Last week on the blog we discussed selling from the service lane as a way to increase your dealership's revenue. Due to the interest that post received we wanted to elaborate and lay out some examples of how your sales team can engage service customers.
The first way we covered last week: during busy service hours have a rotation where two to three of your sales people work the service lane greeting customers, making sure they are comfortable, and without pressuring them, talk to them about a new car. This solves two problems at once, taking pressure of your service staff while also engaging potential buyers.
Another way is to simply have your sales staff do walk-throughs of the service department a couple times a day. While there, they can find out who is sitting in the customer lounge and what vehicles were dropped off. For the customers present in the service department they have the potential to engage these service shoppers for sales opportunities.
For example, after surveying the waiting area they could then write down the VIN number of any customer with a car four years or older and find out the value of the car wholesale. Deducting $2000 for a margin of error, have your salesperson use that number and work a new lease on a 2019 model of that car with a CAP Reduction equal to the value placed on their car.
From there, your salesperson can go sit down with the customer to start a conversation that might go something like this,
"Mr. or Mrs Customer, we have a high demand for used cars and you have a beautiful vehicle that’s very desirable and has peak value in the market today. I did some math and you can lease that same vehicle brand new for less than $200 a month. Would you like to spend about 10 minutes and I can show you some cars and give you some numbers, then you can take those numbers and you can go home and think about it?... etc."
This is just one example of how your sales staff can start a dialogue with a potential buyer they would never have the chance to talk to if they hadn't visited the service department.
Like we said last week, some of your best customers are sitting in your service lane. If you and your sales team can keep this in mind and apply strategies to engage those shoppers, you will see an increase in your revenue.
We hope you enjoyed this blog post and found it helpful. If you would like to find out how Edifice can send more shoppers to your service lane and showroom, click the big blue button below for a Free Market Study.