Assertions that dealerships have been selling vehicle protection products online with the same success as in the physical finance-and-insurance office may not tell the entire story.
One F&I products provider told me that such accounts of digital F&I product penetration rates being equivalent to traditional F&I sales often still involve F&I staff.
“We find that there was an F&I discussion. Either online, on the phone or face-to-face,” EFG Cos. CEO John Pappanastos said.
Even when using a digital process, dealerships still should designate a person to overcome customer objections, Pappanastos said.
“Otherwise, they just click ‘decline,’ ” he said.
Pappanastos predicts some level of dealer-customer F&I interaction will endure even as online retailing expands.
“The engagement piece of the F&I space will always have relevance,” he said.
That said, EFG, in a 2022 forecast released Tuesday, also stresses the relevance of digital retailing technology to dealerships.
“The line between online and instore sales continues to blur,” Scott Kaskocsak, EFG dealers services executive vice president, wrote in the forecast. “Between vehicle pre-orders and a hybrid sales model, a new road to the sale is emerging.”
That road, according to the forecast, will require new training models and a different set of skills for salespeople.