The more involved you can get your entire sales staff in your used car department, the more likely they are to sell a few more used cars for you.

Back in the ’80s, I stole the idea of Adopt-a-Car from my good friend Tim Deese, who’s been a used car guru for about the last 35 years.

It works very well when you have the discipline to work it. It has the potential to evaporate quickly so I suggest you consider trying it for 60 days. When I say try it, I mean announce that you’re only going to do it for 60 days so you don’t look stupid when the evaporation factor bites you in the butt. You can always renew it.

The fundamental adopt-a-car program is that each sales person has their own used car inventory and they get paid extra money if they sell their own units. If another sales person sells one of their cars they still get paid on it.

I’d recommend it be $100/$50. It’s easy extra money. If it would make you feel better, then add another $100 to the cost of each unit as it comes into your inventory so that when you finally pay it you’ve already expensed it.

If a sales person trades a car in, that car is part of his/her inventory. All other inventory is distributed on a rotating basis to the entire staff. When you first start the program you will have some orphan cars that you would do the same with.

In order to make this work you have to have the discipline to take cars away when a sales person doesn’t adhere to the program. The main reason we are going to pay them to sell their own inventory is to get them to help us make sure the car is standing tall at all times.

Here are some reasons to take a car away:

1. Cosmetic problems
2. Trash in the interior
3. Gas on empty
4. FTC and/or window stickers edgy
5. Hang tags not properly displayed

And now for the lot walk kicker. During the course of the lot walk, the sales people must be able to recite the following on their inventory:

1. Year, make and model of the car
2. Mileage of the car
3. How long we have owned it
4. The Internet Price and Last price change
5. Something they know about this car. It may be one owner or something they looked up about this model on the Internet.

You can come up with your own list, but if you are going to pay them to sell their own inventory then you need to require them to know something about it.

Make sure that when you do the lot walk you take a copy of the inventory with you and check them off as you go. “Voila,” there will be some missing cars and the used car manager and sales staff need to have an answer.

Adopt-a-Car is old school. Creating accountability is old school. Try some old school, that’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

1. Your oldest unit?
2. Where is it parked?
3. Your look-to-book?
4. Your most expensive unit?
5. What’s your wholesale to retail ratio?
6. Who owns your used car department?
7. How many turns are you getting a year?
8. What’s your average cost per unit in stock?
9. How many clicks does it take to get from A to B on your website?
10. How many days does it take to get a unit through recon and on the line?

There are lots of things you need to know. I’m just pointing out 10 of them. That’s all I’m gonna ask, Tommy Gibbs

Did you ever wonder why you can’t achieve and maintain maximum success in your used car department?

When you analyze it you have a pretty good inventory. You’re not short on operating capital. The amount of space you have is ok and most of the management staff seems to have a pretty good understanding of the importance of having a good used car department. You have great software that you use to stock and price your inventory and you do a nice job of reconditioning your inventory.

So what could it possibly be?
I’m gonna tell you.
Are you ready?
Are you really ready?
Here it comes…hang on.
I’m gonna tell you.
I won’t lie to you.
I have the answer——“nobody owns the department.” It’s that simple.

Until you or somebody takes ownership, it ain’t gonna happen. I realize every dealership has some restrictions on the amount of management staff that can be allocated to any one department, but far too often used cars are an add-on for someone on the team.

Maybe it’s sorta the GM’s responsibility.
Maybe it’s sorta the GSM’s responsibility.
Maybe it’s sorta the Desk Manager’s responsibility.
Maybe it’s sorta the Sales Manager’s responsibility.
Maybe it’s sorta the combination used car manager/sales manager’s responsibility.

See what I mean? Nobody owns it. Yes, the duties of a used car manager today are far different than they were 20 years ago. There are some situations where we are asking some “used car managers” to do things they don’t have the skills to do. Just because someone understands the wholesale market doesn’t mean they understand the retail market.

When somebody owns the used car department they come to work every day on a mission:

On a mission to make it happen.
On a mission to get people excited.
On a mission to ensure units aren’t aging.
On a mission to get units through the system.
On a mission to make sure the inventory is turning.
On a mission to get cars online and on the line ASAP.
On a mission to build a team that gets after the used car market.
On a mission to study the best of the best and make the department the best it can be.
On a mission to identify and have a strategic plan in place to make the problematic units go away.
On a mission to sell everyone on the role the used car department plays in the overall success of the dealership.

Who owns your used car department? That’s all I’m gonna ask, Tommy Gibbs

Everyone has problem cars from time to time. You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones that want to stick around forever. The ones you haven’t yet found a buyer for.

But where did they come from? How did they all of a sudden end up on your lot? Did they just fall out of the sky?

Can you imagine how much better off you would be if you could identify problem cars on day 1 vs. day 61? Suppose you had a strategy in place to deal with them sooner rather than later?

The number one problem I see in the industry is we just don’t pay attention. We don’t pay attention soon enough. By the time we realize we have a problem, it’s too late.

Take the time to do a “trade walk” which includes all purchase units, and be blatantly honest about what you’re staring at.

Then put a strategic plan in place to deal with the more problematic units. If you did nothing more than that, you’d have a lot less units falling from the sky, hitting you in the head and giving you a headache.

And, you would have a lot better bottom line. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

There’s a book out by Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton that has the perfect title for the automobile business, “It’s Not the Big that Eat the Small…It’s the Fast that Eat The Slow.”

Some new car dealers believe the definition of Velocity is:

“Velocity-a method of giving your cars away so as to impact your gross to a point of a substandard amount that will make you want to throw up your hands, beat yourself over the head, and barf.”

I have a new definition for the word velocity; the whipping boy of the auto industry that can be blamed when we use software pricing tools as the Bible, don’t use our brains and don’t use the tool as it was intended in the first place.

You can make one of two choices:

1. Hold high gross profit per unit.
2. Do lots of volume at a little lower gross.

Which way do you think is going to pile up the most gross to pay the bills at the end of the month?

Dealers have been known to complain that when they went on the velocity method of pricing their used cars to market, their grosses went south. Well duh, of course they did.

What actually happened is those dealers had let their inventories age on them and when they finally priced them to market they got crushed.

Software won’t save you. Having discipline and using your brain will save you. There will be pain unless you use your brain. I like that, “Pain, if you don’t use your brain.”

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs