All right welcome back to the course. Now before we get into the nitty-gritty. Before we get into
how to handle objections, how to become an elite F&I Closer, it's important to talk about the
groundwork. The framework. What sets you up for success when you get to that point and that's the
F&I menu. Now a lot of people teach that you want to do an interview first. That means going out to
the sales floor, talking to the customer asking them a variety of questions about how they drive
their car, how many miles etc. Listen, we don't prescribe to that. Finance Manager Training has
always bucked the trend on that and more and more people now are starting to come to the realization
that that is not the way that you want to do things ideally. This is for two reasons.
Number 1: it gives the customer sales resistance.
They are starting to think in their head that the sales process was over once they
sign on the dotted line and agree to the monthly payment and agree to the sale price with the
salesperson. And now another salesperson comes out and starts to tell them about
"we need information about all these things about your previous car driving experience".
Number 2: it wastes time.
Listen all you need to do is you need to go out, you need to briefly meet and greet the customer,
tell them who you are, tell them you're working on their paperwork and you will
be with them very shortly. Okay? Once that is done, you'll want to bring them in the F&I office
and ideally you'll have about half the paperwork done and the other half of the paperwork not done.
The reason you want part of the paperwork not done is if they are a customer that can
be difficult to sell to, you want some time. So you do your menu presentation,
they hit you with an objection, you help them solve it, they hit you with another one,
you help them solve it and then they're starting to get defensive. Like "Okay buddy,
you need to back off now". You can just tell in their body language right? "No problem
Mr. Customer. I'm just gonna move this off to the side and I'm gonna start printing some paperwork".
You then turn around you start printing some paperwork, you're doing your thing right?
This gives the customer time to cool off. But if you had all of your paperwork ready, if all of it
was ready to go there'd be nothing to do. There'd be no time to cool the customer off to give them
one more chance to help them come to a decision about purchasing a package from you or not.
So those are the first two things. Lastly, a lot of people teach and a lot of people do this:
they will before going in to the F&I menu they'll explain in full detail, I mean really full detail,
they'll draw charts and everything, what their current coverage is. What warranty comes from
the manufacturer, what the powertrain is, what gap is, how they are missing out on
paint protection, interior protection, tire and wheel etc. And what they do
is they use that as a four step to then go into the F&I menu showing
"See all these things I just told you about? This is the reason you need those".
And I'm not saying it's the worst idea in the world, but I'll tell you a reason why
it's at your disadvantage to do that. There is a certain amount of people, I would say
upwards of 20% perhaps, who are ready to purchase something as soon as they walk in your F&I office.
And the more you talk, the more they're going to have things to think about
and they're going to kind of shut down. Okay? You don't want to do that. You want to,
after doing your buffer zone documents that we talked about in a previous video, you want to do a
lot of your "legalese" (legal jargon) first to try to calm them down and make them realize that this
is a professional finance office. It's not a sales office. Then you go into your F&I menu.
"Mr. Customer, I told you that I wanted to explain to you some of your protection options. This is
the sale price that you agreed to, this is the taxes, this is the rebate, this is the cash down
you said that you're gonna provide today. This is the monthly payment that you agreed to with
the salesperson. Are all these numbers correct before we go forward? I really want to make sure
that you're comfortable with every single one of these numbers. You are? All right fantastic,
that's good news to hear. Now package one Mr. Customer, this is a great package. A lot of
our customers actually do end up choosing this package because it's fully comprehensive. It's
going to cover your vehicle service contract which covers everything on the car except for
basic maintenance items. Wear and tear such as belts, hoses, windshield wipers, batteries etc.
Number two: we offer tire and wheel. You know how bad those potholes are in our city. You hit one,
you dent your rim, you pop your tire, you're looking at a thousand dollar bill and no one wants
that. This really helps alleviate that and you get it for the next five years and 60,000 miles.
We also have key replacement. I don't know if you realize this Mr. Customer, I didn't realize until
last year when I lost my key. These keys nowadays are upwards of $300-$500. No one
wants to pay that. I don't blame you. Next we have the interior and exterior protection Mr. Customer.
That's gonna protect your exterior from acid rain, bird droppings etc. It's also gonna protect your
interior from spills, stains, rips and burns. Mr. Customer this package, if you choose to accept it,
will bring your payment to this right here. And as I said, a lot of customers do choose that".
"Package 2: Mr. Customer includes everything in Package 1
except it does forfeit the interior and exterior protection. So Mr. Customer I got to tell you,
if you know you have some acid rain outside and it ruins your paint, you're you're kind
of stuck with the bill. And if you have a burn inside the car, you're stuck with the bill".
"Package 3: it covers everything Package 2 does except for you are forfeiting the tire and wheel.
So if you do hit one of those nasty potholes in our city,
unfortunately Mr. Customer you're gonna be on the hook for not only the cost for the new tire,
but possibly the cost for a new rim when it's all dented and mangled".
"Lastly Mr. Customer we have the bronze package and this package,
if you choose to accept it, is just the vehicle service contract. Some customers do choose this
because they really want that peace of mind. And the payment for this package is right down here".
So after every package you want to explain exactly what they're forfeiting by not going
with your highest package, and then you want to tell them what the payment is at the bottom with
that package. Now you'll see that I went through that pretty fast, okay. You can slow down a
little bit with your customer but you want to go through it pretty fast. And again the reason is,
there's a certain subset of people who are ready to purchase the second they walk in your office.
And as soon as you say: "All right Mr. Customer, which package works best for you?".
And you put your pen down right next to your largest package,
there's a large subset of people who are going to sign that largest package right then and
there without you saying a single other word. And there's another subset of people who will
purchase one of the other packages one of the lower packages without you saying a word but
just by picking up your pen and signing it. But those same people who are ready to buy,
if you went into a lengthy presentation and you started drawing graphs and charts and etc etc,
number one they're either going to get confused and kind of back off or they're going to say "Whoa
information overload" and they're going to start to rethink their decision.
So our advice is to always go right into the F&I menu after your buffer documents. Not to
mess with charts and documents telling them why they need it before you tell them what they need.
Just go right into it. Now you're probably saying to yourself
"Whoa whoa whoa. FinanceManagerTraining.com has always been a proponent of giving the customer
a ton of information so the customer can make a wise purchasing decision".
And that's a 100% correct. The key is, giving the right amount of information to the right customer
at the right time. Some customers do not need a ton of information because perhaps they did
research before they came in. Perhaps they had the product in the past. Perhaps they've been to other
dealerships okay they've heard it before. Some customers don't need all the information, but for
the customers who do need it you have it in your repertoire, right? So let's say the customer says:
"Hold on a second, I need more information"
Or you can tell that they're they just need a little more for you to move forward. No
problem you can then go into what some people are going to before the F&I menu.
"No problem Mr. Customer. Let me explain a little bit more about what you do get with your vehicle.
This this brand comes with a 3 year 36,000 mile comprehensive warranty. That means it's going
to cover everything on the car except for some basic minor wear and tear items, okay?
Now there's also a 5 year 60,000 mile power train. The purpose of that powertrain, Mr. Customer,
is to cover three main items: the engine, the transmission and the drive axle. Okay?"
The engine, transmission and drive axle.
When you open that hood on your car,
a lot of people think they're looking at all the engine. No the engine is only a part
of what you're looking at when they open the hood of the car. It's gonna cover the engine,
transmission and drive axle and it's going to cover you for the next 5 years and 60,000 miles.
"As you can see Mr. Customer, there is a pretty large gap between the 3 year 36k
and the 5 year 60k. A lot of customers ask me why that is and quite frankly Mr. Customer,
that's because the manufacturer only warranties
parts that they are comfortable warrantying for the first 5 years and 60,000 miles.
"The other parts are only 3 years and 36k they've done the data they've done the research.
They are more comfortable warrantying the remainder parts for 3 years and 36,000
miles because perhaps they have a larger chance of going faulty at some point".
"Now Mr. Customer we do offer a package that combines these two warranties together into one
comprehensive vehicle service contract. So Mr. Customer, by combining these packages together
and creating one comprehensive vehicle service contract which I talked about before, you're
going to get both of these coverages combined for the next 6 years and a 100,000 miles".
At this point another subset of customers, another 20% are now ready to purchase once you explain the
extras to them. So you have 20% approximately who are ready to purchase when they walk in
the door. There's 20% who are ready to purchase after you explain some of it to them, and then
we have more coming up. There's another 20-30% who need even more information,
they'll hit you with an objection. And the remainder of of the people after that are the
ones who we are going to teach you how to close in this series. How to overcome their objections.
And quite frankly, I don't even love using the word overcome.
I always love using the word "relieve" their objections. Satisfy their objections. Because
overcoming kind of gives a connotation of "it's us versus them" but it's really not.
It's not us versus them. They're customers. We are here to help them make a wise decision.
"So Mr. Customer, I would like to satisfy your objection"
You want to tell them that but that's what you're thinking in your head.
So that is how we do the F&I menu here. We go straight from the buffer documents
straight to the F&I menu. There's no preamble, there's no interview, there's none of that.