How’s That F&I Menu Working For You?
Now that the year has ended, we at Team One are getting a large number of inquiries from Dealers,
General Managers, and F&I Managers anxiously wanting to increase their F&I performance. The
numbers are out for the year and because we have been associated with a large percentage of the top
F&I performers in the country through training our Package Option™ F&I process, or through research,
we get a lot of questions referred to us. Their questions mostly center on F&I menus. Which one is best,
works best, etc.? The answer might surprise you, especially given the number of “menus” in the
marketplace. The up sell, feature benefit, 3 or 4 column, full color menus are not performing at acceptable
levels, certainly not top performer levels. They are showing numbers no better than the old laminated
place mat sales tools of the 70’s.
We know what’s working and what the top 1000 F&I Managers are doing. Team One/Summit Systems is
the research and process development company that originated the whole concept of F&I menu selling in
the early 1990’s. Our earliest 3 and 4 column menus are the basis for all the menus in the marketplace
today. Virtually every menu out there was either licensed by Team One, or copied from a copy of a copy,
etc. Therefore I can tell you exactly what works and what doesn’t as far as the F&I process is concerned.
In scoring our top F&I performers, we use a Cumulative F&I Scoring system, (the CUME) that measures
not only dollars per retail unit and dollars per finance deal, but also factors in percentage of product
penetration, range of products sold, and Customer Satisfaction scoring. Those top performers come in all
shapes, sizes, and individual styles but there are some basic things they all have in common. First, they
do not use a full color or column type, feature benefit, up sell menu. One of the concepts that we have the
most difficulty in convincing our trainees is to stop doing a feature benefit type approach. Of course this
flies in the face of conventional car business wisdom because that’s how we are all taught to sell cars.
Describe the feature, point out the benefit, and if you are really strong in your presentation, the customer
buys the car. Right? Of course. That is the best way to sell a big ticket, tangible product. However, when
we move into the F&I office, we are now selling a new kind of product, intangibles, and all the rules
change. To produce top performer numbers, the F&I Manager needs a much more clever and
scientifically effective, non-confrontational approach.
Factors that must be understood are many. For example, our 13 years of research shows that the F&I
Manager has between 4-7 minutes to present all of their products to the customer before the customers
retention and reception to the presentation fall off to almost zero. Yet when we time the 4 column, feature
benefit presentation being taught by virtually all the menu trainers, the average time, if the customer
doesn’t interrupt, is over 15 minutes. The talking and selling go on well past the effective psych-neuro
receptive stage of the process. Another factor is sales resistance. Consumers are more sales resistant
than ever in history. Especially in the F&I office, they are programmed to say no as a conditioned
response. So, what do the top performers do? They have stopped selling. They use a nonconfrontational,
programmed approach that doesn’t look like a sales tool, presents every product, and delivers huge
numbers with top CSI scores as an added bonus. To be a top performer, the F&I Manager needs more
effective tools, training, and techniques. The old up sell menus are making money for people who sell
menus, not the Dealers. That is why we have made 36 process revisions from the old menu we created.
We, and of course, the top F&I performers in the country.
George Angus is with Team One Research and Training, a research and training company that specializes
in scientific, research based program development and training programs for the automobile industry.
George has trained thousands of F&I professionals and develops programs and techniques with the top
performing F&I departments in the country. Team One can be reached at 1-800-928-1923 or on the web
at www.teamoneamerica.com