Every dealership has a process for selling cars and managing people. Top leaders get more out of those processes by starting with the attitude and energy they bring each day. On today’s edition of CBT Live, David J. Long, President of David J. Long Coaching, discusses his new book, Step Zero, which releases Sept. 28, and shares the used car formula he’s using with dealer clients heading into the fourth quarter.
According to Long, success depends less on process and structure than on the framework that comes before them. He said that realization came to him 25 years ago and shaped his results in business and at home.
Long’s focus on emotional awareness grew out of his own history, which he writes about openly in the book. He mentions that he lost a brother to suicide and attempted the same as a younger man, but says that recovery came as he identified the areas he needed to develop, with a lot of help. Learning early to read dysfunction made him better at sensing when someone on his team needed support.
On the used-car side, Long coaches 62 dealers, a third of them specifically on used-car operations. His 10-5-3-1 process is built to eliminate aged inventory by giving every vehicle its own expiration date. Most stores stamp every unit with 60 days, get nervous at 45 and panic at 58, he said. Some vehicles reach their real expiration at 23 days and lose money while they sit.
Long recommends maintaining a 25-day supply of vehicles, ensuring none are older than 45 days. He states that a dealership with 75 used cars should be selling between 100 and 125 vehicles monthly. According to Long, FTC investigations haven’t impacted sales for dealers who consistently follow the rules. For these honest dealers, it creates a fairer competitive environment.
