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Golf carts are made to be durable. Customized golf carts are even more durable – they’re designed for specific jobs and environments. When you work with businesses or customers who’ve owned golf carts before, they’ll be very familiar with the durability of certain parts, and what may need a replacement in the near future. In fact, you can use golf cart parts replacement to help close a golf cart sale.

Lets go through some of the parts that are replaced most often. Think about how can you use these to help close that cart sale.

Battery Charger

This will be the most commonly replaced part for electric golf carts. Some dealerships provide used golf cart chargers, even with new carts. We’d say this is one place where dealerships can earn some easy trust. New chargers will last longer and be healthier for the golf cart’s durability.

Rather than coming down in price on customized golf carts, stress the importance of a new battery charger and include it at a discount or as a freebie. Focus on how this will make the cart itself last longer.

Businesses that deal with multiple golf carts may be especially keen on this.

Windshields

Golf cart windshields can earn pock marks and scratches without wearing down. They’re very durable. Golf carts used in extremely rocky terrain and for off-roading will see more windshield cracking than others. Stones and pebbles get kicked up often.

Not all golf carts need a windshield, but for those in rockier environments it’s a must. Off-road golf carts should include windshields, too. Drivers won’t always see low-hanging branches and not having a windshield can be dangerous.

You can offer free windshield replacement to help incentivize a sale. Off-roaders like hunters, fishermen, and campers will love this. If you worry about it getting taken advantage of, you can limit it to a certain amount of time or number of replacements – it’s still a very good incentive for those who know they’ll need windshields protecting them.

Brakes

For similar safety reasons, brakes will get worn quickly. It’s much, much easier to change brakes on a golf cart than a car, so you can help close a deal by offering free brake replacement or – if the customer wishes to replace them themselves – free brakes when the time comes.

Batteries

Batteries eventually wear down. When this happens, golf carts will take longer to charge and they’ll lose power more quickly. The batteries themselves may show damage, and the golf cart won’t perform quite as well as it once did. This is all solved with a replacement battery. If a customer comes in when they need a new battery, you can mark down that a purchase today means they’ll get that replacement free when the time comes! Businesses that put their golf carts through heavy duty will be especially appreciative of this.

LED Lights

Lights aren’t always replaced because they wear out or burn out. Often, they’re replaced with better, stronger versions. This is important for businesses that may have older customers driving the carts, as well as off-roaders who need crystal clear night vision.

You’ll notice that many of the inclusions you can offer on customized golf carts bring customers back into the dealership. This will help them see other new carts and accessories on offer. It’s a good way of giving the customer something valuable to help close a golf cart sale, and to encourage them to stop on by when they need new batteries, windshields, or brake replacements.

It gives you a good reason to check in down the road. It helps customers stay in touch and to be satisfied with their golf cart’s performance and quick parts replacement over the long term. Even today, customers still find great value in relationships and good service. This helps with word of mouth, referrals, and continued business.

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When you and a customer are sitting down to customize a golf cart, remind them of a few steps that will help them protect their investment and prevent golf cart theft. Securing a golf cart can go a long way toward helping customers feel safer about their purchase. It can also help you underline the strengths and value of their golf cart. Here’s what we recommend:

Steps to Securing a Golf Cart

1. Remind them to safely store their new customized golf cart in a garage or shed that can lock. If they don’t have room, a storage shed is an inexpensive solution that adds a great deal of security value.

2. Keep the golf cart covered and it will be less tempting. Thefts are often a crime of opportunity. Remove that opportunity and you significantly reduce the chance of an attempted theft.

3. A simple anti-theft device can go a long way in securing a golf cart. You should be able to supply a pedal or steering wheel lock, and can even throw it in as a free extra in order to help make the customer feel good about the sale.

4. Many golf cart manufacturers use the same key across a model, so make sure your customer has a unique key. This will prevent someone who’s obtained a key for the same model from stealing your customer’s.

5. Theft recovery devices for golf carts allow GPS tracking for the cart. Local law enforcement can track it down and recover it. These devices are reasonable, and often dealers can strike good deals with theft recovery suppliers. Theft recovery companies enjoy being able to secure a number of customers in one place, your customers enjoy a deal on something that helps them feel safer, and the dealership gets to enjoy a bonus that adds real value for your customers.

How to Talk about Security in a Sale

Talking about security helps the customer be aware of something they need to think about. This is responsible to the customer – they should know their options for being able to protect their brand new customized golf cart. It can also help underline the value of what they’re buying. You remind them of its value and desirability. When people feel protective of something, they’re already practicing owning it in their minds.

Don’t use security as a closing technique in and of itself. That can be manipulative. Many customers will see through that. You don’t want to be disingenuous about something so important. You can use it to underline and highlight the value of other legitimate points you’ve already made. It can help you make your other points stronger, and help a customer recognize the value of their investment – both financially and on a personal level. After all, you want to make a customer feel safer about their new customized golf cart, not less safe.

Avoid Frightening Your Customer

If you make the customer fearful, that can carry over into the sale itself. As you customize a golf cart, don’t talk about security as if their golf cart is destined to get stolen tomorrow. You may be tempted in order to sell a security extra, but don’t. This is unrealistic and causes a fear that the customer won’t compartmentalize. That fear will spread to the sale itself, and it may back them off the sale entirely.

Talk about it realistically: here are the benefits of a few security steps, and here’s how it helps you avoid worry. This respects them and helps them recognize a benefit that’s being offered, underlining the strengths of the sale without distracting from it or scaring them off of it.

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How can you make the communication around selling golf carts simpler and more manageable? There was a study done several years ago about how chess masters become so good at their game. Those conducting the research simply expected that masters would see many more moves than novices. What they found surprised them. Novices saw the most moves. As players gained experience, they saw fewer and fewer.

Their brains highlighted what they knew to be useful while casting out what wasn’t. They prioritized certain patterns and progressions. As they gained experience, masters didn’t forget the full range of moves – but they did only consider the ones that were most applicable to the situation before them. They blocked out anything extraneous or inapplicable, even if the move was still a possibility.

Selling Golf Carts Efficiently

What the heck does this have to do with selling golf carts? Novices in any skill see all the moves – they just don’t have the experience to know which ones apply best. You may look at sales as a competition against your fellow salespeople. Or you may look at sales as a way of helping your customers. There are dozens of ways to approach sales effectively depending on your dealership and your personality.

What doesn’t change is the fact that you’re trying to juggle hundreds of possible options at a given time. You need to be able to assess every customer’s needs and offer an option that appeals to fulfilling that need.

Knowledge on Options Must be Current

You might choose something proven, but out of production. That makes you look like you aren’t the expert they should be talking to. That makes them think they’ll get more knowledgeable service elsewhere.

You might choose an option their friends got on their golf cart, but that’s out of stock. It would have been better to upsell them on the next level which is in stock. “Will your friends be a little jealous because you got the next level up?”

Any skill is difficult enough to keep track of before the moves themselves change.

The Pitfalls of Too Many Options

The other half of this is that you don’t want to offer customers every option on the planet. This can overwhelm them and lead them to saying they need more time. You need to have access to all the options yourself, and then you want to select the best few options for their needs and circumstances. This makes their choice simple and appealing.

The more you give customers that doesn’t apply to their needs or ability to pay, the more they’ll feel like you aren’t listening and engaging them. It may even make some customers think a golf cart is something somebody else owns, but not something they’re meant to own.

Customers will walk out if you can’t narrow down their choices in a way that addresses what they’ve told you their needs are. This means that as a salesman you need to know all the options, and have a tool that helps you narrow them down quickly.

Technology Enables Stronger Sales

What does this all mean for golf cart customization? It means that you need to utilize tools and technology that are available. You need a way to narrow 30 choices for an option down to 3 choices in a way that’s easy for customers to understand.

An app for customizing golf carts can do this, but not all apps are equally capable. Apps that are sold as products are often locked to the time frame in which they’re published. That’s good for the next few months, but without reliable updating, the app you bought in December 2016 is still featuring parts from December 2016. That’s not good for you.

Get Good, Continuing Service

An app for customizing golf carts should be oriented around golf cart customization as a service. This will involve a reasonable monthly fee, and what you get out of it is a constantly updated service. New options are entered every month as they hit the market, and stock numbers are updated regularly. This allows you to narrow down your choices on any customization simply and effectively, with full knowledge of what the best choices are for that circumstance.

You become a master by simplifying the options before you and by making decisions efficiently. Today, that means taking advantage of constantly updated technology that helps you refine those options easily and quickly.

One of our favorite builds is the hybrid gas/electric golf cart for hunters. Obviously, golf carts for hunting need to be able to cover a vast range quickly. While there are electric carts that can do this, they sometimes trade speed for range. Gas is often superior if you need both unless the hunter wants to recharge with solar panels. The other choice is a gas/electric hybrid golf cart.

Hybrid Hunting Needs

The other need hunters have is stalking. This is often done on foot if the quarry’s nearby. If it’s not, you can track an animal over miles. It can be difficult to tell if you still have a mile to go or just 100 feet. Because of this, you also need a sort of silent running mode. Being able to switch to electric and go quiet is essential. You see where we’re going with this.

A hybrid golf cart is one of our favorite golf carts for hunting because it combines every strength a hunter needs. It has range from the gas engine. It has a quiet mode from the electric one. It has power and a four-wheel-drive when you use both in tandem.

You’ll want to build this out with independent suspension to handle rough terrain. You also need the ability to haul your prey back, so make sure you’ve customized it with a bed. The best approach is to use the gas engine to regenerate the electric one as you drive.

Helping the Customer Feel Safe

Make sure you’re able to give a customized hybrid golf cart a good warranty. These carts have been around for years, but customers often feel skittish the more technologically complex a cart is. Solid warranties help them feel safe with the technology because they know you feel perfectly comfortable standing behind it.

If you haven’t customized a hybrid golf cart for hunting before, take a dry run with someone who has. There are particular considerations you’ll want to be aware of so that you aren’t struck sideways by a question or concern they have.

Building a Customized Hybrid Golf Cart for Hunting

Hunters are very specific about their needs and accessories. Use a golf cart customization tool, such as an app that’s updated regularly with new parts and options. An app like this is easy to hand back and forth between salesperson and customer. This also helps the customer feel like they’re building something with you, rather than having a product sold to them.

Trying to picture a number of combinations in your head can get confusing and distract you from focusing on the customer. A golf cart customization tool allows you to lay these options down in an easy-to-use interface. That way, you can focus on the customer instead of various option combinations in your head.

If you’re focusing on hooking in customers who haven’t come in for a while, make sure the app you’re using has e-mail capabilities. This allows you to save customizations and send them back and forth to each other in an e-mail. When they start asking more specific questions about the builds or asking you for solutions to specific needs they have, that’s a good time to invite them in physically – they’re already thinking about buying by this point.