From 80-100. My store's journey to 100 units a month

[Tberndt]

Hello Everyone-

Figured I'd have everyone follow along to see what things are working and what aren't when trying to take a rural Midwest GM dealership up to 100 Units on average per month. Currently, we've been hovering at around 79 units with the largest month this year at 90 and the lowest at 69 units. I'm open to ideas of what you all are finding is works best for all of you!

These are the current tools at my disposal on the front end of the dealership.

• CRM: VinSolutions, we have the equity tool and texting through them
• DMS: Automate
• SEO/SEM Advertising: Reynolds & Reynolds the old "Naked Lime"
• Warranty / Sales Training / Reinsurance: ETHOS Group
• Merchandising tool: VAuto with Profit Time
• Internet listing sites: Autotrader, CarGurus, Carfax Online Listings, Carsforsale.com, GM’s Shop Click Drive
• Website: DealerOn
• Sales Consultants: Three 20+ year guys, one 10+ and two that are 5+ years for a total of 6 sales consultants.
• Finance: One Main finance guy, myself as backup and a title clerk.

Improvement area's

• Sales/myself respond to internet leads, no BDC
• Takes an average of 10 days to get vehicles on the lot
• Takes an average of 13 days to get vehicles pictured.
• No Firm Desking process
• Not E-Signing yet. (The goal is 100% by the first of the year)

Things we do well

• Gross, for the most part, our team can gross, we are still hovering selling at Sticker, and we are doing great at holding on used and selling from sticker.
• CSI scores are GREAT!
• F/I is at 1100 a car at 50% finance.
• The average days to the sale is at 45 days.
• Super strong repeat business percentage
• Constantly a top OnStar performing store.
• Finding a niche in selling new/used Corvettes before C8’s we were selling 1-2 a year and now 10-12 a year new and about that used.

Goals

• Getting us to under 30 minutes adjusted response time
• Finding 20 more sales
• Rebuilding Used inventory levels higher

 

[Tberndt]

Interested to know of new dealers, Who is taking pictures of new inventory vs using the preloaded ones from the manufacturer? I heard a rumor saying that on sites like Autotrader and CarGurus non Computer non-computer-generated photos make a difference in the placement of the ad? Has anyone heard this?

 

[Alex Snyder]

I appreciate the Ford/Lincoln and GM computer-generated images as a consumer. They're focused on the things that best show I'm looking at the right car. And they're consistent. Dealer photos have a plethora of inconsistencies that sometimes make things harder to look at. This is especially true when on sites like Autotrader and Cars.com.

Inserting some value-add statement slide between the vehicle image slides does not help me as a consumer. It is distracting and annoying. Some stores get rambunctious with the overlays being on every slide. Most of the time, the image overlay says the same thing about the value-add program.

I'm not into the value-add program unless I'm comparing two dealerships, but reputation and reviews mean more to me. I'm not a free oil change kind of shopper though.

Hope this helps because that's a little bit of a rant. As for your question and thread, I love this!

Subscribing to this thread to follow your progress.

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

I appreciate the Ford/Lincoln and GM computer-generated images as a consumer. They're focused on the things that best show I'm looking at the right car. And they're consistent. Dealer photos have a plethora of inconsistencies that sometimes make things harder to look at. This is especially true when on sites like Autotrader and Cars.com.

I'm kind of surprised to hear that you have this take. I think I would have guessed that you were on the other side of that debate. I remember some debate on this a few years ago on here and it seemed the majority hated it. I remember there was some data provided showing much less interaction with what customers might have perceived as "stock photos." I would be interested to see more current data to see if customers have gotten used to them and interact with them more.

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

Hello Everyone-

Figured I'd have everyone follow along to see what things are working and what aren't when trying to take a rural Midwest GM dealership up to 100 Units on average per month. Currently, we've been hovering at around 79 units with the largest month this year at 90 and the lowest at 69 units. I'm open to ideas of what you all are finding is works best for all of you!

I will be intrigued to follow your progress. Sounds like you have some good goals. Best of luck!

 

[Alex Snyder]

I'm kind of surprised to hear that you have this take. I think I would have guessed that you were on the other side of that debate. I remember some debate on this a few years ago on here and it seemed the majority hated it. I remember there was some data provided showing much less interaction with what customers might have perceived as "stock photos." I would be interested to see more current data to see if customers have gotten used to them and interact with them more.

The greatest enlightenment always comes when you become a true customer.

 

[Ryan Everson]

I'm kind of surprised to hear that you have this take. I think I would have guessed that you were on the other side of that debate. I remember some debate on this a few years ago on here and it seemed the majority hated it. I remember there was some data provided showing much less interaction with what customers might have perceived as "stock photos." I would be interested to see more current data to see if customers have gotten used to them and interact with them more.

The greatest enlightenment always comes when you become a true customer.

@Alex Snyder I'm surprised by that too.

If I'm buying a $80k truck, I'm going to want more than 5 interior photos, especially when 3 of the 5 are basically pointless.

As a customer, I'd choose a car with real photos (right) over CGI photos (left) all day long.

 

[Alex Snyder]

@Alex Snyder I'm surprised by that too.

1) Ya'll are assuming there are additional photos of that new car (most of the time there isn't)
2) When there are more photos, I would love it if they were as good as the ones our DealerRefresh community would produce - most look rushed

Putting my dealer hat back on, it seems easy enough to go on Autotrader or Cars.com to compare your own inventory to a few other dealers. What is more easily missed is the shopper on a mission who is hunting for the car they want. I have learned more about the car business being a civilian after being a car dealer. It ain't easy being a customer.

 

[joe.pistell]

The greatest enlightenment always comes when you become a true customer

I'm on a mission to steal a Silverado High Country w/Super Cruise. We all know this spec is a diamond in the rough (low production counts) and 99.007% of dealers wouldn't know how to sell it, it's invisible on classified sites, so it has no value to the UCM when they buy/trade one.

I really got my blood flowing trying to find one. I went so far as to ask 2 Chevy UCMs what package the SuperCruise and none knew.

After a few days shopping, my "steal this invisible truck" concept was validated. The $2200 super cruise feature is invisible everywhere you look and is totally unfindable on Gurus.



My "Ah Ha" moment!
Cars.com has text search and these are rare rides (3-5 in the US). I land on a low mile unit and...

I look at the pics and its... it's a pedestrian bule UGH! I try to like it... I go clicking into the pics, NOPE. FAIL.

 

[joe.pistell]

IMO, best VDP merchandising practices are seen at BAT
Z4 Roadster E85