Auto buyers ranked "securing F&I products" among the top
five customer touchpoints
they would like to find online.
IHS Markit, 2020
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2. PERSONALIZE THEIR APPROACH
Even before inventory challenges, the old "300%" rule of selling 100% of your products to 100% of your
customers, 100% of the time was largely out-of-date. But as few options in the lot and high prices push
customers out of market or to other brands, it's critical dealers take a targeted approach to communicating
with customers and only present relevant, tailored offers.
Take a more personalized approach with F&I conversations, including:
• Focus on selling only the most appropriate products, leveraging data in your CRM, DMS and sales
platform to build personalized offers that speak directly to your customers' lifestyles and needs.
• Use marketing automation to tailor offers and autofill contracts, minimizing the paperwork and time s
pent in the dealership.
• Leverage behavior prediction technology to analyze the data in your CRM and DMS to engage lease
customers who are approaching the end of their warranties with relevant and timely messaging related to
extended warranties, service contracts or buy-back opportunities.
3. EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE INTERNALLY & EXTERNALLY
Interested in learning how automotiveMastermind can help your dealership improve its F&I process?
Contact us to learn more.
• Upgrading dealership marketing materials
across channels to include F&I topics alongside
sales and service.
• Configuring your sales process to include F&I
options earlier and include them in monthly
pricing from the start.
• Challenge your F&I team to know each lender's
stipulations, what book value they use, their
relative affordability for subprime shoppers and
many other lending guidelines and other factors
that help you put together packages and get
applications approved quickly and cleanly.
• Create short videos on topics customers often
ask about to post on your website and cross-
utilize on social media.
• Important topics should range from must-have
items like GAP to misunderstood beneficial
options like long-term warranties.
• Develop individual series on complex topics
that can be broken down.
As buyers increasingly look online to research every aspect of purchasing a vehicle, it's important to ensure
they can browse the F&I options available at your dealership as easily as the vehicles on the lot.
Regardless of whether a customer is shopping online, in-person or likely a combination of both, simplifying
your process is critical to improving the dealership customer experience – especially when it comes to F&I
discussions. This starts with consistent communication across channels and departments.
To reduce friction in the F&I department, focus on:
