When you walk into a dealership, what value do you bring to the F&I office besides another loan for which their customers may qualify? In 2018, F&I managers across the country are concerned with three hot buttons:
- Maintaining compliance
- Maximizing profitability
- Shortening transaction time
With a myriad of compliance procedures and paperwork on hand, F&I managers have a difficult job when it comes to balancing compliance, profitability and time management. The best way to separate your loan from the competition is to help them with this balance. How do you do this?
Provide clear standards for loan approvals. This not only helps with compliance, but helps F&I managers ensure that they submit well-qualified customers for your loans. You know your qualifications, but how well do F&I managers know them? Look at how often you deny auto loans. If that number is high, it could be because your standards are unclear to the F&I officer.
Help manage contracts in transit. If you get an application that is not automatically approved or denied by your system, what do you do? Does your institution rely on the F&I manager to reach out to you, or do you pick up the phone to discuss the application? If an F&I manager doesn’t have everything in order, it’s on them right? But, then, they could lose the sale, and you could lose that potential creditor. The dealer’s goals are the same as yours. Get people funded. Help them help you by being more proactive in the loan decision process. Get the F&I manager on the phone if you see a contract that has the potential to be approved outside of your automatic approval/denial algorithm.
Provide more options to F&I managers. Traditionally, when you approve a loan, the F&I manager marks up your interest rate to help increase their profit margin. However, if you are like most auto lenders, you’re probably placing caps on dealer mark-ups, or moving away from this process altogether. So, what are you doing to help dealers recoup this shrinking profit margin and differentiate your institution? Consider providing dealers options to maximize profit by structuring your loans with complimentary consumer protection products. By offering products such as vehicle return or a vehicle service contract, you set the stage for the F&I manager to upsell those products and get a greater share of the return.
With more than 40 years in innovating and implementing proven go-to-market strategies in the dealership space, EFG Companies understands the balance between ensuring compliance, streamlining operations, and increasing profit. Learn how EFG can take your value proposition to the next level in 2018.
