Welcome to this week’s episode of Used Cars Weekly, the original CBT News show dedicated to bringing car dealers best practices and tips for the used car department, in-depth dealer interviews, hands-on dealership strategies, and vendor analysis. Today, host Jasen Rice, founder of Lotpop, discusses how pricing affects your used car volume in sales.
Years ago, Rice was visiting a Ford store and got into a debate with the used car manager about how car buyers consider price when making a purchase. The manager said a customer study by Ford found that price ranked 15th on the list of the important factors when buying a car. Rice says that if the customers were surveyed after the purchase, then price ranking 15th is believable. However, as consumers shop online ahead of their purchase, price, equipment, and features are the top customers’ minds.
Once a customer determines what car they will buy and start discussing interest rates and trade-in values with a staff member, price becomes less important. But price was the indicator as they were shopping. Price doesn’t sell cars, but it sells your traffic, explains Rice. Car dealers don’t want the volume of leads to drop off. If you don’t start adjusting your pricing to keep your volume going, you will end up with an aging problem in the future, especially if the market starts slowing down more.
So, watch your pricing because it does dictate your leads, says Rice. If leads are slowing down, reflect on your pricing and keep your inventory moving.
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