Master Auto Dealership Speed to Sale: How to Bridge Fixed and Variable Fundamentals To Build Transparency and Value To Buyers

By Dennis McGinn

Auto dealership sales and service departments -- within standalone stores or stores within public or private groups -- can no longer operate as silos. When communications and workflow gaps exist between these two essential functions, efficiency suffers. Customer engagement does. Sales lead conversation does. And the dealer's ability to get replacement inventory sale-ready to meet demand does. This 'How-to" book helps auto dealers find answers to such critical questions as How do I protect and strengthen the future of my business?; How can I best leverage digital reconditioning and digital retailing to build transparency, value, and trust with customers from first contact?; and, How do I develop a culture of efficiency and measurement consistency across all stores. This book discusses the Key Performance Indicators, measurement metrics, and practice of continuous improvement to manage car dealerships and dealership groups to be more consistently profitable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667822648

Book preview

Title

Master Auto Dealership Speed To Sale

How to Bridge Fixed and Variable Fundamentals

to Build Transparency and Value for Buyers

Copyright © 2021 by Dennis McGinn, unless noted otherwise.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the author’s express written permission except for brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America.

Printed, September 2021

E-Publication, September 2021

ISBN: 978-1-6678226-4-8

Dennis McGinn

855 El Camino Real

Palo Alto, CA 94301

[e-mail]

650.322.0600

www.rapidrecon.com

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Some company founders mistakenly believe they bootstrap new enterprises into being all by themselves. I know the going solo story to be a myth.

Building a successful business that brings measurable and sustainable value to customers is always a labor of intensive passion and love, encouraged by insightful and compassionate friends and colleagues.

Rapid Recon invented reconditioning workflow software in 2010, and we remain the leader in helping America’s car dealers sell cars faster and more profitably.

Lest I neglect to recognize those who have helped us succeed and grow, I thank here the hundreds of dealers who have opened their operations to us to poke around, offer solutions, and test concepts. A few share their experiences and ideas for successful variable and fixed operations here.

Foremost, though, I thank Kathie, my wife, for her steadfast encouragement, feedback and love. Of likewise importance is the Rapid Recon team, who are loved family. I also thank my many friends who own or operate franchised, independent or Buy Here/ Pay Here auto dealerships throughout North America and, now, the world. Without their wholehearted embrace of Rapid Recon workflow software—and speed-to-sale solutions driving much of their competitive advantage—there wouldn’t be this book; there wouldn’t be Rapid Recon, either. Car dealers are some of the best people in the world!

Dennis McGinn

Founder and CEO

Rapid Recon, Inc.

www.rapidrecon.com

September 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

Fundamental 1:

Customers Can’t See Value If You Hide It

Fundamental 2:

Focus on Proven Metrics

Fundamental 3:

Work the Transparency

Fundamental 4:

Build a Speed-to-Sale Culture

Fundamental 5:

Protect Good Habits

PREFACE

The last months have been a remarkable run in retail automotive. Profits have been huge. Demand has been crazy and customers more agreeable than ever.

So, what’s the worry?

As this book goes to print in the fall of 2021, we recognize several dynamics that will continue to reshape dealership operations. Among them are continuing pandemic concerns, persistent computer-chip supply-chain challenges, workforce issues, and the material reality of electric vehicles (EVs) and their vehicle service challenges and opportunities.

In other words:

1. Opportunities will be fewer

2. Inventory levels will increase

3. Consumer interest will wane

4. Dealerships will fight for customers and profit.

The questions one needs to ask should include:

1. How do I protect and strengthen the future of my business?

2. How can I enhance customers’ vehicle presentations that compel them to buy?

3. How do I ensure transparency in customer-facing practices while building perceptible value into my used assets?

4. How do I develop a culture of efficiency to meet demand?

5. How can I best leverage digital reconditioning and digital retailing to build value and trust with customers from the first contact?

The pandemic taught dealers the importance of digital retailing, and the chip shortage sharpened attention on supply-chain vulnerabilities. Dealers who meet next-market dynamics with a speed-to-sale attitude intact are those leveraging five performance-edge fundamentals.

When we speak of speed to sale in automotive retailing, we mean mission.

The goal of this mission is satisfying customer expectations and quickly converting used-car assets into cash.

Speed to sale is a cross-department operating attitude. This shared attitude asks, What can be changed to get us from A to Z faster? The objectives, then, are to: Survey and improve processes, sacred cows, and mental roadblocks. Then you work to eliminate everything from your workflow that does not add value to the customer.

A dealer who wants to develop a speed-to-sale dealership puts a stopwatch to how the business flows, from used-car acquisition through reconditioning, through variable operations to sold-vehicle delivery, See the graphic on page 26.

Because the speed-to-sale stopwatch starts with vehicle acquisition, it’s a great place to begin.

Buy vehicles that are in demand in your market, and have historical data on the reconditioning costs for those makes, models, and years. Get these cars on lifts within hours of arrival. Reconditioning doesn’t start until the inspection, so every hour a car is allowed to linger costs you money.

Most of this book focuses on the foundational building blocks to a competitive speed-to-sale dealership.

Dealers may not recognize that digital reconditioning and speed to sale are foundational to digital retailing.

Most dealerships now employ digital retail technology and services to improve customer engagement. However, that expense and effort will not deliver its promise when sales can’t locate the vehicle a customer asks about or can’t 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 car they’re considering. If you can’t show them inspection and repair details from a smartphone, they’ll walk.

Because Rapid Recon created reconditioning workflow software more than a decade ago—and have now processed fifteen million cars through our technology—we know how to dial in your speed-to-sale performance edge.

Everything in the car dealership must be measured and measured again. The key performance indicators (KPIs) known as Average Days in Recon (ADR) and Time to Line (T2L) give you tools to monitor, manage, and adjust speed-to-sale touch points, from vehicle acquisition to