If T2L were a widget, investors would line up to grab their share of the profits.
If T2L were a prospecting tool — which it is, of sorts — dealers would be selling more used cars more profitably.
If you’re using T2L at your dealership, you’re in line — and you’re enjoying more successful used car operations.

T2L is “time to line,” a profit-improvement strategy built on a complete cloud-based platform for managing the time it takes to get used cars from acquisition through reconditioning and to the sales line, or at least to where you know what price to accept to cover recon costs and make money.

Dealers using T2L enjoy a $50 return for every dollar spent on this disruptive technology. Disruption often means confusion and a threat to the car business, but T2L instead brings order, flow, accountability and improved efficiency to vehicle reconditioning. These benefits translate into increased used car profits.

A Bonanza-Maker for All Dealers
T2L delivers these results for new-car, used-car, independent and buy-here/pay-here dealers. Now, instead of guesswork and manual tracking tools for “managing” a multi-process, multi-step, ever-changing reconditioning department, dealers practicing T2L get cars through the department in just a few days rather than a week or more.

Auto dealership general managers invested in applying T2L principles to their operations are flowing $20,000 or more a month in unrealized profit to the bottom line for their employers. GMs who “get this” create rosier futures for their employers — and for themselves, as well.

If you are not yet applying rapid reconditioning T2L workflow to your dealership, then you have some serious catching up to do.

Run, Recon, Run
When we first applied workflow and accountability disciplines to vehicle reconditioning nearly a decade ago, dealers learned quickly they must have a measurable and verifiable T2L if they expect to do the job right and pull the profit out of this assembly-line process — the ultimate goal of reconditioning!

With T2L rapid reconditioning giving everyone in the process precise information about where each car is in the recon process — from transport to sold — vehicles no longer get misplaced, lost or otherwise unaccounted for.

The clock on T2L starts when you acquire a vehicle and it stops when that vehicle is front-line ready. GMs who manage T2L to a three-to-seven-day window put fresher inventory on the front line, increase inventory turn and keep everyone involved notified about where every vehicle is in the process.

Bottom line: When asked how fast you are getting cars through recon, what does recon cost the dealership or, “Where’s the F-150 we got in Tuesday?” You’ll know. Exactly. No more guesstimates but only the real facts as directly monitored according to every touchpoint through reconditioning.

Because T2L leverages mobile technology, access to recon workflow data, vehicle status, vehicle location and next steps is always right at hand. Every GM must have a measurable and verifiable T2L as a minimum standard for operating their used car departments.   

Calculate your ROI
When factoring return on investment, cost of tools to achieve that return must be included in that calculation. Here is where T2L investors stand out.

Using T2L, dealers typically shave two or more days from their recon times. Two additional turns on 100 cars at $1,500 gross per vehicle is a gain of $300,000 a year, or $25,000 a month — a tremendous ROI for a monthly T2L workflow software cost of $500.

Where else can you find a $50 return for $1 spent?

Rapid reconditioning principles and practices also contribute to profitable human capital return on investment. The proper workflow model is based on behavioral changes that take accountability head-on by replacing finger pointing with process structuring, so individuals doing the work control their accountability.

This change has created new efficiencies and can establish a culture of inclusion fairness, creating an empowerment shift in the ability of your human capital to prove they are doing the right work well as compared to their peers.

How can any dealership facing today’s margin squeeze, sales disruption models, turnover and other challenges justify running its reconditioning without workflow precision, accountability and results?

Is this reluctance because of the momentary twitch that always occurs when we move out of old practices into new, more efficient ones? Considering the gains involved by applying T2L to reconditioning, what could be more critical or prudent than seeking this bonanza of new profitability and efficiency for your used car operation?

Is it a difficult manager stuck in his or her ways pushing back and disrupting your continuous improvement culture? If so, maybe you have the wrong manager.

Recon has never been glamorous — although this is changing, even as I write this — and it has never gotten much attention from GMs. This is changing, too. T2L helps GMs, fixed operations, used cars — everyone, really — identify, manage and extract a real bonanza of benefits from reconditioning, changing your recon department to a lean, mean, money-generating machine.

Click here to view more solutions from Dennis McGinn and Rapid Recon.