Selling Cars is Like Popcorn
I just came across a good post by dpollak, posted yesterday, over on Velocity | DalePollak.com entitled Selling Cars is Like Popcorn that I strongly suggest everyone reads. I’ve included some excerpts to whet your appetites!
Assume that your dealership’s vehicle is on page 4 and the shopper only looks at vehicles on pages 1, 2 and 3. In this case, your dealership does not get credit for an SRP until and unless the shopper looks at page 4, the one that contains your vehicle. If the shopper who looks at page 4 drills down on your vehicle to see all the photos and description, then you get credit for a VDP. Keep in mind that on a third-party classified advertising site, nothing of any value occurs for a dealer until and unless the dealership gets a VDP view on their vehicle. Now, consider an example of two vehicles in stock. After 15 days in inventory, the first car has 50 SRP hits and 15 VDP hits.
[...]
The fact that the second vehicle didn’t convert any of the SRPs into VDPs suggests that the marketing and/or pricing is not right. Put another way, all the ingredients for popping this car off the lot are missing. The question is whether the individual in your dealership that is responsible for popping cars off the lot has any awareness as to the SRP and VDP performance of their inventory. Ironically, SRP and VDP information for every car has been available for a long time on the back end of well-known sites like AutoTrader.
Reading this post started me thinking so I did a quick search for some more articles on the subject and found some more interestingarticles. i.e. this post posted two days ago, by Gaylord Finds, over on Gaylord Guide:
I have a 1995 Ford F150 XLT with a 351 V8 motor in it. The tranny was just rebuilt less than 500 miles ago. Shifts very smooth. The truck just rolled over 150,000 miles but still is very solid.
[...]
Has some rust on rockers and cab corners, but normal for a older Michigan vehicle. Im just looking for a trade such as: <br> <br> Sonoma/S10 with ZR2 package 4.3 motor <br> Ranger XLT 4.0 motor <br> Mustang V6 or V8 <br> Grand Prix GTP <br> <br> Trucks must be extended cab and have power everything. <br> <br> Please reply to email with what you have <br> Thanks, <br> Matt . Tweet This Post Processing your request, Please wait….
Yet another fine article came from fordnebr on Ford Dealers Nebraska posted last week and entitled Omaha Ford F150 which is also definitely worth a look!
With a good-looking redfire colored exterior, this truck is sure to turn heads. It has a good Interior and exterior, carpets and seats and has had no known accidents or bodywork. Omaha Ford truck shoppers will also appreciate the fact that this vehicle has been fully detailed and is ready to drive off the lot and right into whatever the new owner needs it to do. It looks good and runs good and is ready to go.