Digital Dealer - March 2019 - 46

Road Trip to DD26 | April 9-11, 2019 | Orlando

Building an F&I
Performer Pipeline:
Create an Employee
Development Program
That Works

Using a case study of a large dealership group, which
created, implemented and perfected its very own
FDP (Finance Development Program), F&I expert
Tony Troussov will explain how to effectively hire,
train, develop, and retain your F&I performers. This
career-path-oriented program is designed to attract
and retain the best employees for your dealership. In
looking at real-world examples, you will learn how to
create this program, no matter what size dealership
you have. You will walk through it step by step and
identify key components to developing your employees
and creating a great culture of learning.

Key Takeaways:

 Develop a comprehensive career pathing plan for
your dealership's F&I pipeline, including pay plans,
job titles/descriptions, training, and performance
objectives.
 Create an effective hiring strategy to attract and hire
the best candidates for your F&I pipeline from outside
of the industry. Part of this hiring strategy will include
an adequate onboarding process.
 Design a training regimen for new recruits that will
include courses in the following areas: administrative,
compliance, product knowledge, F&I process, and F&I
sales skills.

their progress. They can tell
you exactly what they are
trucking on any given day.
They strategize and plan
their year and then work it
backwards down to each
week. An obsessed team
knows the numbers they
are tracking each day of the
month and if they are down
from their forecast, what will
it take to catch up. This enables them to be consistent
month-in and month-out.
46

MARCH 2019

Obsession about forecasting
and tracking will keep your
team accountable to each
other.
3: COMMUNICATION
AND CULTURE. Lack of

communication is the root of
many problems within many
organizations. Your F&I
department affects every department within your store.
Inconsistent or unclear
communication leads to
confusion and dissatisfaction

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

(Continued from pg. 44)

of your employees and customers. Clear and consistent
communication from F&I department will generate plenty
of good-will from everyone
involve. Both verbal and
written communication is
important. Telling someone
who did a great job during
a sales meeting will go long
ways. Communicating via
email at the end of a day
about daily progress with
a management team will
create awareness and culture of accountability. Being
humble and asking for help
when needed will improve
a culture of openness. The
prima-donna status on the
other hand, will isolate them
and contribute to a bad culture. Being obsessed about
communication will lead to
a culture that will create a
great working environment.
4: PERFORMANCE AND
PROFIT. This seems obvi-

ous - F&I is all about profit
and performance. What
makes F&I team great is
their obsession about each
and every deal. They are
working on performing their
best on each transaction,
be it cash, lease or finance.
I never forget hearing one
performance-obsessed
team told me this - "we do
not have lease, cash or
finance deals - we just have
deals". To uninitiated being
obsessed about profit, can
be perceived as bad. In reality dealership's profitability
should be every employee
obsession. A healthy obsession with profit is not about
greed it is about growth
and pride. This obsession
will lead your team to think
through each deal before

they jump into it. It will lead
them to reflection on every
lost opportunity and obsession to do better next time.
Being obsessed about
aforementioned areas
does not mean you cannot
have fun and enjoy a great
team environment. On the
contrary, it simply means
staying focused and preoccupied with things that will
generate great opportunities
for everyone. With that in
mind, ask yourself, what is
your team obsessed about?
What things preoccupy or
intrude on their minds? Help
them focus and re-align their
thinking to be obsessed
about education, communication, culture and performance all of these and many
more healthy obsessions will
lead to greater profitability.
TONY TROUSSOV is an owner
of Mezen Dealer Services. He
recently served as Group F&I
Director at Morries Automotive
Group. Throughout his 20+
years in an automotive retail
career he held multiple
leadership positions, including a
GM of a large import dealership.
As a consultant, Tony works
with dealerships and OEMs
helping them improve processes
and customer experience. He
designed and developed an
on-demand learning platform for
dealership employees. Along
with hundreds of dealerships,
his clients included Hyundai,
Lexus, GP Strategies and J.D.
Power. Tony has delivered
over 650 presentations totaling
over 3,000 hours of platform
time. His international work
includes speaking and training
in Korea, Portugal, and UAE.
Tony is a Certiﬁed Coaching
Practitioner with Certiﬁed
Coaching Federation and a
Certiﬁed Speaking Professional
with National Speakers
Association. EMAIL: tony@
mezendealerservices.com
http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Digital Dealer - March 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - March 2019
