When I write here about bringing speed-to-sale benefits to your dealership, I’m speaking of considerable advancement in how you use data to get cars sale-ready faster to meet consumer demand for quality used cars.
The core of managing for success from now on is best described by the idea we call speed to sale. I discuss this in my forthcoming book — my third — on an enduring auto dealership’s crucial key performance indicators (KPI).
Speed to sale is built upon a highly efficient reconditioning workflow based on accountability to time to line and average days in recon metrics. Speed to sale describes a holistic dealership culture that is pinpoint-focused on time use to meet consumer opportunities.
A speed-to-sale operator enjoys decisive market advantages:
• More efficient trade efficiencies
• Fact-based control of recondition costs
• Whatever the market, faster recon turn to meet consumer demand
• Consumer-facing details to demonstrate the care and quality you put into the used cars you sell to ensure buyer safety and vehicle performance.
Our stats tell us that consumers ask about a used car’s reconditioning frequency just slightly less than they do about its history report. Shared reconditioning details educate consumers and build their confidence that you’re concerned and invested in selling only quality used cars.
Most dealerships now employ digital retail technology and services to improve customer engagement. However, that expense and effort cannot deliver its fullest when sales can’t locate the vehicle a customer asks about or answer questions accurately when vehicle details aren’t reachable on the desktop or smartphone or aren’t text-accessible.
Savvy shoppers increasingly ask for further information about the reconditioning done on the cars they’re considering. If you can’t show them inspection and repair details from a smartphone, they’ll walk.
Speed to sale practice converts the assets on your lot or in your inventory pipeline back into cash quickly. This disciplined practice sets up a highly productive and measurable rhythm and flow for your recon, fixed and variable operations.
Slow reconditioning practices that can’t eliminate delays and bottlenecks, and policies that don’t hold those responsible for fast and quality reconditioning are a dealer’s most costly money hole that need not be.
