Digital Dealer - July 2019 - 44

S A L E S & VA RIA BL E OPS: Fixed Ops Continued from pg. 43

INFORM YOUR CUSTOMERS THAT YOU WORK ON
EVERYTHING. ANY MAKE, ANY MODEL, ANY MILEAGE,
ANY YEAR. EVERYBODY HAS A "SECOND CAR", SO IF
THEY'LL BRING IT YOU'LL SERVICE IT."
troller are all looking to you
for sustainable profits, here
are some action points that
will help:
Don't get too focused on
cutting expenses. That's
what the bean-counters always push for because they
don't know any other way to
increase profits. Good things
aren't cheap and cheap
things aren't good. Look at
your trusted strategic partners (please don't call them
vendors). Quality, service,
training, and marketing
support trump cheap price
every time.
I know a dealer group that
switched suppliers because
a competitor had a cheaper
price. A year later they had
experienced a 30% loss in
gross. They wised up and
embraced a more expensive
product with a robust training and support team - and
the first year gross went up
400%. Cheap things aren't
good and good things -
oops, I already said that.
Don't reduce your training
budget. To clarify, there
are two types of training
investments: Money and
time. Don't reduce either.
I've actually seen service
managers cancel a training
luncheon on technician
efficiency because the techs
were too busy! Brother!
Your best training is sales
training. The technician
must understand their role in
inspecting vehicles is critical
44

J U LY 2 0 1 9

to equip the advisors with
the information they need to
sell what the tech recommends.
My most recent MPI audit
at a dealership on the east
coast showed less than
50% of the inspections
were actually completed.
Of those, only 18% of the
customers were sold additional needed maintenance

report to capture the VIN
numbers of all used cars
sold in 2017. Then see how
many of those vehicles
returned to your service
department, generating a
customer-pay RO, in 2018.
Lastly, see how many have
returned in 2019.
Brace yourself, because
the numbers will likely
surprise you. My guess is

DON'T GET TOO
FOCUSED ON CUTTING
EXPENSES. GOOD THINGS
AREN'T CHEAP AND
CHEAP THINGS AREN'T
GOOD!"
and repair. So, for every
100 cars seen on the drive,
only 50 are inspected in the
shop, and only nine bought
anything. This crew needs
some sales training! Either
that or the service director
needs to take the weak
advisors out to lunch... and
get theirs to-go!
Inform your customers
that you work on everything.
Any make, any model, any
mileage, any year. Everybody has a "second car",
so if they'll bring it, you'll
service it. And don't forget
about your used car buyers.
Are you retaining them in
your service department? I
mean honestly, do you really
know?
Here's an idea: Run a

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

they'll be around 20%. I did
an analysis on a mid-sized,
domestic dealership and
found the retention numbers
to be well under 20%.
Every dealership has a
sales-to-service handoff
process, but most have
inconsistent execution, and
it gets really inconsistent for
off-make used cars (for example, a CJDR dealership
selling a Hyundai Sonata).
Do you have a program
in place that intentionally
targets used car buyers?
This is your lowest of the
low handing fruit. Run the
numbers and see how effective your used-to-service
strategy is working. If you're
dissatisfied let me know, I
have a couple of ideas. My

email address is cpolston@
bglsi.com.
Sell your way to success.
Offer 100% of tech-recommended services to 100%
of your customers 100%
of the time. My friend TJ
LaPoint, general manager
of a three-dealership group,
calls that the 300% rule. By
the way, TJ gets it; he has a
weekly service sales meeting with his fixed ops team in
his office.
TJ's service management
team and his fixed ops
employees know the boss
is looking at the numbers,
and therefore, they are too!
There's a word for what TJ
is doing; it's called accountability. (Okay, there's another
word for it too; it's called
leadership).
Creating a sales culture
in fixed ops isn't easy, but it
is imperative; it is non-negotiable. You must. It is worth
your investment and the
return is huge. 2019 is half
gone. I want to challenge
you to make the last half
the best half. Happy sales
to you!
CHARLIE POLSTON is an
Automotive Customer Retention
and Profitability Consultant
with BG Products, Inc. Charlie
has been with BG's Fixed
Operations Division for over
36 years. He has trained over
7,500 dealers, managers, and
technicians - and has been a
frequent workshop leader at
NADA's annual convention.
http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Digital Dealer - July 2019

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