F&I and Showroom, January 2016

www fi magazine com 34 F I and Showroom January 2016 AFIP T Your Year of Self Discovery BY DAVE ROBERTSON The last day of the year always elicits an exclamation of wishful thinking for the year to come But it also serves as a benchmark for gauging our progress toward short and long term goals In 2015 did you make good on the professional and personal objectives you set forth last New Years Its a question only you can answer and the answers will be as varied and unique as the readers of this column Granted many of our plans are based on last months bank statement pending family obligations or career considerations And its hard to get philosophical when youre focused on dollars and cents priorities such as keeping your job or providing for your loved ones With deft planning however you should be able to meet your primary obligations while discovering within yourself untapped talents abilities and strengths In fact the surge of personal confidence that comes from self discovery will greatly increase your odds of achieving your objectives whatever they might be I was reminded of the power of self discovery recently at a certification boot camp And lest you think this is a backhanded means of promoting AFIPs certification program it is not Ill be the first to admit that there are many things in life vastly more important than successfully completing the certification program And key among them is self discovery As is often the case at our boot camps sales managers and F I practitioners having toiled for years with minimal regulatory knowledge find themselves eye to eye with an ego threatening rule based academic exercise called AFIP certification Theyre not happy To be precise their demeanor ranges from nervous trepidation to fight or flight hostility Such was the scene when the AFIPs Vince Sweeney conducted the first boot camp session in Corpus Christi Texas A fair number of attendees were up for the challenge while others were in a foul frame of mind Invariably a couple of producers needed to take a second shot at the federal exam Given the level of acrimony I decided to conduct the second two day session myself However an unexpected transformation occurred between the two sessions The self doubters in the first group who passed the certification exam now saw themselves in an entirely different light They had successfully accomplished something they didnt believe they were capable of doing Those in need of retesting knuckled down and studied They passed with flying colors A second session candidate having feared that her lack of a college degree would impede her performance put her head on the table and had a good cry after learning shed passed all three modules For this fortunate group the significance of earning the Certified Professional in Financial Services designation paled in comparison to what they had unwittingly bestowed upon themselves the feeling of exuberance that can only come from self discovery Were in an occupation in which atrophy is the handmaiden of the status quo Its an easy trap to fall into in an up market when just keeping pace is a fulltime job And the pangs of self actualization are easy to quell with fat pay envelopes Its essential however to allocate time in 2016 to recharging your batteries and expanding your horizons Or in a more practical vein focus your self discovery in areas that will make you more efficient or help you move one step closer to achieving a long term objective The nice thing about self discovery is that its the successful completion not the magnitude of the endeavor that spurs us to want to reach further In your search for selfenrichment projects look for one commensurate with your available time capabilities and energy But make sure it is one that will yield the optimum personal or professional benefits Readily doable F I related projects with a direct correlation to capturing more finance and lease deals selling more aftermarket products or keeping your dealer out of harms way can be as simple as obtaining a working knowledge of the covenants on the back of the binding contracts you ask customers to sign Another worthy endeavor is becoming conversant with and fully implementing the National Automobile Dealers Associations Fair Credit Compliancy Policy and Program And finally if you arent already on board earn your AFIP certification Youve completed your 2015 assessment and hopefully added new challenges capable of testing your mettle to your bucket list To borrow Nikes tagline just do it If you dont 2017 will find you a year older but none the better for it ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Robertson is executive director of the Association of Finance Insurance Professionals AFIP Email him at david robertson@ bobit com The AFIPs executive director offers a few ways F I professionals can improve their performance and compliance acumen in 2016