In this vAuto podcast, Mike Boyd, director of business development for vAuto iRecon and Micah Tindor, senior director at Kelley Blue Book® Instant Cash Offer, discuss take-aways from their recent Digital Dealer workshops. The conversation covers how customer emotions and expectations should shape the processes dealers use to acquire more inventory from customers across different sourcing channels. Mike and Micah share the reasons they believe dealers should use sales associates rather than managers to lead engagements with customers interested in selling their vehicles, and why a “hit low and walk down” strategy for appraisal offers no longer works. In addition, they discuss how dealers should align compensation plans to drive behaviors that build transparency and trust in the appraisal/acquisition process, ensure collaborative assessments of a vehicle’s condition and provide an positive experience that leads to profitable vehicle acquisitions and happy customers.

In our third "Straight from the Source" podcast episode, Micah Tindor, Sr. Director, Kelley Blue Book® Instant Cash Offer has a conversation with Glenn Carroll Dealer Principal, Custom Cars West. Glenn shares how he and his team about their acquisition anywhere strategy and their successes.

In our second “Straight from the Source” podcast episode, Micah Tindor, Sr. Director, Kelley Blue Book® Instant Cash Offer has a conversation with Jonathan Hakes, Used Vehicle Director at Bob Johnson Auto Group.

Jonathan shares how he and his team use tools and data and a consistent processes to build customer confidence and to win the right vehicles.

In our first “Straight from the Source” podcast episode, Micah Tindor, Sr. Director, Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer has a conversation with Bill Brauer, Pre-Owned Director and Wholesale Manager at Morristown Motors Inc.

Bill shares how his dealership has been using a more cost-effective way to acquire vehicles despite ongoing market challenges. Brauer also shares the successes his dealership has been having when it comes to their appraisal process and why transparency is key when meeting with a customer.

In this vAuto podcast episode, Mike Boyd, director of business development for vAuto, and Brian Kramer, general manager of Germain Toyota of Naples (FL), discuss how today’s customer-minded appraisals have evolved considerably in recent years. Brian shares how he’s refined his appraisal process to focus on the customer’s experience and satisfaction as much as the car’s condition and value. Brian details how the journey has enabled sales associates to handle appraisals and paved the way for acquiring all used vehicle inventory through trade-ins, the service lane and directly from customers. The episode wraps up with Brian sharing the priorities he’ll pursue to close out a successful 2021.

In this vAuto podcast episode, Randy Kobat, vice president of operations for vAuto, and Dale Pollak, founder of vAuto, offer a sneak preview of dealer-focused sessions offered by vAuto at the upcoming Cox Automotive Fall Expo User Summit. Hear how the sessions will help you diversify your used vehicle sourcing and manage used vehicle inventory as investments, as well as perspectives from Dale on recent market changes and how they’ll shape the closing months of 2021.

In this vAuto podcast episode, Brian Finkelmeyer, Senior Director of Business Operations at vAuto, reveals why he believes the current, reduced dealer days supply of new vehicles is here to stay. Brian explains how this new normal is changing when dealers retail new cars to optimize sales despite smaller inventories. Next, Brian outlines how dealers should manage and mine their new vehicle sales efficiency rates to get the most from their OEM allocations.

In this vAuto Podcast Dealer Voices episode, host Randy Kobat and Gary Wexler, general manager of Honda of Downtown Chicago, discuss the dealership’s decision to move to an investment value-based strategy for managing used vehicles and the positive changes that resulted. Wexler also shares how he and his team have put a greater emphasis on acquiring customer vehicles to feed their used vehicle inventories and the steps they’ve taken to bring more accountability, collaboration and efficiency to their used vehicle reconditioning process.

In this vAuto podcast episode, Nathan Fox, Senior Director of Business Development at vAuto, discusses changing car shopper preferences and their impact on the ways dealers merchandise vehicles. Nathan shares how more immersive, transparent content helps dealers capture shopper interest and drive the vehicle buying decisions that increasingly occur online. Nathan also details how new technology helps dealers efficiently reshape their online merchandising strategies to provide the confidence that customers require to earn their business.

In this vAuto Podcast episode, Patrick Janes, director of business development for vAuto’s Stockwave solution, shares strategies dealers and used vehicle managers can use to find acquisition opportunities as the wholesale values adjust to more normal conditions. Patrick shares how dealers can use technology and tools to identify sellers with high no-sale rates are selling their cars and lean on local market data to fine-tune their acquisition strategies to source higher-cost cars that offer less risk in the retail market. Patrick also outlines an approach for dealers to right-size their acquisitions to ensure their used vehicle inventories complement incoming new vehicle inventory when it arrives from manufacturers.