The motto of today’s auto dealership business could easily be "time is money". We constantly talk about managing used vehicle inventory age, but an often overlooked segment is lot ready times. How long does it take you to list a unit for sale? Every day a fresh unit sits on your lot, it’s costing your dealership in front end gross and turn time. This eBook is intended to highlight how dealerships can improve efficiencies and get their cars to the “digital front line” quicker.

2. 1. Reduce Reconditioning Time
2. Buy the Right Inventory
3. Adopt a Market-Based Strategy
4. Create Attractive Listings
5. Manage Photos Effectively
6. Automate Classified Listings

3. The motto of today’s auto dealership
business could easily be “time is money.”
We constantly talk about managing used vehicle inventory age, but an often-overlooked
segment is lot-ready time.
How long does it take you to list a unit for sale? Every day a fresh unit sits on your lot, it is
costing your dealership front-end gross and reducing your average turn time.

4. Learn how you can source clean inventory without paying transaction fees at dealerslink.com.

5. Reduce Reconditioning Time
Reconditioning time is often overlooked
and can be a profit-sucking vampire.
Dealerships looking to improve profits will evaluate their average recon time and
identify ways to reduce it. The average auction vehicle typically takes 6 days to get
“lot-ready,” which costs an average of $50 per day or $300 per unit. This adds up fast.
For example, if you purchase an average of 34 units per month, that is $10,200 per
month or $122,400 per year in loss of gross.
A significant way dealers can mitigate reconditioning costs is by sourcing “clean
inventory.”
Clean inventory is inventory already sitting on a dealership lot being offered for retail
sale. Accessing this new upstream source of retail-ready inventory will not only
significantly improve the quality of your inventory offering, but these units require little
to no recon time. Most aged retail inventory has been previously reconditioned and is
typically ready for your digital front line in less than two days. For example, consider the
same 34 units per month. Reducing the reconditioning time for those 34 units alone
can unlock additional gross profits of $81,600 per year.
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7. Buy the Right Inventory at the Right Price
While this step might sound obvious,
there are some key metrics to discover
before you can know for sure if you’re
buying inventory at the right price.
First, you should know exactly what profit you can make on each unit before you buy it.
This will prevent you from paying too much when acquiring inventory and protect your
already-tight margins.
Leverage your dealership’s analytical data to optimize your inventory mix for your retail
market. Stock the right units, then price them correctly to be competitive in your market
with your margin
safely included.
If you adopt this strategy, your dealership will sell more units faster… and make more
profit.
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8. Know the price of every vehicle in your retail market with Competition View.
Learn more at dealerslink.com.

9. Adopt a Market-Based Pricing Strategy
Today’s used-car market is highly
competitive, price-sensitive and more
transparent than it has ever been.
The internet and today’s apps can turn the average car buyer into a savvy internet
shopper. Buyers can now research exactly which vehicle they want, find how many are
available in their market, and see what price they should pay.
High-price retailers get less attention from shoppers, and customers are less loyal than
, forcing dealerships toward the high-turn rate and less-gross-per-unit model. To stay
competitive, dealerships should begin vividly marketing their retail units online with
market-based pricing on vehicles. This will get you more views on your inventory,
and the more views your cars get, the better the chance they will sell quickly for the
maximum profit your market will allow.
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11. Create Attractive Listings
The more views a unit gets, the faster it
will sell. The key is to increase views for
every unit you’re selling.
Select an inventory-merchandising program with tools that allow you to instantly and
automatically generate complete vehicle listings. Utilize these tools to speed up the
time it takes to list units online.
Remember to keep the listings clear and concise, and be completely transparent about
any issues the unit might have. Detailed vehicle descriptions and high-quality vehicle
photos are extremely important when listing your inventory online. You want to give
potential customers a positive impression of the vehicles you are offering and of your
dealership. Quality vehicle listings will encourage them to come shop at your store to
see your high-quality inventory.
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12. Learn how you can take and manage professional, quality photos in-house at dealerslink.com.

13. Manage Vehicle Photos Effectively
You only have a few seconds to get a
customer’s attention online, and vehicle
photos are often the first impression of
your dealership.
You’ve spent thousands on auction fees, transportation and reconditioning your
vehicles. After all this expense, don’t fall into the easy trap of displaying below-average
photos online to represent your vehicles.
Post high-quality photos from your vehicles’ best angles. Even if you just have a couple
of shots, online shoppers want to see the vehicles. A customer is not going to come
into your showroom because of a “coming soon” photo. You could be losing potential
customers every day each unit sits on your lot without any photos online.
To quickly and easily add vehicle photos to your online listings, utilize an inventory
management tool that includes mobile photo capturing and cloud based uploading
capability. Show the customer the quality of your product and that you want to earn
their business. Then, watch as more of them come to visit your showroom.
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14. Learn how you can automate all your inventory exports at dealerslink.com.

15. Automate Classified Listings
The last step after posting your retail-
ready units to your website is to export
them to your classified sites.
Most car shoppers today utilize third-party sites to search for their next vehicle. In order
for an automotive dealership to continue to get customers, they are now required to
post attractive listings to these third-party sites consumers are using.
Classified sites like AutoTrader.com, Cars.com and MotorCloud.com all consolidate
available vehicles for sale into a single search engine. This allows a prospective buyer
to see more units for sale from a broader radius. Consumers use these sites to research
vehicles, compare sellers, compare prices, and find the best vehicle that fits their
criteria.
Gain more traffic to your vehicles by automating your listings on these third-party
websites. This will ensure the prices posted are the most current across all your
classified sites. The faster you can get your attractive listings posted, the faster you can
start attracting buyers.
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16. Speed up your listing process and reach more customers faster with ExportPro from
DealersLink. Learn more at dealerslink.com.

17. Years Empowering Dealers
DealersLink is a state-of-the-art,
industry-leading authority on automotive
systems integration and networking
technology.
Founded in the late ‘90s by a team of auto dealers, DealersLink established the first
dealer-to-dealer marketplace in the United States. In fact, we coined the term “dealer-
to-dealer.”
Every day we remain committed to unlocking unsurpassed value when delivering
groundbreaking dealership and marketplace technologies that empower dealers to
improve turn rate, gross
and profitability.
Learn more at dealerslink.com.
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