You can grow a spare parts business by running short-term promotions to boost sales or investing in the service you offer. Offering customers better value, faster delivery, a larger range, better quality or specialist products that are difficult to obtain elsewhere can help you to build stronger, long-term customer relationships. To grow your business, you need to identify prospects that need the type of products and quality of service you are offering and communicate the benefits clearly.
Stand Out
Differentiate your business by offering quality spare parts with long guarantees. Promote the importance of quality parts, compared to low-cost alternatives that may fail early and cause safety problems. Obtain a franchise for supplying original equipment manufacturers’ spare parts or spares from a reputable brand-name parts manufacturer to enhance your image for quality.
Look for Prospects
Identify prospects for your business. Target high-volume customers such as service and repair companies, independent service technicians and fleet operators. Set up a wholesaling operation to supply retail outlets that sell spare parts. Review opportunities to supply specialist parts for older products that are not generally available, such as spares for vintage cars.
Make it Easy
Make it convenient for customers to order and buy from you. Set up a website with catalog pages of your products and a facility for ordering online. Provide large customers with customized web pages or printed catalogs that show the products they order frequently from you. Set up a 24-hour telephone answering service for customers to place urgent orders outside your normal business hours.
Be Flexible
Offer customers a range of delivery options to improve convenience. Provide service and repair customers with an express delivery or collection service for urgent repairs. Introduce a same day delivery service for customers who place orders before a certain time, say 3:00 p.m. Provide a special collection point on your premises for customers who order online or by telephone.
Cater to Large Customers
Provide large customers with a stock management service. Analyze their stock purchases and identify usage patterns. Offer a stock top-up service that ensures customers always have the right level of stock level for regularly used parts. Provide a scheduled delivery service for lower-volume parts. Include reports on stock usage as part of your management service.
Promote
Increase short-term sales by running promotions on popular, high-volume parts such as car-servicing kits that include filters, spark plugs and oil at a promotional price. Offer discounts on seasonal products such as antifreeze and windshield wipers for winter driving. Set up incentive schemes for regular customers to encourage repeat sales by offering rewards for customers who exceed a purchase target that you set.
