The most successful dealerships are the ones that work together. Instead of working as separate entities, they should work at one to support one another and promote each other to provide one cyclical customer experience.
This is especially true if you want to improve sales in the parts department.
You might be thinking, “why should the rest of the dealership care about prioritizing parts and accessories sales?” Plain and simple, improving part and accessory sales is good for the entire dealership. When the parts department is doing well, it means the dealership is doing well.
When the departments in a dealership get together to promote the selling of parts and accessories, everybody wins. Improving revenue in the parts department can:
- Increase your dealership’s absorption rates
- Promote a positive customer experience
- Help establish customer loyalty
Use the Sales Departments Help Sell Parts and Accessories
Each department has its role to play, but they can come together to complete a sale. The parts department has a goal to sell parts, but not many parts departments are trained to be excellent salespeople. This is where your sales department can come in to help.
The Sales Department Should be Recommending Accessories
Did you know that 90% of customers buy accessories within 120 days of their new car purchase? And, those customers who buy accessories spend an average of $1200. When someone accessorizes their vehicle, they typically have a higher rate of satisfaction with that vehicle, will recommend that make or model to friends and family, and buy the same make in the future. Unfortunately, most of these accessory sales come from aftermarket sources simply because many dealers are not putting effort into selling accessories online.
Accessories have a lot of potential, and your sales department should be taking advantage of this. When a customer comes in to purchase a vehicle, the sales department should be recommending popular accessories for that make and model. At this point, a person is excited about their new purchase, and they are more likely to want to personalize and “boost” their new vehicle.
Over 80% of new car buyers purchase accessories, so why not make sure they are buying from your dealership?
Let Your Sales Team Teach Sales to Your Parts Advisors
Let’s face it; very few parts advisors are taught to be salespeople. Their standard operating procedures revolve around flipping through inventory data, talking to customers over the phone, and filling out forms. Those procedures are important to keep the parts department running, but they hardly prepare someone to be a star salesperson.
Who can give your parts department some Sales 101? Your sales team! Your sales department can help your parts team improve their customer interactions, reduce the number of parts returned, improve customer retention, and sell more accessories. Put your parts department through sales training.
Cover key sales techniques like:
- How to win over a customer after a return or complain
- When to make product and service recommendations
- How to set up upsell products and accessories
Your sales team can give your parts department the best pointers on closing a sale.
Treat Your Service Lane and Parts Department Like a Package Deal
Too many parts and service departments are at odds with one another instead of working together. The truth is, they should run like a packaged deal. They often rely on one another, which means they need to work together. The service lane is one of the parts department’s biggest customers since they must purchase parts for repairs. For the average dealership, between 70% and 80% of the parts department’s business comes through the service lane.
Your service lane can help the parts department in other ways. It can also direct customers to the parts department to see what accessories they can find after their vehicles have been serviced. Consider talking to the service department about using this strategy to your parts department’s advantage. In return, your parts department can help drive more customers to your service lane.
Increasing Sales Through Parts eCommerce
When the dealership works together as a team, everyone wins. Of course, the best place to increase part and accessories sales is directly through your parts department by selling online. Last year, dealers using the RevolutionParts platform saw an average increase of 27%, despite dealers across the US losing more than 6 billion dollars in total parts sales.
You can start winning in the parts department by putting your inventory online. RevolutionParts makes selling parts and accessories online easy. Talk to an expert today to learn more about how easy selling parts online can really be.
