Today’s F&I Customers Do Their Homework

Shaka Dyson, president and founder of the Dealer F&I University, clearly hasn’t much fondness for traditional finance-and-insurance practices at car dealerships.

“Some trainers still teach F&I the way it was taught in the 1980s and 1990s,” he says. “I saw the opportunity to teach something different. The industry needs modern, real-world training geared to today’s consumers.”

He spent 17 years in auto retailing, mostly running F&I departments and then coaching F&I for the Ed Napleton and Rick Case dealership groups, before setting up shop on his own.

“My training is virtual, but my coaching is one-on-one in the store,” he says.

His F&I university includes courses, in-class video training and certification.

He says the Facebook “F&I 20 Group” he established links with 6,000 F&I managers and dealer principals.

“Its purpose is to give laser focus to every F&I subject the members want to discuss,” Dyson says. “We coach and dissect every sales approach, every challenge and every opportunity we see every day in real F&I offices.”

Dyson is not the only F&I instructor or provider to note how the car business is changing to engage better with consumers. Today’s buyers show up armed with all sorts of information from their Internet research and shopping.

Millennials go to dealerships “knowing everything the buyer used to rely on F&I for,” Dyson says. That includes their credit scores, loan rates and financing sources.

He says F&I managers need to work organically to build value. “Customers buy what they see value in, so we must teach F&I personnel how to be transparent, friendly and skilled at building value into the backend products they represent.”

He believes future F&I high-performers will come into the business knowing little about it, but having open minds to learn, create their own future and see opportunity in challenges.

They also must be self-motivated. “I can teach anyone F&I, but they have to be willing to keep sharpening their axe,” Dyson says, adding it’s something he continues to do to keep up.

“I am always training myself. Every day, when I coach F&I in a dealership I’m learning.”