Don’t GIve Up...3 Ways to Follow Up on Lost VSC Sales

Many F&I managers will say that their #1 biggest frustration is getting a customer to buy the extended warranty, especially on a new car purchase. Today’s customers are well informed about these products and most have already decided they won’t buy it before they ever walk into the F&I office. The opportunity to sell the warranty is quickly lost…. or is it?

Is there a solid strategy to capture lost service contract sales even after the car has been delivered? How does your dealership follow up to get those selling opportunities?

‍Here are 3 creative strategies to sell more service contracts after delivery….

1)  Have a process in place to introduce the customer to a service advisor who can mention current hourly labor charges and then lead into the extended warranty discussion as a consultative sale. The service advisor could even show a common part from the same model and state the fact that most parts are replaced now, not repaired. Your job here is to simply help inform the customer on current service costs rather than do the ‘hard sell’ they expected in your office a week ago. It’s less intimidating to have that conversation in the service lobby over a cup of coffee than behind your desk.

2) If you have not been able to convince the customer to purchase the service contract at the time of delivery, have a printed coupon/offer voucher to put in the envelope with their documents. Make sure the offer gives a strong percentage discount or flat rate savings if they buy a warranty from you and make the deadline within 1 week. Also offer a payment option if your dealership allows…everyone loves flexible payment terms.

3) Play the long game and keep a spreadsheet of the customers that did not buy an extended service contract and put them on a follow-up call schedule. The F&I manager calls starting with 90 days, 6 months and finally, 1 year after the sale. That call simply reminds them how much of their bumper-to-bumper factory warranty remains and that they are still ‘qualified’ to add extended warranty coverage. No hard sell here, either…rather a friendly reminder and a courtesy. You will be surprised how effective these calls can be if done right.

It will take a combination of determination, consultative selling, and a dash of creativity but the payoff is higher revenues for the F&I department and happy customers who buy a service contract because they want to, not because they were pressured into it at delivery.

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