just enough to get by, just enough to get paid, and just enough not to get fired. The caretakers often have the skills, knowledge, and talent that would allow them to perform far better than what they deliver. Still, they are not motivated or interested in doing so. Therefore, they often find comfort at the caretaker level. The playmaker: The playmaker usually has more energy than the caretakers. It is their mindset that enables them to elevate results. They occasionally do great things but are not consistent enough to reach the game-changer status. Additionally, the playmaker has a great need for external motivation and craves personal glory. Hence, s/he cannot cross a threshold of mediocrity due to contentment with his or her current state or ability. Comparatively, the playmaker is more “me” centered, unlike the game-changer, who has a more robust team concept. The game-changer: The game-changer is unstoppable. S/He is a team member who constantly brings effort, energy, attitude, and passion to the workplace. It does not mean they always make the best results, but their failure is not attributed to a lack of effort or work ethic. The game-changer does not work according to the clock or schedule because s/he knows it does not happen on an eight-hour day. Markedly, the game-changer leaves a situation better than they found them, sometimes so much so that a transformation takes place, and an innovative norm is established. They have three essential qualities, namely, commitment, loyalty, and enthusiasm. Furthermore, the game-changer is humble rather than showy and has an earnest ambition for the team to do well. The four performance groups are not just essentially about your teammates but also you. The good news is that it is possible to develop a new mindset and become a game-changer. Strategies when hiring employees: How do you find and hire game-changers? Bet on the candidate’s potential: When you are hiring, bring in a person you believe can be a game-changer. To emphasize, an employee does not have a neutral impact on your team. They are either adding value or subtracting value by default. Therefore, for your dealership’s success, bet on the candidate’s potential more than the skills. Take a data-driven recruitment approach: P.I Test for personality and potential assessment. Personality assessment such as the P.I test is a data-driven recruitment process that provides objective data for better decision-making. Taking the help of personality tests while recruiting is a great way to determine candidates’ traits, attitudes, and potential to be a game-changer. In addition, it will let you assess whether a candidate is likely to stay in the role and fit in with the company culture. P.I Test is an efficient way to hire and retain the right employees at your dealership.  Strategies when developing employees: How do you develop employees for mutual growth? Providing better tech tools: Young generations who grew up with technology are keen to learn and implement advanced technological solutions. They consider workplace technology a great motivation or perk because it can make their lives easier and more efficient. In addition, technology will speed up workflow, improve employee satisfaction, and enhance brand perception. Mapping career paths: Employees want more than “just a job.” Growth is a significant ingredient to employee’s job satisfaction. Therefore, it is critical to map your employees’ development, ambitions, and challenges. A career map will help your staff retrospect their performance, where they need to grow, what they should celebrate, and which training or tools can help enhance their skills and knowledge. Ultimately, it would lead to employee growth as well as your team’s success. Strategies to retain employees: How

Transform your mindset to accelerate results. The relation between success and the right mindset When a person goes into a job to achieve some definition of success, s/he constantly focuses on refining their skills, widening their knowledge, and mining talent to further their experience. Many people succeed in developing unique mastery in their profession, and somewhere along the way, they pick up toxic habits and end up being the noxious team member. Consequently, your habits impede the development of the right mindset, which is critical for your success. On the other hand, the right mindset influences the ability to win more than skills, knowledge, talent, or experience. Developing the right mindset will enable you to rise to the challenge and become the Game Changer your organization needs. Furthermore, the key to improving performance is a deliberately cultivated mindset of success, backed by the bold action it takes to make things happen every day. What sets a five-car-Freddy, the underachiever apart from 25-car-Ted, who constantly leads the sales board? You might guess intelligence, experience, or appetite for risk. Those are all sensible-sounding suggestions, but that’s not what researchers have found. According to research by renowned Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, the best predictor of success in life is none of those usual suspects- it is your mindset. You or someone in your team may possess highly developed skills, good knowledge of products, and abundant talent. But with a flawed mindset, all those qualities are never fully utilized. Thus, failing to uplift themselves as well as the dealership. The good news is that no matter where you are in your career, you can fight back and develop a winning, unstoppable mindset. Notably, good, great, and elite performers do similar things. What often separates them from one another is the consistency and excellence with which they do them. There comes a time when you must give up what is holding you back so you can grow and realize your potential. However, it is essential to acknowledge, lying to yourself is a recipe for evaluation failure and eventual irrelevance. It would be best if you were brutally honest with yourself in assessing your assets and limitations. Subsequently, you would be able to utilize the helpful solutions and strategies to level up your performance. Here are some practical strategies to help you develop an unstoppable mindset. 1. Choose growth: Maintain a healthy fear of not improving, not changing, and being left behind. How you interpret obstacles and challenges is your choice. You can interpret them in a rigid mindset that points out your lack of abilities and disables you from taking risks. Or you can interpret the challenges from an unstoppable mindset as an opportunity to grow yourself. To put it another way, consider it as fruitful learning experiences that you would not get otherwise. You must pull yourself up and expand your capabilities. Remember this: The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you will make one. – Elbert Hubbard 2. Add this tiny but powerful letter: The next strategy to create an unstoppable, growth mindset crucial for success is adding the words ‘yet.’ A Stanford study by Dweck found that putting phrases like ‘not yet’ or ‘yet’ can really boost students’ motivation. So, if you say, ‘I am not a 25-car-Ted go-getter—yet.’ It puts your statement to an unstoppable mindset context of not quitting. Remember this: Take the first step, then another. “It always seems impossible until it is done.” ― Nelson Mandela 3. Renounce excuses: Consider analyzing yourself to gauge which excuse you have been leaning on to rationalize not being more successful or productive than you are. Excuses such as— An ineffective leader that you are suffering under. Your team’s competency The economy, the time of the year, where you were born, your company, and the like. Now attempt to answer these questions for yourself— Have you chosen the right attitude, work ethic, level of discipline, and character? Do you spend more time thinking about the problem or getting to the solution? Will you spend more time with people that elevate you and challenge you? Will you proactively seek out, insist on, and act because of feedback? Do you choose to help yourself grow or get envious of other’s efforts and success? Honest self-insight is necessary to transform your thinking and develop an intentionally cultivated winning mindset. Remember this: No man was ever so much deceived by another as by himself. – Fulke Greville 1st Baron Brooke 4. Change your thinking and develop a robust “I own it” philosophy: To bring a change in perspective and attitude, you will need to change your associations, your habits and routine, what your read and listen to. This will not happen overnight, but process and consistency certainly bring change—the one who daily does less than he can gradually become less than he is. Additionally, changing your philosophy matters as it drives attitude, attitude drives actions, actions drive results, and results drive lifestyles. Thus, if you do not like your lifestyle, consider working on changing your philosophy. For instance, if your philosophy is that you own your results and renounce excuses, it will positively impact your energy and body language and prepare you to do more. Remember this: “A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.” – James Allen 5. Determine your WHY: Karate champion Johnny Gyro describes how desires, direction, and determination shaped his ‘why’ to become the number one ranked fighter globally. Ascertain what drives you, why do you want to achieve the fighting status and rank. Without focusing on a relevant, compelling WHY, you will distract from your goal and focus on minor things. Finally, when you feel less motivated, remind yourself of the powerful ‘why’ and get back to achieving your goals. Remember this: Your focus determines your reality. – George Lucas We are here to help: The PRO team has been training people to improve their performance

The chronicles of a galaxy far, far away are filled with nuggets of worthy lessons for your F&I department. There are plenty of reasons why most of you like Star Wars. Laser guns, spaceships, secret organizations, alien races, cosmic battles make it so captivating. But Star Wars brings so much more to the table.  Notably, many plots and the unforgettable characters in the saga continue to teach lessons worth applying for the success of your finance and insurance department. Be it Luke, a farm boy who rose to become one of the greatest Jedi of the galaxy, or the feisty, capable leader Princess Leia, most of you will come to relate to a Star Wars character in some capacity. As you closely observe characters, you will find a lot to take away and apply in your F&I (finance & insurance) department for good. Though the movie characters are not real, you can glean the following real lessons from the epic saga. A Good Crew is Everything: The Ghost’s crew in the animated show Star Wars Rebels have all come from vastly different walks of life, but they have become a tight-knit crew and found a family through their missions to fight the Empire. Your takeaway:  As the manager or director, ensure that you have a solid team to help you attain your mission. An efficient team has the right people in the right role. Additionally, find ways to engage, motivate, and develop your staff. Engaged employees are more likely to remain employed with their organization over a more extended period. Your department will perform better when you set new goals and do what is required to give staff every opportunity to succeed. It is one of the greatest lessons for the success of your finance and insurance department. Realize others see the world differently than  you  do:   Obi-Wan said, ”Luke, you are going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” A customer may have different needs and requirements than what  you  perceive. Asking questions to understand customers’  needs will help clear out  your assumptions and  better  serve them. Your takeaway:   Every consumer has a unique need. Assuming what your customer wants based on  previous  experience can drive your customer away. Empathy and listening skills  impact  the level of trust a buyer has in the sales person.  Furthermore, empathy plays a significant role in a customer’s overall experience,  thus influencing the  CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index)  and loyalty.  Custom finance and insurance products serve the customers’  needs and further enhance their ownership experience. Remember to apply these lessons for the growth of your finance and insurance department. Why  identifying  customers’  needs matter to your finance and insurance department?   If  you  are indifferent to the customers’ needs, they will take their business elsewhere. Often,  customers get puzzled with the options they get. As an effective manager,  you need to ask  the right questions to help  the  customer discover their needs and  offer products that would be valuable to them. Identifying  the  customers’  needs  correctly would allow  you  to cross-sell  products that would further enhance customers’  overall experience. Embrace the traits that make you stand apart:   Chancellor Palpatine was granted emergency powers to use the newly discovered clones in the fight against the Separatists, launching the Clone Wars. No matter if you are like other dealers that offer identical products, your commitment to serve your customers better is the power that will set you apart from your competitors. Your takeaway:   Expand your F&I portfolio and offer custom packages to build a value proposition. For example, create a customized and exclusive bundle of F&I products and value-add offerings that will grow sales  and tie  your customers to your dealership.  That would significantly boost the prospects of making a second sale. Keep  your mind open to new possibilities:   Ezra Bridger, the apprentice of Jarrus, kept his mind open to new possibilities and continued his efforts to become a Jedi despite his struggles. Your Takeaway:   Some dealerships are unknowingly operating in a way that can have them running afoul of regulatory and compliance guidelines.  Efficient, recurrent training can help your team remain current and keep you compliant. Why  upgrading  your compliance knowledge matter?   The F&I department manages a range of responsibilities and needs to safeguard the dealership by meeting specific requirements such as identity fraud, the right ways to run consumers’ credit checks. Updating  your compliance knowledge is critical to keep  you  aware  of  the new  laws  and  regulations.  For  instance,  when  auto dealers were held accountable  for  illegal,  discriminatory markups,  the  policies were revised  and tightened  as a result. Therefore,  being open to regular training  will keep  you  updated on  compliance  revisions. Furthermore, with proper compliance training,  your sales team will enter the field with more confidence resulting in more efficiency and success. Our thoughts and actions  impact  our future.   Focus is a core belief of the Jedi training. This statement is more than Obi-Wan waxing all yogi ”be here now,” Your takeaway:   Making customer service your core focus will help you stand out from your competitors. A customer-friendly focus will not only help you retain your customers but will also improve your Customer Satisfaction Index. This is an important lesson for finance and insurance department and for your overall success. Why is it important to focus on customer satisfaction?   Having the right basket of products that speak to the customer-driven demands combined with an informational, transparent approach to product presentation works to both increase sales and reduce cancellations.  Bundling value add products into customer-driven packages turns into more sales, fewer discounts, and most importantly, happy, retained customers. Reach out to your PRO Team for more insights on strengthening your F&I department.

Get ready to discover practical techniques and tips to close more deals faster. You may or may not have heard about the paradox of choice, but, as a salesperson, you experience it every day. Barry Schwartz, a psychologist, argues that when you present someone with a plethora of choices, it leads to two main issues: Analysis paralysis: rather than making any choice, they (customers) choose to do nothing. Dissatisfaction: if the customer did choose, they are left wondering whether the other options might have been better. Imagine when you go to a grocery store and find 26 different varieties of chips, you subconsciously get enticed to a greater choice, but you may ultimately get confused. This is what is known as decision fatigue. Hundreds of things demand decision-making on a daily basis, and the human capacity to consistently make well-thought-out decisions is limited. Have you noticed why many successful people wear the same outfit every day? Steve Jobs was known for his visionary leadership, innovation, and unvarying signature look. He always dressed the same–a black turtleneck with blue jeans and New Balance sneakers to save his brainpower. Every decision your customers make uses up mental energy. That means the more decisions your customers are asked to make, the longer and weaker their decision-making process will become. The choice paradox very often materializes in your F&I department when your customers get overwhelmed with the number of choices. It influences the time they take in decision-making. You have to offer all the products to every customer each time. Consequently, the choice overload drastically increases the time to close the deals. Furthermore, your customer already spends a considerable amount of time deciding on the car type, model, color, engine power, etc. In that case, you are left with their limited time, attention, and decision capacity to select F&I products. You, as a salesperson, certainly do not want your customers to encounter analysis paralysis. Therefore, here are some valuable techniques and tips that would enable you to be efficient and faster in closing deals. Have adequate knowledge of your products: The more information you have about your products, the more confident you will be about offering them to your customers. A thorough understanding of products will allow you to be more enthusiastic when interacting with customers and explain to the buyers in ways that will appeal to them. This will build trust and let the consumer understand the decisions they are making, and hence you can close deals faster. Additionally, product knowledge helps you to explain the value of your products and manage objections effectively. The choice close strategy to close deals faster: The choice close is a sales closing method where you give your potential customer two or more choices as a call to action. For instance, if a customer asks about the product’s price, provide the information, and reclose with a course of action- when does your house payment comes due? Would you want your product payment to come payable with your house payment or more towards the middle of the month? Here, the buyer is induced to decide on two administrative options rather than on a significant purchase. To point out, when a consumer asks a question, your knowledge about the product will give you the confidence to satisfy their interest. However, many managers often answer the questions and leave the customers hanging. To close the deal faster, you must respond with the necessary information followed by choice close. Telling is not selling: F&I managers talk about their products, give all the information they can, but do not ask many questions to the consumers. Asking questions will lead your customer to discover the need for the product and build value in products. Thus, letting you close the deal faster. Understand your customers: In the eagerness of selling your products, do not forget to understand what your customer really needs. Active listening will help you assess how your products can solve your consumers’ needs and improve their lives. Listen actively to connect better with your consumers. If a consumer sense that you are explaining off a script, they would take long or, even worse, might not be convinced. Showing empathy will help you close the deal faster. Simplify your sales process to close the deals faster: The sales process should not take hours and hours of your customer’s time. If you streamline your sales process, you will save time and close more deals. If it is easy and faster, the customer will comprehend it better and make decisions in your favor. Cut the repetitive talks and tasks to shorten the sales cycle. By all means, you could take the benefits of work automation tools and systems to save time, be more productive, and close sooner. To emphasize, helping your customers make decisions faster is critical for your role. If you can hone these techniques, you would close more deals and become more successful in your job. It is important to realize that the modern economy increasingly revolves around human attention. Attention is a resource—a consumer has only so much of it. With this in mind, reassessing your methods is critical in the attention economy because the choices you offer demand attention and decision-making. We have been helping the auto industry workforce to boost potential and grow productivity for over thirty years. Get in touch with us today to help you assess your processes and people and increase your profitability.

The advantages of F&I training or Finance and Insurance professional training for dealerships staff Finance and Insurance (F&I) managers work directly with consumers, so their role is vitally important when it comes to understanding consumers’ needs, encouraging them to buy valuable products, and at the same time maximizing the dealership’s profit. Therefore, professional training for dealerships staff, is of utmost importance for dealer’s success. Mistakes in the F&I department can cost you more than a sale. It could potentially impact customer satisfaction, loyalty, increase acquisition cost, and severely affect the dealership’s reputation. Some of the advantages of professional training for dealership staff are: Close more deals: The right person for F&I department can contribute significantly to grow your profitability and customer satisfaction. Proper training will help your staff interact with your customers effectively, understand their needs in a better way, and offer products and services to match their needs. Improve customer satisfaction rate: A satisfied customer can become a brand advocate for your business. They cost less to serve and are typically willing to pay more than other customers. They often act as word-of-mouth marketers for your company and are highly likely to refer their friends, family, and acquaintances to your dealership. Win satisfaction, and profits will follow as night follows day. Compliance: Federal and local laws change from time to time. Hence, professional training for your dealership staff could help them stay updated on the latest regulations and safeguard your business. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that your staff is regularly trained in a professional manner. Maintaining a high-performing F&I manager is crucial to your dealership’s bottom line and success in today’s changing environment. Therefore, hiring the right person to fill the role requires looking for specific personality traits. The list of qualities of a successful F&I manager can be endless. However, efficient F&I managers have the right combination of three core qualities: 1. Intensely goal-driven The F&I managers have the capability to boost your dealership profit. A lot of the F&I profits come from products such as vehicle service contracts, GAP waiver and insurance, pre-paid maintenance, glass protection, and tire and wheel coverage. The F&I manager must be aligned with the dealership’s goals and know their penetration benchmarks. Distributing profits among valuable consumer add-ons helps create consumer peace of mind and allows dealerships meet consistent revenue goals. It would add up to attain revenue goals for the dealership. Having a goal-oriented approach would enable the managers perform better and increase profit. Taking accountability for results is another major distinguishing character. Blaming poor results on outside entities such as the bank capping my deals, lack of support from sales personnel–the salesperson is undermining the sale of products, the product does not award good commission, would impact operations in the long run. Top performers find a way to rise above those excuses. 2. Empathy or customer-focused When a customer enters your F&I office, do they feel like they are being “sold” or offered valuable options? Understanding customer needs and offering useful products is just one part. Another key step is sharing narratives about how the coverages being offered have protected other customers just like them. A real-world instance can help customers recognize the value of the products. 3. Compliant and highly ethical An employee’s reservations towards ethics and integrity raise a big red flag. Your dealership cannot afford to lose its reputation due to negligence or ignorance in complying with finance and insurance regulations. Therefore, hiring the right personnel for your team is non-negotiable. Now arises the big question: How would you precisely identify the right person for your F&I department? The characteristics of the people you place on your team significantly influence the success of your dealership. A strategic personality evaluation could help achieve the objective of identifying the right person for your team. However, merely conducting personality tests would not suffice. Comprehending and decoding the individuals’ traits and finding the right fit for the role demand experience and expertise. Furthermore, finding the suitable person and sharpening their skills through extensive F&I training will make a tremendous difference in your team’s performance. Comprehensive finance and insurance or F&I manager training should include document preparation, presenting loan and financing options to customers, state and federal compliance knowledge, training to sell ancillary products, identifying indications of customer receptivity, and psychological training to close the deals faster. The right person for the role and proper training to enhance employee’s skills contribute to your dealership’s profitability. Additionally, personality assessment helps discover employee’s traits and motivation in determining if they would succeed in the F&I department and be trained appropriately to achieve sales goals and cultivate consumers’ goodwill with the transparency of process and prices. The following chart shows the critical ingredients for the success of the dealership. Benefits of data-based professional training and development for dealership staff Whether Sales or F&I department, one of the core functions of your staff is to understand customers’ needs to serve them better. Similarly, the development of your employees should also be done based on their individual needs and traits. Taking a data-based approach to learning your employee’s potential and characteristics would help provide customized training. PRO Consulting specializes in training dealership staff based on data insights. In terms of employee performance, the results of tailored training have been significantly higher than traditional training. Retaining efficient employees is another major challenge that dealerships face. The turnover rate costs dealers millions of dollars, and the current atmosphere is creating a revolving door of retail automotive talent. A COX Automotive staffing study shows, the sales consultants’ turnover rate is 67%, and F&I and other dealership roles are between 38% and 40%. The stats demonstrate that dealers need to take an unbiased look at their hiring practices, compensation plan, and overall culture or risk of losing talent to other dealerships or industries. On the whole, professional training for dealerships staff is key to overall success. Thus, the role that the “right person” plays in success is undeniable. The

The automotive industry is changing fast for many dealers and their bottom lines. Therefore, to grow your dealership profit, you need strategy for your finance and insurance products and department. Two factors are limiting dealership profits. First, as the dealerships face competition, which can squeeze profit margins per vehicle retailed. Secondly, transformation in the customers’ driving habits and behavior is influencing the purchasing decision now more than ever. The dealerships could face problems if they do not pro-actively adapt to the changing trends. Reevaluate the practices of your F&I department to determine if it is helping or hurting your dealership. Historically, dealerships have depended upon Finance and Insurance to counter front-end profit pressure, generate revenue, and grow business. The finance and insurance department’s success often lies in offering various cutting-edge products to meet customers’ needs. Continually review your F&I products portfolio to ensure it is comprehensive and includes products that are most valuable to your customers. Here are some best practices to help your dealership boost profits: 1. Sell multiple finance and insurance products for customers to pick and choose from: Additional products in your F&I portfolio can contribute to more profit. For example, selling two or three products per vehicle retailed equates to earning an average of $200 to $300 more per vehicle retailed. Offering products that speak to what the manufacturer does not cover can close the deal faster. GAP waiver and insurance helps pay off the auto loan if your car is totaled or stolen and you owe more than the car’s depreciated value. So, its usefulness is easily understood by the customers and, therefore, is a must in your F&I product portfolio. Pre-paid maintenance keeps your customer returning to your dealership. It increases customer loyalty and significantly raises the chances of making the additional sale while the customers are in the dealership. Vehicle Service Contract Through the use of a one-part contract, dealership personnel have the ability to offer their customers a combination of coverages and terms that best suit the customer’s driving habits. Anti-theft protection covers theft loss, so the customers will not have to pay out of pocket. The Invisible Marking System (IMS) is one of the easiest theft deterrent products to apply. Backed by a robust warranty, the IMS product provides valuable benefits and peace of mind. Tire and wheel products cover wheel replacement when damaged by a Road Hazard. Tire and wheel are damaged easily and most commonly. Therefore, coverage with no deductible offers big consumer value. Windshield protection such as Diamond Fusion scientifically coating improves visibility in severe weather conditions. The customers easily grasp this plan because most of them have experienced driving in challenging weather. Paintless Dent Repairs covers minor but very common door dings, and the consumers can easily see its value. A car’s worth depends highly on its exterior, so covering the dings provide considerable benefits to the customers. 2. Offer custom finance and insurance products as per the customer’s unique needs: Custom finance and insurance products serve the customers’ needs and further enhance their overall ownership experience. A customized maintenance plan can create a profit center in your finance department. Additionally, the custom dealership maintenance programs keep the money in your shop instead of the factory’s coffers. Build a plan that ties the customers to the dealership that opens the door to more revenue opportunities, and significantly increases the possibility of making a second sale. On the other hand, the following overlooked practices could drastically hurt the finance and insurance department and ultimately impact your dealership’s profitability. 3. Change limited products for a higher price approach: Adopting a typical approach of offering only limited products and selling products for high prices is the first and foremost threat to your finance and insurance department. Thus, to grow profit, it is essential to offer a variety of products to match your customers’ unique requirements. 4. Sufficient knowledge of finance and insurance products you are selling: Your team must be well-versed in the products, purpose, and benefits to customers. The more your F&I team understands the products they sell, the more they believe in what they are selling. This, in turn, allows them to portray confidence and establish a comfort level with customers. 5. Identify demotivated personnel: Having various products to offer to customers is advantageous when your team possesses high motivation to grow PVR. Dispirited personnel who are not keen or well trained to sell a broader offering of custom products can be a significant risk to your finance department’s profitability. Furthermore, providing comprehensive sales and finance training helps achieve the highest levels of success in the automotive industry. Finance and insurance will remain a large contributor to dealership gross profits. 6. To maximize your profitability, follow the 3 R process of realign, revitalize, and remove: Realign best practices and products to stay current with market conditions. Revitalize your people and your processes with recurrent training and updated technology in your department. Remove processes, products and people that are not a part of the solution for growth. Reevaluate the practices of your F&I department to determine if it is helping or hurting your dealership. Our decades of automotive industry experience can help you make incremental improvements across all areas of your F&I operations. Contact us today to get tailored solutions for your dealership.