Digital Dealer - April 2019 - 46

Road Trip to DD26 | April 9-11, 2019 | Orlando

DD26

S A L E S & VA RIA B L E OPS: F ixe d Op e r a tio n s

Upsell Process
A customer arrives for
their appointment and
tells you exactly what's
needed, "an oil change,
please." Your tech performs
the work and hands the keys
back to the customer, who
then drives off. Does this
sound familiar? Most service
drives focus on getting cars
in and out as quickly as
possible to maximize profits
and increase RO count.
However, there is a crucial
piece missing; and by
adding it to this story, your
techs will have more work
on each RO, more parts
sold, and there will be extra
money in the bank for your
dealership and employees.
The missing piece is
a good upsell process.
According to JD Power, 29%
of advisors present only one
additional service to clients;
when in fact, most clients
could have been sold three
to six additional services.
Both dealerships with and
without an upsell process
could benefit from taking a
step back to see how they
handle these additional
recommendations. In dealerships that have an upsell
process, it's important to
ensure every job is presented to customers and the
experience is consistent. In
dealerships that don't have a
process in place, the service
team is only taking orders
instead selling more service.
Fixing these problems
means recognizing where
they start. Some common
46

APRIL 2019

barriers to a good upsell
process include: convincing
the tech. to complete the
multipoint, compiling upsell
pricing, selling the work, and
bringing back work that was
recommended and not done
To respond to these
challenges, you must make
the upsell process a priority.
This provides a consistent
experience for customers
and makes your service
drive more competitive in
the marketplace. Here are
some specific improvements
you can make to overcome
these barriers:
THE ESTIMATE
STARTING LINE. The first

place to look for process
improvements, and arguably
the most important, is
with technicians. Finding
potential upsells needs to be
rewarding and worthwhile
to them, otherwise both
technicians and advisors
turn into order-takers from
the customer. To make
technicians complete
the multipoint, their work
must be presented by the
advisors, and it has to be
easy for them to compile
the numbers necessary
to provide an accurate
estimate.
Following suit, advisors
must have the tools and
training to provide professional presentations and
answer customer questions.
To help monitor this, managers need to have reporting
available that allows them to
see who may need addi-

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

FEATURED SPEAKER
By Chelsea Heil
Sales Manager - Fixed Operations,
Reynolds and Reynolds

tional training. If there were
30 power steering racks
recommended and only four
were sold, the dealership
can easily see the profit leak
and work to change it.
BEHIND-THE-SCENES
OF THE PRESENTATION.

The largest room for error
comes from the parts of the
upsell process the customer
can't see. They don't see
what it takes or how long it
takes to compile an estimate, or the energy spent
by the technician and the
parts department to arm the
advisor with the knowledge
they need for the sale. By
watching what happens
behind the scenes, you can
fix the problems that would
lead to a negative customer
interaction.
WHAT CUSTOMERS
SEE. For a customer to put

trust in your technician's
findings, you need to have
professional presentations
that don't leave customers
feeling confused or unsettled. The advisor and the
presentation are the only
two pieces of the upsell
process your customer will
come in contact with, so
making a lasting, quality
impression is crucial. The
presentation needs to
communicate information
the customer should be
aware of in a way they can
understand. Scribbling down
notes alongside the findings
and the estimates will only
cause apprehension from
the customer, making it easy

to lose the upsell. Knowledge
is power; showing the technician's findings on a professional presentation during
the upsell will arm customers
with knowledge on the state
of their vehicle. If they walk
away from a competitor's
drive feeling more informed
and empowered than they do
at your store, your competitor
just gained a new customer.
UNLIMITED POTENTIAL

With improvements to
the upsell process comes
unlimited potential to tap
into the service and parts
market that is currently being
overrun with dealership
competitors. According to the
Auto Care Association, there
is a $381.1 billion parts and
service market at dealerships'
fingertips. Unfortunately,
dealers are only tapping into
$114.15 billion1, less than
one third of the market. When
customers will say "yes" to an
upsell 47% of the time they
are asked2, dealers can easily
capture more of the market
and take back the profits that
left their drive by effectively
asking for the business.
Although improving the
upsell process may require
change throughout the
service department, these
changes will help stop money
from leaving the drive and
improve both employees' job
satisfaction and your customers' experiences
1
2

NADA
JD POWER

CHELSEA HEIL has visited
dealerships across the country
partnering with automotive
retailers to evaluate their ﬁxed
operations. She joined Reynolds
in 2009 where she is currently a
ﬁxed operations manager. EMAIL:
chelsea_heil@reyrey.com
http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Digital Dealer - April 2019

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