F&I tools like e-menu software are like an electrical power strip for a dealership. They enable all sorts of other “appliances” to be connected. For instance, dealers in a recent study by MaximTrak said F&I menu software helps them observe and manage to achieve peak outcomes, including:
- Penetration by product
- PVR by sale
- Identifying staff members doing a great job selling in all key categories (or not, but report data helps management identify opportunities for improvement)
Klick-Lewis Chevrolet-Buick in Palmyra, Penn. uses such an F&I power strip. “We increased gross profit per car $300 when we started using F&I software that ensured consistency and accountability,” says Dealer Principal and President Warren Lewis. “The process helps us understand what is important to each individual customer and how to prepare the right F&I products for them, given their unique driving circumstance.”
For other dealers, such a power strip helps them deliver other vital aspects of the F&I experience.
“My main driver for bringing this menu system into our store is my belief in full disclosure, ensuring we perform a complete and legal presentation with every customer,” says Ron Green, GM and VP for Safford Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-RAM, Springfield, Virginia.
“Our per back-end gross on every car through our F&I office, since adopting this menu system, averages $1,072 per vehicle,” Green adds. “Since we’ve been using this software to guarantee compliance in our F&I processes, our warranty penetration, GAP and prepaid maintenance product sales have all gone up as a result.”
Adding an F&I power strip to F&I processes provides dealers valuable insight into department performance on many levels.
“All four of our F&I managers are held accountable for performing every F&I presentation with complete consistency and compliance, and the reports created by this software help me keep them accountable,” continues Lewis. “I also can see how both my F&I and sales teams are doing, individually and in aggregate, month-to-month and year-to-year. I can see who is selling what, or not, and then make changes or suggestions to help us maximize all opportunities.”
At home and office, we often add a power strip to engage more appliances in our work and work results. Similarly, adding F&I technology can take the department to new levels of performance and customer satisfaction by helping the dealership:
- Manage and mitigate compliance risk
- Improve presentation productivity and product value to the customer
- Improve profitability
- Elevate customers’ satisfaction with the F&I process, fostering the right kind of early engagement to retain customers’ business through many buy cycles.
Great F&I tools, like strategically placed power-strips, dramatically multiply the effectiveness of an outlet, i.e. your people.
Jim Maxim, Jr. is President of MaximTrak Technologies. Reach him at [email protected].
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Jim Maxim, Jr.
From 2003 to 2019, he helmed MaximTrak, a digital F&I platform, which he founded and sold to RouteOne LLC in 2016. Until late 2019, he continued aspresident of MaximTrak and as chief digital officer for RouteOne, bringing to market solutions trusted by dealers around the world.
Jim is widely regarded as a thought leader in business technologies and wealth-building strategies for entrepreneurs and F o rtune 500 companies alike.
He is a graduate of the Babson F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business of Babson College, Babson Park, MA. He is married, with two children.
Latest posts by Jim Maxim, Jr.
- A Better 5-Step Plan to Product Sales Success - March 9, 2020
- Plan, People and Profitability: A Lesson in Chicken - January 12, 2020
- Digitize Your Dealership Operations Now to Be Ready for 2020—and Beyond - October 12, 2018
