COMMENTARY: Welcome to the 4th quarter — are you still in the game?
And are you ahead — or behind?
We all know that many games are won or lost in the fourth quarter –— not the first.
It’s time to evaluate the game plan. Is it working? Do you need to adjust? How will you do it?
A common trait at the most successful dealerships is they adjust when they need to.
The only constant in the used-car business is change. How we react — and adjust to those changes — often determines our yearly success or failure.
Let’s look at this year so far:
- You started out strong in the first and second quarters.
- The third quarter, however, saw a slowdown all the way to a dip in year-over-year performance. Your inventory is up, and your selling prices are down. Your used car pricing is undergoing market adjustments.
- The end of the year looks different from the beginning, so your game plan needs to look different
What should you be looking at?
Pricing model
No one’s telling you to just lower your prices. Instead, make sure your cars are priced correctly. Common vehicles should be priced aggressively. Personally owned trades, homegrown inventory, one-owner models, and well-maintained vehicles should still demand higher prices than the market average. Be smart about your inventory and what it’s worth.
Stocking levels
Make sure you’re primarily stocking fast-turning inventory. That means more trade-ins, fewer purchases. We know that trades outsell purchases 3-1 – and sell up to 10 days faster. Take advantage of that.
The showroom experience
Look at your traffic and where your sales are coming from. If you’re like most dealerships, you’ll realize that most of your sales are not happening in the BDC. Your first point of contact with most of today’s customers is at the front door. Remember that in 2023 only 7% of sales were completed online.
By keeping your focus, your head in the game and making sure your whole team is paying attention to details, you’ll be able to stay on offense and not get caught off-guard when it’s too late.
–Just The Fax
By Robert Grill, Carfax Senior Partner Development Manager
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