Excelling in F&I means you’re skilled in several areas. Being a strong closer may mean more products sold, but having weak needs discovery skills translates into higher charge-backs and low CSI scores. The opposite is just as frustrating. You may be gifted in discovering why a customer needs your products, but without the ability to close the sale, you will perform at below-average standards.

Throughout my career as a training consultant, I’ve identified four areas where F&I professionals can and should excel.
So, let’s take a run around the bases.

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Anyone that knows their way around cars and boats can go to an electronics store, buy a stereo and some speakers and install them up on a boat, right? Making that install last is a whole other question. Finding the right stereo system for the harsh environment of a boat is no easy task. Now you need to combine that with getting a pair of indestructible but nice-sounding speakers, flush-mounting it in a protected yet accessible spot, running the correct wire to power, breakers and radio along with matching it to a good antenna. I hope you’re prepared for a job that will require all of your patience and skill.

Probably the single, most important element of a marine audio system is its resistance to water damage for obvious reasons. Boats live on water so you really cannot expect to avoid some exposure to water in that environment. It also offers other dangers to an audio system such as humidity, wind, salt, corrosion, chlorine, sun, and so on.

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