The most misunderstood topic I discuss in my workshops are SETS & SUBSETS. For some dealers it’s not a good fit. For others it’s a great way to drive traffic.

I will be the first to agree SETS and SUBSETS are not for everybody. They are especially not for you if you haven’t solved a lot of your other used car issues.

I’m not going to try to sell you on SETS & SUBSETS, but I do want to show you that first, it’s not all that complicated and second, it’s something you’ve done with success in the past in one way or another.

SETS & SUBSETS are all about setting up a price leader to drive traffic to the store.

What’s so bad about that? Don’t you do that right now? I have to believe that in one way or another you do it with your new car business, so why not do it with used?

The lead or number 1 car is the most important car in the SET. You can do SETS in 2, 3, 4, or 5 car SETS. Experience has taught me that going deeper than 5 just confuses the issue and makes it much more difficult to manage.

If you had 5 similar cars and you wanted to advertise them as a group (you did this back in the program car days), wouldn’t it make sense to advertise the least desirable of the 5 as a price leader in hopes of driving traffic to the other 4, or better yet, to your store?

The lead car is simply the least nice of the group. Make it safe, but don’t make it too pretty. This is not about bait and switch. It’s about the customers transferring themselves to another car in the SET or to one out on the perimeter.

The key to SETS is picking the right lead car. It needs to be desirable in the “public’s mind,” and most important is that it should be the latest model you can find for that SET.

Two of the biggest mistakes that dealers make are trying to make a profit on the lead car and picking too nice of a car to be the lead.

The lead car is a “loss leader.” More often than not the car that dealers pick to be a lead is really a number 2 car. A 2 car is a profit maker and one that you’ve fully reconditioned, so you would want to make sure you haven’t made it the lead.

If you want SETS to work, you have to advertise your lead car at what you have in it or less. If you try to make a profit on the lead car the traffic probably isn’t going to show up. The sole purpose of the lead car is to drive traffic to the dealership.

When done correctly one of three things will happen:

1. The customer shows up and buys the lead car.

2. The customers transfer themselves to the 2, 3, 4 or 5 car.

3. The customers buy something out on the perimeter.

The key is that the customers showed up on your lot today and you have a chance to sell them something.

So, there it is. SETS described in its simplest form. It’s not all that complicated or any great trickery with the consumer. You’re just advertising a price leader and giving the customers some other choices when they show up.

Might be a good fit for you. Might not. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Can I get an amen that it’s hard to find good technicians? Heck, can I get an amen that’s it hard to find technicians period?

I’m going to be more specific. How about used car technicians? Tough gig isn’t it?

Regardless of how you slice it and dice it there are only about 3 models to pick from when you think about how to get used vehicles through the mechanical shop.

1. Goes thru your regular shop, assign vehicles to technicians in the same rotation as a retail customer. Everybody in the shop works on your used vehicles. Works well for the shop, not so well for the used car department.

2. A separate used vehicle shop. Works much better for the used car department, but there can be issues with keeping the technicians busy when there is any kind of slow down with incoming used vehicle inventory. And, very difficult to do due to space restraints.

3. Within your regular shop you have separate used vehicle technicians that only work on used and a used vehicle service writer who coordinates their activity. Of the three choices, given the issue of facilities and staffing this is the one that has the most potential to create efficiency and harmony.

The major problem when service managers think about having someone dedicated to working on used is they don’t want to pay them what they are worth.

There are many reasons for this and one of them of course is the service manager doesn’t want to upset the top “franchise” technicians in the shop by paying the used vehicle technicians at the top level.

And even more to the point, they have been taught very well that they must keep their cost of sale in line in order to make a profit and for their numbers to look good to upper management.

The reality is a good used vehicle technician needs to be one of the highest paid technicians in your shop. A good used vehicle technician’s skill level has to be equal or greater than whoever your top dog might be. And, you need to pay them as such.

So, if you’re mentally fighting with the cost of sale thing, let me suggest that you can keep your cost of sale in line for service and let the used vehicle department participate in some of the additional compensation required to get and maintain top level used vehicle technicians.

It might be an incentive that’s paid based on some formula that in the end compensates the used vehicle technician for what they are really worth, not for what the shop thinks it can afford.

Paying more is not always the answer. But, paying people what they are worth is far better and a lot more productive than paying them what the shop thinks it can afford.

If you can improve your speed and efficiency it’s money well spent. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Can you believe it? The year is half over. Time really does fly doesn’t it?

How was your June? How have your first six months been? It’s July. Half the year is gone. Kinda scary isn’t it?

Some of you have had a great first half. Some of you, not so much.

Some of you have been running full speed ahead. Some of you have been dragging through the sand.

Something has been holding you back. There may be some legitimate excuses, but maybe you just had the wrong plan in place. Just because you had the wrong plan does not mean it’s too late to fix it. You’ve still got 6 more months to go.

Those of you who have had a good first 6 months need to be cautious of becoming complacent. Even though things have been going well, you would be very smart to review how you can make things better as you tackle the second half.

Everything we do is about choices. You can choose to let things be as they are or you can choose to dial it up a notch or two.

To do so means to review your plan and the strategies you have in place. And, make the changes that are necessary to get you where you know you need to go.

Your other choice is to do nothing. Go sit in your office and stare at the wall. Enjoy your seat and pretty soon it will be over.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Make a list and attack your 10 most expensive units every day. With one exception, make sure they are priced really, really right. The one exception is if you know you always make money on a unit that’s on the list then use some common sense, don’t give it away.

Consider putting bonus money on those 10 units regardless of the number of days they have been in stock. Sooner rather than later. Most dealers bonus their sales staff when the units have aged. Do it early, you will be much better off.

Make sure the service manager gets a copy of the list every day. If one of those units happens to be in the service department, the service manager has to understand they must get it out of the shop in a hurry because it’s one of your 10 most expensive units.

Also give copies to the sales managers and F&I managers every day. The entire team needs to have top of mind awareness that these vehicles need to go.

In many cases your top ten most expensive are also some of your oldest units in stock. Duh…that’s because there are fewer butts that can fit in those seats. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

A number of months ago, I wrote an article comparing constipation to aged inventory, or to be more clear, those units over 60 days old.

When you’re constipated, it’s virtually impossible to be as productive as you might otherwise be. Having units over 60 days is the same as being constipated.

Exercise, drinking lots of water and in some really bad cases taking a strong laxative can often relieve the problem and get you back on your “A Game.” You can never perform your best when you’re all stopped up.

Until you get the water out of your used car inventory you will never be but so good. You will have a few good months, but unless you commit to a good diet of solid processes you will always struggle.

One of the best ways to fix the problem is to reappraise the entire inventory, extract the water, give each unit a new birthday and put in my “Life Cycle Management Process.”

As long as you have aged units aging, then you’re going to have a lot of water. When you have lots of water, the more the sales people will walk around the aged units.

They don’t want to sell a unit they can’t make any money on. Believe it or not, the managers don’t want to sell them either. They would much rather sell something that they can make some gross on. This isn’t rocket science.

Here’s the tip of the day. If you ever decide to write your inventory down, you have to change your overall strategy of how you’re going to manage your used car department moving forward. It does little or no good to write down your inventory and go back to your stinky old ways.

Constipation is fixable. Aged inventory is fixable. When you fix it, you feel better. When you feel better, you make more money. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs