Today on CBT News, anchor Jim Fitzpatrick is joined by Scott Gunnell, group vice president of business strategy at JM&A Group, and Mike Casey, group vice president of sales. As leaders in automotive finance and insurance, JM&A has been providing F&I business solutions to help make dealers more successful for over 40 years. The company currently has over 3,800 dealer clients nationwide and ranked 20th in Forbes’ ranking America’s Largest Private Companies.
Casey begins the conversation by looking back at 2020. Casey says their dealer clients had record profits in 2020. Customer experience was a large factor in the success of dealers as many retailers were able to make a strong transition while navigating the pandemic. Casey said that JM&A had already planned to expand its virtual platform in 2019. Due to the pandemic, the company was forced to speed up its digital presence. In 2020, the company completed over 7,000 virtual F&I deals, a large improvement from 2019’s 900 virtual deals.
Gunnell then adds that dealers were forced to take steps forward digitally in 2020 which could be beneficial for dealers in the long run. Gunnell says the company recently surveyed a variety of consumers and found that most consumers are not educated on F&I until they get to the dealership, they want the ability to have flexibility in F&I, and they want the opportunity to buy the F&I products.
Casey concludes the conversation by discussing goals for 2021. JM&A is committed to helping dealers be even more profitable in the new year. Gunnell says that the pandemic has created new flexibility among dealers. JM&A says it has exciting plans for 2021 that they aren’t ready to disclose at this time. Gunnell says that hopefully by the 2021 NADA Show they will be able to share some big announcements.
