F&I and Showroom, September 2015

2015 F I Pacesetters 18 F I and Showroom September 2015 change The groups product index has also grown more than 50 Compliance Check Last August Johnson Automotive installed the NADAs Fair Credit Policy Program That meant every deal started with a standard interest rate and at MSRP If forced to deviate a sheet is included in the deal folder explaining the reason All F I managers are required to sign a form confirming theyve reviewed the groups compliance manuals and understand whats expected of them in terms of ethics and compliance And to ensure those policies are followed the groups F I agency Dealer Service Solutions conducts three audits a month at each store pulling a total of 15 deals per F I manager The group also completes mandatory compliance training three times a year F I Driver Installed as the groups business operations director in August 2014 Kostern began working on a new F I sales process after detecting customer resistance to the menu presentation particularly in the groups highly educated Raleigh market He fine tuned that process for most of 2014 before installing it in some stores in December and rolling it out groupwide this past March The new process eliminated the needs discovery interview and delayed the menu presentation until after the F I manager reviews the factory warranty shares Johnson Automotives promise to its customers reviews each F I product and explains how they are designed to ensure customers have a positive ownership experience Kostern refers to his process as a conversational menu selling system Not only did the group break its all time PRU and F I profit records for the first seven months of the year as a result of the change CSI scores soared and the groups chargeback rate fell by 30 But what really keeps things moving in the right direction is the groups focus on training F I managers are video recorded as they run through their presentations and those videos are reviewed and critiqued during the groups monthly roundtable meeting And every Monday the team holds a conference call to discuss each stores performance from the prior week The group also holds a monthly F I boot camp for underperforming producers an all day training session designed to get them above the groups minimum F I performance standards I recently asked my guys if they were tired of training yet as we have been doing a lot of it for the last eight months Kostern says And it does seem like were training around the clock But I wanted to recreate that feeling of F I school because you never feel more confident as an F I manager than when you come back from F I school Trophy Case The group has earned a host of CSI and performance based awards including the Lexus League of Elite award Subarus Stellar Care Award Hondas Presidents Award and Porsches Premier Porsche Dealer distinction Kostern also made Automotive News 40 Under 40 Retail list this year Setting the Pace Led by owner David Johnson Jr the dealer group participates in a host of charities and community events including Toys for Tots the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Childrens Fight for Hope KELLEY AUTOMOTIVE GROUP Background Kelley Automotive Group was founded by the late Jim Kelley in August 1952 the same day his son Tom Kelley was born The family patriarch had already built a reputation for being a successful business leader by the time Tom Johnson Automotive has improved its F I gross profit by 3 to 4 million following the implementation of Greg Kosterns new F I process earlier this year Kostern refers to it as a conversational menu selling system Greg Kostern who was named Johnson Automotives business operations director in August 2014 made Automotive News 40 Under 40 Retail list this year