Launching a Preloaded Bundle - Best Practices for Easy Profits

Presenting any aftermarket products and protection in F&I is already tough enough but when you are trying to help keep a preloaded ancillary package in the deal, it can be a real headache. Buyers don’t always see the value of a well-priced package designed to help save their vehicle from cosmetic issues.

It can also be challenging to try to squeeze those appearance protections in between the high margin products that require a deeper level of consultative selling (like VSC or GAP). A customer can easily get frustrated and say no to everything, including the appearance protection, if they have too many decisions to make.

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For this reason, it makes more sense to push these bundles to the front end of the sales process and let F&I focus be able to streamline their process, have more time to focus on VSC/GAP, and ultimately help make the buying experience better for the buyer by reducing the decisions they have to make in F&I. And who wouldn’t want that?

If your store is new to the idea of a preloaded ancillary package on every unit, here are some to not only get less pushback from customers but also make it a win-win for your F&I department…

Why It’s a Smart Offering

Dealerships that leverage a strong and comprehensive ancillary bundle on each unit do so because they know it will not only help increase product penetration quickly and easily, but that it also adds valuable profit with a low amount of resistance from the customer. 

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Every unit gets the bundle regardless of model or price and , if marketed properly, customers see this as a nice add to their vehicle that requires no ‘hard cost’ or installation of any sort. Appearance protections can be ‘dry’ with no chemical added and simply the 1-5 year protection term or ‘wet’ with actual chemical added with the same coverage. 

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Either way, it makes for a powerful ‘Why Buy Here’ value proposition that gives your dealership something unique to offer every customer for every car at a reasonable price for peace of mind that when/if they are looking to trade the car in or turn in their lease, the car will be in better cosmetic condition. 

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An Easy Way to Add Profit Per Deal

Your store sells about 100 units per month.  Let’s say you preload an appearance package at $295 on every unit. You get to 80% percent penetration at a hard cost of $50 per unit.

80 appearance packages nets your store around $19600 front end profit.

And that is assuming that not everyone will accept the coverage which of course if they did…you’re at $24500. 

And F&I has nothing to do with it. They could focus on the bigger products that carry bigger margins like extended warranties, GAP, and maintenance. Those products lend themselves to a more consultative sale anyway.

 Preload Best Practices

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• Intro: Make sure sales is trained properly to review the 'Why Buy Here’ pitch when explaining why the dealership adds this to every unit. Make sure they understand that while a preloaded bundle can help lessen the fear of hearing ‘No’, it doesn’t mean you don’t prepare to counter objections that are bound to come up. 

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• Disclosure: It should go without saying that everything added to Line 1 of the Buyer's Order should be properly disclosed upfront and with clarity on its own addendum. Every buyer should know exactly what has been added with any details necessary to explain what the protection is designed to do and how long the protection term is. Nothing hidden, nothing left out, and be certain the price is in bold so no one can accuse your store of a lack of transparency. BOLD is the key here.

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• Itemize: If your bundle has several components, list each individually. Don’t label it ‘Total Protection’ and offer the price added. That’s not enough and it will increase the requests for removal more often. If there are 6 separate protections, list all 6 in detail. The buyer can ask for more information from F&I through brochures, etc but on the addendum, it should be clear what is included. 

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Setting Up F&I for an Easier Upsell

Preloading a base coverage of 12 months for appearance actually helps the F&I managers upsell to a higher level of protection once the customers come to the business office. Ask the right questions and you can sell a longer protection, especially if they saw the value out on the lot with the salesperson.

Imagine the couple that comes in to buy an SUV for their family. With small kids and lots of family road trips to see the grandparents, they SHOULD have longer interior and exterior protection at 6 or 7 years since they keep their cars at least that long on average.

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Now couple that with a reasonable price to add into the deal and a focus on how it will help them get a higher amount in trade in a few years with an SUV that looks good inside and out and you have an easy way to bump them from a base year of protection out to 4 or 5 years to cover most or all of their loan term.

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Let Us Build It Out for You

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We know all about helping dealerships transition to an ancillary bundle for their inventory and have all the support necessary to help you add it on every unit. ExoGloss, powered by truWarranty, has the perfect bundle for every unit with a cost far below other providers to help maximize profit. Reach out to us today to see how easy it is to get started.