Promote your "store within a store."
As time marches on and technology inevitably progresses, it is interesting to contemplate just how different things are from days gone by. Thanks to computers we can do menial tasks faster and more accurately than ever before. We have the ability to communicate with lenders without having to talk to them. We can obtain a credit bureau report without effort and we can print documents, make errors and reprint them faster than it took to hand write someone’s name and address just one generation ago.

Many in our business know nothing but this high-tech era of F&I. For others who have lived through the evolution, the changes have been dramatic, although generally welcomed.
 
Interesting as all this may be, the one thing that does not seem to have changed is the amount of spare time available to our F&I managers. Prospecting for business was tough to do a generation ago and it seems to be a challenge of equal proportion today.  With all the great gadgets we have, one would think we might have time to look for business rather than have it find us, but for some reason that is not the case.
 
Opportunity on the Internet
We still depend on walk-in traffic to earn our livings; this has always been our reality. But are there other sources to tap? Is there another vein of clients out there waiting to be mined? I suggest that there is, and it’s on the Internet.

So the question becomes, are we actively going after those potential clients or are we being distracted by the tasks of every day life?

Vehicle dealership web-sites are getting better; that’s a fact. Not only are we showcasing our vehicles but there are now opportunities to apply for credit on-line. Of course this step can make the buying process easier for both parties - the buyer and the seller. In the case of the sub-prime buyer it can eliminate the embarrassment some might feel by applying in person. When it comes to this step, the Internet works.

But we can go further
For years we have sold F&I products the same way. People came to the store, bought the car, were ‘turned-over’ to the F&I office and things progressed from there. Since the inception of that concept, with the rare exception of outside brokerage services providing the F&I service by phone, nothing has changed in over 30 years. The Internet presents some interesting new opportunities, however.

How many of your clients leave your store without buying your needed breakdown protection plans? How many leave without a rust module, a powerful anti-theft system, or the basic of all basics, your so-called "pro-packs"?

In some cases, could the reason they don’t buy these items be because you don’t offer them... and not because the prospect doesn’t want them? If they don’t buy these things from you, do they buy them elsewhere after leaving you? You bet they do. That’s why businesses such as Krown and Ziebart are able to exist.
 
A different perspective
So how can you improve your penetration of that market? Sometimes it helps to take a look at your business from a different perspective. For example, your F&I office is actually a retail store within a store, is it not? Not only does it provide the needed financing services many clients require but it also offers a wide variety of products and services designed to make your customers’ lives easier.

Perhaps it is time to create an F&I web-site for your store within your store. Perhaps it’s time to make the outside world aware of the fact that what they can buy from small retailers, they can buy from you... in many cases with insurance underwriting as protection.

Perhaps it’s time to have a site - password protected if you please - to demonstrate and illustrate your service plans so that those who left without buying them can do so prior to the expiration of their warranty.
 
It takes commitment
It’s worth considering. The only way to make it work, however, will be to find the time to publicize it effectively, which brings us back to the ‘time issue’ mentioned at the beginning of this article.

When you take credit applications or any other data from prospects, do you collect email addresses? Do you ask the client’s permission to contact them from time to time with special promotions, etc? Do you ask them to allow you to remind them of deadlines, such as factory warranty expiration dates, so that they may invest in a service plan if they absolutely refused to buy one at the time of vehicle purchase?

Do you send out invoices from your parts departments with notices at the bottom asking service and parts clients to visit your accessories’ site for other great vehicle enhancement ideas? If you had a site for your store within your store (the F&I office), wouldn’t it make sense to believe that some folks would do so?
 
Think outside the box
From smoke signals to the telegraph... from radio to television... from the telephone to billboard advertising, there has never been anything as powerful as the Internet when it comes to getting your message out to so many people so fast.

There are many products out there to help make the task easier, among them a multilingual DVD presentation program from our company that illustrates all of your mainstay F&I products in English, French, Cantonese, Mandarin and Farsi. Add to that some creative web design and copy writing and you should have new clients knocking on your doors in no time at all.

You know... we have always sold these items in ‘the box’. Perhaps it’s now time to think outside the box.
 
Questions or comments? You can email Harvey at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Harvey Cohen is the author of four books and principal of Harvey Cohen Learning Systems, Inc., a Canadian company dedicated to automotive F&I and sales training and support. He can be seen as the sales and business coach on the TV show, Style by Jury.  

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