A Box of Another Color

Okay, you’re reading an F&I industry piece and the title which includes the key word “BOX” may well send your focus to the F&I office, aka “THE BOX.” Such is not the case here. So for the purpose of this writing, let’s forget the F&I Box reference and recast our thoughts to the “BOX WE LIVE IN.” The Box We Live In of course refers to the business environment we live in and the boundaries we set for ourselves.

Entertain yourself for a moment and envision that you’re a mechanic named Fred at Atlas Honda. You wake five days each week at 6 a.m. and get on your way at 7 a.m. for a 7:30 start. Just like everyone else you can’t remember passing the last three traffic lights and the mall that you’ve driven by every work day for the last seven years. Somehow by force of habit you arrive safely and the routine begins. You enter through the usual door, change into your uniform and make your space ready for the work flow that’s sure to follow. Then you break for lunch with the usual guys and reverse course at 5:30 heading home. Fred has been doing the same thing at the same place for fifty weeks each of the past seven years and there is plenty missing from Fred’s business environment. No organized idea exchange with peers in a similar line of work exists. Advancing operational and repair technologies are only known to Fred. For all practical senses, Fred lives in a box named Atlas Honda.

Let’s consider a second case with Bill who is a claims representative for Acme Service Contract Company. Bill lives near Fred and Acme is just one block from Atlas Honda. This similarity is important because Bill follows much the same route to work missing three traffic signals and blows right by the mall. He likes to catch one of three parking spaces near the building…it’s just habit. Bill hits the coffee pot each day on his way to his space. Upon arrival he drops his jacket on the file cabinet, plops into his chair and lights up his terminal preparing for action…every day, five days per week, 50 weeks each year for the past seven years. At this point all appearances would declare this scenario as “Bill’s Box” and it is to a point.

Bill is an aggressive employee and Acme is a progressive employer. Bill is fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in five different staff advancement programs each year. Two of them are internal sessions dedicated to both telephone and people skills. Two more are external and allow Bill to meet with others in the same field while sharing experience and innovations that serve to broaden individual knowledge and capabilities. The fifth session is a brainstorming collection of Acme employees that includes middle managers and senior staff. Each one of the five sessions allows Bill to take a break from the routine, look back at his role and the thoughts and processes he employs and move ahead via the exchanges picked up by expanding his Box.

There is no doubt that you too will get the sense that Bill wants to grow both his role/responsibility and reward in the “Acme Box” by willingly reaching outside the Box and growing its size and scope. It has often been said that fear defines the boundaries of our success but it may also be said that effort defines the boundaries of our success. In Bill’s case, effort proved to be the pathway to personal growth as he continued to learn and apply new and advanced concepts to perfect the reach of his vocation.

If for any reason you’re still wondering where this is going, wonder no more. John is a career F&I agent with the World F&I Group. John spent five years in retail as an F&I manager before making the move seven years ago. As you might suspect, John markets products for Bill’s firm, the Acme Service Contract Company; and Atlas Honda, Fred’s store, is one of his clients. In fact, John stops to provide service and support at Atlas Honda every Monday morning on the way to his own office.

Yes it’s true John has no recall of those traffic signals or the mall but he better be alert, informed and up to the task as he prepares to encounter a morning of surprises. The dealer principal wants an explanation of a participation payout, the service manager is questioning a claims denial and Betty the office manager with a mustache is screaming about product refunds that are slow in coming.

For the purpose of this article, these are your friends and have been your client for years. The balance of Monday is in your office organizing reports, planning your week and calling to make appointments for either service or sales. As you can imagine this would have been the Box that John lived in for 50 weeks each year had he not put forth the effort to grow personally and professionally through involvement in peer meetings and conferences, training sessions and industry events. He seized every opportunity to gain knowledge to become expert in his field of choice. That leads me to another thought that is really important when you consider so many other people that you deal with that simply operate within the confines of their daily environment.

Let’s take a look at Al who is the F&I manager at Atlas Honda and naturally Al lives in a Box called Atlas Honda. Al relies upon John as his F&I agent to bring him the latest products, training, sales ideas and performance tips. John of course gathers all kinds of good information through those peer meetings, conferences, training sessions, industry events and simply from exposure to the practices of others from the 12 or so other dealerships that he supports. And yes for the most part the staffs at other stores operate in their own Box and look to expand it through John.

As F&I agents you already know how demanding this field is. What you do to grow yourself beyond your role can be the difference of being one of many or one in a million. A sample list of topical expertise to target for personal growth might be as follows:

• F&I Training and Coaching

• F&I Product Knowledge

• F&I Technology Systems

• Reinsurance Vehicles

• Client Acquisition

Clearly career F&I agents have demonstrated collectively that personal growth and expertise in their field of choice is important as this group elevates its capabilities year after year. Do be one of those leading the charge. Do it for yourself, do it for your family and do it for your profession.

Don’t just think outside the box, go outside the box and enlarge the environment you work in.

Finally, don’t miss the best opportunity to mix it up with the best of the best F&I agents and start 2012 with a leap forward. Plan on attending the ‘Agent Summit’ in Las Vegas in March. The workshops are always outstanding and you will without a doubt depart with a lot of fresh ideas to bring to your dealer clients and prospects.