Today on CBT News, anchor Jim Fitzpatrick is joined by Dennis McGinn, CEO of Rapid Recon, and Dan Kommeth, director of sales for Kenwood Dealer Group. Established in 2010, Rapid Recon is trusted by over 2,000 dealerships for improved vehicle reconditioning and dealership profitability. McGinn has worked with countless dealers over the years by helping them sell cars quicker. Today, McGinn and Kommeth discuss dialing in the vehicle reconditioning time-to-line and what that means for Kenwood’s Toyota dealership.
Like a lot of other dealers out there today, Kommeth says that sales at Kenwood Dealer Group rebounded quickly from the impact of COVID-19. However, the group is still experiencing inventory issues as their manufacturing partners try to scale up their production efforts. In light of this, the sweet spot for Kenwood Dealer Group has been pre-owned sales.
This boom in used car sales is precisely why Kenwood decided to partner with Rapid Recon. The group’s largest Toyota store has anywhere between 400 – 500 used cars in stock at any given time. Getting those cars front-line ready in an efficient time frame was a big struggle for the Toyota store, and they needed a solution to move this inventory faster and retain more gross.
After implementing the Rapid Recon software, Kommeth found that their throughput increased dramatically. It was imperative for the dealership to turn their inventory quickly while the market was hot.
According to McGinn, the biggest impact the pandemic has had on automotive retail, is the scarcity of inventory. Through this, dealers have figured out that behind-the-line and gross-per-car are now attached at the hip. While the management team at Kenwood’s King’s Toyota dealership thought their reconditioning pace was on-track, Kommeth knew better. He knew that the team would be in for an awakening once the first Rapid Recon report came back. The key, according to Kommeth, is not to panic. The first report is a jumping-off point to start honing in on the time-to-line.
McGinn and the Rapid Recon team move very fast in implementing their software solution at the dealership level. They understand how critical it is for dealers to start making adjustments to their recon process based on the software analysis. According to McGinn, dealers never have to wait more than a week to be up and running with Rapid Recon.
However, it is important for Rapid Recon and the dealer to set everything up correctly and precisely. In order to hold your reconditioning team accountable, there has to be a solid foundation in place. To learn more about Rapid Recon, visit them at https://www.rapidrecon.com/.
