Profit Opportunities Abound

In our most recent blog post, we mentioned that our very own Brad Blizzard, National Vice President of Sales, was part of one of the Agent Summit educational panels. Here’s a closer look at that panel and some of the points that were made.

The panel was called Profit Opportunities, Get it All!, and was focused on the idea that while vehicle service contracts and GAP are great products, too often dealers are passing up the opportunity to sell other products, leaving money on the table. The session was moderated by Martin Wildgoose, Owner & Business Development Manager of AIM Inc. Brad’s fellow panelists included Brett Hutchinson, CFO, PermaPlate; Kelly Price, President, National Automotive Experts; and Ben Wren, Director of Sales, Wise F&I.

One of the biggest takeaways from the panel is that F&I product bundles are becoming paramount to the survival of the business. When there were only one or two F&I products available, it was easy to go through each of them and explain them individually. But today, there can be five, six or even more individual F&I products being pitched, and consumers can become overwhelmed. At the end of the day, the customer just wants to buy the product, and having presentation after presentation can be tiresome and confusing. Bundles allow dealers and agents to put together packages of relevant products that work together and make sense to the consumer, allowing the manager to pitch them all at once, saving everyone time and frustration.

Consumers also perceive more value in bundles. A bundle of products often costs less than when bought individually, raising the value proposition, and giving consumers incentive to go that direction — and increasing the odds they will buy multiple products instead of just one, or none at all.

“It’s very difficult these days to make money selling cars because grosses have gone down dramatically, and they will continue to go down based on Internet pricing and consumer knowledge,” Brad said during the panel. “F&I product sales are the way to go to maximize value.” And bundling products together is the way to increase penetration without alienating consumers.

Another topic of discussion was F&I products for leasing. Traditionally, there hasn’t been much of a push toward selling F&I to these consumers, but that is another potential profit opportunity that is being lost. Brad mentioned several products, such as RoadVantage’s Preferred bundle with environmental coverage, that are ideal for leasing customers. He also agreed with Kelly Price of NAE, stating that changing a salesperson’s mindset surrounding leasing is key. The finance and sales departments need to look at leasing as a different type of profit opportunity, rather than a loss, and agents need to work with their dealers to get the finance department into this mindset. Changing the way F&I managers think about leasing and F&I is the first — and possibly biggest — hurdle when it comes to breaking down this profit barrier.

The panel had a lot of really great tips for agents to take to their dealers to unlock the hidden profit centers they might not even be aware of, and we at RoadVantage are proud that Brad was invited to be part of this panel of experts. We hope everyone who attended was able to walk away with information they can use to grow their business. We will look forward to hearing your updates about what tips worked — or didn’t work — for you at Agent Summit 2017!