Andy Church explains why used vehicle inventory management is vital to dealership profitability in this Quick Tip.

It’s a foregone conclusion that to be successful in any particular skill takes time. A lot of time! Doctors must go to college for decades, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that those graduates enter the medical field after college as an “expert” physician. Ask yourself this question: How much time do I need to invest in myself to master a particular skill? Do you know that answer? And more importantly are you prepared to make the investment?

NFL players practice 5 days a week, to play a 3-hour game, once a week, and for only 1/3 of the year! To add to that, many of those players have been playing/practicing football since they were kids. Children as young as 8 years old began playing the sport in Pop Warner leagues. Chances are that those children continued through all of their regular schooling and through college. That means by the time they make the Pro’s (on the slim chance they do), they will have played football for roughly 14 years of their lives! Do you know how many actually make it into the NFL? Of NCAA Seniors, only 1.6 percent!

Best-selling author, Malcolm Gladwell, shared his “10,000 Hour Rule” in his book, The Outliers, where he shared that to be truly great at any particular skill takes 10,000 hours of practice. His examples include The Beatles and Bill Gates amongst others. But that, by itself, doesn’t automatically result in success. For 99.4 percent of those aspiring NFL players, it didn’t happen. At least not in the way that they wanted it to. The fact remains that these kids got a college education (many via scholarship) and learned the one thing that will make anyone succeed in life: DISCIPLINE.

These kids wouldn’t have even made their COLLEGE football team, had they not invested the time and energy throughout their lives to be the best that they could at football. Many would say simply being an active player on a college football team is an achievement… and it is. But without those hell weeks they made it through summer after summer, those two-a-day practices, and grueling schedules, they would never have achieved success.

Sales is no different. Nobody can expect to jump into a sales position and be the best salesperson ever. Nor do I think anyone is trying for such a lofty goal. Given, some people have a natural talent for sales and can be quite successful with minimal training BUT that doesn’t mean that they will ever be the best that they could be. They could be salesperson of the month every month at their dealership and make into the six-figures, but I guarantee you that, with practice and training, they could probably be astronomically more successful than they may already think they are.

The truth is that training is vital to success. The more you train, the more successful you will be. By making a commitment to yourself to become the best salesperson, technician, finance manager or whatever position in the dealership that you desire through personal growth, knowledge and experience, you will find that the sky is the limit.

Of course, if you’re happy being a great high school football player and never try to improve, you will find yourself watching those college and pro games on TV or in the stands. So if you don’t want to watch from the sidelines or the stands, make a commitment to yourself to practice, learn and never stop learning. You deserve it and it will only benefit you and your family!

Happy Selling!

Andy Church shares why prospecting is incredibly important in this Quick Tip.

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ProfitByAction.com Quick Tip on the home work required before you start your Dealership Business Plan.

ProfitByAction.com Quick Tip on the Business Planning Process.

It is widely known that Service is the lifeblood of all dealerships and, in many cases, keeps dealerships financially in the black. With the inundation of service requests by consumers, largely due to the increasing amounts of recalls that we’ve seen in the last few years, service departments are finding it more difficult than ever to accommodate all of the customers that need their attention in a timely manner. Shortages of technicians, and shop capacity diminishing due to demand, can easily see service advisors move away from a consultative selling mode and move towards a “get ‘em in and out!” mentality. While it’s easy to see how this could happen as service advisors – and dealerships – want to accommodate as many customers as possible, dealerships are skipping sales steps in the name of efficiency and customer experience and leaving money on the table.

So, here are a few tips that you can utilize when it comes to service recommendations. As a Dealer you should be holding your Service staff accountable for ensuring they are taking advantage of the opportunities and explaining how important they are to the overall profitability of the dealership:

Let’s start with the multi-point or “courtesy” inspection that should be completed on every vehicle in for service. Of course, every service advisor will present the results of the inspection to the customer. The question is that, as service advisors get busier, do they miss things that could easily increase “upselling” in service? And it starts by showing the customer what passed! If you present the items that passed and then those that are recommended you will be off to a great start! Now on to the tips…

1. Service Advisors Forget to Sell - Customers don’t necessarily “want” to spend more money for services that they weren’t expecting, but many will do so if they are convinced that the vehicle’s safety and life will be negatively affected by not doing so. Informing a customer that their vehicle needs X service and that it will cost $X without explaining what the service is, why it’s important and what the consequences of not doing the service, gives the customer an easy way to decline the service, and so the service advisor moves on. The problem is that oftentimes customers decline service not because they don’t want to keep their vehicles maintained and operating safely, but rather because the service advisor has not explained fully why it’s important. Service advisors should always take the time, no matter how busy the service drive is, to fully explain the reasons for the recommendations and the impact failure to complete them could bring.

2. Review Service History - many service advisors fail to review past service visits and reinforce the need to complete previously declined recommended services. Many customers take service recommendations with a skeptical perspective, so unless they’re a gearhead, they many not truly understand why or how important a recommended service is, and so they decline it – even if it’s just being declined “for now” in their minds, thinking “I’ll go ask a family member or do some research, to see if I really need it”. Then of course they get busy and forget about it and even if they did go ask that family member or do that research, they forget the answer by the next visit. You can’t tell a customer that they need new brake pads or tires on one visit, then, assuming the brake pads or tires weren’t replaced in between, fail to reaffirm it 3-6 months later! That kills their confidence in the advisor and the Dealership!  

Ensuring that technicians are continuing to “re-recommend” any previously declined services from each customer accomplishes two things:

-         It reinforces the integrity of the original recommendation

-         And builds trust while reminding the customer that they needed this service

Depending on the technician that did the MPI in each visit, recommendations from previous visits could differ from a current visit. By “re-recommending” previously declined services, the dealership stands a better chance of capturing that service business. The only valid reason not to “re-recommend” a previously declined service is if a customer informs the service advisor that they had the service done elsewhere and the technician can visually verify that it was.

3. Time is of the Essence - How many services get declined for the simple reason that the customer wasn’t contacted in a timely manner to get permission to do the additional repairs? If the advisor waits until later in the day to contact the customer often the only reason they decline it is because they think their vehicle won’t be ready when they needed or expected it. Research time and again proves the faster the MPI is completed and the customer contacted, the higher the likelihood that the customer will agree to the additional services assuming that everything is explained properly by the service advisor.

What rational customer does not want to keep their vehicle running properly and safely? Cars tend to be the second largest purchase that a consumer makes in their lives and they rely on their vehicles to transport themselves and their families to work and school safely. The loss of a vehicle can be financially devastating to many American families. The mere fact that the customer is at your dealership versus having a family member or local mechanic do the work means that they not only value the quality of service that a dealership provides, but that they are also relying on the experts at your dealership to let them know what, if anything, their vehicle needs.

The bottom line is, if you make sure that your service advisors are being thorough in their service recommendations to every customer, then reinforce and validate any past declined services and verify the best contact methods with each customer to ensure fast communications and recommendation resolutions, you will see less declined service and higher repair order values!

Do you have a suggested blog topic? Email me at andyc@aseamericas.com or leave it in the comments. Until next time…

Be Profitable!

Of the $350B Service business in NA, franchise Dealers only capture 27% of it. In this Quick Tip, Andy Church asks what are you doing to increase your service business?