EVERY PARTS MANAGERS FAVORITE COMPLAINT IS, “I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO DO XYZ”. Well in this day and age of ‘social distancing’ and ‘essential workers’, most of us have too much time on our hands at the dealership. So let’s not forget about that long to-do list we’ve been putting off forever. Just in case you can’t find your list, here are some ideas:
- Review your obsolete parts: If you’re one of those unfortunate pm’s who doesn’t have enough return reserve to handle you obsolescence consider listing larger dollar items on ebay or craigslist (plenty of people sitting at home shopping on the computer right now).
- Obsolescence part 2: Put together a spreadsheet of your obsolete parts and shop it around to CDK Cash Discovery, DealerMine, Young Automotive or a similar program. Selling these items at a discount and using the proceeds to purchase parts that will turn will improve ROI and make the boss happy!
- Review your pricing strategy: Fun for some, mind numbing minutiae for others. Pull a Parts Transaction report or Parts Override report and see what items your guys are overriding and/or which items look like a price increase wouldn’t hurt sales. You may need to set up 1 or 2 new sources for some items or may need to tweek your entire matrix. Yes it takes time but you’ce plenty of that right now.
- Review your OEM’s programs: Make sure you are capitalizing on all of the discounts/rebates/payouts you can. This may not be something that shows up immediately to the bottom line but will pay dividends going forward.
- Your vendors are slow just like you are: Review your fast moving items and shop them for a deeper discount (Don’t you think somebody would love to sell you 20 cylinders of R134A right now even if they have to knock off an extra 10-20%??) I bet they would.
- Update your display area: Most pm’s set up there customer lounge display area then give it little thought after that. Then one day realize that the shelves or hooks are mostly empty and items that are on display are for 5 year old vehicles! Get out there this week and update with current items. Better yet, mark your calendar or set a reminder on your iPhone to make sure you update for the holiday season and for spring/summer (nobody buys car wash in January!).
- GM Dealer LPO’s: Do you have any LPO accessories that customers did not want installed on their new vehicle? Sell them on Ebay or call Robby Newell (251)978-0792 or email him at robby@yourkeylessremote.com for a bulk purchase.
These are just some of the things you can do to improve your Parts Dept during this slow period.
Also, you may want to also go ahead and look in your Physical Inventory date now even if you do it in the 3rd or 4th qtr this year since everyone who does theirs in spring or summer is going to be moving theirs to later in the year. Just a thought…..