Better F&I Meetings Start with These Tips

15 Sep Better F&I Meetings Start with These Tips

Everyone has a love-hate relationship with workplace meetings. Dealerships are not immune, either. But when was the last time your store had a meeting just for the F&I staff? How often do they meet? Are they productive meetings or just an afterthought?

The F&I department’s meetings should be just as important as the sales or service meetings you conduct. So how can you maximize that time and make it as valuable for the staff as it is for management? How can you make it something that the staff looks forward to?

Here are a few ways to make the F&I meetings productive and helpful:

1. How Often?– Many people complain about weekly meetings but there are distinct advantages. Weekly meetings, while shorter in duration, can make it easier to conduct training and role-playing for staff.

Monthly meetings have the advantage of not burning out the staff and management can make it a longer, multi-faceted gathering with more in-depth training, guest trainers, or other dealer personnel as a guest speaker.

2. Be Ready with Topics– Don’t waste your F&I managers time.  Make sure the meeting has a clearly defined purpose so that all staff know exactly how to prepare and what will be discussed. Let them know who will be a guest (sales manager, service director, bankers, etc.) and what topics will be covered.

3. Always Be Teaching- There are few training methods as effective as role-playing, especially in any kind of sales position. It’s one of the best ways to help your F&I staff understand their own shortcomings in both presentation and product knowledge when executed in a supportive manner. Work on both common scenarios and unique situations that may have come up the week before…make it a timely way to address challenges that everyone may encounter.

It’s a valuable learning tool for everyone (directors, too!) and will help you strengthen the skills and knowledge of every F&I manager.

Always aim to make the meeting fun, too. There is enough daily stress in F&I without making meetings something they dread.