What dealerships should be doing to finish strong in the last half of 2021

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, as well as vendor analysis. Today, host Jasen Rice, founder of Lotpop, is joined by Tim Scoutelas, Director of Strategic Accounts of MAX Digital. Scoutelas joins the show to discuss what dealerships should be focusing on for the last half of the year.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak last year, many car dealers had to figure out how to survive. Now they are thriving and making big advancements. Scoutelas says, one of their most pressing issues, is getting better at buying cars directly from the customers.

Scoutelas says car dealers who do business in the wholesale market are experiencing fluctuations week to week, of cars going up and down. Retail customers don’t know their car is worth a lot of money right now. In the short term, car dealers need to source as many cars as they can from the street, while supplementing with ones from the auctions. Long term, this could be a shift in the way they acquire used vehicles in the future.

Digital retailing or the online process, removes a lot of friction. With an omnichannel strategy, car dealers able to go at the pace of the customer. Scoutelas wonders, what will that mean for inventory as a whole. Certification is going to be the new negotiation.

Scoutelas always believed June was overrated. He believes this year is no different. Things car dealers can’t control are coming into play. We’re back to normal trends but units are so expensive, Scoutleas believe that’s where the fear lies. Scoutleas is encouraging car dealers to manage their inventory like normal. He says the good news is, we’re going to be able to see a dip this upcoming Fall but you shouldn’t worry.

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