Will F&I Evolve or Dissolve?

2023 is predicted to be the year of the Big Squeeze:?Federal incentives and consumer demand continue to lift EV sales, digital retailing tools and Ai?become increasingly effective, cash deals increase drastically, inflation and affordability puts pressure on volume and gross, depreciation on used cars accelerates exposing water in inventories, new car inventories increase as the economy slows.?And now many consultants, bean counters, tech companies and oracles?are predicting the death of the traditional F&I department.??

With enormous changes in consumer buying behavior and front end sales processes, the structure, function and processes?of F&I are now clearly in the cross hairs.

In my opinion, not one size will fit all.?Here are the big decisions:

- Do you want your business to be purely transactional or more relationship driven? This is one of the most important distinctions you need to make as all decisions will flow from it.?How much and how far do you want tech to run your business versus your people??What parts of your business will you keep your team involved in versus Ai and digital tools??What do you want to invest in this year??People,?tech, both or neither??Retail tech tools are becoming increasingly powerful, and your people can be empowered like never before with the right direction and training.

- Do you?think the bulk of your consumers are ready, willing and able to guide themselves through the complex decisions of finance and insurance??Do you think digital tools are capable of handling more and more of what was in the past done by humans??Short attention spans, stigmas, assumptions and misinformation are plentiful so all presentations no matter how delivered, will be filtered through those skeptical and confused lenses.?

- How do you want your department structured??A traditional finance manager who oversees the majority of the sales process or hybrid sales people who also do the F&I process??There are pros and cons to each for the customer's experience and the dealership's business.

- We obviously want sales, profits and happy customers.??Which one of the three are really the most important to you??When done properly these three always happen together in a big way.

- What do you want your sales process to look like??Who will do what and when??Unstructured Selling, Step Selling, Menu Selling or FLOW Selling?

- Do you understand the different goals of your different suppliers such as your lenders, tech vendors, payment insurance companies, the manufacturer and your warranty providers??They will always emphasize solutions that serve their purposes, sometimes more than your own.

Fortune favours the bold but if it isn't broken don't fix it??Consumer surveys often differ wildly from actual consumer behaviour.?We are running our businesses in interesting times.?The structure and style of our training business has definitely changed.?We now do live workshops, live streams and video libraries;?30 years in this business, and the middle way is still usually the right way.??

Whatever you decide, fully commit to it in every way and success will be yours in 2023 and beyond.

Duane EN Marino Automotive Solutions can be contacted by calling 1-888-735-6275, email?[email protected]?or text 519-878-4818.