I have shopped at the same grocery store chain since I was able to use a microwave.  They have always had a good fresh seafood department.  Last week, for the first time, someone tried to upsell me at the seafood counter: I ordered my pound of shrimp, and after weighing and packaging the shrimp, Matt, the new seafood manager, asked me if I needed cocktail or scampi sauce.  The man ahead of me had been asked if he wanted to try one of their new butters for the salmon he was buying.  I upsell myself enough at the grocery store, but for the first time, this manager proactively upsold me.  I imagine the sales of sauces and butters have increased since Matt took over the seafood department.

So what does that story have to do with you?  Well if Matt can upsell cocktail sauce and a $7.50 an hour cashier at McDonalds can upsell French fries, then why can’t we do a better job of upselling at our Dealerships?  I’m not talking about selling Customers unnecessary work; I’m talking about items that go hand-in-hand with each other, just like the shrimp and cocktail sauce!
In the Service Department, for example:

Request: New Tires:  Add-On Repair: nitrogen, wheel alignment, and road hazard insurance.

Request: Engine Misses  Add-On Repair: Besides the Correction, Replace spark plugs, change fuel contaminated oil & filter, possible air filter, PCV valve

Request: A/C Hose   Add-On Repair: Other A/C Hose if they are same age, Evacuate & Recharge

Request: Honda timing belt   Add-On Repair: Replace the water pump, radiator & heater hoses, coolant.

Lloyd Schiller of Lloyd Schiller.com says, “I see this all the time, a Customer comes in for a needed repair and we do that repair.  These are more than upsell opportunities; this is taking proper care of the Customer’s vehicles.  For example, if an original hose breaks, then the other hose or hoses will fail soon. Why put your Customer at an inconvenience PLUS charge them again for lost coolant or lost refrigerant because “we were afraid we’ll chase them off.”  If you’re inside my heart doing an angioplasty, PLEASE check ALL my arteries and vessels and give me ALL the stents I need (also a real-life lesson)! By training which repairs should be paired with corresponding work or what work will save the Customer money as long as the other work is being done, not only do you increase your sales, you provide a better level of service.  We train these repair combinations during our Service Advisor training classes and see the Total Sales per Repair Order increase.” 

Take a few minutes and ask your Service Advisors what they should do when a Customer requests any of the above services.  I hope the answer is, “I’d recommend….”

Upselling is not limited to the Service Department.  When the Parts Department’s phone rings it is opportunity calling.  The call is not an annoyance that must be dealt with, it’s a prospective Customer.  Answer the phone promptly and with a smile.  This simple courtesy will make it easier to close the sale and to upsell the caller.  The following is an excerpt on phone upselling from The Ultimate Marketing Plan by Dan Kennedy.

Dan’s example is from a Parts store where the Owner is spending a lot of money on advertising, but the sales are not increasing:

Well, Customers were calling, but after the caller stated his business, the answer went like this: “Lemme look it up–hold on . . .still there?  It’s $62.50.” Click.  Does this sound familiar?  The Parts Store owner had spent a lot of money advertising, but he had failed to train his people to handle the calls.  What they did to fix this was the following:

• Devised a phone script to capture the caller’s name, address, and phone number.
  (This information was used to market to the callers)
• They taught the script to all Employees.
• They instituted a reward pool of fifty cents per captured name, address and phone number, divided at day’s end by everybody working that day.
• They added a “telephone upsell” to the script as follows.

After taking the Customer’s phone order or answering the Customer’s questions, the Employees finish with:

 “Oh, just one more thing – we have an extra special offer just for today’s callers – would you like to hear about it?”

More than 70 percent of the callers said, “Yes.”

“Good.  Any caller who comes in today or by noon tomorrow will receive a 10% discount coupon for any purchase in the store and a free copy of our 400-page catalog.  Also, there’s a sale right now on (insert product).  I can set your coupon and catalog aside with your name if you are coming in.  Should I do that?”

More than 50% said yes.  More than 25 percent actually showed up.  More than 15% not only came in but also bought the item they originally called to ask about and bought the sale item described on the phone.

Spend a little time fine-tuning a script for your Parts Department to gather the caller’s contact information and to close the sale upon the initial phone call.  Don’t let those opportunities go unanswered.

The Body Shop has opportunities, too.  It can get discouraging trying to upsell Customers who want you to cover their deductibles, but there are Customers who are “not guilty” of the accident and have no deductible.  My mother recently visited a body shop due to a minor accident.  After the repair was done, she told me about the accident and how nice they were at the Body Shop.  When I inquired if she also had the missing passenger mirror replaced, she said: “I didn’t think of it and no one mentioned it.”  Missed opportunity!  She still is driving around with a warped plastic mirror instead of a glass one — a plastic mirror was her fix so she wouldn’t have to go to a Body Shop (for those with friends or family in Bonita Springs, Florida, you might want to warn them about a burgundy Mercury Sable).  To maximize your Body Shop opportunities, while writing an estimate, do a vehicle walk around.  Increase sales by offering to write an estimate for work not associated with the insurance claim, it is bound to be cheaper if it is done while the vehicle is already at your Dealership.  When I had my vehicle at a Body Shop for a repair I wasn’t responsible for, the Estimator never even went to my car; he just took the insurance company’s estimate — he could have found a few “defects” to upsell me on had he bothered.  For Customers who have their vehicles serviced at your Dealership, check the service history; you could save the Customer time by having their needed maintenance done while the vehicle is in your shop.  Don’t miss the opportunity to help the Customer and the Service Department.

For the Sales Department, accessories are your big opportunity to upsell to the Customer, but that is a whole other article.  Make this month the time when you look at Service, Parts and Body Shop and see how legitimate upsells are your secret weapon to Happier Customers and to higher Net Profits.