If you’re like most dealers we work with, most of the parts your
parts department sells are currently going on equipment that is
in your own shop. While there’s nothing wrong with that as a
short-term strategy, it shouldn’t be your only goal. We encourage
dealers to market their parts business to attract trailer owners
performing their own repairs. The value of these customers can
impact your dealers with not only increased parts sales, but you
also become the place they look to for a new trailer when they
are ready to purchase. Let’s look at some simple, zero-cost things
you can do to grow that business.
Make Sure Your Endcaps are Producing Revenue
Your end caps are the most valuable real estate in your parts
department, and it is imperative that you are measuring the
revenue that they produce on a weekly basis. We require endcaps
to produce a dealership $1,000 of gross profit per square foot per
year. How do you measure that? If you are running dealership
software, you make your endcap a parts location and then run a
sales report each month of the dollars sold from that location.
If your endcap is not generating you the dollars per square foot,
simply change what is on the endcap!
Keep Your Parts Counter Clear of Clutter
Your parts counter is a billboard for your parts department. So
many dealerships that we work with have all sorts of things sitting
on their counter, distracting from the message we are trying to
communicate at the parts counter. We want every customer to
walk up to the parts counter and say, “they have everything we
need, and they have great prices!” To make your parts counter a
billboard for that, you need to have signs that compare your price
for a few fast-moving parts that you carry to a local big box store.
10
Have A Clear Price on Everything
Have you ever walked into a store and found something that
didn’t have a price tag on it? What did you do? If you are like
most people, you probably put it down and walked away. One
of the biggest barriers that your customers have from buying is
lack of communication, and that comes down to something as
simple as price tags. One thing some of our dealers are utilizing
are electronic price tags, giving them the ability to make sure
that prices are clear for every item in their showroom and parts
department without having the hassle of tagging every piece of
inventory.
Don’t Overlook Fronting and Facing Your Products
The process of fronting and facing your parts can go a long way in
helping sell more parts. Fronting your inventory is simply making
sure that all of your product is pulled to the front of the shelf, giving
the shelf a full look. To face your inventory, you simply need to
make sure that the label is faced forward on the display. Fronting
and facing are two simple things that that parts department can do
daily that will have a large impact on your customers.
A clear strategy in your parts department will not only help you
sell more parts but will help customers have a better experience
with your dealership. For more tips like these, please visit
www.natda.org/dealer-education.
NATDA Dealership Performance Training program includes
online modules and documented processes, so dealers can
improve every aspect of their dealership – from the parts
department to trailer sales. For more information and to
sign-up, please contact NATDA at 727-360-0304.
NATDA Magazine www.natda.org