Category: F&I Products

Selling F&I Products in the Service Lane

Automotive News reports the success AutoNation is having, selling F&I products in the service lane.  I thought MenuVantage dominated service-lane selling, and I was dismayed to see AutoNation using a different system.  I am not with MenuVantage anymore but – old rivalries die hard.

What caught my eye was the point about service-lane buyers needing a way to finance their service contracts.  I have a few words to say on this point – Service Payment Plan.  My pal Bob Hymen offers zero percent financing, and a complete selling kit for the service lane.

Service Payment Plan is integrated with a number of menu systems including MenuVantage.  The F&I Manager can create a finance contract for any of the leading providers, as shown here:

After that, the system prompts for a credit card or bank account, and then generates all the required paperwork.

Providers Keeping Their Forms

I have been polling my friends in the F&I Products industry, to hear their thoughts on DSP integration.  In general, they report obstacles at the dealer level and lower volumes than anticipated. The growth in web services continues, of course, with scattered outbreaks of SOA.

What I mainly wanted to hear about was forms management.  GE was the first, in my recollection, to provide completed contracts using their own web service – and this is now the trend.  It seems increasingly unlikely that providers will hand their forms over for administration by a DSP.

Provider Network Expands

PEN-LogoI recently attended the F&I Conference in Orlando, where I spoke with leaders of Open Dealer Exchange (ODE), ADP and Reynolds’ joint venture for credit aggregation.  ODE will use the Provider Exchange Network (PEN), which I originally developed for MenuVantage.  They are still running the network in good earnest.  Route One is also a PEN user, so maybe there is room for “co-opetition” between the two aggregators.