September 7, 2023
The way customers buy vehicles has changed dramatically in recent years. Today’s buyers expect — and deserve — a seamless, fast, and digital-first experience. Dealers have made strong progress with online retailing, but one area still lags behind: finance & insurance. While the industry has adopted innovative tools for browsing, pricing, and communication, the process often remains slow, fragmented, and frustrating for both sales teams and consumers.
To move toward a fully modern retailing model, the industry must rethink how it integrates into the buying journey. Streamlining this step not only enhances customer satisfaction but also increases transparency, efficiency, and CSI—core elements of today’s retail expectations.
This guide explores the challenges of traditional F&I, why the current structure no longer aligns with modern consumer behaviour, and how dealerships can evolve by combining sales, contracting, and its workflows into one simplified, digital solution.
Modern retailing blends digital retailing tools with updated internal dealership processes to empower customers to buy vehicles the way they prefer—whether online, in-store, or a hybrid of both. It acknowledges a critical truth: technology alone cannot modernise car sales. The internal structure of the dealership must adapt too.
While many dealerships use advanced tools for browsing inventory, calculating payments, or scheduling appointments, the finance & insurance step remains disconnected. The result: long wait times, confusing paperwork, and a buyer experience that abruptly shifts from smooth and digital to slow and manual.
To meet the expectations of younger, digital-native customers, the process must become a fluid, transparent extension of the sales journey—not a bottleneck.
Historically, dealerships hired salespeople who excelled at negotiating but lacked relationship-building skills. The finance & insurance manager emerged to soften the experience, rebuild rapport, and present protection products.
While the intention was good, the structure created an unnecessary division in the sales cycle:
This slows the process and creates friction precisely when the customer wants clarity and speed.
Buyers consistently cite finance & insurance as the most disliked step of car buying. Being moved into a separate office, re-pitched products, and presented with a new monthly payment feels out of alignment with the rest of the experience.
Customers often wonder:
“Why did we negotiate for an hour just to have my payment raised again in F&I?”
Even though the traditional structure frustrates customers, many dealers hesitate to change. They worry that:
However, modern digital systems can remove these risks entirely.
To modernise retailing, dealerships must integrate finance & insurance into a single, platform-based workflow that covers:
Instead of passing the customer from one department to another, a unified solution allows both the customer and salesperson to follow a clear, step-by-step process.
A streamlined system should include:
One that calculates the full deal structure, including taxes, fees, incentives, and trade-in values.
Automatically populated with accurate pricing, lender terms, and eligible finance & insurance products tailored to the vehicle.
To eliminate skipped steps, reduce mistakes, and expedite CIT and funding.
By centralising all data, the entire sales and finance & insurance workflow becomes consistent, compliant, and fast.
No longer waits between departments. Customers move through one structured flow with no handoffs.
Presenting finance & insurance products within the sales process eliminates the “payment shock” moment at the end.
Customers appreciate clarity — and they buy more when they feel informed rather than pressured.
Digital guardrails prevent missing signatures, incorrect disclosures, or inconsistent deal structures.
Sales consultants can build trust from start to finish rather than handing customers off to someone new.
A modern finance & insurance experience requires knowledgeable, customer-focused sales consultants. Training is essential—but absolutely achievable.
Salespeople must be trained to:
Invite sales staff into CIT meetings, funding reviews, and lender discussions. This helps them see how critical accuracy and compliance are.
Modern retailing requires consultants who are:
The best results in finance & insurance come from trust, not pressure. Buyers purchase protection products from people who genuinely listen.
To fully embrace modern retailing, the industry must let go of the traditional “F&I box” and move toward a unified, digital environment where finance & insurance is one stage—not a separate department.
This transition will take time. Just as dealers initially resisted mandatory menu presentations, some will resist this shift. Some employees will leave. But eventually, integrating it into a single sales workflow will become the industry norm.
And that’s a good thing.
Because combining all steps into one transparent process:
Most importantly, it gives customers what they’ve been asking for:
A faster, clearer, digital-first buying experience. And that’s the future of automotive retail.
