This cadence should be part of a weekly meeting between the General Manager and the Pre-Owned manager(s). Building this management cadence into your process helps to instill a culture of accountability and a healthy and efficient pre-owned operation.
- Check Pricing: Review each unit that is either potentially OVER or UNDER priced. Remember pricing does not need to be adjusted as long as there is a story behind each of these units. There's no one size fits all strategy for every vehicle. View critical information around the price of your inventory by AGE, RISK, SEGMENT, YEAR, MAKE, OR MODEL.
On MAX Platform: Use the Profit MAX pricing summary on the First Look home screen. Select “Pricing Risk” from the “Current Inventory By” dropdown & “Retail Inventory” from the “Show:” dropdown to review each pricing outlier. Clicking on the “$” icon on the cars in the bottom of the page opens the Profit MAX market pricing tool for that car, if pricing needs to be adjusted. Use Pricing Analyzer to view all key pricing segments and the search function to create your own pricing levels based on the needs of your business. - Check Market Days of Supply & Pricing Competitiveness: Keep a special focus on your Aged Inventory. Sort by Market Days of Supply highest to lowest and focus on any high market days of supply units, especially where Market Days Supply is higher than your aging policy. Repeat check for pricing competitiveness with Aged Inventory.
On MAX Platform: While in the Profit MAX pricing summary, select “All” from the “Current Inventory By” dropdown menu and sort by “Market Days Supply”(Highest to Lowest). Check pricing competitiveness of any high market days supply units (Especially units where MDS>Aging Policy). Do the same Aged Inventory by sorting by the “Age” Column (Oldest to Newest).
- Check Inventory Levels & Mix: Check Inventory levels of your highest volume, highest grossing and quickest turning units. Drill into any high volume units that are grossing less than your target to tweak your purchasing strategy for those units. View stocking levels by SEGMENT, YEAR, MAKE & MODEL and better understand the gaps in your inventory when considering the purchasing plan for the coming week.
On MAX Platform: Select “Inventory Manager” from the “Reports” drop down in FirstLook to review the inventory levels of your top sellers, most profitable, and fastest sellers and build your targeted purchase strategy. Use Under Stocking Report / Core Inventory Report to have quick visibility into the stocking levels at your location. - Spot Check Merchandising & Sales Metrics: Make sure that you are tracking the time to market online for all the key merchandising factors. Have you set a target for the number of pictures you should have online within the first 48 hours a vehicle is on your lot? Being aggressive here, helps your dealership have more time with that vehicle in the sweet spot. Ensure that your sales team is supported and prepared to share the full value of every vehicle in your inventory, so they can close through a transparent process, providing additional information beyond what the customer has already researched online.
On MAX Platform: Open up the MAX Dashboard and make sure “Online Alerts” and “Merchandising Alerts” are at acceptable levels. Check “Time To Market”(TTM) and address any potential holes in your onboarding process by drilling into “View Details” and evaluate high TTM units with the used car manager. Click on “Showroom & Website 2.0” in the center section of the dashboard. Ensure steady utilization of Digital Showroom by sales associates. Total Digital Showroom Views should be at least equal to the number of ups for the week.
- Understand Sales Performance With Discounts: Ensure that overall discount is within acceptable limits for your sales strategy. Drill into any reps that are negotiating away large grosses and review individual deals. Ensure they are using all tools at their disposal to sell value and hold gross. Work with Sales Managers as necessary to ensure proper sales process is being executed consistently.
On MAX Platform: Select “Stop The Drop” from the Reports drop down on the MAX dashboard. Sort the “Ranking By Salesperson” section by “Average Sales Discount”. - Keep an Eye on Appraisal Closing Rates: Review appraisal lane performance for the last 4 weeks to the last 6 months. Drill down to a specific user’s performance to manage this critical piece to the NEW & USED car sales process.
On MAX Platform: Select “Closing Rate Analysis” sort by user performance.
