‘RV Executive Today’ Explores F&I and Profitability

EDITOR’s NOTE: The following is an excerpt of an article in the April issue of RV Executive Today, published by the RV Dealers Association (RVDA), discussing how F&I can lead RV dealership profitability in 2023.

A new RV market is here; is your dealership ready? Dealership lots are full of RVs again and gross profit in sales are returning to pre-pandemic levels. This is the time to establish a cohesive process between the sales and business departments. Working transactions as a team and having your salespeople make an early F&I introduction to your customers can set your F&I products up to offset the coming dip from unprecedented sales levels over the past few years.

There are three main areas where RV dealers can focus training efforts to drive F&I revenue and offset the likely decline in sales profitability.

Match products to customer values.
Before we help customers select the products that work best for them, we must establish the need first. Start with the basics by explaining how to protect the customers’ investment. The most talented managers ask key questions regarding a customer’s ownership expectations and then paint a picture of why to purchase a product based on their ownership needs.

Take an RV vehicle service contract (VSC), for example. It’s more effective to talk about how RV mechanical components sometimes break—reminding that the nature of RV travel means that the customer will likely be at a campsite or in a remote area if there’s a mechanical breakdown—than it is to pull out a brochure and go over the nuts-and-bolts of coverage. Get the customer talking about how they plan to use their RV to really drive home the value of having a product that comes with towing, roadside assistance, mobile mechanic, and other convenience benefits. You’ll quickly learn from a customer’s reaction and questions which products resonate and which do not so you can tailor presentations to each customer.

Click here to read the complete article at RV Executive Today.