The Parts Department is often seen as the black hole in the back end of the dealership and a necessary evil. Truth be told however, when run well, the Parts Department can be a significant source of revenue and profit when it’s staff can confidently and competently maximize every sales opportunity by understanding the customers’ buying motives, being good to and for customers, removing their personal biases that usually get in the way of the sale and, last but certainly not least, viewing and supporting their biggest and most important strategic customer – the Service Department.
The following list covers a wide variety of training courses that can be offered and customized to your specific needs. Please click on the courses below to review the course highlights.
- Communication basics
- Building rapport
- Verbal & non-verbal communication
- Effective listening
- Developing your communication outcome
- Telephone scripting for gaining commitment on incoming calls
- Telephone scripting and techniques for securing agreement on sales calls
- How to handle the time wasters: Personal Calls, Technical Inquiries etc.
- Define the singular purpose in receiving a message
- Understand the need to reply to e-mails, timely & professionally
- Establish an e-mail response strategy
- Use existing dealership software to answer customer queries
- Develop message templates for acknowledging incoming e-mails
- Develop message-writing skills as the foundation for the most common customer queries based on defined personalities
- Understanding how to turn an e-mail request on price/service/parts or information into an opportunity for a dealership visit
- Understand the current need for improving service sales
- Understand how needs-based service selling versus just an “upsell” builds long-term client relations
- Understand and practice the 4-step service sales approach during write up
- Utilize service selling tools including the Maintenance Logbook, Vehicle Checkup form, walk-around inspection and 80/20 Visual Principle
- Understand the impact of comebacks on the dealership and service department
- Recognize the importance of the traditional service process as a “foundation” for preventing comebacks
- Realize the benefits that quality assurance steps bring to service and parts and the customer
- Identify the critical steps and best practices necessary for dealing with comebacks
- Implement measurement and tracking procedures supporting customer satisfaction and operations
- Understand the elements of the customer satisfaction ‘Wheel of Fortune’
- Identify the drivers of a customers’ perception of quality service
- Create a personal toolkit for monitoring all customer-facing actions
- Develop a personal action plan for implementation within 7 days of the workshop
- Purifying and Preserving your customer database
- Mining your database
- Understanding customer needs
- Developing strategies to: retain existing customers, regain defecting and orphan customers
- Serving others is the only priority
- When you have a bad day
- How to establish and maintain consistency
- Opportunities to connect Sales, Service & Parts
- When we drop the ball
- How to research your competition
- Understanding and supporting your brand image
- Taking advantage of manufacturers marketing support programs
- Mapping out and managing your dealership retail floorplan
- Developing products and services that support customer current needs
- How to plan, promote, support, measure, reward and refine your marketing efforts
- Techniques to improve speed and accuracy of counting inventory
- Preparing for the count using time-saving tools, formulas and checklist
- Creating a precise location system
- Making cycle counts efficient and effective
- Parts Pricing Strategies
- Eliminate the special order parts backlog
In this context ‘Administrative Staff’ is meant to include all non-technical staff. We have been successful in developing and delivering in-depth product workshops that cover essential feature/benefit presentation capabilities covering not only what it is but how it works and what it does! This is an exceptional knowledge enhancement for Advisors, Warranty Administrators and Sales Associates.
