Digital Dealer - October 2017 - 46

By Charlie Polston
Automotive Customer
Retention and
Profitability Consultant,
BG Products, Inc.

// Fixed Operations

Displays Won't
Sell Service -
If You Won't!
A Ford dealership has
a world-class tire
display in their service
lane. It is an absolutely
state-of-the-art setup with
slick LED lighting and an
uncluttered design. It must
have cost the dealer
several thousand dollars
to install. The only issue is
that they only sell two sets
of tires a month.
The customer lounge of
a rural Chevrolet dealership has beautiful acrylic
stands holding vital fluids
like gear lube, engine oil,
and transmission fluid.
The acrylic stands show
"before and after" samples
to illustrate the importance
of fluid exchange services. There are also slick
color brochures explaining
the features and benefits
of routine fluid maintenance services. They see
about 600 customer-pay
vehicles per month, but
the issue is they only sell
two or three fluid services
a week.
A Hyundai store has
a large HD flat screen
monitor connected to a
DVD player. They show a
one-hour video with professional actors explaining
46

OCTOBER 2017

the virtues of automotive
maintenance-from cabin
air filters to windshield
wipers, to fuel injector
cleaning, to tire rotation.
The video is informative,
entertaining, and well
done. The only issue is
they are averaging less
than 1.1. hours per customer-pay repair order.

one-line-item ROs have
gone up and 90% of their
oil changes never get an
upsell.
Here's the point: slick
displays, beautiful acrylic
illustrations, professional
videos, and user-friendly
digital technology will
not increase labor hours,
keep service bays full,

MAN TO MAN,
PERSON TO PERSON,
EYEBALL TO EYEBALL-
IT TAKES ONE PERSON
ASKING ANOTHER
PERSON TO BUY IN
ORDER TO MAKE THE
SALE."
A mid-sized dealer
group has invested over
$50,000 in tablets for
advisors to use on the
service drive. The tablets
are connected to the DMS
system; therefore, they
can check vehicle history,
present a menu, estimate
a repair job, and play brief
videos to help customers
better understand their
maintenance needs.
The only issue is their

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

move parts off the shelf,
or increase your gross
profits. The reason is
because all of these
"display tools" will not sell
anything, only people can
do that!
Man to man, person to
person, eyeball to eyeball-it takes one person
asking another person to
buy in order to make the
sale.
(Even McDonalds, with

their digital video menu
boards, dynamic marketing strategies, and creative advertising realizes
it takes a person saying,
"do you want fries with
that?" to another person
in order to get the sale!)
Menus, banners, counter rmats, tire displays,
videos, and creative
digital technologies are
wonderful sales aids that
are only effective in the
hands of professional
sales PEOPLE.
Let there be no
misunderstanding: I
believe dealership service
departments should be
on the cutting edge of the
digital revolution. I believe
service advisors should
embrace a wide variety
of graphic displays, menu
boards, iPad video apps,
and mobile technology.
But none of these things
will look a customer in the
eye, lay out the issue, and
ask them to buy. It takes a
human being to do that.
Hey, aren't you glad
that's true? That means
service advisors and
service managers who
continually sharpen
their selling skills are a
valuable commodity. It's
called job security.
If you can sell service,
you'll always have a job in
the automotive business.
Producers, those who
have learned to sell preventive maintenance, will
always have an income
that goes up every year.
Displays will make every
service sales person
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - October 2017
