The Complete F&I Reference Book is no longer the only available 'handbook' on how to do the job of Finance and Insurance manager. Twenty years ago, this manual was found on the bookshelves of hundreds of dealerships across the country and used by F&I training programs everywhere, including Northwood University. However, it is still the only guide to applying the lessons of Neuro-Lingiistic Programming specifically to successful F&I sales.
Since then, the car business has changed. Whole technologies, like the fax machine, have come and gone. Elite sales talent, which often found a home in high-end car sales, has moved on for the most part. Instruction in the business these days seems to be more about Compliance than it is about how to sell.
The F&I manager's job has always been that challenging combination of compliance and sales. This book covers both comprehensively. The guidelines on how to do this complicated job successfully haven't really changed, even though some laws and taxes may be different.
The 'old school' approach ... people buy from people they like ... is always at the heart of successful selling. This has always come naturally to the most talented salespeople. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) grew out of the study of these most successful people ... what is it that they do, often without being fully aware of it, that engages the other person so fully? NLP brings those characteristics and those habits to light, so that we can copy the behavior and obtain similar results.
Dave Stephenson started as an F&I manager in a Toyota dealership in 1979. During the heyday of Silicon Valley in the 80's, Dave was the F&I director at one of the country's leading Mercedes-Benz dealerships, right in the middle of it all. After publishing this book twenty years ago, Stephenson traveled the country doing seminars for a couple of years, before joining a start-up based in Virginia, The Automark Group. When Automark was sold in 2000, first to Half-A-Car and then to Reynolds and Reynolds, Dave went back into the business for a couple of years at Beverly Hills Mercedes-Benz as Director of Marketing, helping to prepare the store for sale by Jardine Matheson.
For the last few years, Stephenson has been a professional sports photographer in the Bay area. He recently moved into the redwoods by the Russian River. This book was reprinted by popular request. Other books are: Rugby Stories and other misadventures; Buddha Never Heard of Buddha and Brain Wave.