If you have read through the suggestions and idea dotted throughout this issue of "Aftermarket Success" - you have hopefully become excited about some of the possibilities of creating an upselling program that is truly profitable and beneficial for the consumer at the same time.  Upselling is clearly an important strategy of the successful RV dealership - so important we devoted an entire issue to it!

But certainly not every dealership has focused on upselling as a strategy, and many are probably now considering how to make it happen.  It begins with the dealership's staff.  Employees perform their jobs as they do because that is largely the way they have learned to do them.  People bring certain behavior patterns with them when they start work and these patterns are then modified, extended or reinforced as the result of what happens (or doesn't happen) after they come to work.

This leaves two choices for dealership management:

*  To leave the employee to his own devices and hope for the best (which often leads to inefficient "trial and error" learning); or

*  To guide and direct carefully what the employee does so that it conforms to dealership's goals and desires.

If you have chosen the second alternative, then one of the most effective ways of enhancing your upselling efforts is to make the upsell a dealership goal.  Reinforce the customer service benefits that truly exist when providing consumers with additional products that will enhance their RV experience.  Talk to your staff and prepare a plan incorporating some of the ideas presented in this issue of "Aftermarket Success" to make upselling a daily routine. 

And to truly ensure success, make certain that the upsell is not always about profits, but about enhancing the RV consumers' experience.  Sometimes it is fine to be satisfied with giving the consumer knowledge about the product, and not simply making the sale.  Consumers will utimately create a deeper trust in your dealership if they see you as a partners in their Rving experience rather than simply a business selling them products.   When this trust is developed, they will come back, time and again - and more than likely eventually purchase that product you allowed them to walk out of the store without buying the first time.