Rebranding helps dealer parts department reach new Magneti Marelli customers

Magneti Marelli is experiencing continued growth as it moves into use on more vehicles being worked on in today’s independent repair shops.

At AAPEX 2014, the company reported it now has 50 “feet on the street” for its distributorship through Chrysler dealers across the country, a significant increase from the company’s nonexistent sales force in the U.S. market just a couple of years ago. A focus on the brake business in the last year has netted 60 percent year over year increases in that line, the company adds.

Helfman Auto Parts is one example of how Magneti Marelli is accomplishing this. The supplier to independent shops actually is the rebranded parts department arm of a Houston, Texas, Chrysler dealership. Sam Debner, manager, has been with the company for 26 years and was instrumental in the rebranding efforts that boosted his company to a first-call option for independent repair shops.
“We’ve been selling parts a long time. We thought we knew what we were doing,” Debner says. “But in reality, when we became a Magneti Marelli hub distributor, we realized we didn’t know anything. Once we got Magneti Marelli, we realized we were really reaching the aftermarket and we were competing against the NAPAs and the O’Reillys, and that taught us what’s needed in the marketplace.”

Helfman Auto Parts became a Magneti Marelli hub distributor in July 2012, but it took nearly a year and a half for the business to find its footing. Its sales force originally would walk into a shop and announce that they were with Helfman Dodge, and ultimately confuse potential customers upon offering the Magneti Marelli lines that cover other makes and models.

“We decided the only way for it to work was to completely rebrand (the business),” Debner states.

Debner and crew took head-on the notion many shops feel that going to the dealership for parts is more expensive. By creating the new name, logo and website (www.helfmanautoparts.com with a Magneti Marelli-centric look), Helfman was able to garner new business for the Magneti Marelli line as well as its existing Mopar business. He offers that Mopar sales in general are up 35 percent year-to-date; part of that is thanks to support from shops to which it already sold Mopar parts.

“I think the relationship part is what got us in the door,” Debner muses. “We’d say, ‘Hey, Tony, you support us in Mopar, would you be willing to support us in (Magneti Marelli).’ You’re changing their buying habits. They already like you, they’re already doing business with you, but they’re so in tune with picking up the phone and calling their independent provider” you have to address that.

So the company took the challenge and expanded the reach of its rebranding efforts. Annette Wolford, Director Sales & Business Development, explains that Helfman Auto Parts understands the need to push out its new look: “If you don’t communicate to the customer, then it’s not really useful.

“Sam understands the parts business, and in some dealerships, it’s just the one department,” she continues. “Sam has the right crew, which is aggressive, on the road every day talking to customers, and that’s what it takes. You can’t just rebrand and put parts on the shelf and expect people to run in the door. You have to market it.”

In May, Helfman Auto Parts hosted an open house to more than 500 guests, including many OEM executives and Mopar-sponsored racers. Since then, Debner reports that sales are “through the roof. We now have 10 sales people answering the phone.”

Debner and staff have educated themselves on what their customers need and what they’re getting from others.

“Every day, every month we’re making a bigger impact in the marketplace,” he says. “We now know who is out there and who our competition is. We know who is doing this with brakes, who is doing this with alternators and starters, who is doing this with fuel pumps. When you have that kind of knowledge, you have more confidence and you know what they know. Before we were shooting from the hip. Now we know who they’re buying from and what they’re paying.”

The education backs up the rebranding, helping Helfman’s sales staff ask for the sale instead of marketing to the shop.

“That’s what we need,” says Wolford. “People who are passionate about it. Then you see them getting satisfied customers. He has the right setup there. It needs to be the right team, the right aggressiveness, the right understanding of marketing, and also the infrastructure.”

With the new look, the dealership backing and the support of Magneti Marelli, Helfman is making its mark around the Houston area. And Debner is confident this will continue as they get more comfortable with their new look. 

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