7 steps to increasing accessories sales

To capture a greater share of the aftermarket, dealerships need to offer accessories to customers as an integral part of the new-vehicle sales process, dealers, suppliers and industry consultants agree.

That means committing to adequate pay, training, equipment and support for dealership employees, including those in fixed operations, to sell accessories, industry experts say.

Among their recommendations:

Get service and parts employees involved in promoting accessories, both during the new-vehicle sales process and when owners come in for service.

Enabling vehicle buyers to talk to specialists who install accessories can provide a reassuring source of expertise.

Dealerships often "drop the ball in creating an introduction from sales to service" for new-vehicle buyers, says Gina Allen, fixed operations director of the Santa Margarita Auto Group, which operates Ford and Toyota dealerships in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. As a result, she says, "the conversation about accessories gets swept under the rug."

At her Toyota dealership, Allen says, the service manager is immediately notified of every new-vehicle sale, so that a service employee can discuss accessories with the buyer. The Ford store maintains a "parts boutique" that acquaints buyers with popular accessories, she adds.

Give dealership employees meaningful economic incentives to learn about and sell accessories.

A 2016 survey of 2,600 dealership general and sales managers by the industry consulting firm Carlisle & Co. found that 9 out of 10 new-vehicle dealerships sell accessories actively. Yet one-fifth of the respondents said they were not compensated for such sales, according to the report.

"If dealerships are not clever enough to incentivize their salespeople, shame on them," says Lawrence Constantin, director of Americas sales and marketing for Solar Gard, which makes window tinting and paint protection products.

Nor should incentives be limited to sales managers and employees, says Nancy Vanderbilt, president of Automotive Aftermarket Services LLC, a firm in Santa Fe, Texas, that works with dealerships to sell accessories.

"Everybody plays," Vanderbilt says. "Each department should share in accessory sales profit, because each department touches the process."

Leverage the dealership's natural advantages in accessories sales.

A new study by Foresight Research, an automotive marketing firm in Rochester, Mich., concludes that like vehicle manufacturing itself, accessories sales increasingly are focusing on technologies such as connectivity and driver assistance.

Franchised dealerships are well placed to dominate the market for such high-end accessories, the study says, because "customers want professional installation and warranty protection."

Yet just half of the new-vehicle buyers surveyed by Foresight Research said they recalled talking about accessories during the purchase process — and buyers initiated two-thirds of those conversations.

"Manufacturers and dealers continue to lose a significant portion of accessory sales to the aftermarket," the report concludes, "because buyers simply aren't asked what accessories they want and need."

Train dealership employees to sell accessories effectively.

Some salespeople — and dealers — say they don't want to lose the sale of a $40,000 car or truck by making a customer feel pressured to buy a few hundred dollars' worth of accessories.

Such apprehension can be eased, consultants say, by training salespeople and other workers to present accessories knowledgeably to customers.

That process goes beyond shoving sales brochures at new-vehicle buyers and service customers or pointing to product displays. It means, among other things, working with customers to use computers to configure their cars and trucks with the accessories they want and to review prices.

Suppliers say they are eager to educate dealership employees about features of their products. Martin Klein, vice president of Recaro, a maker of high-end automotive seating, concedes that "it's hard to train people to consult the customer in the right way" about accessories.

But Klein, a former dealer, notes that gross margins on aftermarket parts exceed those on new-vehicle sales. He adds that his company makes a point of asking new-vehicle dealerships: "How can we help?"

Too often, dealers don't seem interested, says David Borla, vice president of sales and marketing at Borla Performance Industries Inc., which makes high-performance exhaust systems.

"A dealer told me, 'My guys don't know how to sell it'," Borla says. "The dealer mindset is to sell cars. They think that performance equals problems. I don't know what it's going to take to change that culture."

Some vendors provide software to dealerships to help manage accessories sales. Reynolds & Reynolds, for example, offers a product called AddOnAuto, which helps dealerships create digital accessories presentations and enable departments to work together on sales.

It's OK for dealerships to favor automakers' accessories, but don't ignore aftermarket offerings.

The Reynolds & Reynolds report points out that automakers generally don't provide some top-selling accessories, such as window tinting and vehicle upholstery.

Consultant Vanderbilt notes that service departments also can market profitable accessories such as nitrogen tire conversion and windshield enhancements.

Hire an accessories manager, but if that's not in the budget, designate a point person to coordinate accessories sales.

A dedicated accessories manager, Vanderbilt says, can focus on sales, installation and training, freeing other dealership employees from those duties.

That shift alone, she estimates, can increase gross profit by an average of $50 on every new vehicle sold.

Consider partnerships with other accessories vendors.

The e-commerce site eBay hosts "several hundred" new-vehicle dealerships that sell accessories to online shoppers, says Matt Thomas, director of parts and accessories account management for eBay Motors.

"There's definitely an opportunity to sell more," Thomas says.

"Those who see that opportunity tend to dedicate in-house resources" to online sales, he adds.

Allen of the Santa Margarita dealer group calls for a "culture change" that elevates selling accessories as a dealership priority.

"We've got a lot of work to do here," she says. "People want to buy presents for their car."