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Every salesperson knows the euphoria of finishing a car sale, complete with accessories, an “X” on the board, and extra commission. 

By the time you’ve reached that point, you’ve jumped through many hoops. And the hoops were on fire. Yes, overcoming objections can be tricky, and arguably, none are more dreaded than the deadpan reply, "I'm not interested." 

Customers know this is an excellent way to cut the sales pitch off before it starts. Don’t fret. You can take a few different routes to get around, over, and in front of objections to car accessories. 

Guest Post by Khrys Dorton

My husband and I hit six dealerships in about six hours during inflation and an inventory shortage. 

This is my tale. 

For three years, I’ve been driving a basic Ford Fusion S. The Fusion was a necessity purchase, and to be honest, I never really cared for it. As a hobby, we’d periodically check around online to see if we could trade it or sell it for something we liked. 

In April of this year, I turned 43. My family and I had gone out to breakfast, and I’d been feeling down in the dumps. Maybe it was a mid-life crisis, or maybe it was a slow decline from driving an unwanted base model. (Okay, maybe that’s dramatic). Wanting to lift my spirits, my husband did the only thing he could think of. He offered to take me (car) window shopping.

As a Parts Manager, we know you get it. You’re well aware that accessories are an untouchable industry, a pandemic-proof, money-making boost for the front and back of the house. 

Often, the parts department divides efforts to sell accessories via digital retailing, e-commerce, and in-store. While a combination effort is an admirable (and successful) approach, parts shouldn’t lose sight of their best and easiest customer—the sales department. 

Here are three reasons why working with sales to sell accessories is a good idea. 

Customer expectation has morphed several times over the last several years. Today, the person’s experience is more important than budget. The most successful dealerships are changing their usual way of doing things to adapt to the next wave of consumers. 

Buyers now start their car buying process online up to 99% of the time.  Some take steps toward buying their car before setting foot in the store, cutting their in-store time down to about ninety minutes. Even those who didn’t start the check-out process online have spent hours researching and know what they want when they arrive. 

Couple this well-informed buyer with a society that values a fast pace and high efficiency, and dealerships must make the most out of every minute they have with their buyer (or risk death by bad reviews). 

A steady uptick in the adoption of electric vehicles spurred almost all major brands to create an electric model. While some automakers are still dipping their toes in the pool, others have made a splash, pledging to go all-electric within the next decade. 

As popularity increases, so does affordability. EVs were once poised to cater to an elite market. Today, brands like Nissan, Ford, and GMC offer electric vehicles priced for the average car buyer. In the next two to three years, many more models are expected to be available, and dealers can look forward to having EVs as commonplace cars on the lot. 

Electric vehicles need less maintenance and require fewer parts. If there’s one thing that is certain to remain the same, it’s the consumer’s innate drive to personalize. EV buyers are self expressionist, potentially even more so than gas-powered buyers. That’s good news for fixed operations, which can significantly impact their bottom line with accessory sales.

“Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient” — Jeff Bezos

There was a time when dealerships filled the floor with warm bodies, and prior sales experience wasn’t important. The belief that a salesperson was diabolically plotting to “get one over” on the customer was commonplace and accepted. Car buyers viewed car shopping as a necessary evil and begrudgingly handed over their money, whether they were treated well or not.

Those days are gone. 

In 2023, the customer experience can skyrocket your success or set you way back; and, in some cases, do irreparable damage. 

Millennials, the largest segment of car buyers today, require a positive experience, or you will pay—possibly with your life, in a long, slow death from bad reviews. 

It finally happened.

My 2005 Chrysler Pacifica left us on the side of the road (again), and our mechanic delivered the news that I knew would eventually come: this fix was going to cost more than the car was worth. 

After all these faithful years, my Pacifica (affectionately named Tracy) decided to kick the can on the tail end of a chip shortage and smack dab in the middle of inflation. So what’s a girl to do?

I prayed. I meditated. I practiced deep breathing. Then I set out car shopping. And you know what? It wasn’t that bad.