“We have some of the top talent in the state of Florida. We didn’t start there, but that’s where we’re at now,” said Morgan Auto Group Vice President of Financial Services Justin Buzzell.
When Buzzell joined the auto group in 2022, his initial focus was compliance, but his efforts have since reached far beyond that. Aside from building out the company’s compliance and auditing department, he helped increase its finance-and-insurance product penetration. How did the group do it?
With a mixture of protecting the house, training for excellence, and a performance mindset, said Buzzell in a presentation at the 2026 Ethical F&I Managers Conference.
One of the biggest moves the auto group made was changing its F&I menu provider. Buzzell said that overnight it went from a seven-product F&I menu to one with 13 products. And because it changed providers, it had to provide new training for the department. That led to the development of what Buzzell calls its internal performance team, which travels to all of its stores to provide basic, and now advanced, F&I training.
The results speak for themselves. Eventually, the department went from running 1.6 products per deal to 2.18 and increasing its per vehicle retail by 23% to $2,648. As Buzzell said, product sales protect profitability.
Protect the House
“The first and foremost thing that we always learn when we go into F&I is protect the house,” Buzzell said.
Protecting the house is a combination of winning in the market, protecting profitability and building a sustainable culture, he explained. And consistency is key to achieving those goals. From product sales to compliance auditing and customer experience, consistency at scale sticks, whether you have one store or 100.
Buzzell explained that it audits every store twice a year. But to build consistency at scale F&I departments must constantly track their progress, not just once a week or once a month.
“How do you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been or where you’re at? Make sure you have the tools necessary to know where you’re going,” he said.
Train for Excellence
And that’s where training comes in. You’ve reviewed your processes. You know your weak points, and you know your goal. Now it’s time to train to the standard you set.
To Buzzell that means training for excellence and to develop future leaders. That requires consistent coaching and daily habits that drive results.
For one, Morgan Auto Group has all sales and F&I managers earn an Association of Finance & Insurance Professionals certification, which helps support dealership compliance. About 800 employees have received AFIP certification in the past three and a half years.
Buzzell acknowledged that you’re not always going to win but that when you don’t win you gain a learning opportunity. And when issues arise, he said that it’s best to quickly gather the facts, coach fairly and escalate matters when necessary.
“The performance that we have is an outcome of the things that we do, and I don’t want anybody that’s not willing to protect the house,” he said.
But he said he believes that recognizing excellence is also an important part of leadership.
“When somebody does a great job, tell them. Recognition goes a long way,” he said.
One way he does that is through the auto group’s F&I training academy held every two months. The “most valuable player” receives a football signed by the class – a fairly new tradition that has spurred a friendly competition between general managers, he said.
Build a Sustainable Culture
Training employees to follow a process is only part of the equation. Buzzell said dealerships must also build a sustainable culture that’s not tied to one person.
That requires developing talent before a position needs to be filled, or as he puts it, building the bench. Morgan Auto holds a basic F&I academy every two months to cross-train employees, prepare future leaders and create organizational depth. And in April it launched an advanced F&I academy.
“Culture comes from within,” Buzzell said.
He described his approach as servant-minded leadership, which involves investing in employees and giving them the support needed to succeed.
“I believe you lead from the front. The reason I believe that is because I’m never going to ask anybody to do something I wouldn’t do,” he said.
Buzzell, with over 25 years of experience in the automotive and finance industries, is directly involved in the hands-on training efforts the auto group prioritizes across its many rooftops.
To help build a company’s culture, he encouraged conference guests to consider what disciplines they observe in their stores that separate them from their competitors.
