Uncle Joe's Make Over Diary

[craigh]

Speaking as a non-commissioned specialist, when my shopper wants to validate our price (aka haggle), it would be nice to have our market pricing lab right off the sales floor, to show the shopper our prices are updated hourly by a scientific process and are fair.

I was part of a small project where we tried to do this.
An accurate and realtime dashboard of evaluations and inventory pricing showing how we compared to the market. We built it for sales managers, but they tried to use it for price validation with customers as well.

Ultimately, they decided that updating their prices more often didn't yield an increase in sales so they stopped doing that part, but for a while they were updating their prices 3 or 4 times a day based on market. vAuto was the primary tool used for valuations and market data.

 

[joe.pistell]

I was part of a small project where we tried to do this.
An accurate and realtime dashboard of evaluations and inventory pricing showing how we compared to the market. We built it for sales managers, but they tried to use it for price validation with customers as well.

Ultimately, they decided that updating their prices more often didn't yield an increase in sales so they stopped doing that part, but for a while they were updating their prices 3 or 4 times a day based on market. vAuto was the primary tool used for valuations and market data.

Interesting insights Craig.

1. Did the managers keep the price validation tool?
2. Realistically speaking, Is it possible to assign business activity driven from changing prices (hourly, daily, weekly, etc)?

Great stuff!
TY
Joe

 

[joe.pistell]

...Speaking as a non-commissioned specialist, when my shopper wants to validate our price (aka haggle), it would be nice to have our market pricing lab right off the sales floor, to show the shopper our prices are updated hourly by a scientific process and are fair.

CAUTION!
Moving to one price with higher salaried reps creates new problems.

Here's a recent financial update from Penske Auto:

• Update to no haggle price testing. The company is testing a no haggle price model. The results are interesting as competitors are undercutting the no haggle price. Management relayed that by not converting the sale, the dealer misses out not only on F&I opportunities but also a future parts and service relationship.

Going to one price isn't rainbows and butterflies. It's shifts the responsibility for profits off the back of sales reps and onto leadership.

 

[craigh]

Interesting insights Craig.

1. Did the managers keep the price validation tool?
2. Realistically speaking, Is it possible to assign business activity driven from changing prices (hourly, daily, weekly, etc)?

Great stuff!
TY
Joe

1. No they didn't. They still use Vauto, but all my price change charts, alerts, etc are essentially unused. We ended up building them into the website dashboard so they can add any widgets they want, but the market data isn't being used in this dashboard. I think the barrier to entry was using a new software, so when they gave up on the "dashboard" they gave up on the whole thing.
This is the dashboard that we ended up with for the dealers to use internally:


2. I didn't have a perfect method and they didn't believe in it. All the sales managers I work with all have a "busy" complex as well - they're constantly short on time with so many things to do and barely have time to answer their phones. I think they spend more time talking about being busy than they do solving the problem I'm still trying to find a client who's willing to invest some effort into using software for different purposes so we can accurately evaluate processes and ideas.

I looked at the possibility of doing market data for consumers at a touchscreen ViewPoint kiosk, but the dealers were too afraid of that level of transparency as well.

 

[joe.pistell]

Craig,

My gut is telling me that shoppers that negotiate don't understand -nor trust- the squiggly lines and tables. I don't have a solution, but, I am thinking that the answer will be less about facts and more about word tracks (i.e. a tool used to demonstrate scientific-like work to be presented by an authority

 

[craigh]

What happened to the "Agree" button?

 

[joe.pistell]

Don't believe the Hype... Fear of Car Dealers is an urban legend.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...f5118c-0aeb-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html

“These are the hospitals that have the highest markup... This means when it costs the hospital $100, they are going to charge you, on average, $1,000.”​

There is no MSRP for an appendectomy, so if you don't have insurance, the administrators will take your house.

This makes negotiating for a car look like God's work.

 

[joe.pistell]

Hey y'all, I'm spot checking Google SERPs for used vehicles. Where the hell did cars.com and autotrader go? Is it just me?

https://adwords.google.com/d/AdPreview/?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000

 

[craigh]

Wish I could say the same.
Searched for 6 different models and not a single one showed 1 dealership on the first page (PPC excluded).
Reviews, Trader, Kijiji, Cars.com, Corporate.

 

[joe.pistell]

not a single one showed 1 dealership on the first page

Yea, it's everywhere. Google's hard coded the national players to take top SEO ranks. It makes their job far easier & the quality of the SERPs are more uniform and it matches a shoppers needs.