I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to work with hundreds of dealerships on their accessory initiatives and processes. Some of these dealerships only sell a few accessories a month while others are making thousands in additional profit. The most successful dealerships have one practice in common: establishing and empowering an Accessory Selling Champion.

What does an Accessory Champion look like?

The champion should be someone whose regular duties include managing the vehicle sales process. The right person for the role should be able to influence and/or coach a salesperson and his interactions with a customer (i.e. Desk Manager).

An effective champion only needs to designate 30 minutes a week to accessories, as to not interfere with their other job duties. Here’s specifically what your Accessory Selling Champion needs to do:

1. Review accessory sales standings in weekly sales meetings. Point out who is doing well, who had increases over the last month, etc.

2. Train new salespeople. As part of a salesperson’s on-boarding, provide training on how and when to present accessories as part of the vehicle sale. Also review the installation and fulfillment process (i.e. where to take the We Owe, who schedules appointments, etc.).

3. Help Fixed Ops keep offerings current. Collect feedback from the salespeople on availability of products to offer customers. What are customers asking for? What could we sell that we don’t offer?

4. Hand out spiffs. Money or other financial spiffs can be a huge motivator to get employees to buy in. Make sure to pass them out during sales meetings.

5. Present an award. Come up with an award to the top performing accessory salesperson each month. This could be a plaque, a parking spot, a dinner-for-two gift card, an “Accessory Specialist” trophy, etc. This can be the biggest motivator of all.

Conclusion

While having a champion will help drive performance, providing a program and platform to efficiently execute is the key to sustainability. Make sure your team lays the groundwork by providing your Accessory Champion access to accessory reporting, use of an engaging accessory presentation, and a seamless process from presentation to installation.

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