Looking for a little more gross? How about looking toward a $33B industry. A few of the latest reports show that the accessory industry is on the climb at a rate of close to fifteen percent over the last 3 years. Close to 9 out of 10 people that purchase a vehicle will add an accessory within the next 90 days. Light Truck and SUV owners will spend over $1500 on average to make their vehicle stand apart.

This all seems good right? Everyone would like to have a little something that makes their vehicle look and feel the way they like it. Recent studies show that close to fifty percent of customers purchasing vehicles will buy an accessory if they were simply asked.

Coming from a store where we built a quarter of a million dollar display and outfitted trucks with $8,000 to $10,000 of lifts, wheels and tires all the way to another store where an all season protection package was a big ticket. In short accessories is a mindset. The stores that sell accessories typically have someone that loves them and works hard to offer what is hot in the industry. Those who succeed at selling accessories have a solid

• Process
• Interdepartmental relationships
• Updated pricing and products
• Bring awareness at time of purchase

Generally a store that has developed a process and works well together will succeed. Add in some point of sale material and a team that generally likes accessories and the sky is the limit.

Most of our OEM’s have come to market with a decent list of add-ons and actually most of them have created a decent profit margin for parts and labor for the simple bolt on and drop in items. Floor mats, cargo trays and roof racks continue to be the most common add on however in some regions tint and paint protection products have taken over this as the most common add on item.

 Here is a very likely scenario for a store that has decided to install tint and shield.  This not a high volume sales store and they very much fall in the mid-size dealer segment. They promoted one of their lot techs to install tint and shield. Trained him for 30 days and then set out to sell 100 tints and 25 shields. They had the approval from the GM to spiff the salesman and service writers for selling these products and in their first month they sold 66 tints and 22 shields. Figuring they sell tint for $150 and have a cost of materials and labor of $55 they make $95 gross per tint. On shield they sell it for $450 and have a cost of $210 for labor and materials they make $240 in GP. In this particular month they created an additional $11500 in gross, not bad right. They soon found out they needed to hire and train another installer.

Keep in mind these results did not happen by chance. They had the dealership on board and spent nearly $1700 in spiffs but they gained $11500. When I asked how this worked out so well the reply from the service director was, “my GM was pushing the process and made sure everyone knew how much he liked the tint and shield business”. Well for a net of close to 10K I bet he liked it even more.

There are opportunities everywhere within our dealerships to do more and sell more, who’s going to go get a piece of thirty three billion dollar industry?