QMenus Case Study - Bay Mazda

Bay Mazda is located in Belleville, just two hours east of Toronto on Canada’s busiest highway, the 401. With only 15 staff, one being Denis Bussiere, the finance manager, it’s not a large dealership. Car buyers expect straight forward win/win deals with no “games” or surprises from Bay Mazda, and that’s exactly what they get. Not only does Bay Mazda have happier customers since they started menu selling with QMenus, they’re also selling more F&I products. Since changing over, Bussiere has increased F&I revenue $200 on every unit. That equates to over $60,000 in new F&I revenue per year (over $180,000 since they purchased QMenus in March of 2007). Pretty good ROI on a $3,000 investment! Bussiere attributes that success to the consistency of the F&I process, combined with the ease-of-use, flexibility and professional look of QMenus.

Denis Bussiere - finance manager

Denis Bussiere has been at Bay Mazda since 2006, coming from Ford Credit, where he worked for five years. And while he views himself as a sales person, Bussiere uses a “velvet glove approach” – always pushing forward, but never too hard. Words that characterize his style include, professional, caring, and non-threatening.

Bussiere tried step selling his first year at Bay Mazda. He wasn’t happy with his processes or his results. Bussiere wanted a process that aligned with his selling style and step selling wasn’t it. “I was evaluating everything I was doing in the business office”, explains Bussiere. After some research, he decided to attend an F&I training session in Phoenix; and while it wasn’t specifically on menu selling, several business managers in attendance did use menus. Those discussions got him interested in menu selling, which ultimately lead him to Quantech and QMenus.

Bussiere never took formal training on how to menu sell, yet it only took him a couple of days to get the new approach crafted in his head and his menus built. Quantech was very helpful during this period, providing him with technical support and software training as well as the intellectual support he needed to transition from step selling. “Quantech support was fantastic”, says Bussiere, “Suzette was very quick and cognisant of my time. If she didn’t need me to stay on the phone, she’d call me back.” Quantech also helped him transition from step selling. “I had many meaningful discussions about menu selling with Lisa and Linda”, he reflects, “They helped me push the envelope and get out of my comfort zone”.

On the sales floor

The process at Bay Mazda isn’t very different from processes used in many other dealerships. The sales person delivers a summary sheet containing customer as well deal information, pre-F&I, to the business office. The summary sheet was created by Bussiere using Excel. Sales staff also enter basic customer and deal information into Reynolds and Reynolds, their Dealer Management System. Bussiere has pre-printed payment options on each vehicle (also made in Excel), so staff can quote various payments to customers prior to Bussiere seeing them. In addition to deal information, the deal summary has plenty of room for accessories that are often sold with the vehicle. Bussiere finds this process very useful as it forces the sales person to lay everything out on the table for the customer before they get to the F&I office.

The turnover

“In less than 60 seconds” Bussiere prepares his menus by cutting and pasting deal information into QMenus from Reynolds and Reynolds. He does this prior to meeting the customer. The first thing he does with a customer is he informs them how much time he needs. That allows him to deal with any time constraints up-front. Bussiere leads into his interview with a deal recap. “It’s important we’re on the same page” explains Bussiere, “the deal I’m working from has to be exactly the same as what the customer has in their head.”

The interview ends with Bussiere positioning the various protection options available and a review of the credit application. During the discussion, he asks key questions about their mortgage, employment, and vehicle usage. He leads into the menu after they sign the pre-printed insurance confirmation form.

The menu presentation

Bussiere always presents printed full colour menus flat on his desk facing the customer. “Obviously you’ve bought cars before” he begins, with his hand on the menu. Bussiere assumes customers are aware that there are protection options available to them. He really watches their body language and continues by saying, “We do things differently here. We use a menu to present all of your protection options to you. We don’t pre-judge.” Bussiere then points to the unsecured price at the top of the menu and presents the four options, beginning with the Fully Secured group. Busseire always gives a quick presentation on the benefits of “Life Protection”, as he calls it. Then he goes into “Repair Protection” using the menu and a graphic he’s created called The Warranty Information Tool. He uses it to describe the gap between Mazda’s warranty and the extended coverage. If required, Bussiere adjusts the warranty price in QMenus – it only takes a few seconds. In addition to the protection packages listed in the menu groups, Bussiere gives the customer a printed environmental protection menu he designed himself. Throughout the presentation Bussiere watches the customer very closely for buying signals, positive or negative, particularly at the end of each group when he tells the customer the cost of that group of products.

The complete presentation – from the time the customer enters the office is anywhere from 15 minutes to one hour, depending on customer time constraints and receptiveness. If they’re pressed for time, Bussiere uses the menu on its own with no accompanying documentation. After the customer leaves, Bussiere emails the menus to them. Recently a “cash customer” went on to purchase everything in the preferred package after reviewing these emails.

Initially there was push back from sales staff because the amount of time customers spent in the business office increased. Sales staff didn’t know it was because the previous business manager presented very few F&I products. Now that all F&I products are presented to every customer, every time, sales staff are happy they don’t have to deal with angry customers coming back due to miss-understandings. “The menu is a great enforcement tool to ensure that everything is offered and presented 100% of the time”, explains Bussiere. “With step selling, it’s too easy for the customer to cut you off before you have a chance to show them everything. When you have a menu, they can see exactly what’s ahead. It’s very transparent.”

Bussiere and Bay Mazda are committed to the menu selling process and QMenus. He likes how quick and easy QMenus is to use, change or manipulate –important considerations when your day is busy and time is tight. Bussiere also likes how professional the printed menus from QMenus look. With his marketing and advertising background he knows how important that is.

Case Study #2 Bannister Chev-Olds

Dealer Experiment with Menu Selling Results in $4,000 Additional Business Office Profit in First Week

Bannister Chev-Olds has been voted the #1 Dealership in the North Okanagan region in British Columbia, and owner Lyn Bannister is the recipient of the McLean’s Dealer of Excellence Award for B.C.

The manager of the dealership’s business office, Tim Varga, was interested in Menu Selling ever since he heard it could make a difference to the profitability of the business office, but it took several years for management to agree to risk switching away from the proven “step selling” method.“ Step selling was just the way we did things and it worked for us. There was no compelling business reason to try something new. I have been with Bannister since 1994 and pretty much concentrated on selling extended warranties and then using step selling to go from there and offer the other products”, according to Varga. 

From Manual "Paper-Based" menus to Q-Menus System

While Bannister’s established way of step selling F&I was contributing to the dealership’s overall success, management was always looking for innovations that could create lifts in profitability or customer satisfaction. Menu Selling seemed to offer a way to score on both fronts. The dealership elected to experiment on a limited basis with a manual paper-based menu selling system. "We looked at Menu Selling for awhile, but at the time we just weren’t willing to invest the extra money in it. Then I went to a training program which got me into the concept of Menu Selling. They had a paper-based system, and I used that as a starting point. I kind of just developed my own system from there", said Varga. The business office began to get a taste of the difference Menu Selling could make, but it was obvious that a manual paper-based system just would not cut it.

Tim found it difficult to customize the presentation. When a car-buyer was ready, it was simply not professional to put them on hold while setting up a new menu. It was also difficult to make changes on the fly to explore different options with the customer. Finally, it was difficult to control the quality of the presentation. "I quickly realized I needed software and bought the Quantech Q-Menus system. This gives me a quick calculation and is very accurate, and it displays a professional looking menu. It lets me set up the customer very quickly and then walk them through the options", explained Varga. 

In his first week using Q-Menus, Tim got $4,000 of additional F&I sales on one deal. The Bannister business office saw a very noticeable difference once they started using Q-Menus. Customers started to buy more products on the majority of the deals, simply because they could see the options clearly spelled out for them. Now the business manager can adjust the packages and Q-Menus instantly recalculates so the customer can see what the new payment would be. This gets the customer more involved in the process and makes it less intimidating for them to learn about the various options. "Oh, there’s no doubt in my mind that Menu Selling has made a difference to my numbers. I was doing some menu selling before taking on the Quantech program, but with Q-Menus it made it so much easier. Within the first week, I had one customer who had bought one or two vehicles from us previously, and had bought limited F&I products each time. In this particular case, I just went through and offered him all the products and he had his Grandpa there with him. Grandpa looked at him and said, “Does this payment fit into your budget?” and the grandson said, “Yeah, yeah, that’ll work for me.” So they ended up choosing all four products, where in the past they bought maybe a warranty. That particular deal ended up being somewhere in the neighbourhood of $4,000 business office profit", Varga.

The business office at Bannister makes it a policy to offer the menu to every customer for every finance or lease deal. They recognize that some customers will say “no” to most everything, no matter how you offer it. But the rest of the customers are now buying more products. Menu Selling helps to make sure they offer everything to every customer. Customers who in the past might only buy a minimal protection package are now stepping up to buy more. "I’ve never been much of a visual salesperson. I was always just more vocal and would walk through the options, and the customer would say yes or no. But now they’ll look at the menu and point at the various options. I’ve got them as Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. They’ll point down at the Gold Package and say, “Yeah, I’ll take that one.” Having a visual menu makes a big difference. What it does is, those who are willing to buy the products from you are buying more products because they’re being offered every product, every time", Varga.

One key requirement for Bannister was that their Menu Selling system should enable them to set up menus quickly, almost on the fly. When a salesperson is ready to hand off the customer to the business manager, they want a smooth transition so that the customer is not inconvenienced. Q-Menus makes this possible, because once the vehicle price and trade price is known, it takes only a few moments to create a menu. The salesperson brings the numbers to the business office just before the F&I discussion. This gives the business manager a chance to drop in the numbers and get ready for the presentation. "When I bought the system, I was concerned about the extra time that it might take to produce the menu, but once you’ve got the Menu program set up, the time to actually produce it is only 1 or 2 minutes. This lets me have a structured system with the salespeople, so they give me the paperwork, and I then I send them back to chat with the customer. I take a few moments to set up the Menu, and then I get up and walk over and bring the customer back to my office with everything already prepared", Varga.

Bannister uses Reynolds & Reynolds and needed the menu selling software calculations to balance with the DMS. Tim Varga: “I didn’t want to be battling with the numbers for 5 or 10 minutes with every customer, according to Varga, "When I set up the Q-Menus program and then punched in my Reynolds & Reynolds numbers, Q-Menus popped up with the exact payment. Quantech told me it would be accurate, and it was. That gave me confidence right away that the program was good”.

Everyone knows that setting up a new computer software package can be troublesome and time consuming. There is that old computer adage that says “Every computer task will expand to fill all available time.” Bannister didn’t have the time or patience to wrestle with a complex installation and integration and training project, so it was essential that the system be easy to install and easy to use. Q-Menus met this goal. It took less than an hour to install the program and less than a day to set up the Menu screens and plan what the process would be for each new customer. “I’m not intimidated by a computer and learning the programs. The important thing with any computer program when you’re learning how to use it or setting it up is to read. Read the whole package. Once I did that, I understood what it was doing, and it wasn’t a hard program to develop at all. I was able to do it all within one day. Since then, the system has been easy to use and problem free. Quantech offered me a money-back guarantee, but I haven’t had the slightest inclination to return the software. It provides exactly what is needed.”