Evaluate Your Roster

I love football. High school, college or the NFL, it doesn’t matter. I am amazed at the speed and athleticism of the game and those who play it today.

Most of the young men who are in the NFL were lucky enough to have the right coaches in their lives along the way that were able to develop their talent and help them realize their potential. The discipline, learning, training and development process never stops.

The NCAA tells us that only 2.6% of high school players go on to play at a Division I college and only 1.5% of those players ever make it to the NFL. Yet the interesting fact is that, even though these players are the best of the best, they spend a majority of their time training.

When we think of training in football, we think of lifting weights and running drills. But NFL coaches will tell you that film study is some of the most productive time spent with a player — not studying their opponents but the performance of the player.

The NFL game is changing, and coaches and players need to evaluate and adjust to keep up. Evaluating film takes a lot of time, but it is worth it. The time coaches spend with each player in performance evaluation helps them put the most prepared and talented roster on the field each week.

As an agent, what is the talent level on your roster?

Count Your Superstars

General F&I training for the sake of training is better than nothing but unfortunately isn’t usually the best strategy. As an agent, you are like a head coach; you didn’t get to pick your roster — the GM of the store does that — but it is in your best interest to evaluate, train and coach your roster to perform to their highest potential.

If you were to evaluate all your players, what percentage of your roster would you consider an F&I superstar?

You know this kind of player. They are consistent performers who set goals, seek constant improvement, and track and review their performance data to determine areas of growth. These pros hold themselves accountable to compliant F&I processes and procedures that deliver results, they go the extra mile, and they are detail-orientated. They listen to and focus on the customer’s needs. They use their extensive knowledge to align those needs with the products and services they have to offer to make the intangible tangible — products that are wanted and valued by the customer.

That description is not just a pro but an all-pro! What would your team’s performance look like if you had a few more all-pros on the roster?

Our game is changing too. Our customers in F&I are demanding a faster, easier and more customer focused needs based experience.

Be a Better Coach

The better we can evaluate the talent and ability of our F&I managers to deliver this level of experience, the better we can train and develop them into pros and ultimately all-pros.

The problem is that it takes a lot of time and effort to evaluate individual performance and then create individual training and development plans for each member of our roster based on their needs. But if you do, the results can be amazing.

You will find some players have the talent but need more general game-planning and coaching, like training camp. You will also find some players that just need to be made aware of some of the tendencies they have developed that, if corrected, can get them back on top of their game. Unfortunately, you might also find some players you might suggest be traded or allowed to seek other opportunities in free agency!

The more specific and appropriate training is to the individual’s needs, the better and more effective it can be. Evaluate all the resources your training provider offers — such as classroom, online and in-store — and utilize them. If the content is too general, ask that more specific content be created.

NFL coaches don’t evaluate and train their players some of the time; they evaluate and train their players all of the time. To win, so should we.