A conversation (YouTube video) about selling vehicles through a dealership’s service drive. Speakers (including Chris Collins) argue that placing salespeople or empowering service advisors to pursue vehicle sales leverages high service-traffic, deep customer relationships, and can convert routine service customers into repeat vehicle buyers. Independent shop owners are encouraged to stay involved in customers’ vehicle lifecycle (trade, private sale, transfer) to retain business.
Chapters
Salespeople in the drive, in the service drive, like, the best dealerships that sell the most cars have salespeople in the drive. They're looking at the appointments the day before. They're introducing themselves to the customer. They're getting them. They're offering to get an appraisal on their car. If the customer bought the car there, they've pulled up where they're at in the car and what their payment is. And a lot of times they can pull them forward or get them into something else for close to the same payment. And there's different tools out there that you can use to do that. But the service drive has a ton of traffic. And so if you're riding 20 in your service drive, if you're riding 100, if you're riding 200 customers every day, you're gonna. If you're riding 100 cars every day, you should be able to sell five cars a day out of the service drive. Meanwhile, you're sitting in the showroom saying, we don't have any traffic, and you're spending all this money on advertising, and they're coming in your service department. You know, already what I've never understood.
Because, you know, being a dealership service advisor, when you connect and you have these relationships with your customers and it's time for them to get into a new vehicle, is that is a VIP client for that dealership. And why wouldn't you have a program to incentivize that customer to buy from you? And I'd sent, I remember, one of the first dealerships I'd worked at. I stopped sending my customers over to sales because the customer would come back all pissed off because they were trying to, you know, just, you know, rake them over the coals and sell them the biggest deal they possibly could. And right, wrong or indifferent, I think if the customers are loyal to your dealership, create a program for them where the advisor can actually kind of get the deal kind of started. If you're not going to put salespeople in the service drive, but that customer should be treated like a VIP and get, you know, be treated right. Yeah. My biggest thing on that, I never understood why the customers would come back upset. Okay, they're our customer. Let's take care of them. Right.
You know what? So when I was an advisor.
I was kind of turning a lot of cars over to sales. The same thing. I would lose the deal. Right. So they wouldn't buy a car, and they would tow their car out and go somewhere else and double buy a car. Yeah. Because our sales department sucks bad. So the GSM made a deal with me. He's kind of the GSM general manager made a deal with me that I could sell cars. So I started selling cars from the drive and on the weekends. But the problem was, I don't know, it was like two weeks in and I was leaving the board. You're like the driver, and so they said you can't sell cars anymore. Yeah, but there's something. But there's a lesson there that you can sell a lot of, like, service advisors if they pet the dog and they have trust. My customers wouldn't do anything without my input, should I buy that new whatever. And are you seeing problems with it? Like, I just had that kind of rapport with my customers, so, you know, I definitely could direct them.
Yeah. And I think for the independent shop owners, I think the metaphor of having a salesperson at your service counter I think is interesting. Because think about this. For my shop, if you brought me your vehicle and then it's time for you to get another vehicle, I might lose you as a customer for a certain period of time. If you buy a new vehicle, maybe you go to the dealership for service. But what I want to do is enroll myself in the process of you finding your next ride. You know, what are you going to do with this vehicle? What you know, because there could be an income opportunity for the shop with the disposal of the vehicle. Are you going to trade it in? Are you going to sell it to a private party, or are you going to give it to a family member? So that's. Realistically, the life cycle of an independent repair shop is we have to enroll ourselves in helping that customer protect the car, keep it going, and then look at the resale value on it. When it's time for that car to find a new home, what are you going to do? And for the independent repair shop owner, it's important that your business is set up that you just. Your relationship doesn't end at that moment when they get the next vehicle, that we have a relationship beyond that. So that's an interesting way to look at it.
Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driver 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 8333 ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chris collinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsinc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.
