Should your dealership be focusing more on the sale of accessories? There’s certainly an argument to be made for it. Consider some of these figures, from a recent Auto Newsarticle:

– Auto accessories generate more than $40 billion each year.
– The profit margins for auto accessories average around 50 percent.
– Half of all vehicle buyers say they want to accessorize their new car as soon as they buy it.

There’s obviously plenty of reason to consider offering accessories to your buyers. The question is, how can you make your accessory sales efforts successful?

Which Accessories Sell the Most?

A good start is deciding on exactly which accessories you’re going to sell. There are plenty of options, and some are more popular than others. According to Auto News, the 10 bestselling auto accessories include:

1. Floor mats
2. Window tinting
3. Vehicle protection products
4. Factory exterior products—i.e. splash guards
5. Alarms and vehicle recovery products
6. Body side molding
7. Step bars
8. Factory interior products—i.e. cargo nets
9. Wheel accessories
10. Trailer hitches

If you’re looking to get into the vehicle accessories business, you might consider starting with some of the items on this list.

Effectively Selling Vehicle Accessories

The next step is to develop an accessories sales strategy. Some tips and best practices include:

– Get your whole team involved. You should have your auto sales people trying to upsell and cross-sell accessories, but more than that, you should have installation experts available to field any technical questions; their inclusion in the process can boost consumer confidence considerably.
– Incentivize your employees. An important addition to the last point: Your employees may need some incentives to learn about new accessories, and to do their part in promoting them. Again, everyone in your dealership should be included here—not just the people who work in sales.
– Emphasize the convenience of buying accessories on the front end. Some buyers may feel like it’s better to wait and buy accessories down the road. One thing you can do is drive home how much easier it is to just buy them now and have them installed at the dealership—minimizing cost and hassle down the road.
– Keep track of which accessories sell. Some of the accessories you offer your customers may sell better than others. Make sure you keep track of that information, which can help you hone in on the products you offer in the future.
– Place someone in charge of accessory sales. You may not have it in the budget to hire an accessories manager, but you can task someone on your sales team with being the accessories supervisor and point person.

Ultimately, accessories can help you expand your dealership’s profit center. To learn more about effective sales and marketing for your used car business, reach out to the experts at Get My Auto. We’re always here to talk with you about ways to move your sales needle!