One of my favorite subjects is talking to management teams about not missing trades. I know this is hard for you to believe but without exception I’m always told, “We never miss trades.” Makes you go hmmm, doesn’t it?
Here’s another way to think about it. Have you ever made a deal because you put more money in a car than your competitor? I’m thinking the answer is yes. Therefore, your competitor missed a trade. I’m also thinking your competitor would say they never missed a trade.
I do believe most of my readers are smart enough to realize that yes, we all miss trades once in a while. Someone’s making those deals. And yes, they may have very well buried themselves in those units we “missed,” but they got to make a deal and we didn’t.
A common term in today’s business is “look to book.” If you’re not familiar with the term, it simply means; how many units did we appraise and how many did we get. If you appraised 100 units this month and you traded for 25, then your look to book is 25%.
I’m often asked, “What should my look to book be?” Most people would say your look to should be 50 to 60%.
Tommy says you should know every day what your look to book happens to be and think in terms of pressing the number up. The more you can press your look to book up, the less of a need you will have to go out and purchase units.
If you’re going to bury yourself in a unit, you are far better off to bury yourself in a trade.
If you raise your “look to book,” you’ll miss a lot fewer trades. Trading for more cars means you’re selling more cars. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs