1 min read

How to Become Your Customer’s First Call for Tires

Bill Springer | October 9, 2026

Episode 59 — Featuring Guest Luke Ammann |

Only about one-third of dealership service customers bought their last set of tires from the dealership. That’s not just a missed tire sale. Once a customer heads somewhere else for tires, that shop gets a shot at the rotations, alignments, brakes, maintenance, and repair work that comes next.

In this episode, sponsored by DriveSure, Bill Springer sits down with Luke Ammann to talk about why tires should be treated as a retention tool, not simply another profit center. Luke shares the tire strategy he’s refined over decades, from keeping fast-moving tires in stock and training advisors to talk confidently about tread depth, to using video MPIs and competitive pricing to keep customers from shopping elsewhere. They also dig into EV tire wear, advisor empowerment, inventory investment, and why sometimes protecting the relationship matters more than protecting tire gross.

Takeaways from this episode:

Why losing the tire sale can open the door to losing the entire service relationship
How stocking the right tires removes one of the biggest barriers to same-day sales
Why Luke writes tread-depth measurements directly on the tire during video MPIs
How advisor training, pricing flexibility, and fast communication improve tire close rates
Why tire gross profit may be the wrong scorecard if customer retention is the bigger goal accountability