A Parts Manager aims to satisfy customer orders as well as provide the necessary parts for the workshop to repair a vehicle. This is why controlling each process of the daily workflow is essential to achieving a 100% fulfillment indicator and satisfy all parts sales opportunities.
“Anything that can be measured and controlled can also be improved and optimized. However, what you don’t control is bound to fluctuate randomly, which may bring acceptable results in some cases, but will bring negative results in many more.” Jorgelina Perez, Autologica Senior Consultant
Management must regularly read and interpret key data to see what is happening in the workshop and, based on that information, take action to make the Parts Department more profitable.
Why Am I Losing Sales? Why Are Parts Being Returned?
Not knowing why customers don’t purchase the parts they need or why parts are being returned from the workshop results in a dealership working blindly while at the same losing time and money.
The information offered by a modern DMS allows you to differentiate parts returns from lost sales, as well as learn the real reasons for both.
Price? Availability? Poor service? Recording the reasons for each lost sale helps you detect recurring issues and adopt strategies to improve the success rate of each sale. If applied to the workshop, this data is useful to evaluate technician efficiency, for instance.
What Are My Customers Purchasing?
Once the Parts Manager knows why sales are lost and takes action to reduce that rate, he can focus on boosting sales. Modern dealer management systems have sales reports that allow you to detect customers who purchased a certain parts group and see the amounts of such purchases so as to establish marketing strategies to increase them. Moreover, these reports allow you to know which customers may need certain parts and are not purchasing them… The Parts Manager can detect:
- Customers that may be purchasing parts from the competition.
- Customers who have not yet purchased parts but may need them.
- Parts groups that should be included in offers and promotions.
Detect Parts That Attract More Sales
You can analyze this information with a High-to-Low report. This type of report is based on the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) which states that a small group of parts (20%) usually represents 80% of sales. Therefore, the Parts Manager must know which parts are included in the top 20% so as to work towards promoting that group. In addition, if used properly, this report allows you to detect:
- Parts that have high inventory but low sales.
- Parts that have a low cost, high inventory, and low demand… a clear case for a special promotion.
- Parts that shouldn’t be restocked because they are already in stock.
- Parts that should be declared obsolete.
These reports help you obtain a global overview and have a clear picture of the Parts Department’s status in order to make accurate, more efficient, and more profitable decisions.
Contact us if you are interested in learning how Autologica DMS
can help you manage the Parts Department.
