"It's the little things that make the big things possible. Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class." - J. Willard Marriott, hotelier

"It's the little things that make the big things possible. Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class."          - J. Willard Marriott

In recent years, virtually every company that provides F&I training, and the vast majority of dealerships, have embraced the use of a menu in the F&I office. Unfortunately, all menus are not created equal. The best menus are professionally designed, custom-tailored to the dealership, and help the F&I manager sell more products while protecting the dealership. The worst menus are homemade, legally questionable documents that do nothing but add another piece of paper to every deal jacket.

Just because you're using a menu, there is no guarantee that it is effective, efficient, or even legal. Your menu should be designed to protect the dealership, and help you sell more products. Using a menu in the F&I office can help protect your dealership from potential liability and future litigation... if it is utilized every time with every customer by every F&I manager. A menu doesn't sell anything. It's a piece of paper... not a magic bullet. What it will do is get all of the customer's options on the table, so you can discuss with them why-- in their particular situation-- each product is especially important. A menu also helps provide proof that all of the products were offered, the coverage explained, and that the customer selected the products he or she wanted. Plus, it documents that the customer affirmatively requested the F&I products he purchased, and confirms that he not only knew about, but in fact requested the F&I products be included in his payment.

However, simply using a menu in the F&I office does not automatically ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. A menu must not be deceptive or designed to misinform, mislead, or confuse a customer. For example, the term "Base Payment" on a finance menu is a misnomer, since Base Payment is a lease term being used to describe what is actually the "Principal & Interest" payment. A finance menu should call it what it is, the principal and interest payment.

The customer must see the principal and interest payment he or she agreed to prior to reviewing or discussing any options. A customer needs to be reassured the payment she was given is correct, and she can take delivery of the vehicle for that amount. If a menu is not filled out completely, if the principal and interest payment is not shown, if the APR is conveniently left off, or if it reflects inflated monthly payments based upon the rate shown, a menu can also create a paper trail that documents deceptive F&I sales practices at your dealership.

Every dealer should consult with their attorney to ensure their menu (especially if it has been created in-house!) and their manager's menu-based presentation complies with the various consumer protection laws applicable to F&I, and includes all the necessary disclosures. These include the principal and interest payment, the interest rate, the term of the loan, and a statement to the effect that the sale or financing of the vehicle is not contingent on the purchase of any F&I products, and the purchase of any products will not influence the customer's interest rate, credit approval, or ability to obtain financing.

Keep in mind, a menu should be used to introduce F&I products to every customer with a consistent, non-confrontational, consultative approach that allows them to make a well-informed decision about the various options available in connection with their purchase. Using a menu as a last resort or as an additional disclosure after making the customer endure yet another feature/advantage/benefit "presentation" on every F&I product is not menu selling... it's step selling using a piece of paper. A well-designed menu should help you sell more products, not be yet another form a customer has to sign after being forced to endure an unwanted, unwelcome and uninvited sales pitch.

Over the past eight years of working with F&I professionals around the country, we've learned a lot about what it takes to make a menu an effective sales tool. First, whatever type of menu or menu software you use, the menu should be printed out for the customer to review the options available in connection with their purchase. Once the menu is printed, an F&I manager can focus on finding and filling customer needs vs. creating the perfect menu of products and payments. More importantly, if the menu is printed, we can use it to get the customer commitment to a product or payment by circling the appropriate icon or having them initial the payment desired. A customer cannot yet initial or sign a computer screen to buy a product.

Any menu must be tailored to the products offered by your dealership, with product packages created by the manager(s) who will be using it. While you may prefer to have GAP, tire & wheel road hazard protection, and the vehicle service agreement in the basic option, another F&I manager may prefer the VSA, GAP, and paint sealant in the basic option. You can't shove a menu down someone's throat and expect them to embrace it. You must have buy-in from your F&I manager(s), and you only get buy-in when they're involved in designing it. They must have input in designing the menu they're expected to use, including what product packages they want to offer.

The most effective menus include three distinct option packages with meaningful names. A fourth or Alternative Option typically offers the same products as the Preferred or Standard Option, only with a slightly longer (or shorter) term, or that includes additional cash down. The key is- the payment in the fourth option must be higher than the Basic Option, but lower than the Standard or Preferred Option.

Too many menus use this fourth column as an Economy Option with fewer options and a lower payment than the Basic Option, so the payments step down from high to low all the way across the menu. We have found this is not nearly as effective as using a fourth option package with a payment that is higher than the basic option. If the last payment goes up, it funnels the customer back to the Basic Option. If it's lower than the Basic Option, it shoots the customer's attention right off the page, where the next option is "None Of The Above." In fact, in a dealership offering an Economy Option, one customer actually pointed to the desk beside the menu, and said "I'll take this option right here."

If you look at menus used by other businesses, they don't list products from most expensive to least expensive. The appetizers on a restaurant menu are not shown from most to least expensive. Neither are the entrees... or the deserts. Services available at Kinko's are not listed from most to least expensive. Dealerships don't line up their inventory from the most expensive vehicle to least expensive vehicle, and an F&I menu should not have option packages that go from most expensive to least expensive. Making the payment on the fourth option higher will focus the customer's attention back on the basic option.

While in most states it is not required that prices be shown for each individual product on the menu, it is critical that there be a payment shown under each option package, including the Alternative Option. A customer will not commit to purchasing a package without knowing how much that package will cost. The purpose of grouping products into a package is to make it easier for the customer to buy multiple products by selecting a package. Leaving the Alternative Option blank and offering to custom tailor an option package during your initial presentation greatly reduces the chance that the customer will select a package. Obviously, we will be more than happy to tailor a payment option upon request, but our hope is they will pick one of the packages.

A professionally designed menu, whether pre-printed or computer generated, with each option package presented in a different color, is much more effective than a black and white menu. Color makes it easier for a customer to differentiate one product package from another, and color conveys a subtle yet powerful message. Color has meaning. Royal blue means something. Green means something. Red means something. Grey means something. It's critical, however, that color be used to delineate each option package, not each product. The whole idea behind using color is to make it easier for the customer to distinguish between the different packages, and encourage them to select the Preferred Package.

The use of product specific icons on a menu also helps make F&I products more tangible, while allowing an F&I manager to gain customer commitment simply by circling the appropriate icon, without asking the customer to sign or initial anything. Icons enable an F&I manager to use an assumptive close whenever he or she gets a positive response from the customer. By circling the icon next to the product, the customer takes mental ownership, and you don't even have to ask a closing question. Once the customer gives you an affirmative response to a product, circle the appropriate icon in the "Preferred Option" and ask them to buy a package!

In addition to the name of the product, your menu should include a brief explanation of what each product is, and what it does, to allow the customer to make an informed decision with regard to that product. Including a laundry list of benefits under each product however, turns a menu into a pre-printed sales pitch, a sales brochure for multiple products, which is a real customer turn off. Customers want to know what their options are. They just don't want somebody trying to "sell" them something. When a customer feels a menu is being used to sell them products, not to review the options available in connection with their purchase, an effective sales tool becomes a sales hammer.

Finally, each option package should reflect only one monthly payment. When a menu includes payments for 48 months, 60 months and 72 months for four different option packages, it gives the customer twelve different payments to choose from. That is simply too many choices. Using the Alternative Option to offer an extended term allows you to determine how receptive they are to extended term, while retaining all products.

A menu-based F&I presentation designed to ensure every customer is being offered every product every time, takes the pressure out of the F&I process, improving customer satisfaction and reducing chargebacks. And a properly designed menu can greatly reduce the time customers spend in the F&I office, protect your dealership, and enable you to sell multiple products to more people more often... dramatically increasing your income.