Cross-Generational Selling Important as Ever

Older dealership finance and insurance managers, especially Baby Boomers, need to successfully engage Millennial buyers to increase per-vehicle-retailed product penetration.

Younger F&I people likewise must adapt to older buyers’ needs. Junior staffers also should realize “selling” is not a bad word.

So say a couple of experts in the field, Shaka Dyson and Cory Mosley.

“Some F&I veterans are used to being vague in their presentations, but Millennial buyers want full disclosure and specific information – and they want it fast and upfront,” says Dyson, a former F&I manager and now corporate F&I trainer for a major auto group.

An MTV study says 73% of Millennials get annoyed when things slow down at the dealership.

Transparency is critical when presenting to Millennials, says sales trainer Mosley of Mosley Automotive. “The word I like to use to describe this is ‘optics.’”

Paper menus, paper contracts, and traditional presentation formats create bad optics that turn off younger buyers, he says. “Instead, use computer tablets or products like Reynold’s docuPAD or iTapMenu that buyers can hold and interact with, to pick and choose the products they want, and to control the experience.”

Forty-seven percent of dealership new hires are Millennials who are under 36 years old, according to the annual National Automobile Dealers Assn. Workforce Study. This makes F&I education important. The learning falls into at least two buckets:

“Millennials grew up in team environments,” Mosley says.  “When selling, they tend to be subservient to customers. For example, they might not make the distinction between customer-service and sales psychology. That’s not the model that works in sales or F&I. We have to sell.”

Millennials working at dealerships sometimes come from a customer-service mentality, rather than a sales mentality.

“That can affect F&I profitability,” Mosley says.

Jim Leman writes about automotive retail from Grayslake, IL. He is at [email protected]