How do you use your inventory tool? How can you maximize the ROI of your inventory tool?

[Brian Tucker]

“Just the facts Mam†Of course we all remember Dragnet, with Joe Friday telling everyone that he wanted the facts and how relevant is that with today’s shopper that have avoided emotional purchases like the plague and resorted back to well researched buying decisions. V-auto has a nice feature that is found under the showroom tab on the vehicle details page that spits out “The Facts†by using the showroom tab you’re able to quickly show the consumer the method behind the madness or how V-auto puts it (a live market view of inventory priced to market). This feature also allows you to download a .PDF that you can save to your desktop and attach in a email. This is nice when you have your vehicle at 80% of market and they try to cut you by another $1500.00 because after all it’s a buyers market – I know you probably haven’t heard that one in a while. The showroom report gives detailed pricing information matched via the vin and other criteria that you select. I like the tool because it's a third party resource and if used properly can be “another arrow in the quiver†< I stole that quote and I’ll wait for the responsible party to claim it ……your thoughts?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Thanks for the pointer on that Brian. We have vAuto going into a few stores and I'l looking forward to getting in there and figuring it all out.

The more analytical data you can offer your customer the better you will be in the close.

Ahhh, the PDF. One of the most underutilized tools we have! Think about that.

 

[Brian Tucker]

Who should be held accountable for v-auto? Used car manager, G.M., Internet Department, General Sales Manager or a combination of all?

 

[Alex Snyder]

Who should be held accountable for v-auto? Used car manager, G.M., Internet Department, General Sales Manager or a combination of all?

How about a centralized Inventory Control & Marketing Manager if you're a dealer group - that's a position I'm pushing real hard on the bosses for right now.

 

[joe.pistell]

Who should be held accountable for v-auto? Used car manager, G.M., Internet Department, General Sales Manager or a combination of all?

Brian,
I am in the "combo of all" camp.

vAuto is a tool to see YOUR internet market thru the eyes of your shoppers. It helps dealers keep their units priced smartly so the inventory keeps turning. Nearly anyone could be trained to run vAuto, but, vAuto is not the be all, end all. It's a tool to help the Used Car Department execute a plan. The plan is set by the players above the UCM.


There are significant considerations needed to manage vAuto.

• Cost to Replace (UCM: current unit cost vs purchase price),
• Overall Financial performance (GM/GSM: Keep that inventory turning!)
• Merchandising hitting on all cylinders? (Do you know your DSD?)

IMO, the GM sets the inventory goals and vAuto guidelines. The UCM reviews the wholesale marketplace and reviews the inventory for DND's (Do Not Discount). The UCM has to be prepared to explain these DND to the GM as they are overriding the GM's vAuto guidelines. Once the UCM has signed off on the inventory review, vAuto is so easy to use, the UCM can hand it to who ever is trained to use it.

Let's not forget the merchandise manager (or who ever wears that hat), they play a big roll in keeping that inventory moving!

 

[Brian Tucker]

Joe,
I like the DND view....kinda of thinking out loud here but I wonder if a crm could push a dnd via a sorting code to v-auto to disable any future price changes if you have a deal pending? Anybody got that setup?

 

[Rino2009]

Does vAuto update the prices automatically?

 

[Alex Snyder]

Does vAuto update the prices automatically?

Yes, you just create a username in password in the system you want vAuto to push pricing to and then put that username and password into vAuto's Publish Pricing setup and it will do it automatically - virtually in real time!

 

[Brian Tucker]

Just be careful when making price changes to Autotrader.com and cars.com because it will lock it just like making a manual update within their respective control panels. I only mention this because this can cause some issues if you sell the car at auction and don't delete manually.

 

[mattwatson81]

Yes, you just create a username in password in the system you want vAuto to push pricing to and then put that username and password into vAuto's Publish Pricing setup and it will do it automatically - virtually in real time!

We have an interface with them that lets them push prices to us in near real time. It's pretty cool.