Full disclosure menu selling may seem harder to do than rollerblading up a hill or doing fifty pushups when you haven't done one since you were sixteen, but all three activities are doable by anyone . . . with practice. Some F&I managers have given up on using full disclosure techniques altogether, because they weren't successful in their first attempts or because the desk manager refused to get on board and pitched deals into finance not closed. Don't join the ranks of these defeatists. Surrender is a dirty word. Success comes in cans, not can'ts.

Some experienced F&I experts advocate a substitute menu and claim it is 'the way of the future!' They argue that although F&I managers should disclose the base payment and APR, they don't have to disclose itemized product pricing or payments for various options. Watch out! The rhetoric of these so-called experts is dangerous. When it sounds too good to be true . . . it is. The federal government did not mandate the use of full disclosure menu product presentation. Wise, law-abiding car dealers did. The menu was established as an effective tool for presentation of 100% of your products to 100% of your customers 100% of the time . . . without breaking the law. Time after time, when menu selling is done correctly, it has significantly proven to increase overall profitability.

A dealer once described me as being too "right wing," because I refused to bend my principles when it came to full disclosure menu selling. He said it was perfectly okay to conceal the base payment and APR on the menu, and he wasn't in violation of Regulation Z of the Truth in Lending Act, as long as he disclosed the Regulation Z box. Maybe so. He will, of course, eventually break the law, when he plays so close to the line. Every day, in the name of PROFIT, he will be tempted to include undisclosed and unlisted add-on's, such as a theft product included into Line One of the bank contract, or to allege that a product add-on will only cost a few dollars more in the payment. Any dealer who plays the What Can I Get Away With Today game will eventually come up short. Disgruntled employees who are forced to break laws often have loose lips. Customers who know you're breaking the law talk. Malicious gossip spreads like spilled milk and is difficult to mop up.

What about the DTPA? (Deceptive Trade Practices Act) Should dealers ignore this law in the name of profit, too? Think of the risk. We live in a litigious society. Some customers are itching to find a reason to sue. All it takes is one law suit in the name of DTPA to make the local headlines and ruin your dealership's reputation. Menu selling proves that your customers understand the true cost of the sale prior to the presentation of any other products. It is difficult for anyone to claim deceptive business practices, when a contract is signed after a properly executed menu presentation.

If you decide to take short cuts with menu selling, if you think you're above the law, don't expect never-ending profits. They won't materialize. However, mounting charge backs and limited customer retention will materialize. Changes occur annually in every industry. Laws change. People change. Dealerships must not only know the new disclosure laws, they have to abide by them. The most effective way to do this is through the effective use of full disclosure menu selling. If you decide to take risks, confine those risks to falling on your face a few times, while you perfect the use of the menu. Practice makes perfect. Know your word tracks and become efficient in overcoming objections, not in undermining your customers for the sake of a product sale that will ultimately be canceled after the sale. Upfront and ethical business practices bring limitless profits to those who prevail. You don't have to break laws to break records!