notes from the drive
Practical thinking on Dealership Leadership, F&I Performance, and running the Overdrive™ Business Operating System.
Topics
Every good F&I protection bundle has one anchor: tire and wheel. Why it carries the bundle, why the value is real for the customer, and how to build a bundle for your market.
The strongest leadership teams hardly ever talk about one customer. If your manager meeting keeps pulling single deals into the room, here's why.
The fastest way to give away F&I margin is the discount game. Why "if I could take five hundred off, would you?" costs dealers money, and what to ask instead.
Two guides, one assistant, two completely different employees. Before you write off a weak performer, take an honest look at who they report to.
You will never find an open week for the important work. Claim the time first and let everything else fight over what is left.
GAP pays the difference between what a car is worth and what's owed. Why dealership GAP covers rolled-in negative equity, who needs it, who doesn't, and how to explain it.
Every customer has had a flat, a bent rim, a lost key, a door ding, or a windshield chip. How to sell the protection bundle by finding the story, and why menu order matters.
Carfax found unfixed recalls on more than 1 in 4 taxis and rideshares. The recall work is already paid for. What's missing is a name next to the list.
"Too expensive" is rarely the real objection on a vehicle service contract. How to find the reason behind the no with empathy and one question: what's your plan for when you have a repair?
The service contract conversation should change with the customer. How the case differs for the three-year trader, the six-to-seven-year keeper, and the used car buyer.
Most dealership leaders aren't failing at accountability because they don't care. They're failing because they're too buried in the work to lead.
The service contract is sold or lost before the menu comes out. A step-by-step look at the F&I customer interview: the handoff, the opening question, seventy-thirty talking, and the summary.
A warranty is free. A vehicle service contract is not. Why coverage matters more now that customers keep their cars six or seven years, and what a repair really costs them.
A four-store dealer’s reinsurance company was paying $1.86 in claims for every $1 of earned premium. Contract-level analysis revealed where the risk was concentrated and helped bring the loss ratio down to 60% over time.
Eighty-five percent of what actually matters comes from a handful of numbers. Everything else is noise. Here is how to find your five.
A planning day is one day. The other 89 in the quarter are where the store actually runs, and F&I is usually where the gap shows up first.
A headline this week said AI is becoming the dealership's operating system. That is backwards. AI is a tool. Your operating system is how your people run the store.
Direct questions in F&I get guarded answers. Learn how eliciting gets customers to volunteer the facts that sell service contracts, GAP, and tire & wheel without running an interview.
A luxury franchise dealer switched F&I providers and back-end gross per vehicle rose from $1,686 to $2,277. Here is what actually moved, and what did not.
A BMW rooftop rebuilt its finance desk from three managers down to two and posted the biggest F&I gain in its group. $818,912 more back-end gross, driven by price rather than line count.
Hitting the number is not the same as being done. The leaders who last stay grateful for the win and hungry for the next one.
Role confusion stalls dealership teams. Here's how Scorers and Playmakers work, and what leaders should do so both roles win.
Resumes can lie. Interviews can be performed. Here's how to actually test-drive a new hire before you commit, before a bad hire costs you thousands.
A Mercedes-Benz rooftop lost 77 units and rebuilt its desk from three managers to five, and still raised F&I PVR. The lever was finance penetration, not product.
A hunter finds business that doesn't exist yet. An order-taker waits. Know the difference, and which one you actually have on your team.
When every request is the top priority, nothing is. Rank the work, pick a few real ones, and stop treating the whole list like a fire.
A BMW rooftop sold 58 fewer cars and still added $372,045 in F&I gross. Three finance managers, three different personalities, and all three finished above $3,000 per copy.
Most performance problems are a skill gap or a will problem. One needs coaching. The other needs a decision. Here's how to tell them apart.
The most underrated onboarding framework in existence came from medicine. Watch one, do one, teach one, and almost nobody uses it outside the OR.
Most companies document too much or nothing at all. Both cost you the same thing.
Somewhere along the way, leaders got so worried about being called a micromanager that they quit managing at all.
Growth stalls where the owner won't let go.