Automotive News Canada - February 2021 - 7

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A Used Car Factory in your Service Drive
There's a daily
source of used
cars in your
service drive.
By JEFF WILLIAMS
President & CEO, Absolute Results

Every new car dealer knows intuitively that their customer database
is their best source of used cars.
Trade-ins command higher prices
on the used car lot, generate internal
reconditioning revenue, and grow
retention by renewing customers
into another new or used vehicle.
For decades, dealers have leveraged
database marketing campaigns and
VIP sale events to boost new car
sales and to secure late model tradeins. Indeed, database campaigns and
events have become an integral part
of many successful dealers' quarterly
sales strategy. As successful as these
campaigns can be, though, dealers
need more than a quarterly, or even
a monthly, boost in sales and trade
ins.
So, where can a dealer get a steady
stream of late model trade-ins? In
their service drive.
Here's why: an impressive 50
per cent of a typical dealer's service-drive traffic purchased their
current vehicle from another
dealer. These are brand-loyal service
customers, who aren't necessarily
dealer-loyal, and there are dozens of

SALES LEADERSHIP
Insights & Selling
Strategies
them in the dealership every day. Although they're coming in the " back
door " for service, not the " front
door " for sales, they're making their
own appointments, showing up, and
spending money at the dealership
every day. Even converting a small
percentage of daily service customers presents a significant opportunity for the sales teams to make
sizeable gains in sales and used car
inventory.
At Absolute Results, we know that
it's entirely achievable to convert
these customers, too. A survey of
over 100 Canadian dealers shows
that Canada's top dealers are converting 2.5 per cent of their monthly
service RO's to sales and buy-ins.
Often, the sales from the service
drive are some of the dealer's most
profitable transactions because they
cost nothing in advertising, provide
additional internal-service-reconditioning revenue, and offer the two
potentially high-profit sales transactions of the new vehicle and the
trade-in.
The key to attaining the impressive
conversion rate of 2.5 per cent or
higher is a service-drive prospecting
plan, which the sales team can executed daily to engage these valuable
customers in a selling conversation.
For this plan to be effective, it needs
to be developed with an emphasis
that respects two essential factors.
First, the plan needs to show consideration for the fact that the customer didn't come into the dealership

ABSOLUTE DRIVE™
Identify who is in
service every day

Starts a selling
conversation

Shows daily and
monthly ROI

" Drive makes it so easy, making profitable
deals and getting the trade right. "
-Nissan Dealer, AB

intending to trade-in their car or
purchase another, but for vehicle service. Second, it needs to be
mindful of the service department's
agenda by protecting the profitability of today's service transaction.

of the dealership's location or a
relationship they've built with this
dealership's service team through
previous positive experiences. A useful way to approach these customers
is by offering them an appointment
for an upgrade conversation, where
a sales-team member can provide
them with a no-obligation upgrade
quote or buy-back offer.
Fifty percent of the dealer's daily
service customers are sales portfolio customers, who already know
the dealership. The sales team can

2.5%

THE TWO+ PERCENT RULE
Top dealers are converting between
1.6% and 4.4% of their service ROs
into buy-ins and new sales.
Keeping these very important issues
in mind, let's look at three types of
customers in a dealer's daily service
drive, and let's discuss an approach
that can effectively start a selling
conversation that results in either
a sales transaction or an inventory
purchase, or both.

look up portfolio customers' current sales contract in the Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) or
Dealer Management System (DMS),
prepare a quote, and arrange to meet
them after their service, possibly
with a sales-to-service rebate structured into the deal.

Five to ten percent of a dealer's daily
service customers are first-time
visitors. Often, they discovered the
dealership themselves, and now
it's the dealership's job to deliver a
positive experience. A successful
way to approach these customers
is with a goodwill conversation in
which a sales-team member introduces themselves, inquires about
the customer's current vehicle, and
asks how their driving needs have
changed.

A simple, well-executed plan that's
implemented with the help of
technology can turn a dealership's
service drive into the dealer's best
source of used cars.

Repeat service customers make
up 40 per cent of a dealer's daily
service customers. Although these
customers haven't bought from this
dealership, they have chosen this
service department over that of their
original dealer, whether it's because

Absolute Drive™ is a powerful automated technology developed by
Absolute Results that helps more
than 100 Canadian dealers every
month with the process of engaging
service customers in daily upgrade
conversations, acquiring late-model
used cars, and growing sales.
Learn more
about how
Absolute Drive™,
point your
mobile phone
camera here:

Automotive News Canada - February 2021

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