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Salt Lake Valley Dodge is the popular choice for customers looking to purchase a new Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Chrysler, or FIAT vehicle. They’ve been doing well with sales, and customers leave them great reviews such as: “Great smaller dealership...personal, friendly, willing to do business. Found them professional and most efficient. They certainly had the best deals. Would highly recommend them.” - Dennis Wright.
So what do you do when you have happy customers and a recognizable brand?
You look for ways to make your dealership even better! Salt Lake Valley Dodge knew there was more they could do to improve customer experience in the store. They also knew they were leaving money on the table by not having a process for accessory sales.
Salt Lake Valley Sold Over $100k in First 6 Weeks
Jed Devenport, a newer employee at Salt Lake Valley Dodge, spoke to us about the accessory sales program at the store. Jed is no stranger to Insignia Group. When he was hired at Salt Lake Valley, he inquired about the dealership’s accessory program and how it has been doing. It turns out the accessory program was not nearly as strong as it had been at other stores in which Jed had worked.
Jed is familiar with accessory sales. Devenport said when he first started in the accessories department, he borrowed the front counter of the Parts department to run it. After a while, he realized there had to be a more efficient way to run the accessories department, especially with all that untapped sales potential. He found Insignia Group—and the rest is history.
After Jed started at Salt Lake Valley Dodge; he got busy. “I pushed my dealership to buy it [the Insignia Group System] for me to run this program. I haven’t tried them all, although I have seen some of the competition, and honestly, this seems to be the most complete and the most intuitive option.”
The store did not track their accessory sales before Jed recommended they adopt the Insignia Group software. Once they started tracking, it was easy to see accessories were the missing link to sales revenue. In six weeks, the store made more than $100,000 in accessory sales. To put it another way, that’s $16,667 a week or $2,381 daily in extra revenue that Salt Lake Valley Dodge earned—without having to sell additional vehicles.
The salespeople and the department are still learning and training on the software, which means the store has the potential to double or triple their monthly sales as everyone acclimates to it.
Jed’s Tips On Improving Vehicle Accessory Sales
We asked Jed for some tips on how any dealer can take their store to the next level in accessory sales revenue.
Q: February was a big sales month for your store—bringing in over $100,000 in accessory sales—what helped your store reach those numbers?
J: Not to sound arrogant, but my experience is what helped it. I was exposed to a successful program right away and learned the process and the practices that make it that way. That also led to having the sales management staff buy in and once they started seeing how much gross we were adding, they realized it was worth doing correctly. This department is my baby; and my own daughter will tell you how much I push my babies for success. Honestly though, it takes a constant conscious effort to improve and to learn. In the lead up to the official start of this, I wasn’t shy about picking up a phone and spending significant amounts of time speaking with other successful programs around the country—trying to see what works and doesn’t for their situations. That gave me a new group of things to try and new ideas of what leads to a successful program.
Q: Do you have any advice for other dealerships out there who might be struggling with getting employees to “buy in” with using our system to promote accessory sales?
J: Find a good accessory manager—and create a process. One person that knows what they’re doing can show the potential to everyone else much better than having a group get in each other’s heads about how it doesn’t work. And every level of sales works better with a process. The more you can replicate the same steps over and over, the easier and simpler it becomes. There are so many things that can produce results and so many things that can be implemented along the way. You just have to get started and move forward...reassess...move forward...adjust...move forward.
A good accessory program is worth the time and effort a dealership needs when it first starts. You can always seek out mentors, speak with Insignia Group’s consultants, and don’t be afraid to try. Your dealership could have an outstanding first month too! For more stories like Salt Lake Valley Dodge, check out our customer success page.
If your dealership is ready to start or boost their accessory program, schedule a demo today.
Insignia Group is the leading solution for selling accessories in the showroom and online, at the point-of-sale. We provide expert consulting and cutting-edge technology to present Vehicle Personalization, and high level training to get your dealership profitable in the accessory arena. If you aren’t selling accessories with a focused process, you’re leaving money on the table. Let us help you join the Million Dollar Club in 2021.
