How do I sell out of my service drive?
Should I spiff the writers and how much. We have a salesperson helping out with customers in AM but not much to speak of any other ideas? please provide feedback thanks
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sally Whitesell on
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This is a great question! As a service advisor trainer, standing on drives for the last 18 years, I have had a chance to watch some of the best in the business. You don't just want a sales person to help out; you want one who easily engages customers in conversation. One who can talk to people in any situation and make them feel comfortable. One who knows how to inform clients without making them feel like they are being sold. A great salesperson can talk with waiting clients by simply starting with a compliment about their current vehicle or asking questions about how they enjoy and use their vehicle. They may ask about their favorite color and then walk them out or pull up in a new model in the latest shade of their color and offer to take a test drive just for fun. Simply put, this position needs a person with a big personality and no fear.
Another method is to offer clients a free quote on the value of their car. This alone will start the conversation rolling. They may have been considering selling their car but you now have the opportunity to talk about trade in value and special new car offers you are featuring. They may get a big repair estimate and decide to trade or they could go home and continue to think about it and talk it over with their spouse. All of these situations can turn into a sale.
Finally you can use the approach of serving your clients by letting them know how you could save them money by being able to lower their payment on a new car with a new full warranty. Once a person starts to pay for repairs or is close to being out of the security of a warranty, new incentives become very tempting.
Keep in mind that working on the service drive should not be viewed as a chore or punishment but a privilege. Where else in the dealership do you have guest lining up to talk to your staff and spend money. If this position is handled correctly, it can be a gold mine!
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Permalink Reply by Big Tom LaPointe on -
good question. and great response, sally. as an advisor a 100 years ago or so, we'd get a $100 spiff, but some of the salespeople paid several hundred, depending on their profit (luxury dealership). guess who I sent those referrals to?
as a salesperson, I worked required 'shifts' on the drive, and the guests kind of sniffed out what we were doing. best result was pulling OFF the nametag and sitting at the table reading a paper and start talking (generically) about world events.
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Permalink Reply by Philip Zelinger on
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Hello Daniel,
I respect DealerElite's policy to avoid self promotion so in full disclosure the answer to your question involves a vendor that I have an equity interest in. I discovered them in part to satisfy the same service lane cross selling opportunity that you reference so please accept my apologies if my answer seems self serving. In fact it simply reflects the fact that I found them before you did.
Simply put, they have a data base equity/service alert system that synchronizes with your service drive to flag customer's whose vehicles are in for service and distributes a vin-specific quote on in-stock new vehicles that the customer can upgrade to with little or no money down for the same monthly payment or less. They include a realistic trade-in value, consider current rebates + incentives + finance terms and provide an out the door payment including all applicable dealer fees and taxes.
More relevantly to your post, they have a process that positions a "Quality Assurance Manager" to greet service customers to explain their personalized vehicle exchange information in a non-confrontational manner. Some dealers simply provide a dedicated representative with daily print outs of customers with personalized brochures listing the comparable features and benefits of select vehicles for their consideration while others establish a dedicated section to feature their customer centric process to exchange their vehicle while waiting for theirs to be serviced. The following link to a Lithia Dealership's solution might explain it better than I can and it might seem less like a sales pitch coming from a satisfied dealer solving the same problem that you surfaced.
Of course the software platform that supports these sales in the service lane can be replaced with an old fashioned meet and greet by someone whose goal is to help the customer vs. sell them something. Frankly, having relevant personalized information on the customer's vehicle as well as in-stock vehicles that fit the customer's needs vs. the dealership's makes the meeting more of a conversation than a presentation and is less confrontational but the right personality can overcome the initial chill if need be.
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