The word “process” may remind football fans of the likes of Nick Saban.

As has been documented many times in the press, it’s laser-like focus on the minutiae, the exact task at hand. A piecemeal approach, if you will.  

Five national championships for the Alabama coach are proof that strategy can work.

For Garth Blumenthal and the team at Fletcher Jones Motorcars, following a fine-tuned, highly specified process — one that focuses on ensuring the vehicle and the experience of the customer is of the utmost quality — has helped the store become the top-selling Mercedes-Benz certified pre-owned dealer.

And the Newport Beach, Calif., dealership is Auto Remarketing’s 2016 CPO Dealer of the Year, sponsored by NCM Associates.

The dealership will be presented the award on Nov. 14 at the CPO Forum presented by Autotrader, part of the Used Car Week conferences being held Nov. 14-18 at the Red Rock Casino, Resort and Spa in Las Vegas. Blumenthal will also be participating on the “Dealer Panel: Top 10 Best CPO Ideas” discussion the following morning at the CPO Forum.

‘Tightly defined process’

Fletcher Jones led all Mercedes-Benz dealers with 1,885 CPO sales in 2015.  When asked what has allowed them to achieve such success, Blumenthal said the overall process regarding new and CPO — which certainly are intertwined — plays a big role.

It goes all the way back to figuring out if the store will keep a car when it comes into the dealership, making sure they’re acquiring the right cars via lease returns or trade-ins, said Blumenthal, who is the general manager.  

The reconditioning process is very “closely controlled” at Fletcher Jones, which has a team dedicated specifically to certified pre-owned, including a CPO recon manager specifically assigned that task.

“When they have a focus on one thing, they tend to get better at it, rather than trying to fit it in with a lot of other cars that are going through the shop for other reasons, whether it’s customers’ cars or whether it’s new cars’ PDIs, etc., ” Blumenthal said. “I think that gives us an edge right there, having not only the best people, but also a very tightly defined process.”

He said certified sales this year are trending similarly to 2015 and he anticipates their numbers will be closer to 2,000 units.

Market challenges

Availability, Blumenthal said, is a market-wide challenge, but new-car sales volume and lease returns have helped Fletcher Jones. Those developments have allowed them to have more of a selection than other dealers, he said.

“It’s a ready-made supply stream, if you will,” Blumenthal said, “which not everybody is seeing. And I’m hearing from some of our other brother or sister stores that they’re having great difficulty finding quality pre-owned Mercedes.”

Given those challenges, Fletcher Jones will work with other Mercedes-Benz stores. For example, if cars come in that are duplicates of vehicles already in their inventory, the store will offer them to other dealerships.

“But even having said that, there is still in many cases a general shortfall (in supply) in certain models that dealers need to meet the demand levels out there,” he said.

Shopper experience

When asked what consumers are looking for when they stop into Fletcher Jones, Blumenthal pointed to transparency and vehicle quality. Regarding the latter, he said: “Our policy is we don’t want to ever have to make an excuse for a car, so we don’t really spare any expense in going through the reconditioning process, and that includes cosmetic items.”

Take, for instance, store’s Platinum Certified program, which goes beyond what automaker requires in its CPO guidelines. The dealership will put the car through additional checkpoints when inspecting the frame and body work, but it also involves certain aesthetical perks like brand new floor mats in each car.

“And that gives that certified pre-owned car the feeling of a new car,” Blumenthal said. “It’s an inexpensive way to make the car feel much fresher, if you will — much more attractive to the consumer.”

Fletcher Jones aims to treat used cars “just as if they were new” when it comes to expectations for the vehicle and on the salesperson.

It’s about providing an oil change, even if it’s not required, or giving the car a full tank of gas. In other words, “giving it the attention and respect that car — and, of course, the customer — warrants or deserves,” he said.

After all, these pre-owned buyers aren’t just current customers, he said; they’re potentially future customers.

There’s also the Fletcher Jones Preferred Owner program. When a shopper buys a CPO, he or she gets same benefits as a new-car buyer. The buyer will get free hand car-washes Monday through Saturday, for example. Plus, free airport parking at a separate facility and a shuttle to John Wayne Airport in Orange County. The vehicle is stored and washed while the customer is out of town.

“They’re buying a certified pre-owned but they’re getting the same benefits as the new-car buyer. And I think that has a lot to do with the recognition of what we do, in terms of the guest experience,” Blumenthal said. “The guest experience is absolutely everything for us, and ultimately is a strong future predictor of business as we try to build that relationship going forward.”

Dealership-wide buy-in

CPO has allowed the store to pull in aspirational buyers, as well.

“There’s no question. And that’s certainly the goal, to try and get people into the Fletcher Jones family and have them become part of our ongoing cycle of discussion,” he said, “and also into our buying cycle processes, in terms of how we reach out to them and how often we reach out to them and what that contact strategy is going to be all about.”

Fletcher Jones certainly has CPO buyers who are new to the Mercedes brand, but they also have many long-time pre-owned buyers who prefer used to new because of the value proposition of buying a car where someone else has taken the brunt of depreciation.

Blumenthal calls these folks “CPO loyalists.”

But you might even call Fletcher Jones Motorcars a “CPO loyalist,” too.

The dealership is nearing its 25th anniversary and pre-owned has been a focal point since Day 1, Blumenthal said.

“Pre-owned has always been important. There aren’t difficulties to get buy-in because it’s just a way of life. It’s part of the culture; it’s part of what we do … if you look at it as an entity, the number of pre-owned (vehicles) we sell would put us into a fairly high ranking when compared to new car Mercedes-Benz dealerships even,” he said. “You just look at the volume: close to 2,000 cars. And you look at how many dealerships sell that many in a year, new-car wise, you’ll see it’s basically an entity of its own.”

And that’s with just one sales force that sells both new and pre-owned. That approach works, he said, because the salesperson will focus on what is best for the customer instead of the specific department in which he or she works.

It may be that a customer initially comes in as a new-car shopper, but it turns out that a pre-owned car ends up working best. Or vice versa, he said.

The point is to pay attention to the guest’s needs rather than the needs of a department

That’s just part of the process.