Not all Dealerships are created equal. The team you have in place, the OEM you specialize in, the problems you get to solve for your customers – those are what make up the unique dynamic in your day-to-day. But whether you’re a team of two or 20, you face many of the same fixed ops challenges: balancing the right parts inventory to reach – and ideally exceed – your revenue goals.
Scalability No Matter Your Size
If you are one of that team of two in the parts department, you probably feel like you have limited time and resources to explore expanding your parts sales. You already have more than enough on your plate, servicing customers, managing wholesale accounts – many days, fitting everything into 8 or 9 hours feels impossible.
If you’re part of that 20-team, maybe you feel good in the sales you’re making and see no need to fix what ain’t broke. Yes, your days are full, but you rarely feel overwhelmed or understaffed.
In either case, you are leaving money on the table.
Manpower = scalability is a common myth in the fixed ops world. It is often perceived as a 1:1 ratio where the more people you have, the more you can do, and the more realistic it is to scale. But we are here to set the record straight! The truth is you’re only as small as the number of customers you want to serve. If you don’t care to sell more parts, then you can stop reading right now. But if you do want to grow your business, regardless of headcount, let’s dive in.
Customer Acquisition 1-2 Punch
First in adding eCommerce to your parts department will help you grow your customer base and revenue. Online shopping has never been so hot with consumers, and it is now what they expect from every retailer. Your parts department is, after all, a retailer. Now it is time to think like one. Do you know that 85% of consumers are researching auto replacement parts using the internet? (Auto Care Association) Meeting customers where they are, with what they need, puts you in a great position to meet demand much bigger than your local market. That specialty part that has been collecting dust for six months could be just the thing someone on the opposite side of the country needs. They just needed to find you.
” Christopher Forrester is parts manager at Alden Mazda in Fairhaven, Mass., with just two people in his department and saw online part sales add $150,000 of additional revenue per month. “We’re in a tough market with lots of competition, and as a smaller store with limited space and staff, we couldn’t always keep up with the bigger guys in town,” he said. But now, thanks to our online presence, we can offer our products to a wider audience.”
Next, hiding in plain sight: the service lane. They’re the parts department’s biggest customer, but does it also feel sometimes like they’re at odds with each other? Flip the script and train your teams to cross-sell each other for increased sales opportunities for all of fixed ops. If the service department cannot close a repair sale, they can always direct the customer to the parts department to buy the needed parts. Information shared in the online parts store ensures that no matter how they do it, the customer gets the repair done and leaves happy while you still manage to make a sale. Training the parts department to promote the service lane is doubling down, giving both departments a sale. This mutually beneficial relationship is a win-win and, better yet, focuses on customer experience, ensuring they are presented with all of the options available to them when needing auto repairs.
The Result? A Modern, Well-Oiled Machine
Think about what makes your favorite car run so well. When the brilliant engineers designed it, and desired it to go faster, they didn’t add five more engines. They did modern efficiencies; they made it for power, not bulk. Not one day did they adopt the then popular adage, “bigger is better,” so when it comes to dealership size, nor should you if you aim to drive your dealership toward modernization in revenue growth. Your only bound is the one you’ve placed on your own hand. It may seem ambitious to want to grow your parts business by 10X, but it has been a reality for other dealerships out there. Just think of what you could accomplish if your aspiration is 20X?
Expand Your Parts Sales with eCommerce Solutions
You can increase revenue, improve operations, and lower obsolescence by adding online selling channels to your parts department. If you would like to learn more about how to modernize your parts department, download our free guide, “Creating a Digital Parts Department.“
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