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Make Managing Finance a Tag Team Event

Teamwork helps your F&I office succeed

You know the feeling�

You come in late Monday morning after a busy weekend and your finance partner is standing there looking at his or her watch. Your partner can�t wait to get out the door, and the moment you arrive he or she disappears. That�s when the fun begins.The first thing you notice is the stack of deals that need to get bought. As you go through the files you find �stips� missing, incomplete application information and the need to verify insurance. Within a few hours the business office brings some of the �simple� deals back because the contracts were written wrong, or the payoff on a trade is missing.

Finally � after a tremendously busy day � you�re reconciling the Doc Sheet and you find that it doesn�t balance. It takes an extra hour to find the error that occurred on Friday night (after you left) and to correct 3 days worth of bad accounting. And you have to adjust all the commission vouchers. Did I miss anything? Unfortunately, we all know I missed a lot!

Change begins with you

If you expect to change things in your department, you must take the lead. It�s only natural for those who get dumped on to want to dump back, but the idea that �What goes around comes around� can cause a snowball effect that makes your job a nightmare. So make the decision to change the way you and your partner do things in the finance office.

Here are a few ideas:

Communicate - The first thing you need to do is make a commitment to spend time with each other at shift changes. Discuss all the deals that were written and the status of pending deals. Ask questions to be sure you understand the details of every deal.

Team Assist - Agree with each other in advance to be on call to tag-team some of the paper work when weekends are particularly busy.

Capitalize - Consider each others strengths and weaknesses. Some people are great at getting deals bought with certain lenders. Others are good at processing transactions and reports. Do the things you do best and let your partner do the things he or she does best.

Support � Make the decision to stand up for each other. That doesn�t mean to lie if your partner is a cheat; it just means to support each other when things aren�t necessarily going well. Benjamin Franklin said, �We must all hang together, or assuredly, we will all hang separately.� Teamwork is critical to the success of any business. Failure to work as a team will result in frustration and probably shorten your career.

So sit down with your partner, review the ideas in this article, and take your first steps toward a more enjoyable working relationship.