One of the things an agent can do for a dealership is to handle politically sensitive issues between the sales department and the F&I managers.

One of those areas of F&I development where the agent can be very helpful to the F&I manager is by helping institute policies that make sure every customer is being turned to F&I at the time of the sale. This problem most commonly occurs when the sales department sells a car to someone, writes up the purchase order, and arranges for the customer to pick up the vehicle at some future date without seeing the F&I manager.

Then, the customer shows up a few days later with a bank or credit union check in their hands to pick up the rig. Many times in this situation the dealer could have gotten the financing on the deal if F&I had seen the customer. But they didn't get the chance.

This practice is a real cause of frustration for the F&I manager and a cause of friction between the sales department and F&I. The F&I managers complain to management but tend to get nowhere in dealing with this problem.

Since this practice can be very damaging to the dealer’s performance numbers, it is an opportunity for you to immediately increase the dealer’s income if you can get control of it. But how is this done?

There is a solution, but the trick is for you to get it implemented.

This is a policy issue that needs to be controlled by the General Manager or Dealer Principal. They need to make referring 100 percent of the customers, at the time of the sale, a firm policy. However, you may need to make a compelling case to them as to why they should bother. You need to motivate them to take firm action.

You need to be smart. Here are some facts:

• No lender will give a loan without a purchase order. None of them.

• It is very important that the purchase order is correct, compliant, and approved by management, right?

• The purchase order should be printed and professional looking, obviously.

• And who's the most qualified to assure all of the above? Of course, F&I.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense for the GM or Dealer to set a policy that EVERY purchase order will be generated in the F&I office before it leaves the dealership.

"But wait," you say, "I can't get the GM or dealer to do that. They just let Sales run things the way they want to!"

So, you have to give them a reason to implement this policy. Here’s what you do:

For the next month, have the F&I managers keep a log of every customer that isn't turned to them at the time of the sale. Then, at the end of the month, generate a report for the GM or Dealer Principal. In this report you want to show them the number of people that were not referred to F&I and then multiply that number by their average dollars per finance deal, (not per retail).

The resulting figure is the potential lost income from those deals, if the F&I department had seen them and been able to get the financing.

Here's a recent example from an actual dealership:

Retail Units Delivered: 96

Customers Not Turned at Time of Sale: 26

Average Income Per Financed Deal: $966.30

Potential Income from those deals if financed: 26 X $966.30 = $25,123.80

This dealership lost the opportunity to make an additional $25,123.80, simply because they didn't give the F&I department the chance to get the financing. It's simple math.

If you take the time to keep track of those customers that aren't turned and do this report, you will get management's attention. Now, they may not react immediately. Be patient. This will work.

If it doesn't change after the first month's report, do this calculation again for the next month (and the month after if you have too). Sooner or later, the dollar amount you are revealing will have an effect. (In the example above, the second month's report is what got the policy implemented).

The effect of approaching the problem this way is that you are showing, first, that there is a good dollar reason for 100 percent T.O. at the time of the sale. Secondly, you are showing the dealer that you are staying on top of what is going on in their F&I department.

Do not show any emotion or debate this with anyone. It is not about how anyone feels about it or anyone's opinion. All of that can trip you up. It is simply about net profit. Just calmly show them the numbers. Don't sell, just report.

I once had a GM say to me after reviewing this report, "Yeah, but we don't know how many of those people would have financed." And I said, "You're right, and we never will. All we know for sure is that we lost whatever potential income was there and we'll never get it back."

It drives them nuts, believe me. They will do something about it, sooner or later.

Every Dealer and General Manager is unique and different, but every one of them I've ever met wants to make more money.

By the way, when you get that accomplished, you will be the hero of the F&I managers, as well. Try it. It works.