Growing and scaling new car sales at a single-point dealership in a small, rural town is often pressured by factory allocations and natural demand constraints.
Rob Dell, vice president of Bob Ruth Ford, understands this first-hand.
"Could we go from 50 new to 300 new next year? That would be a difficult test," Dell, vice president of Bob Ruth Ford, told Daily Dealer Live hosts Sam D'Arc and Uli de' Martino. "Could you go from 200 used to 300 used? Yeah, you could do that. There's just a lot more control."
Driving the news: Bob Ruth Ford reinvested time, money, and resources into becoming a used car acquisition machine. His store now moves over 300 used cars every month, a 50% jump over the past four years.
How it started: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bob Ruth Ford dumped their used car inventory thinking values would drop.
But they went straight up instead.
With no inventory to sell and no way to get more, Dell bought three cars directly from the public.
From there, Bob Ruth Ford’s first buy-center was born.
For context: A dealership buy center is a dedicated part of the business that exclusively purchases used cars directly from the public.
Typically, these cars are in better condition and can be acquired for less than wholesale auctions, which include added “all-in” costs.
Today, Bob Ruth Ford runs with six buy center reps, managers who oversee them, and 20 drivers picking up cars within a 300-mile radius.
Sounds like a win-win. However, buy centers are notoriously tough to execute well, which is why many dealers opt out.
The problem: Dell compared buy center operations to gambling at a casino. Three people sit down. One player bets $25, one plays $500, and the high roller puts down $10,000.
It all depends on everyone at the dealership understanding which game they’re playing.
“I've bought stolen cars. I've bought fraudulent cars. We're going to get burnt, but you got to look at it in the grand scheme of things,” he said.
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The playbook: Dell's team targets Facebook Marketplace, going after inventory other dealers ignore.
"We prefer to fish where other people don't fish," Dell said.
And they'll buy anything as long as the data supports it.
When a car arrives, it gets photographed immediately and goes online to generate leads. Then it moves through recon for five to ten days, and sells in about 19 days.
The store uses vAuto for inventory management, VinCue for merchandising, and Google Sheets for tracking buy center appraisals and coordinating the team.
"From the reps to the appraisers—who's numbering the car—it's just simple to funnel everybody into one platform," Dell said. "At any point in time, if somebody sends me a text and says, 'Hey, we have 40 cars we need to appraise,' I can hop in and see where I need to go."
Between the lines: Dell’s primary concern is growing the number of appraisals. Of course, the conversion rate is important too, but more appraisals means more VIN data and more opportunities to remarket to those customers for various services.
The results: Dell's year-over-year used car sales volume is projected to rise by 30 to 35%, but only because employee buy-in is strong.
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