Used Car Stock Acquisition 101!,,,,,
The Right Professionals Will Take Your Business Further Than Good Tech!
As I now come to the last of the articles expanding upon the original list of used car stock acquisition “One Liners” and “Golden Rules;” those originally outlined in the article below, written for my Used Car Business Development Blog;
I thought it important to discuss one of the most pressing issues of our time. The over reliance on technology and the lack of understanding, regarding the role that successful and experienced professionals will play in securing your future; especially when it comes to securing the used car stock holdings required, in order to succeed in the used car markets to come.
Let’s get one thing straight though, the “Right” technology is important to the successful used car stock acquisitions business and professional, but not in the way most imagine, or is being currently utilised by the many. Tech is just like any other tool, a hammer for example; it has to be used by the right professionals and in the right way. A hammer is excellent for hammering in nails, whereas a screwdriver isn’t, however, when it comes to tightening a screw; well it’s the hammer that is useless, and in anyone‘s hands.
To fully understand this we need to understand what tech is required and how it is then utilised to bring effective scale and leverage to the successful used car stock acquisitions business and/or professional. Everything the successful used car stock acquisition campaign and business does, every initiative deployed and every piece of technology being used, should be designed to provide more opportunities for the right professionals to then go on and bring them to a successful conclusion. It should never be used to close the purchase agreement!
In delivery, successful used car stock acquisition is a people business, not a tech or a car business; so tech should never be used as the “Close” because all technology can do at this stage is offer someone a price, therefore making the whole transaction about price. For sure you can run this business at scale, this is what We Buy Any Car do, but all this will ensure is that you acquire the most “expensive” used car stock holdings; when what you need is the most “profitable” used car stock holdings.
The relationships you require in order to be successful in purchasing retail used car stock holdings cannot be secured via technology, but technology can be used in the process of building trust and obligation with targeted markets for used car stock acquisition; generating the opportunities to acquire used car stock that successful used car stock acquisition professionals can then bring to a successful conclusion.
And when I say successful used car stock acquisitions professionals, I’m talking about professionals the trade as a whole doesn’t know, because they aren’t seen at the auctions or purchasing used car stock in the “Just in Time” market; the market where 95% of businesses are acquiring used car stock. They are the professionals whose Raison D’etre is to never pay market value for used car stock; then also knowing what is required to succeed in this regard.
These are the professionals who know what is required to secure the stock holdings you have already supplied (locking them into returning to the business and therefore out of reach of competitors) and then go on to target the cars supplied by their fellow franchise dealers; an ability that will determine the winners and the losers in the used car markets looming on the horizon.
Now I appreciate that for 95% of those reading this, the initiatives mentioned above are fanciful; I experience this a lot, and sadly I can’t (so don’t) work with hostages. For the remaining 5%, those curious, ambitious, capable of opening their minds and taking their strategic used car business development thinking on the journey required, I would say this.
In the used car markets to come, those with used car vehicle parks of 680,000 less vehicles, (in terms of available stock), my question would be; how well set up is your business to survive?
In truth the vast majority aren’t. It is the inconvenient truth of our times that you can have the best people and operational procedures imaginable, but if you don’t have the professionals required to secure used car stock holdings in the volumes and at the prices required to remain profitable? Well it is all going to be for nothing.
I have observed how the used car stock acquisition landscape has evolved during the last 12-24 months and I promise the vast majority reading this, you will not be ready for how the acquisitions landscape has evolved. To the point where (as mentioned above) all those relying on the used car stock acquisition initiatives and skills of the recent past, will be left floundering.
For these businesses, those reactionary businesses still only purchasing stock on a hand to mouth basis and in the moment, (the “Just In Time” market), it will become a challenge to acquire used car stock at the prices (and in the volumes) that ensure your business remains profitable.
But there are others, albeit very few, those who (like me) spent the lock downs monitoring the market and rewriting previously very successful programmes of used car stock acquisition, from the ground floor up, in order to develop the programmes and initiatives required to ensure that used car stock holdings are being secured for future markets right now. And via campaigns and initiatives that will leave the competition with years of work to catch up; even if they can find the skills required already within the four walls of their business?
The used car stock acquisition skills now required to secure success can’t be taught via any training programme, it is too fast moving a discipline and covering too vast an array of skills-sets. So in reality successful used car stock acquisition now necessitates an environment of strategic alliances via commercial arrangements. The market value of the skills involved would also make it too financially restrictive to employ genuinely successful used car stock acquisition professionals; there are too few of us, so for the moment those days are gone.
That said I am working with two businesses, building and delivering the used car stock acquisition programmes they require; having made a commitment to work with three at all times. So for those grasping the seriousness of their current situation and wanting to take immediate action, I will be working with another business over the next 12 months, in order to deliver the used car stock acquisition expertise and initiatives required, for that business to survive and prosper in the used car market to come.
Should you wish to explore synergies and the potential to collaborate in this regard, please do not hesitate to contact me via LinkedIn, so we can arrange a mutually convenient time for an exploratory call.
Those wishing to read the previous articles in this series of articles covering used car stock acquisition principles and best practice, will find them on my Used Car Business Development Blog; or by following the individual links below.
Andrew.
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