Service departments are proving to be a significant source of inventory for many of you across the nation. Group 1 Automotive’s President of U.S. Operations, Daryl Kenningham, recently said, “In June, we sourced over 3,000 used vehicles from our service departments and through individual purchases.” This process begins with a great sale.
For over 30 years, David Lewis and Associates has been taking dealership sales and service to the next level. On today’s show, we’re pleased to welcome David Lewis, President, and CEO of David Lewis and Associates, and the host of CBT’s show, Straight Talk, to talk to us about selling cars to customers in service to generate inventory.
With the problem of inventory, which we know isn’t going away quickly, you have to evaluate who you’re selling your cars to. Lewis says it’s easier to sell a customer in service than it is to a customer that walks in off the street. 99% of the time if you want to be successful in selling cars out of your service lane two things have to happen. First, you have to be proactive. Secondly, you have to change your retail sales mentality.
Lewis says in your mind, you have to remove the fact that the customer in service is not going to buy a car today. He says you have to let the customer know that you have no intentions of selling them a car today. If you ask for the sale, you deflated and removed the reason why you got them on the lot in the first place.
| Related: 11 key processes every service advisor should be trained to do |
Get the customer interested first, give them information, and thinking about the option to purchase the vehicle. If you can make 4 or 5 presentations a day, you are going to sell cars. Lewis says the best part is you’re going to get a great trade because you have picked the vehicle and have helped the inventory situation.
We’ve been in an inventory shortage for about 14 to 16 months. Lewis says the salespeople that want to be car salespeople are sticking around and they’re still doing well. He says it’s going to be another great year in the car business.
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