Rob Volatile, Jr., president, Northeast Dealer Services, grew up in the car business. At age 14, he was the “lot guy.” By age 20, he was working in the F&I office in a large Baltimore/DC dealership. Then, at age 22, his father, Robert Volatile, Sr. asked him to become regional manager for his former agency on the East Coast. There, Volatile handled training for all the company’s dealerships. Along the way, he attended over a dozen F&I training schools. He used these experiences to glean what he felt were the most relevant pieces from each school, combine this with lessons learned from his own industry experience, and then developed his own training curriculum for his father’s company.
Volatile also worked with Sonic Automotive handling their F&I products – back before they were a publicly traded company. He says he enjoyed the unique opportunity of seeing the dealer group grow and evolve into a publicly traded company and remains friends with Sonic’s original team.
Company Beginnings and Industry Changes
It was during 1998, in a two bedroom, furnished apartment in Pennsylvania, that Volatile and his father started Northeast Dealer Services. “My dad had over 25 years in the industry at that point as an agent as well as VP for Pat Ryan and Associates,” recalls Volatile, “I was 28 and had trained over 600 F&I managers. Now, 15 years later, we are still here and business is thriving.”
Today, Volatile has personally trained over 1000 F&I managers, as well as multiple training successors. Northeast Dealer Services is going strong with 250 dealerships and eight field reps. Volatile credits their success to having good dealers from the onset and those relationships continue to grow today. “The bottom line is we have great dealers. 99.9% of them I consider friends. Unlike many, we consider ourselves fortunate that we have a ton of dealers whom we love doing business with, rather than having dealers we ‘have to’ do business with, as I think is common for many in the industry.”
Northeast Dealer Services started with the desire to work with dealers to help them make more profit and to do it the right way – by being transparent and empathetic to the customer and their needs. “When we started, it was before the days of compliance and regulation that we see today, but even then, our goal was to help our dealers do business in an ethical way and make great profit month-to-month while reinsuring them so that in five to ten years, they could enjoy the benefits of building wealth for tomorrow.” Today, Volatile says their original mission has not changed and their focus on ethical business practices has served as a strong foundation in today’s regulatory climate.
The growing role of compliance is the biggest change Volatile says he has seen in the industry. “The basic premise of selling a car the ‘correct,’ and most customer friendly way is no longer enough,” says Volatile. He says the paperwork required in the F&I office has tripled over the last 10-15 years. “The paperwork coupled with the evolving and growing compliance and regulation environment is the biggest hindrance in the flow of a deal for the F&I manager. The F&I manager’s biggest challenge is TIME. They have the sales department telling them to do their job in 25 minutes and they have the agent/dealer telling them to present and sell eight products. Take into account all the required paperwork – dealerships are now being held to the same standards as a bank – and it simply isn’t possible for the F&I manager to do all of this in the allotted time.”
Based on his belief that agents are not only intelligent and entrepreneurial but also tend to be creative people, Volatile started Paradigm Automotive in 2007 as a vendor to agents. The intent of Paradigm Automotive is to offer innovative programs – not to replicate successful programs that are already out there. “Over the years, service contracts, for example, that used to differ significantly by provider have come to be very similar. Product offerings have become somewhat commoditized. Companies that have been around for 25 years are typically solid, have good claims departments, similar contracts and similar exclusionary coverage. I wanted to do something different.” So Volatile went out looking for products that were not necessarily automotive. At an industry show for homebuilders, he learned about nanotechnology and figured out how it could be taken advantage of as an F&I offering. Soon, the nanotechnology was developed into an innovative product. “The overriding goal for Paradigm is to bring something to the market that you have not seen before,” says Volatile. Other products are now in the works and Volatile says one of his biggest challenges is dividing his time between the two companies.
The Cherished Day Off
When he is not working, Volatile can usually be found on a softball field – cheering for his 12-year-old daughter, whom he describes as a great student and talented athlete. He also enjoys spending time with his wife, friends and family. Volatile enjoys music and as a former funk/rock band member, he still enjoys playing the guitar. Until a few years ago, he was an active amateur kick boxer, but after succumbing to a number of reconstructive surgeries as a result of injuries, he reluctantly decided to retire from the sport.
Career Advice
Volatile says really understanding the business you are entering into is paramount to your success. His advice? Patience, patience, and more patience. “One of the hardest things about what we do - and why so many people fail, is the time it takes to establish yourself. To say the selling cycle is six months is probably a short estimate. Typically, new people are impatient and it can be pretty depressing not seeing results for seven or eight months. Read everything you can – this publication and others in the industry, and listen before you start talking.” Finally, Volatile says don’t be afraid to ask questions. “Knowledge and patience, coupled with passion, discipline and a great, positive attitude are the keys to success.”
