As an agent, a dealer or an F&I manager, don’t sell yourself short. Technology can make you even better.

Cameras can act as your trainer, your coach, your compliance manager, your attorney and more. Think about the different ways a camera can impact your store and the overall profitability of a dealership.

As an F&I manager, well a true professional F&I manager, you should look at your position as any other professional would look at their job – not just a job, a career. If you step back and look at a doctor, a lawyer, a professional sports player or any similar profession, they just don’t walk into an operating room, court house or sports arena without rehearsing the job they are going to perform. Most likely, they won’t enter any of those areas without looking for constructive criticism prior to performing their job.

So, why as an F&I manager, do we feel we don’t have to practice? A football player doesn’t walk onto the field each Sunday without any practice during the week, without watching their competitors AND themselves on video. They practice, they self-critique and they look for a coach or teammate to give them feedback.

By having a camera as part of your delivery process as an F&I manager, it allows you to watch your own videos or those of your co-workers. Now, you have a chance to coach yourself and learn from others at the same time. You can learn what you may have missed in your presentation and how you could respond differently the next time that situation or objection arises. Think, if you add just one product per delivery to the mix, the difference that one product would make in the bottom line profits for you and the dealership.

As a dealer, why wouldn’t you want to have the opportunity to defend and protect your dealership? Time and time again, we have heard from dealers that they don’t want cameras in the F&I office because they think their F&I numbers will drop or the F&I manager will quit.

First off, your numbers will not drop, unless of course your F&I manager has been selling products unethically. The good news is, your F&I manager isn’t really making you money compared to the risk you are taking.

A finance manager who fears the camera being installed will most likely quit as soon as you announce the cameras. We see that about 20 percent of the time. The other 80 percent of the time, we find that as the dollar-per-car increases, more products are sold and customers are much more satisfied! Believe it or not, you gain credibility when you tell the customer they will be videotaped. After all, why would a finance manager lie to them under camera, right?!

The true bonus to videotaping in F&I is how quickly customer complaints get handled. As long as you have professionally trained your F&I managers, and they are following the steps of a true income development trainer, you can turn to the video during a customer complaint relating to F&I.

When that Better Business Bureau Letter lands on your desk, or the attorney calls threatening a lawsuit, you have the ability to say, “Great, let me check the videotape of the delivery. I assure you that if something happened that is not in compliance with our strict ethical guidelines, we will make it right immediately. We take this very seriously and videotape our F&I managers' transactions in order to make sure we can train them to be compliant, keeping the satisfaction of our clients as the top priority. Allow me to review that, I will get back with you.”

I can’t tell you how many times we have sent a video to an attorney and have never heard another word. That is certainly much less time consuming and less costly than the attorney you would have needed to hire or the time you would have placed into that call.

Let’s recap the benefits so far: Self-coaching, increased penetrations, increased dollar-per-car, instantaneous compliance when needed, and a defense attorney. Wow, not much to argue with there!

Now, the next step you need to take is training. Your product representative, commonly known as your agent, will often take the responsibility of training and increasing your production. The major problem with accomplishing this task for most people is time. This includes time away from the sales floor and limited availability by the agent responsible.

This is how training usually goes:

Agent: So, it looks like your service contract penetration has actually gone backwards since my last visit. What do you think is going on?

F&I manager: Well, I tried what you suggested and it just doesn’t work. I am doing worse than I was before.

Agent: Did you do it exactly as I told you?

F&I manager: Yes, exactly as you said. The customer doesn’t even listen.

The reality of the situation is the F&I manager either never did what was asked, or didn’t follow the entire set of instructions given, leaving the customer more confused and aggravated than before.

Install the camera, don’t be camera shy, and now look at the conversation:

Agent: So, it looks like your service contract penetration has actually gone backwards since my last visit, what do you think is going on?

F&I manager: Well, I tried what you suggested and it just doesn’t work. I am doing worse than I was before.

Agent: That is interesting. I typically find that the steps we worked on last month work very well. Let’s do this, let’s watch a few random videos together. Maybe your customers are different than others I am used to. We can adapt your presentation to make you more profitable.

In this situation, the F&I manager never did what was asked nor followed the entire set of instructions given. The difference is that now, they can no longer tell you they are doing something they aren’t. But if they are trying, they just may need a little more training. Think about how much time would be saved by not allowing the F&I manager to have the excuse that they tried and it doesn’t work.

Total the full equation: Self-coaching, increased penetrations, increased dollar-per-car, instantaneous compliance when needed, a defense attorney, time saver (no more “I did that, it doesn’t work”), effective trainer, more consistency and compliance to a process. Did I mention, you also make more money and have more satisfied customers? Yes, you are winning.

Are you still camera shy?