Jeff Lupient is the CEO and President of Lupient Automotive Group and has been managing dealerships for over 10 years. During his years of work, he identified various problems that dealerships have, helping numerous dealers improve business operations. Below you can see the advice that Jeffrey W. Lupient highlights as the most important whenever used car inventories are managed, which is a critical part of the automotive dealership.
Focus On Investment Quality Instead Of Inventory Age
Many dealerships make the mistake of managing their inventory based on age. This means the dealership puts a focus on for how long the car sat on the lot. Such an approach, according to Jeff Lupient MN, can only lead to a bad outcome since there is a reliance on a hope that the profit-troubled vehicle is going to be sold. Also, the aged inventory is going to put a lot of pressure on the sales staff to get rid of inventory items that might not actually be profitable in the first place.
Whenever managing used car inventories, age is the bad metric to consider. What you need to focus on is money. You do this by focusing on investment quality. A vehicle that does not deliver a sufficient or satisfactory margin contribution from the start will most likely do the same one month later. Experienced managers do understand that distressed used cars just get worse as time passes.
As you manage the used car inventory, you want to focus on vehicle investment health. Your assessment needs to cover:
- The cost-to-market ratio of the car
- The eyes-on assessment
- The market-days supply of the car
Set Hard Caps On Inventory Investments
Inexperienced used car inventory managers or those that are just bad will keep buying vehicles as they think any car can be sold. This is one of the approaches that can quickly destroy a dealership. Jeffrey Lupient says that every single dealer needs hard caps and limits on used car inventory investments. There is always a limited amount of money that can be managed and spent during a year. Going over that limit is a recipe for disaster.
The simple fact that there is a cap put on the inventory investments possible will make those responsible spend money in a more intelligent way. You can no longer buy vehicles and not be able to sell them without repercussions since the budgets run out. If you want a high efficient management plan, you need to set limits on practically everything, just as when you set a limit on how low you can go for the price of a vehicle as you try to make a sale.
Conclusions
The way in which the used car inventory is managed can easily increase profits for the dealership but it can also drastically minimize potential. Every single manager needs to be aware of what sells when it sells, how much money is tied in inventory and how the budget is used to make smart investments for the future, all based on investment quality.
