An often overlooked part of the sales process is the payment.   Recently, I made a purchase at an office supply store and just before quoting what I owed, the cashier asked if I would like to purchase any stamps.  I gave it a quick thought and said yes.  Let’s take this back to the automotive world – when doing an oil change for a customer it is typical to performa a visual inspection and make recommendations for services based on this inspection.  In most cases, a customer who does not take any recommendations will not be provided with any further up sell.  This is a mistake – there is still an opportunity to provide this customer with a recommendation when they are being billed out.

The cashier has a great opportunity to review the invoice with the customer and upon requesting payment ask if they would like a specific item to compliment their oil change.  I believe this can be any item but the request has to be specific.  What I used to do before requesting payment from the customer I would say “Our fuel injection cleaner will help to improve your fuel economy between services for $3.99, can we add one to your vehicle?”.  I have seen some shops do this but the request is usually “Would you like anything else?”  The key to this working is the request has to be specific.

The message here is simple, take the opportunity to provide a specific up sell to the customer prior to processing their transaction because there is a great opportunity to help them purchase something that they may have forgotten!