As we move further into 2026, many of us have set goals and created a forecast for the year. Hopefully you have projected a year-over-year increase in performance and results in all the key performance metrics associated with F&I.
As you know, in F&I we often measure success by our gross per-vehicle retail number, which includes reserve and product profit on finance and lease deals, and just product on cash deals. If we are forecasting growth in our average per-vehicle number this year, increasing our average products-per-deal number must be a part of that forecast growth. As a trainer and coach, I look at products per deal as a true measurement of the competence and ability of an F&I manager rather than the F&I gross per deal metric alone.
F&I managers with higher product-per-deal averages across all transaction types tend to consistently be at the top of F&I performance reports. Their focus on products per deal becomes the engine that drives their performance.
I have had the privilege of working with a very high-performing F&I manager who was leaving her current luxury dealership to move to Texas to be closer to her aging mother. While we were preparing her replacement to step into her role, the replacement asked her if she could share one piece of parting advice before she left. She thought about it for a moment and said this:
“If you are fully engaged in the process, there is always one more product. Never be satisfied, always ask for it.” He asked her to explain what she meant, and she said, “Products go together. If they see value in a [vehicle service contract], they should see value in tire-and-wheel or maintenance. If they enroll in one product, they will enroll in two. If they enroll in three products, they will enroll in four. There is always one more product.”
Good advice. Her performance reflected her mindset. She was in a group with 64 other F&I managers across the platform, and for the three years I had access to their reports she was always in the top three in products per deal and gross profit per deal.
I thought I would share some of the things I believe led to her consistently high products per deal average.
First, she took discovery very seriously. She wanted to know everything she could about the customer before their first interaction. She took the time, every time, to learn how the customer would be using a new vehicle in daily life. She wanted to know this information so she could personalize for the customer the benefits of the products she offered, creating a greater value perception for the customer. This changed the customer interview from just asking for information to confirming the information she had learned that helped her customer feel known. This led to building trust, and in doing so encouraged the customer to be more involved in the process versus resisting the process.
Her focus on opening enhanced her ability to close. She was a product-knowledge expert with the ability to answer any questions quickly and accurately, which enhanced her credibility with customers. She invited customers into her process by giving choices, asking their opinions and guiding them through the process. She believed in product grouping, which simplified her menus and made them more logical and easier to understand for her customers. That meant showing how products go together and how the coverage of one product complements and completes the coverage of another.
She was also a very good storyteller with the ability to share what other customers experienced or how they made their decisions to enroll in a particular product or prioritized one over another.
She structured the menu with a personalized column reflecting the products that she could recommend based on what she knew about her customer.
And lastly, she used the accept/decline document to make a product recommendation based on what the customer had already enrolled in, or revisited products if the customer had chosen not to enroll in any. As you can see, increasing product enrollment comes from a combination of factors, but it starts with the belief that there is always one more product.
John Tabar serves as executive director of training for Brown & Brown.
LEARN MORE: Efficient Menu Building Without the Meltdown
