Service to Sales: Convert More ROs into Variable Transactions

Published On: April 24th, 2025Categories: Strategy

Smart franchise dealers know used car operations aren’t just a nice-to-have, used car sales are essential for managing market volatility and fueling new car investments. But trades and auctions alone can’t deliver the volume needed to stay successful. That’s why the most untapped opportunity in an omni-channel acquisition strategy is the Service Department.

Every service appointment gives you a trusted customer relationship and deep insight into both the vehicle and owner, more than any other interaction. The key is creating a direct line between service and sales. While service teams aren’t trained to value cars or work deals, innovative dealers are finding ways to bridge that gap and unlock the full potential of Service-to-Sales.

Reasons to Invest in Service Lane Sales:

  • Lower acquisition costs: Avoid auction fees, transport, recon, and intense bidding wars. Service vehicles are already on-site and often cheaper to acquire.

  • Built-in equity: Many service customers drive older vehicles with equity, making them ideal trade or purchase candidates.

  • Easy trade-up opportunities: Help customers get into something newer with minimal or no money down.

  • High-quality inventory: Service vehicles are typically clean, local, and have known histories, making them easier to retail.

  • Faster turns, better grosses: These cars tend to sell quicker and at higher margins.

  • Customer retention: Turning a service visit into a sale builds loyalty, customers are more likely to buy and service with you again.

Activate Your Lane: Quick Ways to Launch Service-to-Sales

The opportunity with Service-to-Sales can be simple. Dealers are using promotional materials like hang tags or custom stickers with QR codes on work orders, making it easy for owners to scan and get instant vehicle valuations. Some are training and compensating Service Advisors to either provide valuations or refer service leads directly to sales. Others are going a step further by creating dedicated sales roles within the Service Department to appraise vehicles and engage service customers on the spot.

How VINCUE Super Charges Service to Sale Process

Simply put, our service to sales tool is able to make a difficult job, easy. Service to sales is one of the toughest strategies in the store to maintain, you’re approaching customers who didn’t walk in planning to trade and turning that into a conversation about upgrading or selling their vehicle. It’s a high effort, low-yield game.. unless you have the right tool.

VINCUE takes the hard part out of service lane sales by making it fast and easy to generate a high volume of appraisals, find real-time market data, and give your team the perfect conversation starter.

With one click, your dealership, no matter the department, gets everything they need to approach a customer with confidence, from trade value insights to vehicle history and personalized offers. Even better, this can be done ahead of the appointment so the customer has time to digest the information. We’re here to make the daily workload easier and ensure your departments aren’t just productive, but profitable.

Ready to turn your service lane into a profit engine?

Reach out to your Performance Manager to help get you started.

Not a VINCUE dealer? Book a demo to see it in action.

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