Your Next F&I Hire…Inside or Outside Candidate?

15 Sep Your Next F&I Hire…Inside or Outside Candidate?

Finding the right new hire is always a challenge, especially in the F&I department at your dealership. Do you promote from within? Do you look outside the dealership? It’s a huge gamble either way.

If your store is lucky enough to have a couple of strong closers that can hold a high per copy gross and maintain a solid CSI, you have few worries. So when you have an opening, you have a few options for finding that next superstar.

Internal candidates, external candidates, and even the ‘out of the box’ candidate all present their own unique advantages. So which hire is best for your store?

The Case for the Internal Hire

At every dealership, there are always a couple salespeople on the floor that say they want to ‘be in the box’ as an F&I manager. They want the office, the higher income potential, and the demo (if your store still allows those). But is he/she the right person? They could be for a few reasons.

An internal hire already knows your policies and procedures. They know how your store desks a deal and how the back office works. They are known commodities and you already have a sense of their personality with customers and other staff. No surprises here.

The Case for the External Hire

An outside hire, however, could bring a variety of dealer knowledge and skills that you may not have in-house. There would likely be little or no learning curve as an outside candidate will have years of experience under their belt with different OEM’s or banks. That’s particularly important in high volume dealerships.

The ‘out of the box’ hire (no automotive experience at all) doesn’t bring along any bad habits from other dealers and is not jaded about the pressures of the dealership environment. They can bring a fresh perspective and a variety of experience from other industries that can help them be successful.

What’s the verdict? Where should you look for your next F&I manager? External candidates have the advantage but also be open to considering a hire that has never worked in the car business. It’s a unique position that needs a stronger and more diverse skill set than the average salesperson.

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