In the hopes of helping dealers prepare for the anticipated surge of sales for the holiday weekend, the team at DealerSocket assembled data from last year’s Memorial Day activity to help give dealers a better idea of what to expect this year, including the kind of profits they may see in their used-car operations.

Here’s an overview of some of the statistics, created from DealerSocket's insights into the data from 950 of it's dealer customers, to help dealers gain some perspective of their own on potential areas of focus for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday as well as shed some light on last year's used-vehicle sales successes.

Used Vehicles Made More Money

• The average total profit from used vehicles, versus new vehicles, was higher for Memorial Day 2014.
  • New-vehicle average: $1,360
  • Used-vehicle average: $2,152
     
• More shoppers made test-drive appointments for used cars.
  • Appointments set from new-car leads: 20 percent
  • Appointments set from used-car leads: 35 percent
     
• The percentages for appointment confirmations, show rates and sell rates were nearly identical for used and new vehicles.
  • Appointment confirmation rates: 54 percent for new, 53 percent for used
  • Appointment show rates: 66 percent for new, 64 percent for used
  • Sales from appointments: 19 percent for both new and used

Cleaning Up Your Phone Operations

• Have a good inbound phone process: 89 percent of phone leads yielded a scheduled appointment. DealerSocket recommends always asking for an appointment — it can’t hurt to ask.
   
• On average, it took one more follow-up call to close a used-vehicle sale versus a new sale.
  • Average number of outbound calls for new: 1.8.
  • Average number of outbound calls for used: 2.6.

Last Year, Economy Cars Were King

• Economy cars (new and used combined) had some of the highest close rates from new leads for Memorial Day 2014.
  • Scion: 66 percent close rate
  • Fiat: 56 percent
  • Mini: 53 percent
  • Hyundai: 50 percent

The Floor Made the Most Money

• Average total profit, for both used and new sales, by lead sources:
  • Floor: $1,810
  • DealerSocket’s RevenueRadar: $1,674
  • Phone: $1,622
  • Internet: $1,401

More information about DealerSocket’s offerings can be found it the company’s website.