DealersEdge Professional Forums

Our Sales Manager / Co-owner calls ADW and orders accessories to be installed by service. Completely bypassing the parts department. ( except for the handling part, of course ) Is this typical ? I know about and am frustrated by the LPO procedure but these are not LPO's. Coming from Toyota to GM is bad enough but nobody at my Toyota store ever bypassed me on Genuine Toyota accessories

Is he at least not ordering stuff you have in stock?

Yes, fortunately the accessories he orders are not in our stock at the time.

BAD, BAD, underhanded move. One of the prime reasons I don't want my ADI reps giving any prices to the Sales department regarding "dealer" cost. Your markup is negotiable, but should still be included, especially if you're still unloading and handing out the stuff. We generally sell to our sales dep't at retail, including pre-installed and addendums on stock units, but occasionally they need to give something away and it will go at "Sales cost" (cost plus 25%). I have a great relationship with our Sales mgr. and he sees the "big" picture so I'm very flexible on working something out, even down to cost if needed but that's the rare exception not the rule.

BUT, if your Sales manager is an Owner, there's not much you can do about it, so I really feel for you.

A word of warning that might help: without these accessories being billed out by part number there is no warranty on them... If you ARE billing them, and at cost, your killing your gross margins AND paying out commissions on sales that have no profit!

Yeah he's " co-owner ". Don't know how much he owns of the dealer but he's also the owner's " right hand man " as it's been put. So... I really can do nothing but fall back on it as an excuse. I try to save any documentation I can.

he's shooting himself in the foot