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The art of accessory sales presents one golden opportunity. There are other opportunities along the way, yet only one is golden. While the accessory sale is a multi-step process, 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 then 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 Vehicle Personalization.  

The golden opportunity has arrived, and we call it utilizing a lead-in product.

Salespeople are learning how to sell cars again after a long period of being order takers. Having empty lots and vehicles on backorder got us all out of practice. As inventory and prices stabilize, there’s inevitably going to be a relearning process. 

Retraining car salespeople after the industry upheaval means addressing changes in customer behavior, understanding industry trends, and adopting more efficient ways to meet goals. Wise management should take advantage of the potential in training by integrating accessory sales into the process. 

Here are some strategies to consider.

Customizing your car used to be reserved for true car enthusiasts. Today, Vehicle Personalization is a multi-billion dollar industry, consistently adding hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars to dealerships’ annual gross profit. It’s not just gearheads from the tuner scene in SoCal that want accessories. It’s Charles from the suburbs. It’s Molly from accounting. It’s the next person to walk into your store.

Although trends change rapidly, the desire to personalize does not. It’s not a matter of if consumers will personalize their vehicles; it’s a matter of when and where they’ll spend the money to do it. 

Employee turnover has been cited as the #1 challenge for dealerships.

Recruiting, hiring, and retaining top talent has a price tag, and the revolving door of employee turnoverimpacts profitability. According to the 2022 NADA Dealership Workforce Study, "...employee turnover rate within the industry is currently at an average of 67 percent."

That’s a staggering number, considering that just one year before, Auto News reported turnover was the lowest it had been in a decade at only 34%. 

Dealers put money into hiring a new employee, only to lose them before their 90-day assessment. 

Employees that stick around longer end up irritated by the structured payment plans. And let’s face it, we’ve all experienced the pain of reduced margins which impact how sales consultants are compensated. 

So, what can dealers do about this age-old problem?

Managing a department with an 80% annual turnover rate isn’t for the faint of heart. Add in an inventory shortage, social distancing, and a sharp increase in digital retailing; and, it’s enough to make somebody crazy. The good news is, sales managers don’t have to go on a yoga retreat to escape the chaos. There are manageable steps to make the sales department better and keep your General Manager happy. Avoid these common pitfalls to get out of survival mode as we skate into 2022. 

We could all use a boost to our bottom line right now. 

We could probably use a week off social media, a tropical vacation, and some yoga too, but I digress. With summer ablaze, car dealers have more than a day at the beach on their minds. In the midst of a global pandemic inciting mayhem in our industry, we must soak up every cent of seasonal summer accessories. Say that five times fast.

Eighteen-year-old Samantha Dorton is fresh out of high school. With a spirit of optimism, she initiated plans to leave the nest. Her first stop on the road to independence was a local dealership. Samantha’s mother, Khrystal Dorton, Insignia Group’s Customer Care Coordinator, asked her daughter to be self-sufficient before she flew on her own.

“That meant getting her vehicle fixed, or purchasing one that ran,” Khrystal said. “She decided to buy a good one and leave her 2001 Nissan Pathfinder behind.” Armed with her approval specs from the bank and a good idea of what she was looking for, Samantha was ready to face the car-buying process head-on.

Margin compression matters now more than ever. As dealers adapt to selling cars digitally, or with skeleton crews, monthly sales volumes are on a slippery slope. Though our present industry reality is less than ideal, we aren’t without hope. We have the tools to make every car sale count, to the extent of tipping this month’s scale back into balance, precarious as it may be.

Ahh, Valentine's Day. Love is in the air—$18.2 billion worth. America is love sick, and it’s time the automotive industry snatched that love out of the air and put it on the road. Love is blind but car buyers are not, and there are plenty of personalization options to shower those new car purchases with TLC. Implement these tips this Valentine’s Day to make your buyer feel special and show your staff some love.

It’s the most common New Year’s resolution year after year: lose the weight. Shed that which is unwanted and not serving you. Lean out, get stronger, increase longevity. This annual commitment resounds all over the world and it’s no surprise that the diet and fitness industry is well into the billions.

Your dealership might not be on Keto, but you can still make wait loss your goal this year. Vehicle Personalization, after all, rivals diet culture as a lean, mean, multi-billion dollar industry. You can be proactive about replacing the dreaded wait time with a successful shopping experience.