Upselling is a time-honored tradition among sales personnel. It increases sales and profit. However, many tend to think of upselling as a technique related to the sale of whole goods. Can upselling be successful when it comes to parts? Yes. The parts department usually generates strong gross margins, and if a dealership can increase sales in areas like that, it should be a priority.

There is a second, more important reason to upsell parts: customer satisfaction. 

Advising as Upselling

Parts personnel go by many titles, such as counterman, parts rep, parts specialist and a few others. The most appropriate may be parts advisor, because it implies using product knowledge and experience to advise the customer about everything they will need for success. 

The average customer travels over 30 minutes to visit a dealership. Through upselling, a parts advisor can make sure the customer doesn’t need to make a second trip. The extra effort identifying items the customer might not have considered, such as sealants and lubricants, is a service that leads to a happy customer. 

It may not feel like upselling, but it is. After you have addressed the customer’s immediate concern, there is an opportunity to mention other products that will help the customer avoid a return trip.

The Effective Upseller’s Toolbox

There are three things every parts advisor needs to be effective in upselling:

1. A comfort level regarding sales.
2. Solid product knowledge.
3. A list of items to offer the customer.

Getting Comfortable

The first item on the list, comfort level, is important because the term “upselling” can make many parts advisors uncomfortable. They may think they are talking the customer into something larger and more expensive than what they need. When buying a queen size bed, for example, a customer probably doesn’t want someone trying to talk them into a king size without a good reason. 

Remember that trying to convince the customer to buy something larger or more expensive is not the goal of upselling. If done correctly, it will open the door to suggesting additional items the customer will need. 

Another reason for the gap in comfort level is that parts advisors don’t see themselves as a sales reps. They say, “If I wanted to be a salesperson, I’d be one.” However, because they are helping the customer be successful with their repair, they should feel comfortable upselling and not feel like they “made a deal with the devil.”

Success in upselling also requires product knowledge. This requires experience, as the parts analyst must be able to identify all the related parts for a given repair. A good exploded-view diagram in the parts catalog will help. Using some questioning and knowledge to identify what the customer did not know they needed is called “assumptive selling.” Part 2 of this series will address that as well as best practices related to adjacent items in the customer’s maintenance or repair project.

This completes Phase 1 of the upselling process: addressing the customer’s immediate need. Phase 2 means moving beyond the intended repair and recommending other items. 

First, it’s important to ensure that the customer’s problem has been solved before going into the second phase. If you choose to tell them about a new product or featured item before their immediate problem is solved, they will not be interested. This phase will be covered in Part 3 of this series, which will focus on how best to select targeted items to offer the customer as part of the upselling process.