Paul “Hoss” Devine got into the car business when he was 19 because he was broke and noticed an industry professional who was doing pretty well for himself.

“We want all the rewards of hard work without doing anything,” he recalls now, 25 years later.

Of course, actually working in automotive disabused him of his teenage labor idealism, and he toiled for a decade in “about every seat in the store.” But Devine knew himself, his strengths and weaknesses, and realized that though he liked his chosen field, he needed to move to a different corner of the business, that is, his own business – a consultancy helping dealers achieve better results.

“I realized I don’t work well for others. I speak my mind, no matter what.” he said as he shared his decades of accumulated industry knowledge with guests at Bobit Dealer Group’s Industry Summit in New Orleans last fall.

Tired of the software used in the industry, as well as his servitude, he told his wife at the time he was going to start his own software company. At that point, the long, tall Oklahoman was a consultant helping teach dealers’ kids the car business and dealership operations.

“She asked, “What’s this mean to me?” Hoss replied, “Well, we need to move into our fifth wheel and put all our money towards this, should only be about a year.” They ended up living in the fifth wheel for three and a half.

The marriage didn’t last, but Kansas City-based technology provider Automotive Innovations did. Devine describes its products as providing “real-time actionable” data to maximize business by holding departments accountable for outcomes.

Through the years, as both a front-line worker and a visionary leader, he developed a finance-and-insurance framework he still sometimes trains with and outlined at the summit.

“Take what you like and leave the rest. It’s what I’ve seen and done in hundreds of stores across the U.S.,” said Devine, who apparently always wears a cowboy hat. “Too many times, people give up before the miracle happens … They don’t do the necessary things it takes to be successful in the industry.”

He took his audience through his five-point framework to help dealers get the F&I department performance they need:

Psych 101

It was appropriate that Devine started here because he majored in organizational psychology at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College.

By psychology, he meant that dealers must “get your mindset right.”

“You’ve got to get your head in the game,” he said.

Because F&I products aren’t concrete things that the consumer can inspect with their senses, F&I departments must follow a very specific process and have authoritative command of what they sell, Devine advised.

“You’ve got to create tremendous value with what you’re selling. We’ve got to make sure the customer believes that we believe,” he said. “Selling is a transference of feeling. I’ve got to make you feel the way I feel about something.”

Proper Presentation

Devine has observed F&I salespeople enough to know that the way they communicate about products is crucial in convincing customers to buy in, and “a lot of guys and girls don’t do well at it, in my opinion.”

Presentation, at least for most people, doesn’t come naturally, so he advocates videotaping F&I team members and coaching them on their presentations.

That’s “key to getting better performance and getting a better psychological state,” he said.

Devine said customers are generally asking themselves three major questions: Are they making the right decision; does the salesperson care about them; and if there’s a problem, will they be taken care of? Helping them answer those questions goes a long way in building their trust.

For instance, reviewing a warranty graphic with customers, showing them what their current coverages are so they can get clarity on whether they need to extend coverage.

“In sales, people make decisions based on internal or external pressure,” Devine said. “I have to set a process where I’m leading them down a path of self-discovery.”

Self-discovery is important because when a customer feels he or she had control over the decision, they’ll have ownership of it.

“How do your chargebacks look like when it’s their idea?” Devine asked his audience, gathering that most dealers see fewer reverses of agreed-upon customer purchases when they guide their decision-making rather than simply sell them on products.

Love From Sales

Inverting the approach to F&I sales, Devine said it should actually start with the sales office, meaning the F&I department’s relationship with sales staff.

He explained that customers must see value in the vehicles they’re buying before they’ll see value in an F&I product to go with it. Have they test-driven it, agreed to a sale price and a trade allowance, agreed to take delivery of it? If those steps haven’t been taken, the customer starts “on the defensive,” he said.

This is a pivotal reason the F&I department should cultivate a warm relationship with sales.

“The salesperson is the most important person in the dealership,” he said, the “internal customer,” if you will. “If the salesperson don’t dig us, the customer won’t, either.”

So F&I should avoid temptations to chastise sales but instead get to know and appreciate them, Devine said. The dealership’s staff should work together as a team.

“Most people in F&I sit back and don’t get involved,” he said. “Sales ability is one thing, trust is something else … If people don’t trust you, they’re not going to buy from you.”

Paper-Buying Trail

Another key point Devine said F&I departments should pin down is making sure the customer’s financial situation fits the purchase so that you can get your paper bought.

“Most of the time, we’re failing to build a case for the bank with the customer,” he said. “If you can’t get a deal bought, you can’t win.”

That starts with the most basic of questions – does the customer make enough money to buy a particular car? Does he or she have equity? Learn how much can be afforded for a down payment. Those questions have become more relevant, he said, as repossessions increase, and it’s important to understand what lenders are looking for.

“It’s about a personal connection,” he said. “You have to interact with other people. You can’t sit behind a desk … This is a business about people.”

Then there was a point that referred back to an earlier one Devine made in his talk about putting the right people in the right staff positions to play to their strengths.

“Sales, administration, management and lender function – how many people are good at all of those?” he asked his audience.

One man piped up, “Very few.”

Devine’s point. “We have to focus and identify what somebody’s good at and what they’re not good at.”

Administrative Matters

Which led him to the importance of organization in the dealership. Something as simple as a document lost in a stack on someone’s desk can lead to a lost deal, he said.

Forms must get to the accounting department on time, and F&I staff should be familiar with the routing procedure to ensure papers get to lenders in an efficient time frame.

It may have sounded obvious, but Devine reminded his listeners that they and their staffs should also have full command of which customers qualify for which products and understand receivables and collections. He advised establishing a training curriculum around such building-block particulars.

“There are a lot of aha moments when you start training on that. Read the contracts – if you can’t tell me what it says, why should I sign that?”

Devine left his listeners with an illustration of his point about letting customers make their own decisions by your prompts.

He said that for about the past decade, he’s adopted a visual aide in his trainings, bringing along a seatbelt for the F&I office. That’s because the belt has a tube inside containing an explosive nitrogen charge that pins a vehicle’s occupant against the seat in the event of a crash.

“I set it on the desk so the customer can see it, so when you’re going through the warranty [graphic], you can explain the time and technology just for a seatbelt. Imagine what’s put into other technology – 60% of problems in the shop are electrical. If you educate the customer, they make the right decision.”

Hannah Mitchell is executive editor of F&I and Showroom. A former daily newspaper journalist, her first car was a hand-me-down Chevrolet Nova.