It is important to understand that each of your departments play a special role in the customer experience. In terms of the sheer volume of customer contacts, no department has as many calls or individuals coming in as your parts department. In one way or another, everything that happens in the dealership somehow touches the parts department. As a result, the store, as a whole, is greatly impacted by what happens or doesn’t happen in parts.

As the culture changes, dealers today are finding that customers who come into the dealership have less and less knowledge about what they need or how to best maintain the equipment they own. That’s why it’s critical that your parts department staff knows how to ask good questions. By doing so, you can help customers get what they are looking for and you can also recommend other parts or items they might need, but not know about. This will help maximize the experience they have with your dealership and the brands you carry.

Customers also don’t have the right information about their equipment. When I consult with dealerships, I stand behind the parts counters and I understand how frustrating it can be to work with a customer who doesn’t have the information you need. Let’s face it; it’s a lot easier to get the right parts for a customer if they have the make, model and serial numbers of their equipment. Yet, it doesn’t always happen that way. In fact, most customers don’t even know they need to bring in that kind of information.

Working with Customers

Because of the impact we have on the total dealership, we have to be patient, kind and caring and gently work with customers without making them feel stupid or incompetent. This will give them the positive experience we need them to have. By doing this, it will give us the ability to turn them into loyal customers for years and years to come.

Our goal is to make our parts customers feel like we have the time to help them, but do it in a way where there is focused conversation, not time spent talking about the weather, politics or the stray dog outside of your dealership. Asking questions about their equipment is always a good way to find out what your customers know and then work to educate them quickly and efficiently. This encourages them to purchase either additional parts they might need or to move from the aftermarket parts they are buying online to the OEM parts they should be using.

Your goal is to do everything possible to make sure your parts department is growing, your customers are excited and you’re striving to maintain strong margins. There are several ways to grow your parts business, whether it’s directly through the service department or by changing how you add on sales with customers at your parts counter.

Create a High Performance Dealership with Bob Clements is a new series brought to you by Yanmar.

More from Bob Clements

Yanmar — Don’t settle for less when you can have more. For example, Yanmar makes all its compact tractors’ major drivetrain components – the Yanmar engine, transmission, and axles — in-house. Because they’re made to work perfectly together, you and your customers get a hardworking machine with more usable horsepower, less power loss, and a smoother, more comfortable ride. Yanmar’s tractors are designed to work as hard as you do for a lifetime. Strengthen your dealership with Yanmar today: AgMarketing@yanmar.com or call 770-877-9894.

Becoming a Parts Salesperson

When I have the opportunity to speak directly to parts people at dealerships, I like to stress the importance of the role they play. I work hard to help them understand that they are responsible for more than just getting parts for service and counter customers. As a matter of fact, in today’s parts world, I think one of the most important things to remember is that parts people are not just parts people, but parts salespeople. For some, the difference in what they are called has little significance, but for me, there is a huge difference between the two roles.

Today, I can take just about anyone and quickly teach them how to look up parts for a customer; how to find where the parts are located; and how to ring up a sale and take the customer’s money. That would be what a “parts person” does.

A “parts sales person” plays a very different role. As a parts salesperson, your job is to find opportunities to either upsell or cross sell additional items to a customer in order to enhance the experience they have with your dealership. The point is not to sell them something they don’t need — that would be stealing — but, instead, make sure they’re made aware of what is available and give them the opportunity to say yes or no.

Adding Upselling

One of the ways to increase the sales in your parts department is through a process called upselling. Upselling is selling a product to a customer that is a little more expensive, but a better value in terms of what they receive for their money.

Think about McDonald’s for a moment and the upselling they do when you are ordering either through their drive-thru or at the counter. If you order a value meal, you will be asked “Would like to make it a medium or large?” They used to ask if you would like to “super-size” the meal and most people just said “yes.” From McDonald’s perspective, they added more French fries and a larger drink for a small amount of money. You were happy for the extra food and they were happy because they took a sale and increased its’ value. While getting a little extra on each sale doesn’t seem like a big deal over the course of a year, it adds a substantial amount of dollars to your bottom line.

To keep it simple, any time you can move a customer from a product to a better product, you have upsold them. The customer sees the better value in the small amount of additional money they spend, so they are happy and that small additional sale you make on every customer can add strong profits to your bottom line. As you begin to think about opportunities to do upselling, look around and think outside of the box.

For example, think about the batteries that you carry in your parts department. When a customer comes up to the parts department looking to buy a battery and says, “I’ll just take the cheapest one that you have.” Upselling would be talking to them about the differences between the cheapest one you have and the battery that is $20 more, but will give them additional use because it is a heavier, more durable battery.

Another example is spark plugs. How many times do you have a customer come in and ask for a spark plug? You can probably reach under your counter and give them an inexpensive plug that you might sell for $3.85. Upselling would be showing the customer the plug for $3.85 and then talking to them about the value of buying a better quality plug. Sure, the plug might be $5.85 instead of $3.85, but it will make the mower or snow blower easier to start and does a better job in making the engine perform at its peak.

I understand that some dealers will sell aftermarket oil filters or oil. I am not a big fan of aftermarket anything, but that’s a choice you make as a dealer. Understand that manufacturers take great care in designing and testing parts to keep the customer’s equipment operating at peak performance. If a customer comes in and wants a cheap filter for their equipment, take a moment and share the difference between an aftermarket filter and the OEM filter. If you were not aware there is a difference, I would encourage you to cut each one open and see for yourself. There is a huge difference, which is why the aftermarket item costs less.

Another thing to review with the customer is that if the aftermarket filter would happen to fail, it could affect the product’s warranty. Keep in mind that most people come to your dealership to get OEM parts for their equipment.

What about the belts that you sell? I was at a dealership not long ago and a gentleman came in and said, “I want the cheapest belt you have.” As the parts person was grabbing it, I asked him if he considered an OEM belt. The customer said, “Well, a belt is a belt.” I said, “That isn’t actually true. An aftermarket belt is measured for 100 hours’ worth of use, while many OEM belts are rated for 300 hours. The OEM is twice the cost, but you get a third more use out of it. So, it really depends how many times you want to change it.”

Part of your job in upselling is to understand the difference and help the customer understand why it makes sense to pay a little extra to get a whole lot more.

Read Part 2.

Create a High Performance Dealership with Bob Clements is a new series brought to you by Yanmar.

More from Bob Clements

Yanmar — Don’t settle for less when you can have more. For example, Yanmar makes all its compact tractors’ major drivetrain components – the Yanmar engine, transmission, and axles — in-house. Because they’re made to work perfectly together, you and your customers get a hardworking machine with more usable horsepower, less power loss, and a smoother, more comfortable ride. Yanmar’s tractors are designed to work as hard as you do for a lifetime. Strengthen your dealership with Yanmar today: AgMarketing@yanmar.com or call 770-877-9894.