Is your car dealership missing opportunities for fixed ops revenue?

While your car dealership is focused heavily on scheduled maintenance and repairs, you might be missing some valuable revenue opportunities. Increase your fixed ops revenue with these four simple steps.  

1. Emphasize accessory sales

Yes, accessory sales are often some lower–margin items, but you shouldn’t overlook the value they bring to the car dealership. According to Revolution Parts data, accessories make up a $40 billion a year industry. You can get your chunk of this pie with a little attention. 

With the average car owner spending around $300 to $800 and truck owners dumping an average of $1,500 on accessories, there’s plenty of potential here to boost fixed ops revenue.  

To sell more accessories, follow these steps. 

• Involve the entire team – the salespeople must be trying to upsell accessories just as much as the technicians. 
• Offer incentives – offer a perk to the associate that sells the most accessories. 
• Keep track of what sells – by seeing what’s popular, you will know what to offer more of in the future.  

2. Upsell more tires

Nearly 200 million replacement tires are purchased for passenger cars in the United States each year. If you aren’t taking advantage of this opportunity, your competitor is. You can quickly double your tire sales with some simple tactics. 

• Talk about tires – you can’t sell tires if you aren’t blogging about them, sending out emails about them and talking to the clients about them. 
• Put tires on display – your customers might not even know you sell tires. 
• Check the tires at every appointment – you can catch problems early and take care of the issues immediately.  
• Have a tire sale – there should always be a tire sale. 

3. Add car detailing packages

With the average vehicle detailing price ranging from $50 to $150, this is a great avenue to earn more fixed ops revenue. Plus, you don’t need to hire automotive technicians to run the detail bay. Here are a few tips to help you maximize your revenue from the detail department. 

• Implement good management – you should use someone that can motivate workers and keep a close eye on the logistics.  
• Ensure a well-stocked facility – prepare enough space to provide the work and make sure you have all the necessary equipment to do a fantastic job. 
• Use service appointments as a chance to upsell detailing – offer the perk to every service customer as a benefit before they take their car home.  

4. Cross-sell services

When your customers arrive for a simple oil change, it’s the perfect time to consider cross-selling. Not only will you want to talk about the other services the car might need right now, but you also want to mention the latest car dealership pricing or incentives. If the owner is happy with their model car, be sure someone educates them on the latest features in the newer models.  

You could even offer some form of service discount if a customer is willing to take a test drive. It will give them something to do while they wait for their vehicle and gives your sales department a chance to make a sale.  

No excuses available 

With so many opportunities to boost sales from your fixed ops departments, there’s no reason you should be held back. Do a little research to see what works. Implement one change at a time and monitor the success. Soon enough, you will wonder why you didn’t make the changes sooner. 

Did you enjoy this article from Brian Jones? Read other articles on CBT News here. Please share your thoughts, comments, or questions regarding this topic by submitting a letter to the editor here, or connect with us at newsroom@cbtnews.com.