F&I PIONEER INDUSTRIAL ALLIANCE-SAL CELEBRATES 50 YEARS IN BUSINESS
Fifty years is a long time by any standards and Industrial Alliance-SAL is understandably proud in achieving this significant milestone. The company, founded in 1963, pioneered the concept of the business office within the dealership, and has since grown to be one of the most prominent providers of financial products and services to automotive retailers.
Alnoor Jiwani, Senior Vice-President, IA-SAL
SAL (which stems from Sickness, Accident and Life — the original products it provided to dealers), was a fairly revolutionary idea when it was first created. “Chuck Walker was basically the person who founded SAL,” says Senior Vice-President Alnoor Jiwani.
Back in the early 1960s, Walker was a sales manager for Ford Motor Company Credit in British Columbia. One day, he was approached by an insurance company called Seaboard Life and offered the chance to provide group accident and health insurance at dealerships. An experiment was set up with a Ford dealer in Alberta and as Jiwani says, “before we knew it, Walker had the first (of what we would call today) F&I desk in a dealership in Canada.”
The experiment proved successful and SAL was born. The company started selling to other dealerships and expanded to other provinces, beginning with Saskatchewan and then B.C. As the auto retailing business evolved, SAL evolved with it. “Things changed rapidly once the Europeans and the Japanese automakers came into the picture,” says Jiwani. “The margins in the vehicles themselves started to drop and dealers were looking at other sources of revenue.”
ADAPTING TO CHANGE
SAL, which had pioneered the idea of selling insurance protection through dealers, was able to capitalize on this significant change, providing comprehensive support to dealers in the form of increasingly sophisticated insurance based products, as well as training for specialized staff, enabling salespeople to focus on their core duties.
And as we entered the computer age, SAL was also able to streamline the business office process for dealers. “We started off by creating calculators,” says Jiwani, “that would calculate payments and embed all the products for the business office, saving time.” This led to the creation of DOS based software for IBM’s early personal computers and then Windows-based software. In fact the software business became so big for the company that, as Jiwani explains, “there came a point where we had to make a choice whether we were a software company or an insurance company.”
Ultimately it was decided that SAL would remain in the insurance business and the software division was sold to ADP. “I would say we ended up computerizing the F&I business,” says Jiwani, “fundamentally changing the way it was done.”
Fast forward to the present and the auto retailing landscape is a far cry from what it was in the early-1960s. The domestic manufacturers no longer dominate the segment as once they did and competition is fierce. The F&I office has become a major profit generator for many dealers, who want to ensure that both they and their customers get the most bang for their buck.
BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS
The company has positioned itself, not only as a provider of financial and insurance products for dealers but also as a partner that works with them every step of the way. “I think part of the reason we have been successful,” says Jiwani “is that we take it one step at a time, working with each and every dealer and being proactive in meeting their needs.” In fact, in a recent national survey, conducted by global market research firm Synovate, the company was ranked as the best provider of aftermarket products among 48 per cent of dealers surveyed in Canada, as well as garnering an 88 per cent rating of its District Marketing Representatives, by its customers.
Jiwani says that another reason for its success is due to the fact the firm creates the products it markets to its clients, meaning it doesn’t rely on third-parties for claim issues. “If we are successful, we can take pride in it, if we fail we can look at ourselves in the mirror and say — we had the ability to do everything — so what did we not do this time.”
Currently offering a full suite of F&I products and services, including Group Creditor Insurance, SAL Protection Plan Extended Warranty Program, STAR Performance and Training, Appearance and Protection Products, as well as an Anti-Theft Etch program, replacement Warranty/Insurance and Guaranteed Asset Protection, the company has also taken the opportunity of its 50th year in business to undergo a re-branding.
CLOSER INTEGRATION
Jiwani says the re-branding decision was taken to better reflect the close integration between SAL and its parent company — Industrial Alliance, the fourth largest insurance company in Canada. “Everybody knows us as SAL and what we wanted to do was to continue to reflect our heritage. At the same time we wanted to look into the future and take advantage of our parent company and see how we could enforce both brands.”
IA-SAL 50th anniversary ice sculpture
So moving forward, the firm is now known as IA-SAL, except for Quebec, where it is branded IA-VAG. “Industrial Alliance has long been a prominent name in Quebec,” says Jiwani, but a recent acquisition of Protection VAG, which already had a strong following in the F&I sphere in Quebec made sense. “Protection VAG was well known and because SAL doesn’t translate well in French, we went with IA-VAG for Quebec and IA-SAL for the rest of Canada.”
As the auto retail market evolves, IA-SAL continues to look for new ways to help support its dealer clients and grow their business. In 2005, the firm entered into an exclusive partnership with the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA)as sponsor for the prestigious CADA Laureate Dealer Recognition Program. It also continues to place a strong emphasis on training and seeking new revenue streams for its dealer customers. “We consider dealers our partners,” says Jiwani, an aspect that has been reflected in IA-SAL’s tagline — partnered solutions for maximizing dealer results.
