CARY, N.C. -

To recognize the dealers leading the certified pre-owned car business, the April issue of Auto Remarketing will feature our annual special section spotlighting "The Best CPO Dealers in the USA." 

As part of that issue, we reached out to dealers to share their best practices in CPO. 

Here is what a couple of them had to say:

Question: Share the top strategy or best practice that has made your dealership a success in certified pre-owned

  • Jake Kahen, General Manager, Lexus of Cerritos: “Our strategy with our OEM CPO (program) is simple. We treat the transaction like a brandnew car, given the fact that our CPO program affords a huge amenity to its purchaser. We have noticed that a customer that buys CPO vehicle … they have more than a 60% possibility of them buying the same-make brand new car from the selling dealer. With that in mind, we emphasize the benefi ts of the CPO at the time of purchase to our guest and we have seen huge success in delivering this message.

    “Overall, you still need to have a buy-in from staff, so we make sure our daily meeting either covers the benefi ts or we will do a walk around on a CPO vehicle and explain the benefi ts at the time of the walk around. This has proven to be benefi cial in relaying the message to our guest at the initial stages of the purchase.” 

  • Bradley Bayard, Vice President/Executive Manager, Holman Infiniti: “There are so many people and processes that yield the results we were fortunate enough to produce here at Holman Infiniti. However, if I had to choose an item in the current environment, (it’s that) we have transitioned into an almost full one-price/best-price, priced-to-market dealership. In this process, we have a team that reviews pricing internally daily, weekly, and formally meets monthly for strategies on stocking levels, and pricing all based on market-driven data.

    “This could mean, reductions or increases, based on market days’ supply and seasonality. Especially if you design a holistic model that reinforces the one-price process. The process has our sales team paid salary with bonuses for client satisfaction, volume and sometimes trades. It is an educational consumer process, versus a confrontational one.

    “We sell based on value and transparency. We have a tenured Infiniti sales team. They see and share the value of the certified process, inspection and warranty — all vehicles’ photos have certified banners, and cars have the hang tags. This reinforces the holistic mentality by allowing for more trades, service retention, fi nance and warranty opportunities, all enhancing the client satisfaction with the brand and Holman Infiniti. Our clients get what is best for them, and not wherever the most gross/largest commission resides.

    “It allows us to show up higher in the pricing model searches online, because we are not starting high; working our way down to actual transactional pricing levels. It is a mutually beneficial environment that allows our guests to feel comfortable as we share information. Although this is not a new concept, the execution in this current environment with a large portion of the sales process remote/digital has yielded good results.”