In 2018, my dad is even talking about leasing a car. This is the same guy that is adamantly opposed to renting a house, and until lately would have never considered a lease. My dad always said you should never throw your money at something every month that you won’t eventually own.

But even Dad is raising his eyebrows at the opportunity to bring home a really nice vehicle at a fixed cost and turn it right back in when (Mom) is ready for a new one.  You won’t believe this, but my dad isn’t the only one that is on to something. Turns out basically all of America got the same direct mailer because leasing is on the up and up, and still upping.If you’re not fully versed in the ease, joy, and beauty of accessorizing a leased vehicle, then get ready to be dazzled, my friend. Presenting personalization can’t be any easier than to your lease guy (or gal). *

Protection is king | Every lease customer knows the importance of bringing the lease back in excellent condition--except life happens. It’s incredibly easy to get a lease customer to see the value in personalizing their new ride with protection items like body side molding, all weather mats, and clear-film. Roll the accessory purchase conveniently into F&I and save your customer three-ish long years of night terrors about silver dollar size dings and ketchup stains on the interior.  Ketchup is for life.

Technology takes no breaks | Which is a little disturbing #tbh but can be used as an advantage for the government, star-crossed lovers, and car sales people. Present your lease customer with the latest in technology accessories for their car today, with the added benefit of upgrading that technology to whatever is the latest, greatest, 10.0 version when they return their lease and pick up a new one. When you lease, you’ve always got the option of having the latest technology with the convenience of affordable monthly payments. Winning.

                                                                  See the last tip at our blog

The team at Insignia lives for selling accessories - it's in our veins. From our VPEs sharing their years of experience, to our best practices giving dealers the latest industry tips, to our blog showcasing successful dealerships, we are the leaders in Vehicle Personalization. 

And our very own David Stringer has a little bit of an embarrassing secret...

Thanks to our friends at Eastman Performance Films for being good sports and helping us personalize David’s car. See the process of adding window film and learn a bit about the film installation industry from the pros.

Your customer relies on you for many things: your expertise, flexibility, free coffee, and detective skills.

It’s not up to the person walking in the dealership to know all the personalization options available that make their car driving experience safer, more fun, more fancy, more attractive, or more social media post-worthy. As a sales person, changing your mindset from pitching another product to educating the customer on their options will make a world of difference.

Truly, you’ll do your customer a disservice by not presenting them with useful and exciting accessories for the second largest purchase OF THEIR LIFE. No pressure--but how might one know what to suggest?

Ask qualifying questions | Whether you’re dealing with a trade-in or someone buying their third “just for fun” car, it’s important to start at the beginning with qualifying questions. Good ones. Get to know this person as you would someone you meet in a social atmosphere. So taking this thought full circle, please hire sales staff with social skills.

Every customer you meet will qualify for Vehicle Personalization in one fashion or another, so focus on determining which accessories qualify as the perfect fit for the individual. Get acquainted, and find out what qualifies as a “need that” for their individual interests.

Confirm dominant buying motives | Once you know which accessories will dazzle your client, find out what's going to drive them to purchase. Some customers will buy something because it's shiny (judgement free zone), but many customers have a deeper reasoning.

If your customer is interested in enhancing safety features, is there someone they're trying to protect? If your customer is interested in heated leather seats, do they possibly have a need beyond luxury for added comfort (like a bad back)? Maybe they're just a diva and that's fine - but find that out. Dig deeper by asking good questions to uncover what makes the customer say yes.

Want to see the rest or get more accessory selling tips? Visit our blog

Getting started with accessory sales can be overwhelming. You want to capitalize on the profits Vehicle Personalization offers, but you don’t know where to start.  We’ve got good news--there’s one simple technique that will tackle your major focuses and gain big results from all departments: the rule of three. Stocking accessories in threes reaps three major benefits. 

As a general manager or dealer principle, you’re all about increasing gross profit for your dealership while keeping laser focus on great CSI. Today’s customers are happy when they get what they want, and quickly. With Vehicle Personalization, your dealership can deliver on both demands with the rule of three.

Appeal to the eye | Seeing is truly believing when it comes to Vehicle Personalization. Customers are more likely to choose accessories when they can see their choices with their own eyes. Obvious, right? According to SEMA, when a customer purchases a vehicle there is an 83% chance they will personalize that vehicle within the first 30 days.

This means customers already have an idea of what they’re looking for--they just need to know who and where to purchase it from. Following the rule of stocking accessories in threes, use your first set to soup up your showroom vehicles. This allows customers to survey a variety of options. Showroom personalization opens the door of opportunity for Vehicle Personalization and marketing accessories for the dealership.

Smart stocking | Ordering and warehousing accessories can be determined by a store’s space, stock availability and adherence to freight cost.  While the parts director wants to avoid freight cost (at all costs), it may be an inevitable factor based on what accessories or brands you’re dealing with. The easiest way to combat that is to order a small number, such as three, to alleviate high freight cost and avoid the need to house a ton of accessories at one time.

Capitalizing on timing |As Insignia Vehicle Personalization Expert Director, Dave West would say, “it’s not the amount of time customers spend in dealerships—it’s the perception of the amount of time they spend in dealerships.” Today’s consumers want immediate satisfaction. Meanwhile, an average lift kit can take 24 hours to receive from the manufacturer and another 10 hours to install.

Having accessories readily available will leverage time to the dealer’s advantage. Using the rule of three, a dealer may choose to stock lift kits, all weather mats, and running boards, strategically placing one of each on a showroom vehicle. The showroom vehicle becomes a primary marketing tool for these accessories.

With three sets of these accessories, the dealer has the freedom to sell the vehicle as-is off the showroom floor, or personalize a different model with these same accessories stocked in the parts department. This will keep your customer happy by minimizing wait time, and the sales floor happy with accessory availability.

When getting started in the accessory game, use the rule of three. Stock accessories in sets of three to reap the three benefits of showroom marketing, a smart stockroom, and a reduction in wait time.

Still need help increasing accessory sales? Let us help.

Successful dealerships do not sell vehicle personalization.

No, dealers with millions in added front-end gross are not made up of smooth-talking accessory managers. High volume personalization profit centers aren't giving anything away, using gimmick advertising, or bulldozing weary car buyers. Dealerships climbing the ladder in the accessory business are simply educating every customer on the options available to enhance, protect, and prolong their vehicle, all with an affordable monthly payment.

Educating the customer, rather than pitching another product, is an irreplaceable part of the process. Insignia’s National Account and Consulting Sales Lead, Shawn Skalski, stresses this crucial tone change as a best practice tip in every training.

“‘No one likes to be sold, but everyone likes to buy’” is a quote that has been used for many years, and vehicle personalization is no exception,” Shawn says. “I see it a lot in dealerships--the breakdown with vehicle customization is the simple fact that the customer is not educated on two basic principles. First, the majority of the time a customer does not know these options are available to them, and second they do not realize they can be purchased at the dealership.”

Educating the customer can turn your typical sales pitch into a valuable lesson that everyone can benefit from. When it comes to launching an accessory program, adding another step to the sales process is a frequent reservation among dealer management.

It makes sense, doesn't it? After all, you’ve just sold a car--you'd hate to bombard that customer with another sales pitch while they’re waiting to go into F&I. Isn't F&I going to sell their products, too? Are we trying to run the customer out of the showroom, clinging to their wallet for dear life? You may be thinking “give the customer break”--and we would agree.

Accessories are a multi (multi, multi) billion dollar industry. As long as consumers are driving cars, they’re buying accessories. Knowing that, the pressure is off. Please do give your customer a break after the vehicle purchase. Comfortable seating in a relaxed environment, a cold drink, and a zero-pressure browsing experience to fill the wait time.

Pull up your customer’s new vehicle--the one he’s excited about that came in his desired cherry red--and turn your computer screen over to him. Now the salesperson is just the expert, here to educate--not to sell.

Sales is free to slip out and refresh themselves while the customer breathes easy, clicking through the array of options that fit every budget and background. Checking back in on the customer, the educator explains the benefit of the most popular add-ons, and can answer any questions.

The customer is relaxed, refreshed, and making their own decision about what will enhance the driving experience, based off the experience provided by the personalization expert.

There's no need to sell vehicle personalization. All you need to do is offer the experience and educate your customer at the point of sale: vehicle personalization will sell itself.

Want to educate your dealership? Get started here. 

“In the next ten years, 40% of all new vehicles will be sold to millennials, and they’ll be buying cars for the rest of the 21st century” [AutoTrader]

In 2013, AutoTrader conducted an extensive study of the millennials buying motives and power. Fast-forward to present day and we clearly see these findings unfolding as automotive dealerships perform back flips to keep up with consumer demands. There are enough articles about the habits of millennials and the iGeneration to fill a small galaxy. With so much information to sift through, how can a dealership stay up-to-date on the latest trends, technology, and marketing, and still sell cars?

Incorporate the below proven practices and you’ll see your front end gross increase, CSI scores climb, turnover rate reduce, and your General Manager doing yoga in the showroom because it’s a good day to be in the car business.

Personalize. Literally. Everything | Your current market of car buyers values individualism unlike any generation before. Coke sales increased for the first time in a decade simply by putting names on their bottles. Personalize the shopping experience before it even begins by actively connecting with your audience on social media. Once your customer is in the store, begin the conversation about accessory options to make the vehicle stand out on the road and provide an outlet of personal expression for the owner. While your customer is waiting to go into F&I, let them personalize their own vehicle using a sleek digital interface and the option for low monthly payments.

Create the right environment | Millennials want things to happen fast. With high speed internet at their fingertips, information is readily available and convenience has become the standard. While dealers should always strive for prompt, professional service, it’s unrealistic to compress car buying into a half hour exchange. Transform the unavoidable periods of waiting into entertainment with comfortable seating, refreshments, and digital personalization experience. A quick and engaging experience will keep your millennial customers satisfied.

Go mobile | There’s absolutely no getting around this if you’re going to stay competitive. Selling to the millennial and iGeneration makes offering personalization at the point of sale non-negotiable, and you’ve got to be able to do it from the parking lot, showroom, service drive, or anywhere in the house. Imagine the impact of showing your twenty-something consumer what a vehicle in question would look like with window tint and roof racks while standing next to it on the lot. Millennials have gone mobile and dealerships have to too.

Millennials aren’t going anywhere and neither is the need for dealerships to get ahead of industry trend. Each of these proven best practice tips derive from the multi-billion dollar vehicle personalization industry that we expect to grow exponentially to meet demands of today’s buyer. Which of these tips will you put into practice today?

Want more tips? Check out our Best Practices here. 

Whether you’re a high-end luxury dealer or a used car guy with a gold necklace--there’s one thing everyone can agree on: your lead-in product better be dy-no-mite.

When it comes to the art of accessories, you’ve got one golden opportunity. There may be other opportunities, but only one is golden. The accessory sale is a process, but the actual presentation begins with a lead-in product. You’ve started at the trade, gotten to know your customer’s lifestyle, mentally filed away the best personalization options to suggest, and closed the car deal. In this blissful moment, you tarry your customer with a Coke and a smile knowing the dreaded F&I wait time has been subdued by the beauty of vehicle personalization.  The golden opportunity has arrived.

It’s at this opportune moment that Insignia’s best practice numero uno will make or break your personalization profit. Whether you just sold a Jaguar or a Geo Metro, you’ve got to intrigue your customer with a solid lead-in product. If you remember nothing else, remember this: the best lead-in product is inarguably valuable. This beginning stage of the accessory shopping experience is not the time for the presenter’s opinion on what would add value to the customer’s vehicle. Now is the time for your shining star, the perfect lead-in product, to speak for itself.

The initial lead-in product should generally fit all vehicles in your inventory, be highly functional, cost effective, and offer clear value. This is a product that:

• sells every time because of its proven benefit;
• transcends individual taste because the usefulness shows no bias;
• fits a wide range of budgets because it’s affordable (but not cheap), with the option to roll into F&I
• demonstrates a clear value through its functionality.

The beauty of the lead-in product is that it sets the stage. The lead-in product beckons your customer to say “yes”, and lays a foundation of trust. The customer is comfortable with the product and can see the value without a lengthy explanation.

Think of items that protect the life of the vehicle, enhance the driving experience, or keep the customer safe. Lead-in products may vary by your location, your brand, and even the season.

One of sunny South Carolina’s Hyundai dealers leads their presentation with window tint. A sleek, visually enhancing addition, window tint also protects the car’s interior and protects passengers from harmful UV-rays, affordably.

One of Insignia’s Northeastern Toyota dealer leads into this winter’s personalization presentation with remote starts. Nobody in Massachusetts is arguing that it is cold. Like ridiculously frozen. And a warm car sounds enchanting. *Add to cart*.

Put this best practice tip to work and make sure the value of your lead-in product is undeniable.

For more of our showroom tips check out our blog at http://www.insigniagroup.com/blog or sign up for our best practices.

The vehicle personalization beast is growing--and it needs more room. Your showroom isn’t big enough to contain the personalization mammoth anymore. Personalization is stretching its limbs into F&I, and your finance manager ought to receive Gargantua with open arms. While it’s a widely known fact that accessorizing vehicles at the point of sale benefits your bottom line and your customer, the benefit to all departments is less commonly agreed on. There’s a misconception when it comes to F&I.

To plainly debunk the myth, finance departments can (and do) benefit from accessory sales. Dealerships must understand that customers who purchase accessories do not affect the ability to sell service contracts or extended warranties--and here’s why:

Mindset is everything | Customers are willing to buy finance products when there’s a sense of attachment to their new vehicle.  A personalized vehicle, providing that attachment, has a much better chance of withstanding the 3-4-year trade-in cycle in comparison to its non-accessorized counterpart. The “back-end” F&I products like theft recovery, maintenance programs and GAP insurance that maximise gross become even more attractive. Customers fully engaged in their new purchase--a vehicle suited to fit their lifestyle--see the value in protecting their investment.

Meet the author of this article Trey Bodwin. Trey is Insignia’s VPE in Texas who spent a few years as a Finance Director for Russel & Smith Automotive Group. Trey wanted to share the awesome benefits that vehicle customization can provide for your dealership’s finance department. See how our other VPEs can help your dealership increase accessory sales with their consulting.

Banks are playing ball | Many banks today will grant their customers front-end and back-end room to maximize a dealer’s profitability. Though subject to variation based on credit ranking and the financial institution, F&I will reap the benefit of rolling accessory sales into the monthly payment plan. More banks today will pay higher reserves and flats to the Finance Department depending on the amount being financed. This means that Finance Departments are even more likely to add gross to their back-end by financing vehicle accessories.

Used Car F&I is included | Banks are very competitive with rates and advances today. Though retail rates vary with the market, one thing is consistent: most financial institutions today will provide special rates and advances on used and certified pre-owned vehicles. This means used car F&I is in the same game as your new car showroom with front-end and back-end advances motivating customers to personalize and protect.

As the old saying goes, one good decision leads to another--and this rings true with your customer’s buying habits. Personalizing in the showroom at the point of sale is in every department’s favor--especially F&I.

Click through to read our Industry White Paper on Accessories vs. F&I.

At Minnesota’s Rudy Luther family of dealerships you’ll find a family...really an actual family. Peppered across Luther’s two Toyota stores and a Chrysler store are stepfather, mother, and two sisters - all working in different facets with a common allegiance to the Luther brand.

That’s right--Luther Automotive presently employs the entire Cline family; a driven, passionate, [auto] enthusiastic group that any company would be fortunate to have. Toyota salesmen, Mark works alongside his wife and delivery coordinator Jennifer in Brookdale; while daughter Niki sells Chrysler's next door. Sister Amanda is just a skip away in Golden Valley personalizing Toyotas in the showroom.

So how did this dealer group gain loyalty from a family of four? It starts with Luther’s positive work environment and is supported by true opportunity for success.

Amanda Cline began working at Luther’s Golden Valley Toyota store in September as the dealership’s accessory sales consultant. Vehicle Personalization Expert Kurt Daughtery met the newest Cline employee on a training visit, teaching the dealership the ins and outs of their accessory sales system.

“When I went in for our Guided Visit, one of the sales managers told me Amanda’s mother works at Luther Brookdale and I put two and two together,” Kurt says. Amanda’s familiarity with the system and process made her the best kind of student. 

“Mom started in the car business five years ago,” Amanda explains. “I’ve always loved cars--I even looked into becoming a mechanic! I saw how well my mom was doing and how much she liked where she worked. I told her I wanted in.”  

Amanda received highly personal on-the-job training by shadowing her mother, Jennifer Cline, at Luther Brookdale. You know Jennifer--she’s a 2016 challenge coin recipient for her critical role in skyrocketing the dealership to success with over a million in sales last year. You read all about her showering Luther’s guests with hospitality while simultaneously adding front-end gross. Pouring hot coffee, giving tours making millions (literally), and now training the next generation.

Want to read more about the Cline family read the rest of this blog here or visit our site to see how we can help your dealership sell more accessories.

Automotive industry professionals all over the country can finally breathe a sigh of relief. The myth has been debunked--millennials’ supposed disdain for cars isn’t shutting down the industry as we know it.

Entering the workforce in a down economy put purchases such as a new car on hold. For many, it was a hold that spanned more than a few years. So-called rite-of-passage purchases such as a first house and car dissipated for a time. With the economy on rocky ground, educated and qualified individuals were forced to pick up shifts at the mall and spend countless hours on Career Builder. I attest to it! As a 2009 graduate, I did my time dressing mannequins despite the Bachelor of Arts I’d just earned. You see, millennials never took a stand against buying a car. They opted for evolving modes of public transportation for the interim.

While there’s still plenty of content circulating about the generation struggling vocationally, the automotive industry can let that roll off its back. Automotive News reports the following statement:

Millennials make up the fastest-growing segment among vehicle buyers and likely will represent about forty percent of the U.S. new-vehicle market by 2020.

Marketers and design engineers alike are interested in this one. Millennials are buying cars and have unique hot buttons unlike any of the dealerships’ other clientele. This is the digital era, after all. In a world of self-driving cars and Siri® reminding you to pick up K-cup® pods, dealerships are constantly under pressure to remain cutting-edge enough for their twenty-something shoppers. But how do you balance a customer whose budget reflects an entry-level career, but whose taste reflects the digital culture in which they’ve grown up?

You personalize. The consumers who are the “fastest-growing segment among vehicle buyers” weren’t only raised on technology; they were also raised on “have-it-your-way” marketing. Vehicle Personalization, a multi-billion dollar industry, is the key to creating satisfied customers, profitably. Sell your customer the reliable, affordable vehicle that he or she has already researched half to death online.

Your millennial customer will spend money to get the technology that he has grown accustomed to. The only question is: will the customer spend it with you or on Amazon?

When you sell your customer a solid vehicle that he or she can afford, and then offer to add SiriusXM and navigation with low monthly payments rolled in with F&I, you’ve done a great thing. Offer them value in protection packages like all-weather mats, paint protection film, and body side moldings. You have helped the customer keep the value of the new purchase. You’ve made a customer happy.  And a happy customer writes positive reviews on Facebook, delivers winning CSI scores, refers her friends, and returns to your dealership, all while adding front-end gross.

No, millennials aren’t sick of cars. Millennials are a rapidly growing force in the automotive industry that may just shape the future of car buying and accessories.

Is your dealership equipped to cater to forty percent of the new car market? Find more helpful tips at our blog http://www.insigniagroup.com/blog