This clip (YouTube video transcript) features Chris Collins and a second speaker discussing how parts managers can drive revenue and customer engagement by enabling vehicle personalization (wraps, lift kits, wheels, branded accessories). Collins gives concrete dealership examples—Cadillac’s "Prestige Products" personalization stall and a BMW program where advisors met customers pre-F&I, offered 15% limited-time discounts, and contributed to roughly $200,000/month in parts and labor—arguing that personalization strengthens customer identity with the vehicle and creates word-of-mouth marketing. The conversation also covers practical tactics: meeting customers in the service drive, displaying portfolios, attending SEMA/vinyl-wrap networks, using direct cash incentives for sales staff, and managing financing risks when customers want expensive add-ons.
Chapters
Then the last one we had on here is. A good parts manager.
Will create a scenario where customers are attaching their identity to the cars in the sense that they're going to have a way for the customers to personalize. So just take, for example, you have a Jeep dealership. That parts manager has the ability to. To create an environment where a Jeep customer can individualize that with a lift kit, with a wrap, you know, whatever it is. But that doesn't stop with Jeep. That's true across the board. And one thing that's fun for us to do is just stand in a service drive and count how many aftermarket wheels, how. How many vehicles coming in have some sort of individualization. And it's, it's very. It's very high. And so a good parts manager creates a scenario where we're selling BMW luggage, we're selling Porsche driving shoes, we're, you know, lift kits, whatever it is. It's. It's also always surprising to me how many parts managers don't go to sema, don't get in on vinyl wraps and things like that, because, you know, just where we are here, there's. There's probably 20 very successful companies that are just doing vinyl wraps that parts managers are letting. Like, you have the first up when we sell the vehicle, and we're letting that go somewhere else.
I even think with the lift kits, that's a huge thing in several different markets that I've been around, like those guys that have that stuff and have the cars displayed and even using it as a showpiece of. This is what we, you know, these are the possibilities.
Have.
Have a portfolio laid out with pictures of stuff you've done. Have the customer take pictures of them out camping with their Overland tent and their grill in the back and their coolers and all that, and have all that stuff available that they can see and touch.
Oh, you know, so the brand the most. So I learned this when I worked as a service advisor at a Cadillac dealership. So they had a company, it was called Prestige Products. Have you ever heard of that? So Prestige Products, they're. I don't know what their deal was with the dealer because I was a, you know, I was an advisor, but it made an impression on me. So what Prestige Products did is they had a deal where they had a stall, they had their own technician, and then they had a salesperson, and that salesperson got an up with every customer going into F and I. And they had this red carpet area that the car would get pulled into, and they were like, In a lab coat. And then they had all these wheels. And for Cadillac back then, not as much now. The thing was the Vogue tires. So they would have Vogue tires. They had. I mean, they had stuff that was garbage. Like where you could do wood paneling on your dash, there was a sticker. It was total garbage, but people bought it. You could gold plate just about anything.
We had a. We had a guy that gold plated the metal, like crash bumper on the front. You'd put a winch, but it was gold plated. It was terrible. But that a machine to gold plate. They had DVD players for the headrest. They had all this stuff. But they would. They would meet the customer before they went into F and I, and they'd say, you know, I'm here to help you personalize. Do you have kids? They would do like a needs analysis and then they would roll wheels up next to the car, whatever. Their closing ratio was extremely high. They did big numbers. But from the service drive, we got 10% of whatever we sold. So if somebody came in and their Vogue tires were worn down or they didn't have Vogue tires, and, you know, we could pull a car over there and put stuff next to it. And I always thought, like, wow, that the. This is a very unique thing that. That creates a ton of revenue. So when I was running a BMW store as a general manager, I ended up having two advisors doing this. But I did that. I had. I had an advisor that was just meeting people before they went into F and I, and it was a personalization. Then they would send an email and we were giving them like 15% off for 30 days. So there was urgency. And we were. We were doing 200,000amonth in parts and labor, dedicated techs, and 2. Two advisors because you couldn't cover the time with the amount of vehicles that we're selling.
And it worked. And so just having. The only. The only downside to it was a lot of times customers would fall in love with $10,000 worth of stuff. And it sort of unwinds a deal when somebody's got edgy credit and we can't over. You know, we just can't. We can't get more. And so, you know, what we would try to do in that situation is the manager would be like, x nay on. Then you're only selling them something if they got the cash. And trust me, they borrowed the money from mom so they don't have any more money. But that was the only thing. You know, sometimes it created an issue for the desk or For F and I. But, you know, you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. For the most part, that can be fixed through communication. And even if they don't want to.
Start in the scale of putting an advisor like the parts manager going to the sales meeting, just creating an environment of fun.
Well, that's the thing, is those advisors would go to the sales meeting and hand out the cash because the salespeople were getting. Were getting flat. So I went away from percentages because it was just confusing. So it was just like, hey, if you sell wheels, you get 100 bucks. If you. And they were just flats and they would go pay those in the. That's how you start every sales meeting. So then the salespeople, you know, are promoting it in a positive light. They don't need to sell it, but they do have an influence on how the customer feels about it and how it's presented with enthusiasm or not.
So I still have a really good friend who was a salesperson when I was parts manager, and he still talks about. Because we did a pool thing. So if you sold X dollars, it got you so many pools and we paid out cash. Just talking about it a while back when I ran.
It works.
Yeah, he's still talking about it years later.
And so I think to that point, to our last one is a parts manager can have a huge effect on how the customer feels. Because if a customer personalizes their vehicle, they're going to feel like it's closer to their identity, more of an extension of them.
And.
And then just imagine this is they personalize the vehicle and then they get compliments everywhere they go. So just take, for example, you made the comment today. What was your comment about? My. About Winston.
Sweet parking place.
Yeah. Because I. We. We specialize here at Chris Collins Inc. Investing in commercial property with no parking. That's our specialty. So our building has no parking, and I have a parking spot two blocks away in a parking structure. But sometimes I park on the sidewalk right in front. But look at that. Look at Winston. Right? So I have a Range Rover. And what is personalized about that? It's wrapped just about everything, right. So the wheels are powder coated. And then it's a wrap. And it's a wrap that when I go places, I come out of a store, people are videotaping it. I'm driving on the freeway, and people are trying to pull up to take pictures of it. I mean, it's funny. Oftentimes, like, I have to excuse myself to get in for people to get away from it, you know, like I don't even exist in that sense. But, you know, every. Everywhere I go, people are acknowledging it. It's making them smile. They're giving me a thumbs up. Now what does that do to me as a consumer when my vehicle that I've designed and I've personalized has a reaction that everywhere I go I'm getting positive feedback? Especially in a world where you want likes and all that. Is that the best outcome or the worst outcome?
The best outcome.
And so parts affects that. Like if you're personal, if you have the ability to do wraps, if you have the ability to have wheels to personalize. And I don't understand why most parts managers just don't even think this way. Because it is the best way to affect how people feel in their enthusiasm for the brand or for their vehicle. And it transcends like it just. If we can do something to the vehicle and you put a lift kit on a truck and some wheels or whatever, and then they go to work and people are like, holy cow, I love your truck. Game over.
Think about what people would do for stupid likes. Like, now you're talking about real, actual human connection.
That's the best marketing because then they're sending them to you.
Oh, yeah. Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driving Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333-ASK SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8,000, 333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.
