Hi Grant, I fill in in our F&I time to time, been through many F&I classes, and I am a big advocate of doing F&I the right and compliant way. I'd be happy to help you.
What vendor are you using for Vehicle Service Contracts (VSC) and your other products? A good F&I partner will offer training on their products as well as word tracts and overcoming objections to help you maximize your potential. That is a great place to start.
If you believe in and trust your F&I director, they are a great source to help you.
**Caution - if you have an F&I manger that starts talking about "crushing" a customer or "throwing them against the wall to see if they will stick", I'd run! Other words, if they are old school, don't enroll!
My best advice, be yourself with your presentation, treat every customer how you would want to be treated or how you treat your grandmother! Don't get caught up in dealership lingo, fast talking, or other old school tactics - they are old. I use a menu 100% of the time, and I use the VSC (we use Allstate) brochure to guide people as to how the VSC can save them money and all it covers. There are lots of video's today, and we use those as well and they are great. We also interview each customer before they go into F&I, we introduce ourselves, sit down and make sure all the info is correct and ask some questions. How many miles a year they drive, etc. It breaks the ice, builds some report, and we show them we are here to help and how the process works and how long it will take.
Once in the office, I simply inform people of the options we offer through the menu, explain each option, answering any questions along the way, then I close by going over all the payment options on our menu and I always end with: "Mr. Jones, I just wanted to go over these important options with you and explain how it can save you money with your new vehicle. I was wondering if you have any other questions and which of these you think would benefit you the most with owning your new car" ............ and then I shut up. and I tell myself to keep quiet, wait for it to get a little awkward sometimes, and wait for the customer to speak. Once I did have a customer sit and stare at me and say, "so are we doing this whole he who talks first loses thing" - I laughed and I said, "I guess you just lost", he fessed up he'd been in RV sales as an F&I manager, but he bought a VSC!
The only downfall I see is if you are a smaller BDC and you might work shifts at night at weekends. If its just you, who is answering leads when you are in F&I for an hour doing a deal? Maybe this isn't the case though.
