Missed Opportunity Programs (MOPs) are a great way to boost VSC and PMA sales but are seldom implemented. In our research, we found dealerships with a functional MOP produced the highest penetrations. In one case, a dealership was producing nearly half of its priority maintenance volume three to five weeks after the sale of the unit. There are four major areas where you can boost contract volume after the unit sale.
Service Campaign
The campaign that produces the highest result is the service drive. Think about your client’s frame of mind on the day of purchase. Clients have all sorts of emotions running across their minds. Maintaining the vehicle is the furthest thing from their thoughts because all they want to do is go show off their new toy. Now, fast forward 200 miles or 20 hours of use. Your client is back in your dealership for the first service appointment. The stories about their first ride are weeks old at this point and now maintaining their fun machine is front-of-mind. If your service writer were to ask if they wanted to save money at this point, what do you think they would say? Our most profitable dealerships sell priority maintenance and extended service contracts at this point. Just train your service writers to ask the question during all first services. “Are you enrolled in our priority maintenance plan? No, well let’s save you some money and get you signed up…”
Events
Another perfect opportunity to capture a missed opportunity is during your dealership events. Simply come up with an incentive that is good only on the day of the event. Give away a $100 to $200 gift card to anyone who purchases a VSC or PMA. The key is to get on the microphone and talk about the savings and perks. You should also solicit clients who have the coverage or service to give a testimonial during the event. If you have not tried this, you are missing an opportunity at every event.
Website
It is amazing to me how underutilized the service page is on most dealerships’ websites. Don’t just talk about your expertise or show the shop dog’s latest photo! This is an excellent opportunity to post real testimonials about your vehicle service contracts and how they saved your clients tons of money. You can also use these posts as reference when talking about the programs in the dealership. Be sure to have the phone number and/or email of your F&I department readily available on this page. Remember, we have to make it easy to buy.
Outbound Call Campaign
Another underutilized campaign is simply calling your clients just before their warranty is about to expire. Our national call centers exist on this premise alone. The idea is to track your client’s purchases on your DMS or CRM programs. When business is slow in the F&I department, we have our teams find the missed opportunities. The research should be done so that your F&I manager has a monthly list of clients who will be unprotected within 30 days. Once the list is made, simply call and make your customers aware of the opportunity to extend the protection. You will be surprised at how many take this opportunity to add coverage. We have tracked an average 32 percent penetration from this type of campaign. You might be even more surprised at how many decide to trade the vehicle in for a new one! If you do not feel you have the staff for this type of campaign, you can still capitalize by choosing a professional call center to work the opportunities for you. For example, Interstate National Dealer Services (INDS) has a turnkey MOP that provides the call center, compliance and product while giving the dealership the opportunity to profit from the sales.
It’s important to note the most successful MOP programs have a means to make payments on the program. RPMOne has a Zero Interest Program (ZIP) that allows the client to spread the cost over up to 18 payments using their debit or credit card.
The most notable idea to take from this article is the importance of implementing one or all of these ideas immediately. Unit sales are unquestionably down. Why not make the most of the clients that we’ve already won?
RPMOne is a leading provider of F&I products and dealer development services dedicated to serving the powersports market. Due to its comprehensive experience with dealerships, lenders and insurance companies, RPMOne has created top-tier F&I programs, web-based tools, training programs, and sales and marketing systems to meet the unique demands of the industry. RPMOne’s mission is to increase client profit to its fullest potential.
