The short answer: Most of the margin compression dealers are feeling this fall is self-inflicted. It is not the wholesale market softening or the seasonal dip in shopper counts. It is fresh leads on fresh inventory going untouched. On this week's LotTalk we pulled a real store's CRM: 222 active leads on in-stock used cars, 78 of them on units in their first 30 days, and 31 of those on cars priced at 102% of market in a store that sells at 98%. Average front-end potential on those first-30 opportunities was $2,380 a copy. Average time since anyone called, texted, or emailed those customers: three days. That gap, not the market, is where the gross went.
By Chris Keene, Coach at Lotpop and co-host of the LotTalk podcast. Chris has spent decades on dealership floors and now works with dealers across the U.S. and Canada on lead process, pricing, and the daily habits that protect gross. Connect with Chris on LinkedIn.
What Is Actually Happening in the Used Car Market Right Now?
Let's get the headlines out of the way, because they are what everybody wants to blame. Cox Automotive's Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index cooled off its summer peak in August, up 4.4% year over year but down 0.9% from July. Depreciation ran hot through July and early August, then slowed late in the month. Retail days to turn fell to 44, and used retail prices kept climbing, with the average used car now a little over $27,000, a four-year high. Meanwhile dealers keep telling us the same thing: it is still hard to source affordable inventory under $15,000, which is exactly the segment budget shoppers are chasing.
So yes, wholesale is softening, we are in September, and the shopper index is down from July. Seasonality is here. What I will dispute, on a call full of industry pros if I have to, is the idea that the market is what's compressing your margins. We look at data across every kind of dealer in every kind of market, U.S. and Canada, every week. The pattern is the same store after store: the gross is sitting in the CRM and nobody is picking it up.
One more piece of context. Carvana just posted another record quarter, up 38% year over year with revenue up 52%, and their focus now is rolling out same-day delivery in every market. I am not telling you to be Carvana. I am telling you they are setting the expectation your customer walks in with. John Anderson lives where the nearest Walmart is a 45-minute drive, and he can order something on his phone this morning and have it on his porch this afternoon. Your customer three miles from your store expects at least that much convenience from you. And that customer, according to the study repeated in July and August of this year, sends out 12 to 15 leads when they enter the market. Every lead you sit on for three days is a customer 11 to 14 other dealers are talking to.
What Is Self-Inflicted Margin Compression?
Self-inflicted margin compression is the loss of front-end gross that comes from a dealership's own process gaps rather than from market conditions. The most common version looks like this: customers submit leads on fresh, correctly priced inventory, the store fails to follow up with any urgency, the customer buys elsewhere or waits, and the car ages into a bucket where the dealer has to cut price to move it. The market did not take that gross. The store gave it away by not working the opportunity while it was still worth working.
Renaldo Leonard summed it up on the episode when I showed him the numbers: "When you talk about self-inflicted, there's no better definition." The data is the data. It is your data. And when a dealer looks at their own CRM and says "something must be wrong with the data," that is usually the moment they stop being able to act on it.
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What Does the Data Say About Your Fresh Leads?
Here is the store I walked through on the show. This is not an ad for our product; you can build the same view out of your own CRM and inventory tool, and I will show you how below. This is a decent-sized dealer with 244 used cars on the ground.
- 222 active opportunities on vehicles that are still in stock. Not dead leads. Not sold units. Live customers on live cars.
- 78 of those 222 are on inventory in the first 30 days of its life, spread across 41 units. Average age of that inventory: 20 days. Average age of the leads: eight days. Average front-end profit potential: $2,380 a copy.
- 31 of the 78 are on units priced at 102% of market. The store sells at 98%. So these customers raised their hand four points above where the dealer has been closing deals. That is not a lack of interest, and nobody inquires on a car they believe is outside their budget.
- Average contact gap on those 31 hand-raisers: three days. No call, no text, no email. On fresh leads. On the highest-gross opportunities in the building.
- Ten of those opportunities have trade-ins: an '18 F-150, an '06 Odyssey, a '13 Tahoe, a '15 Lexus, a '19 Acadia, a '17 and a '19 Silverado. That is the sub-$15,000 inventory everybody says they cannot find at auction, and it is sitting in the CRM attached to leads nobody has called.
- Average asking price on the fresh-lead units: $35,900. A few weeks ago on this show we talked about $35,000-and-up inventory getting stagnant. This store has fresh leads on it. They just are not being worked.
Then Renaldo asked the question that made the whole thing click. What happens to the contact gap when you look at the entire pool of 222, not just the fresh ones? It drops to two and a half days. Read that again. The store is doing a better job reaching out to customers on the older, deeper-discounted cars that make the least profit, and a worse job on the fresh units with $2,380 in front-end potential. That is the whole picture of self-inflicted margin compression in one number.
You've got people ringing your doorstep in your digital dealership on $35,000 vehicles, fresh leads in the last eight days, and you haven't picked up the phone in an average of three days. Whose fault is it that your margins are compressing? It's not the market.
And this store is not slow. On opportunities tied to a used car stock number alone, they average 11 digital ups a day across a 30-day month. Some stores do not get 11 ups a week at the brick and mortar. This one gets 11 a day online while the sales team sits out front figuring out lunch.
Why Do Salespeople Work the Wrong Leads?
Three reasons, and none of them are laziness.
The path of least resistance. Renaldo spent the morning before we recorded on a call with a dealer partner, and what he came away with is that salespeople reach for the customers who push back the least. A car that is later in its cycle and priced closer to the bone does not require a value conversation. A fresh unit at 102% of market does. Same amount of effort to work either one; only one of them requires the salesperson to demonstrate value and protect gross. So the fresh lead sits, and the salesperson works twice as hard for a $700 front-end loss instead of a $2,500 front-end gross.
The task list is drowning the priority. Most salespeople are paid on performance, and then we hand them 60 active leads plus a CRM full of birthday calls, anniversary follow-ups, and service check-ins before they have made a single contact that could produce an appointment today. None of that is unimportant. But when a rep grinds through it and has nothing to show by 10 a.m., they check out. Any business coach will tell you to attack the hardest thing first. The hardest thing is the fresh lead on the $35,000 car. That is what the first hour should be.
Nobody taught them to read a lead. Somewhere along the line the industry decided a lead older than two weeks has "fallen off" and can be dumped into an automated seven-day drip. Retail turn is 44 days. My own vehicle got totaled last year; I started inquiring immediately, spent three weeks fighting the insurance company, two more waiting on funds, and bought eight weeks after my first lead. That is an everyday customer, and we give up on them at day 14 because they did not answer "Yes, it's still available, what time can you be here?" The other eight dealers out of those 12 submissions sent the same message. There is no reason to hurry. A real needs analysis is the fix. SPACED stands for Safety, Performance, Appearance, Comfort, Economy, and Dependability. If the lead came in from Carfax, that customer cares about dependability and safety. Talk about that. Give them a reason to respond that eight other stores did not.
The Fresh-Lead Priority Worksheet
The one-page exercise from this episode: pull your active leads, isolate the ones sitting on first-30 inventory, log the contact gap and gross potential on each, and run the daily cadence with a manager inspection built in. Print it and use it tomorrow morning.
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What Do These Terms Mean?
What is first-30 inventory?
First-30 inventory is any used unit in the first 30 days of its life on your lot. It is the bucket where cars sell fastest and at the highest gross, and Lotpop's coaching benchmark is to pull 65% or more of your monthly used sales out of it. Leads on first-30 inventory are the most valuable opportunities in your CRM because the unit still has its full margin and the customer is still fresh. More on why the first 30 days decide your gross.
What is a contact gap?
Contact gap is the number of days since a dealership last attempted to reach an active lead by phone, text, email, or video. Lotpop measures it per opportunity and per age bucket. On leads tied to first-30 inventory the target is zero: a daily attempt for as long as the unit stays in that bucket, until the customer sets an appointment or tells you to stop.
What is a hand-raiser lead?
A hand-raiser is a customer who submitted an inquiry on a specific unit at its current asking price. When that unit is priced above the store's average selling price to market, the customer has told you they are willing to pay more than you typically close at. Those leads should be worked before anything else in the CRM.
What is the SPACED needs analysis?
SPACED is a needs-analysis framework: Safety, Performance, Appearance, Comfort, Economy, Dependability. Salespeople use it to figure out which one or two of those six things matter most to a customer, then build every follow-up around them. Read the lead source and the vehicle to guess the priority, then confirm it in the first conversation.
What Should a Manager Do Monday Morning?
Here is the exercise, and it takes about 30 minutes with your CRM and your inventory tool open side by side.
- Pull every active lead out of your CRM. Active means the customer is still engaged and the vehicle they inquired on is still in stock.
- Match each lead to the stock number and the unit's age. Then filter to leads on inventory that is 30 days old or less. That is your priority list. Everything else waits until this list is worked.
- Add price to market and profit potential to each line. Sort by potential, highest first. The 102%-of-market hand-raisers go to the top.
- Log the contact gap on every one. If it is more than one day on a first-30 unit, that is the first call of the morning, before birthday calls, before service follow-ups, before anything.
- Set the cadence and inspect it daily. Renaldo's standard with dealer partners is simple: as long as a unit is in the 30-day bucket, every lead on it gets a call, a text, an email, or a video every single day. Then the manager checks it every single day. Not "we're all busy." That list is your pipeline. If you do not attack it today, you will not be busy tomorrow.
Two more things. First, if you cannot find $15,000 cars at auction, stop chasing the car and start chasing the opportunity that produces the car. A $25,000 or $30,000 auction unit is not a profit driver on its own; it is market share, fixed ops, F&I, and trade bait. Every fresh $35,000 lead with a trade attached is your sub-$15,000 inventory walking in the door, but only if the conversation happens, and lead-to-trade conversion at most stores is sitting around 10 to 12%. Here is how to build sourcing around that.
Second, for owners and GMs: do not be the leader who says "do this." Be the leader who says "do this, here is how, and I am checking it tomorrow." When somebody is not getting it, coach them up. Call their customer in front of them. And do not just send your people to learn this. You go learn it. You are the leader of the store. This guide on fixing lead tracking and this one on spotting lead leakage are good places to start.
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The Bottom Line
Stop listening to the press releases and go look at your own store, your own market, and your own people. The market is softer on the wholesale side and shopper counts are down for the season. Neither one is calling your customers for you. The dealer in this episode has 78 fresh leads on fresh inventory, 31 of them at 102% of market, $2,380 a copy in front-end potential, and a three-day contact gap. If your numbers look anything like that, your margin compression is self-inflicted, and the fix costs nothing but a morning routine and a manager who inspects it.
Pull the list, work the first-30 leads first, contact them every day, and hold the team to it. If you want us to pull that list with you, book a free LotWalk demo and we will break your inventory and your leads down side by side. And if I am wrong about your store, I will come back on the show and say so.
Chris Keene: Here we are, folks. We are back. I saw the countdown this time. You are tuned back into LotTalk powered by Lotpop. I'm Chris Keene, one of the co-hosts, joined by Mr. Anderson. And hopefully, when Mr. Leonard gets done in the meeting he's in, be jumping on here shortly. Can't wait to welcome him back. We are thrilled. We are excited. We are fired up. We have so much. John. We have been absorbing so much over these last several weeks throughout all these market shifts and seasonalities and things that are coming. I'm loving the season we're in. I can't wait because there's so much news out there, John. Right now about seasonality change. my gosh, margins are compressing. my gosh, volume is down. my gosh, rates are up. But we got some stuff for him today, John. We got some stuff that's going to show you how to combat it. How do you Combat the seasonality change, the margin compression. And I'll go ahead and give you a little sneak peek or a little teaser, folks. The mass majority of the problem you're seeing is I'm gonna get your business. It's self-inflicted. So, with that being said, now that I just spilt all the coffee all over the place and maybe pissed some people off.
John Anderson: Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to the podcast.
Chris Keene: Welcome to the show. John, we were looking over some stuff that's going on in the industry around some of those things that I just talked about. Share with our viewers, share with the listeners, share with them some things that we're looking at and we're helping our industry fight right now.
John Anderson: You know, one thing is in one thing is interesting to me is I every week that we prepare for this, most of the time I think Brett needs to secretly hit record in the background 'cause we have a we have a whole podcast before we get on to podcast. and I think
Chris Keene: If viewers and listeners know that we're busy throughout the week, so we don't get much time to prepare. And we try not to have it scripted, but we do look at topics. But to John's point, it's about 20 minutes worth of talk before we get on the show. So
John Anderson: Yeah, it w yeah, we I think it's important to both of us and I know Renaldo, hopefully when he joins us, we w this is we don't this is important to us. We don't we don't look at this flippantly. We we try to we try to bring real Yeah, I think the advantage we have is the amount of the amount of data that we look at on a weekly basis across every market with every type of dealer. even in the Canadian market. so, w we're blessed that way, that we have a good broad spectrum. And so what we try to do each week here is bring things to the table that we see across that spectrum that we feel like is something that you need to be aware of. and so You know, w we were talking this morning and just looking at some of the headlines out there. You know what's interesting where I was getting ready to go with this and then of course I sidetracked myself is every week I pull this up, I see where it says that the wholesale side of things is softening. And I and I don't I don't I because I I looked at the notes that you sent me and I'm comparing to the notes I have and both of them are the same thing. It just showing where in the Mannheim index cooled off for the summer peak. used car value index landed at two eight in August, up four point four percent year over year, but down point nine percent from July. Depreciation had been running hotter in July and early August, then decelerated late in the month, retail days fell to forty-four days, down two days from July, while used retail kept pricing up through the month. So keep talking about softening on the wholesale side. And I know Chris, you and I Chris, you're famous for saying and we both do, is right, we're not in the wholesale business. We're in the retail business, right? But but I but though those two markets tend to follow each other. So I I'm just interested when I see When I see it says it's softening. And in the meantime, the average price on used cars just hit a four year high, a little over twenty-seven thousand dollars. so even more challenging for dealers is that sub fifteen grand, sub twenty grand inventory that most customers are the higher percentage of customers are really searching to find, right? And so, what are some of the things that as a as a dealership that we can be doing to try to find more of that inventory, right? Are we are we working our service drive? here's one thing that I know I see a lot of is specifically for that 15 grand an undercar. I see a lot of dealers that think those cars have too many problems to keep around and they push them quickly. Right. And so, is that something is that something we're doing as a dealership where we're we're not here, what we just talked about, right? Am I looking at am I looking if I know that market so here, the dealers keep saying it's still hard to source affordable inventory under fifteen grand, which is exactly the segment budget shoppers are chasing. So if I know that fifteen grand and under segment is a strong segment that a lot of buyers are chasing, right? And if I if I know that and I'm and I'm limited on that, right, to what we say, Chris, am I looking at that from a wholesale perspective or am I looking at that from a retail perspective? Because depending on how I'm looking at that, could change the drastically the amount of inventory I can acquire in that space. Would you agree with that statement?
Chris Keene: Million percent, but in that same vein, too. Okay, to expand upon it. And if you were going to expand upon it, my apologies. But you talk about the wholesale market, or you were reading off about how the wholesale market's down right now. Okay. Listeners and viewers, think about what Anderson just shared there. The wholesale market coming down. There's the legend.
John Anderson: There's the man. There's the man. What's
Chris Keene: Back in action.
John Anderson: Up? What's up?
Renaldo Leonard: Hard work, clean living, my man. How you doing? Yeah. Good to see you, brother. Yeah, thank you. Good to see you.
John Anderson: There you go, brother. Good to see you, my friend.
Chris Keene: Hey, good to have you back, my brother. So, John, you talk about the wholesale market being down. Okay. And I 100% agree with that. Cox Automotive shared that. And the data we look at as well through Blackbook also shows that. So, listeners and viewers, think about what he's talking about there. If the demand is still there for that $15,000 vehicle, now you may be sitting there going, Chris, I'll take all that you can give me. You're right. But you're not gonna go if you're a franchise dealership. You're not going to the auction chasing down. fifteen thousand dollar vehicles, it really is chasing down a twelve thousand dollar vehicle that you sell fifteen grand after you transport it and recon it and things of that nature, you you're not you're not chasing that car down. But what you can do Is change your outlook, change your perspective. Everybody bitches, moans, and complains and tries to find this beautiful window of when to buy cars at the auction. A $25,000 car is still a $25,000 car. No matter if I trade for the car, I buy it off the street, or I buy it at the auction. The only variable difference in there is your cost of ownership because of your buy fee, your PSI, your transportation. But it's still a $25,000 car. How about we change the lens out? How about we change our goggles out and say, okay, I'm gonna go buy. That $25,000, $30,000 car at the auction. And I know from the jump. Those cars aren't designed to be profit drivers. They're designed for market share, fixed operations income, FI income, and trade bait. The more of that $25,000 car, $30,000 car you have, John, aren't we going to organically trade for that car that we could fill the need for the consumer?
John Anderson: As long as we're having those conversations with our customers.
Chris Keene: Okay, that's the whole other part of the conversation, John. And I told Renaldo before he jumped on, I said, Hey, buddy, I know you were on with one of our dealer partners, and the conversation we're gonna have today, you probably just spent the last hour and a half beating in their heads because of the conversation we had with ownership and the GMs of that group earlier in the week. So I can't wait to hear Renaldo's perspective on it when we turn the page to that. But because you were on the wholesale piece of it, John, dealers and shout out to one of our dealer partners out on the West Coast. we when we were all out, Brett, threw one of our awesome previous episodes out there, and it was it was around acquisition. Shout out to my guys out there at one of our dealer partners on the west coast. I'm sorry that I couldn't free my schedule up. I was in the field. I was out on site visits and there was just no way I could join the call with V Hill. But thank you not only for constantly watching this, but investing in your business to look at acquisition from a different standpoint. And John, really, that's that's the fire you just stirred in me. If the consumer public, there's demand for that 15 grand vehicle, don't go chase the vehicle. Chase the opportunity that produces the vehicle at a lower cost of ownership. So anyway, so back
John Anderson: Yep. Spot on.
Chris Keene: To the headlines there that you were going through.
John Anderson: Well and I think I w I just want to touch on this one just because I think it'll lead into the conversation we wanted to have today. and it's it's it's our we br we bring them up we bring them up a lot on this podcast, but there's reasons for it. Carvana, I posted new records. So year over year they're up thirty eight percent and their revenue is up fifty two percent. and what their focus operationally is, is they're expanding in all markets their same day delivery option. So think about that for a second. How far this is how far this has come now. Renaldo and Chris, how many times have we brought up Amazon on this call, on this podcast, right? And talked
Chris Keene: My gosh.
John Anderson: And talked about that model, right? And so, I think about when I first started buying on Amazon and for the most part it would take a couple days but now for the most part if i if i order something on amazon it's typically there a lot of times in the afternoon if i get on in the morning it's there in the afternoon but very rarely does it go past a day and right
Chris Keene: Same day delivery. Is that is that what you just said? Same day delivery?
John Anderson: Right and so think about and i don't want i know we have a an area of conversation we want go into today, but I viewers and listeners, keep that in the back of your mind as we get into this today because this jumped off the page at me that n they're expanding. Now their focus, now that they've posted these numbers and they're up dramatically, right? Now their focus is to go to that next level and give a service level that says, Hey, you want a car? We'll get it to you today. Right. And so owners, GMs that are listening and viewing us, think about your operation. Now listen, the reason am I saying that hey you guys should all be like Carvana? I'm not. I'm not I'm not saying that. What I am saying is if i there's gonna be a standard set in the market, and so how does that change the expectation from your customer? Right. we say this a lot when we're meeting with our dealer partners, right, and we're reviewing merchandising on websites and third parties, right? You can't look at that from your perspective. You have to look at it from the consumer's perspective and how d what is the what is the expectation of the consumer in today's market? That's what I gotta think about, right? And that's why I'm bringing up that's why I'm bringing up this headline with Carvana is they're setting the expectation. So when a when a when a customer, listen, we'll go back to our statistic, guys, the average customer sends out twelve to fifteen leads when they enter into the marketplace. Now I've routinely I've routinely said I think that sounds high, and I always cut it back. So let's cut it in half. So let's say
Chris Keene: But hold on, John, before you before you cut that, I don't want to cut it because that was a number that we had quoted from 2025. They just did the study again in 2026, in July, beginning of August. It's the same
Renaldo Leonard: Is it?
John Anderson: And the only reason why I cut it, Chris, is just try to make a ridic the ridiculousness of this. Well, yeah, because here, it
Chris Keene: Reduce it to the ridiculous. Yeah. No, I I'm with ya.
John Anderson: No, if it if let's say it was six to eight, every time I get a lead, I still need to think, okay, there's they've sent inquiries out to five to seven other dealers besides myself. But if the realistic is it's twelve to fifteen, they've sent inquiries out to eleven to fourteen other dealers besides myself. And so if a i as this as this market evolves and what by that as zero click searches and AI searches continue to evolve and the AI is searching for to serve up the most reputable, right? That's what AI's going to do is they're going to serve up the most trusted source based on what it's finding out there. How do I put myself in that place, measuring myself against the standard that the expectation of the customer? And so I always tell dealers, look, Eighty five percent of your shoppers, ninety percent of your shoppers are using this thing right here, this little high powered computer we hold in our hand, right? And I and while you while the three of us are sitting on this podcast, how easily could I get on here? And I don't even I you don't even know I'm looking. I could pull up Amazon and I could order something and have it on my doorstep this afternoon in 30 seconds, right? And so most customers shop at places like that, and that too is setting a standard. Right. That's setting a standard for an expectation of how quickly. Why do you think Carvana's doing this? Because they understand the expectation that the customer has in marketplace. And so with what we're going to go to today and talk about, I think it's important. And the reason why I wanted to bring this up is I think it's important for listeners and viewers, you gotta really understand what expectation is being set out in the marketplace.
Chris Keene: I gotta point something out here though, to your example there. Because I w I wanna put this in perspective for the viewers and listeners. You talked about you grabbed your thousand dollar computer that we carry around all day and we can't leave home without it. Okay. Here's a matter of fact, you remember the old commercial American Express, don't leave home without it? I could leave home without my American Express 'cause I could put it on my damn phone. As a matter of fact, my American Express is on my phone. And there's been many a times I left the house and forgot my wallet.
John Anderson: Do that all the time, yeah.
Chris Keene: And guess what? I can walk right into 7-Eleven and go get me a Gatorade and some white powdered donuts. Yes, that's one of my favorite snacks. And I can walk right up there and go, damn, forgot my wallet. Tap. But that's not where I was going. Where I was going with this is you just talked about John and viewers and listeners, I'm putting this in perspective. He just talked about grabbing the telephone, making an order, and he could have it on his doorstep that evening. The perspective I want to put it in he lives in Toe Jam, Oklahoma. In the middle of nowhere, where
John Anderson: Dave.
Chris Keene: He has to take a satellite and a dish to try to get internet and prune his trees back seven times a year so he could have satellite signal. He virtually could be completely off the grid if he wanted to be.
John Anderson: Yeah, it's true.
Chris Keene: But yet he has the capability to not just order a case of toilet paper. If he wanted to, he could order a vehicle and have it the same day to his house in Toe Jam, Oklahoma. But yet
John Anderson: Listen I
Chris Keene: For some of these dealers in the in the middle of a metropolitan or a suburb outside of a major city. We want to try to beat the hell out of the customer and fit a round r a square peg and a round hole. How much sense does that make? Not a lick of sense whatsoever.
John Anderson: Well here to just to finish that thought, Chris, why I do that? Because it's much more my the nearest Walmart to me is forty five minute drive. So it's much more convenient. I don't have a s I don't have a store around the corner. I don't I so in order to get to it
Renaldo Leonard: It saves you a lot of money, doesn't it?
John Anderson: In order to get to the closest store, I I've got a forty, forty five minute drive. So th just that trip alone, right? That's an hour and a half of my day just to drive over there and back and not counting the time I spend in the store. So it's it's it's convenience, right? And so that's what we're talking about is and to your point, metropolitan stores making it harder on the customer to do business with us, right? what are
Chris Keene: Well th but think about when you think about when you lived down in Southlake or when you lived in Argyle. Okay? You had stores around the corner from you, but it was a pain in the ass to go through thirty-seven stoplights to go three miles down the road that's gonna be a thirty-eight minute drive there and back. So it doesn't matter if you live in Toe Jam, Oklahoma, or the DFW Metroplex. The word you just used, convenient. How convenient, dealers, are you making it for your customers? You're not. man, this shit gets me fired up, man, because I I've
John Anderson: Well, listen.
Chris Keene: Been I've been on this.
John Anderson: Well listen, let me I'm gonna step in here real quick and say dealers, don't tune that out. Because Chris said you're not. Don't don't immediately get your feathers in a in a ruffle. Hang in there with what we're with where we're about to go here because it'll make sense to you. And listen, we can debate a lot of things. There's a lot of things up for debate in our industry. But when you see data day in and day out backing this stuff up. I got the is that really for debate? Because the data dr the data sho is it really for debate, right? Well we can we can debate on where we go to market at on a car when it's fresh. We can debate a lot of things, right? But some things just aren't up for debate and what we're talking about today, honestly, is just not up for debate. It's just not.
Renaldo Leonard: Well I'll I'll put a caveat in there, John. the facts shouldn't and the data shouldn't be up for debate, but conversations I have every day, that's that's the thing that they want to dial dive into more. The validity of the data. We cannot be performing at that level. Something's wrong with the data. All right, show me where it is. And they can't.
John Anderson: Interesting. That interest okay, I didn't know where you're going with that. So okay, so you're getting challenged
Renaldo Leonard: No, I was just driving home your point. the data is the data. It is the facts. Why argue with the facts?
John Anderson: Well, just to that point, think about that. You're you're showing it to them and they're having trouble believing it, right? So what if I'm if I'm look
Chris Keene: And it's their data.
John Anderson: If I'm looking at it and it's my data and I'm having trouble believing it, then how much more reluctant am I and to I am to act on that, right?
Renaldo Leonard: A and let me just add something before we move on. Talking about how easy it is and where the landscape we're removing to with that same day delivery. it it's it's not new. I remember my first day on a dealership back in nineteen ninety nine when I'd probably the fourth customer that I'd pissed off but managed to keep his attention and keep him there. We did what we call back then a spot delivery and put him in it, boom, and he was gone. And he was happy as a pig in slot. But we put obstacles in the way along the way. And how many dealers are still doing spot deliveries? We moved away from it because of, legalities and litigious society and whatever, who's c who's got that. But it's not a new concept. And yeah, Amazon has programmed everybody to move in that direction, that immediate gratification. And that's how people want to do business. So you gotta adapt or and adjust, or they're gonna continue to gain marks market share and sit here with a handful of dealers going, Well, what happened? How come it's harder to sell vehicles? Because you didn't Look at the landscape, and you're not meeting customers where they need to be met. and talking about your phone and how people start their searches on AI. I read about something this week called Agentic AI,
Chris Keene: Call agentic.
Renaldo Leonard: Where people are setting up agents to handle pieces of business for. Does anybody see that coming over the horizon? Where I can see a salesperson sitting at a desk and they get a purchase order for a vehicle. Because someone set up an agent, go find me a vehicle. This is what I want. And the agent locates the vehicle through AI, negotiates a deal, and gets everything taken care of. They don't have to spend fifteen minutes going through their phone to look for pictures. Taken care of. But because we are so slow to adapt to the marketplace, a lot of guys gonna be left behind. A lot of guys are gonna be left behind. So I just wanted to add that. Sorry.
Chris Keene: No, that's a that's a very, very valid point. And that last portion of it, so many guys are gonna be left behind, but they're left behind. Because they're only looking at the six inches in front of their face. And again, I'm not picking on every dealer, but I'm so passionate about this right now because looking at my calendar over the last Three weeks. Yeah. I would tell you guys over the last three weeks, and the reason why I am so freaking on fire for this right now. I have had no less, I'm telling you guys, no less said. If I look at from the beginning of this month. Yeah, I've had no less than twenty five a week. Consultations with dealers. No less than that. So what I'm bringing, what John is bringing, what Renaldo is bringing, is based upon experience in the now business. What we're seeing right now. And John, you were talking about you were excuse me, you were talking about, one of the points you brought up, one of the very first points. The average day supply is forty four days. Okay. Forty four days returning inventory. And they talked about it, it's up a couple days year over year, but it's down a couple days against July. Okay, well, why we in September, why are we even talking about July? That's 60 days ago. Now, granted, this reporting was that we found from Cox Automotive, who has the largest data points out there. Thank you, Cox Automotive, for sharing this stuff. They were looking from July to August. But we're in September now. And we are seeing not looking at LotWalk, not looking at Cox Automotive, Solera, CDK, any of that. Looking at how the consumer behavior is in the interweb, shopper index is significantly down. Seasonalities here. Does that mean we're not gonna sell cars? No. Does that mean that our margins are going to compress? Not because of the market. And that right there, if we were John on that call you were on this morning, if you were, and David Long, he hosts a great call for our for our dealer community. on Friday mornings, all things used cars on Clubhouse, that's a great call. But if I were to sit there in the midst of all those professionals Is say that the market swings and margin compression that we're feeling right now. is more because of the dealer and not the market. They probably would never let me on the call again. I'm I'm serious because I just called somebody's baby ugly and I have proof. Matter of fact, matter of fact, let's do this. Renaldo, let's do this here. I'm gonna show for those that are on the YouTube right now and watching this. I'm gonna show you the proof. So
Renaldo Leonard: Gonna bring a l bring a little puddin.
Chris Keene: I'm wearing a little pudding now again, viewers and listeners, this is not, I repeat, this is not an advertisement for our product at all. But I have access to it, which enables us to validate with factual data what we're talking about. You can do the same thing. And if you go to LotTalkPodcast.com, find John's information, my information, Renaldo's information, we can show you how to do it directly through your CRM and through your inventory management tool. So again, this is not an advertisement for us, but it's to prove the point that we're talking about is something for you guys to start looking at. This is a dealer, a very decent sized dealer, 244 used cars on the ground. This dealer has 222 active opportunities right now. Active opportunities, 222 of them. on vehicles that are still in stock. Now I put it into a spreadsheet form. Seventy eight. Of these opportunities
John Anderson: Of these opportunities.
Chris Keene: Are coming from Inventory that's in the first thirty days of that inventory's life. 31 of the opportunities are priced. So these consumers raise their hand and said, I'm interested in the vehicle. So we know it's not a lack of interest in the inventory because you got 31 people raising their hands. on this inventory. And that inventory, these thirty-one people right here. That inventory is priced at 102% of the market. And by the way, that dealership that we're talking about is selling at 98%. They're selling at ninety eight percent. So these customers. They're raising their hand on a vehicle of interest. that's priced within their budget because I don't know anybody inquiring about a vehicle that is outside their budget. Now maybe the bank says it's outside their budget, but the consumer themselves, hey, that's in my budget.
Renaldo Leonard: I could do that.
Chris Keene: Okay. These people are acquiring on these vehicles a hundred and two percent. But we haven't called text or emailed these customers in three days. And these leads are fresh. They're an average of eight days old. And out of those 31 opportunities, of the 78. that are priced that are on inventory priced above the rim, that inventory is twenty days old. The 78 active leads, they're spanning across 41 units with an average profit potential of 2380 a copy on the front. And to throw a little something else on here, because what John was talking about at the beginning of the call, that there is a high demand for that fifteen thousand dollar segment of inventory. There's ten trade-ins here. And eyeballing these trade-ins. look, an 18 F-150, an 06 Odyssey, a 13 Tahoe, a 15 Lexus, an 18 Alpha, a 19 Acadia, a 17 and 19 Silverado. isn't that right around that $15,000 price point? Of course it is. So, viewers and listeners, here's you an exercise. Go pull all your active leads out of your CRM. And then take the vehicles that they're on. And figure out of your active leads which ones are on your fresh inventory. And make those your priority. Because with so many dealers right now fighting aged inventory, as this dealer here is, this dealer is fighting aged inventory. He has got 56% of his inventory aging, and only 44% of his inventory in the first 30 days of its life. We can't afford to go rip the band-aid off. And take some big wholesale losses, especially when the wholesale market is softened. But what we can do is we can sell our way out of it, especially when we have for this dealer, see what is that forty-six, fifty-five percent of their lead activity is on that aged inventory. We could sell our way out of it. and create balance in your profit potential, but you have to do a better job taking care of that activity. On your fresh inventory. And this dealer is not doing a good job taking care of the opportunities on his fresh inventory. If he was, it wouldn't be on average three days since he has even made an attempt to call, text, or email a customer. Renaldo, what's your two cents worth?
Renaldo Leonard: I'm I'm curious. So you shrunk that down to that first thirty day of inventory. What happens what happens to that average contact gap when you look at the entire pool of prospects? Does it go up or does it go down?
Chris Keene: Well, that's what's dumb. Okay. So when I look at the entire pool, okay, so I just looked at the 31 here, because those are the ones that the dealer has an opportunity to redefine his market because he's got hand raisers at 102. Now here's what's crazy. Now I told you it was three days on those. When you look at the rest of them, okay, when you look at the rest of them. out of those seventy eight on that first thirty inventory, here's what's crazy. It's two and a half.
Renaldo Leonard: Yeah. Okay. That's what I have that's what I suspected.
Chris Keene: So we're doing a better job reaching out to the customers on the vehicles that are priced
Renaldo Leonard: That make you the least amount of profit.
Chris Keene: Right. So you see what I'm talking about with self-inflicted margin compression? They have the consumers raising their hand. when they have profit potential.
Renaldo Leonard: Yep. And what? And something came across to me while I was having that conversation with a dealer this morning. And what I was able to discern from that was that we have a problem with the salespeople taking the path of least resistance. Rather than having to step up and present value, demonstrate value, have that value comp conversation to prove it out and protect gross, they're reaching out. to those people on vehicles later in the cycle that are priced a little bit closer to where customers give a little less pushback. Just a thought.
Chris Keene: No, you're not wrong.
Renaldo Leonard: It's but as a as a manager and having those conversations with managers and telling them that we've got to, really press to make sure that we are contacting those people in that first on that first thirty day inventory a little better. More often than not, the answer that I get is that, well, we're all busy. We all have things going on throughout the day. To which my response is, that's your pipeline. If you don't attack that, you're not gonna be busy tomorrow. Right? And you're scratching your butt trying to catch up. But why would you let your most the opportunity that's going to give you the best or the highest return on your investment of time, effort, and energy, why would you neglect that? Knowing full well that is going to give you the biggest return. You choose to work harder because you're given the same amount of effort, whether it's a vehicle that you can, you pick up $2,500 front end gross or a vehicle that you're selling at a $700 loss. Same amount of effort goes into it. I j I just choose to work that vehicle that's going to produce me a front end loss because I'm not having as tough a conversation with.
Chris Keene: The c the customer the customer is not pushing back on you as hard. John, what's your two cents worth on that? I know you were kinda in and out, but you I think you caught the gist of it.
John Anderson: Well, I missed I missed some of it because I had to I had to cut out and cut back in 'cause I was having some technical difficulties, so
Chris Keene: Well here, I'll put this back in front of you and in front of our viewers and listeners. Okay. I'll put this back in front of you.
Renaldo Leonard: You gotta send those Starlink fan letters in a little more frequently, John. They're neglecting you
John Anderson: Yeah, I yeah.
Chris Keene: But to recap it, 78 of 122 active leads are on inventory in their first 30, or it was 200 222. I 122, it's 222. Okay. 31 opportunities on inventory priced at 102% of the market, and the store is already selling at 98%. So these people are raising their hands 4% above how they've been selling. But the average contact gap on those customers is three days when they have significant profit potential. And they're fresh leads, they're their average of eight days, and it's ultra-fresh inventory, average of 20 days. And collectively, 78 of those leads are spanning across 41 units in the first 30 with an average front-end profit potential of $2,380. And to the point you brought up earlier. of the demand for the fifteen thousand dollar unit, ten of those opportunities in there have trade ins and they look like pretty inexpensive inventory to me.
John Anderson: Do me a favor, Chris. Do me a favor. G
Chris Keene: But we ain't we ain't called.
John Anderson: Take that same on your spreadsheet there. can you Can you still work with that spreadsheet that you're showing it on the screen? Okay. do me a favor, capture the do you have the yeah, right there. Capture the vehicle price and show what the average vehicle price is on those.
Chris Keene: Average vehicle price is thirty five thousand nine hundred bucks.
John Anderson: So think about that for a second. think about what we've talked about this morning. That's what hit me, right? We talked about that under fifteen grand segment being a segment that most people are looking for, but you're showing leads that are fresh, right? And in the first thirty, and look at the average look at the average price that people are sending the leads in on. So would that not be even more of a reason that I would want to be as proactive as I can? with these customers that are reaching out to me on inventory that has an average price point of 35 grand. to your guy's point, right? The opportunity for trades to get that but as I said earlier, we gotta we gotta have that discussion, right? A lot of times we're seeing that conversion on trade on lead in that ten to twelve percent Right. And so those discussions aren't happening. But what really jumped off as you guys were talking and what I did here and then looking at what you were showing there, I was like, my gosh, man, the these fresh leads are coming in on a price point. What do we talk about? I don't know, was it three or four weeks ago where we talked about that 35 grand and up inventory was really starting to get stagnant, right? That most people were
Chris Keene: But yes, John, and the major, major point I want everybody to hear here, here at this moment, is stop listening to the press releases. Pay attention to what in my store, in my market with my people, what can we do? What are the facts? The facts are you've got people ringing your doorstep. In your digital dealership on $35,000 vehicles and their fresh leads in the last eight days, and you ain't picked up the damn telephone to call, text, or email them an average of three days. Whose fault is it that your margins are compressing? It's not the market. It is your fault.
Renaldo Leonard: Self-inflicted. And this is
John Anderson: Hey crit.
Renaldo Leonard: Let me and this is something that we've had conversations about with the team on those numbers. And if I remember correctly, we set up a program where those leads, first 30 day vehicles, were going to be contacted. That meant email, text. phone call, video
Chris Keene: Phone call, right.
Renaldo Leonard: Every day for that as long as that vehicle is in that thirty day bucket, we're gonna call those leads, call text, email every single day. And we're looking at three day contact gap. And y when
Chris Keene: It's insane.
Renaldo Leonard: You talk about self-inflicted, there's no better definition.
John Anderson: Can I can I add something to this, Chris? You Chris, you just you just last week you were at training at a in on site with one of our dealer partners. and so I d I don't know what you what you saw. I haven't asked you that question when you pulled up to the stores this and got out of your vehicle.
Chris Keene: My gosh.
John Anderson: But I'm gonna bring up what I saw at a recent visit that I stopped by to one of our dealer partners and it was a they weren't expecting me. It just happened to be that I was in the area and I drove by and I was like, that's one of our dealer partners. I haven't met them yet personally on video. I'm gonna stop in and say hi to them. And so I had to do the old UE on the interstate, swing back around. I pulled in on the lot, pulled up and I got out of my truck. I walked in the dealership. All the salespeople were at the sales desk. When I walked up to the front of the store, every salesperson was sitting out in front of the store on the bench talking to one another. Nobody would no and it was a nice day. No not a per not one salesperson was in the store and all the salespeople all the salesman were up the sales desk. Now, let me Let me preface what I'm about to say. By no means am I saying that you got to sit in the dealership and have your nose on the grindstone twenty-four seven. I fully understand you gonna want to go out and get some fresh air. and some of you guys are still smokers, you wanna go out and have a smoke or whatever. But to what we were just talking about, and I don't know, Chris, that's why I asked you that question. But when I pull up to a store and I see all the salespeople sitting out front. what goes through my mind is what are we waiting on, guys? W I what are what are we
Renaldo Leonard: The upbush.
John Anderson: Whi look, anybody that's gonna pull up to the store, I would s I would suggest to you ninety eight point nine percent of the time is gonna get out of their car and ask for somebody because they've already done the work that they used to do by dri when I at my at my age, when I was selling cars, there wasn't any internet, so they had to drive store to store. So it was common for us to make our phone calls and then stand out front waiting on somebody to pull up so we could wait on them. those days are long since gone. So again, I'm not I'm not jumping on somebody that's sitting out front wanting to take a break for fifteen minutes. What I am saying is if you got salespeople that are s hanging out in front of your store and what Chris just showed you and we're not we're not making those attempted especially if we're getting leads on thirty five grand and up invent I'm gonna tell you right now, and I'll say this I'll say this with every bit of confidence I have. If I was a GM at a store and we were getting leads on thirty five grand inventory, fresh leads on thirty five grand inventory, my expectation is I want those customers reached out to every day until they set an appointment or call me and say, get your salesperson off of me. Because I'm I've got a cut and on top of that, Chris, what was the average price to market on that on that inventory that you were you were showing? So they're sh
Chris Keene: W one two. One two.
Renaldo Leonard: One or two?
John Anderson: They're sending us they're send Think about this, viewers and listeners. I'm getting leads on thirty five grand an up inventory at an average price to market of one two. I could only wish that I was getting that type of activity on a daily basis. And do I want to let that now let's go back to average customer sends out twelve to fifteen leads. Do I want to let that customer have an opportunity to gravitate towards one of those competitors when I've got a thirty five grand vehicle at priced at one two on average that they sent me a request for information on? hell to the no. Renaldo, that's a little Renaldo, that's a little bit of my Caucasian showing through in there, brother. So
Chris Keene: Nope. It John, here's here's what's crazy.
Renaldo Leonard: I love you, Papa. A little code switching. Hell to the no Sh I love it.
Chris Keene: We sit out front smoking and joking, pitching quarters, playing liars poker, which these guys don't do that anymore because they have no idea what it is. But what they're out front playing Candy Crush or whatever game they're playing on their phone. I looked at that same dealer again. Now we're looking in capturing activity in a rolling 60 day on used cars that have or on opportunities that have been associated with a used car stock number. That's not counting all the other opportunities that came into the dealership and the used car department. This dealership, if you were open seven days a week, and I know the store, they're not, they're open six days a week. But in a course of a 30-day calendar, in their digital dealership, they are getting 11 ups a day. People that are associated with a vehicle. There's some dealerships that don't get 11 ups in a week. At the brick and border. And you get 11 ups a day on average in a 30 day calendar month. And we sitting around up front trying to figure out what we're gonna eat for lunch. Miss me with that bullshit. Why aren't we sitting there calling the customers back? Dealers, why are you bitching and moaning about your profit? because some economist said that the market is down? Whose market? Go look at your market, your store, your people. And if it aligns with what the economist says, then okay, you can ride that soapbox. But I betcha dollars to donuts. You ain't as far down as you think you are. It's self inflicted. Million percent. Damn, man. I need to call Woosahh. Man, I please 405-234-6402. Call me. I will break your inventory down with you. And if I'm wrong, I will get back on this podcast and say I was wrong. I will. And my vowel, I'll come work at your dealership for a day for free. But I'm not gonna be wrong. Because I know the data. We look at this day in, day out. And it ain't speculatory. It ain't no, it ain't no forecasting. We ain't talking about what happened in the ninth grade when you made that free throw shot to win districts. We talk about the now moment. And the now moment is we are not calling, texting, emailing our people. With quality follow-up. I know we're short-lived here, and I want to make sure that everybody gets this on our timing here. We're a little bit short-lived. Part of the reason why your salespeople aren't doing it is because they don't understand this basic fundamental. And I don't fault them for it because we ain't been teaching it to them. How I know this? Because I've sent this to the largest publicly traded auto groups. I've sent this to small franchise dealerships. And I've sent it to large privately held groups. The needs analysis. Salespeople don't know how to work it in the digital dealership. They don't know how to read a lead. A lead that came in from Carfax. Well, spaced is an acronym for safety, performance, appearance, comfort economy, and dependability. If I have a lead that came in from Carfax, what do you think that customer cares about? Dependability. Safety.
Renaldo Leonard: Chris, that's that stuff y'all used to do twenty years ago. It don't work anymore. That's not important.
Chris Keene: Well, guess what? I can walk into deal I can walk into a dealership today and never use their CRM and get the daily game planner back out and walk around with my three by five card that's spaced on it and do a better follow-up job. Now, let me back this up a little to the defense of the dealerships out there. We've been sold a bill of goods of something that worked. in a CRM twenty five years ago. That's what we've been sold. And we continue to keep duplicating it, and we continue to keep wondering why we keep getting what we're getting, is because.
John Anderson: Dig a little bit deeper on dig a little bit deeper on that, Chris. What are you referring to?
Chris Keene: A hundred percent. Because there was somebody out there, I don't even know who it was, but somebody out there that said, Hey, you get a lead in, and once that lead gets past two weeks old, that customer, they they've fallen off. They're not engaged, they're not responding.
Renaldo Leonard: You can e you can ease up a little bit.
Chris Keene: Okay, so we'll go move them out to an automated seven day follow-up. Well, here's the problem. We just heard the data. We just saw the data. You guys are all hearing it. If it's 44 days of retail turn, John Doe Consumer woke up this morning and said, I need, I want to buy a car. And yes, there are going to be those people out there. Three hours later, they're going to have one in their driveway. But that same customer that I need, I want to buy a car. On average, well hell, 44 days to retail turn. Think about this. I'm a product of that number. My vehicle got totaled last year. I knew it was totaled. Immediately I started looking at cars. Immediately I started inquiring on vehicles. But I had to go through three weeks' worth of brain damage with my insurance company, another two weeks before they finally got me my funds for it. Then I had to start back over and see what was still available. It was eight weeks later before I bought a vehicle. That's an everyday affair. But we will give up on a lead because it's over two weeks old. And we're giving up on leads because they're not responding to yes, Renaldo, the vehicle's still available. John, what time can you be here this morning or afternoon? When you haven't even given them a reason to respond to you because you have no idea what's more important to them: safety, performance, appearance, comfort, economy, or dependability, or a combination of the those attributes there. You just keep going back to the same thing. What time can you be here? Great news. We cut the price. still available. Well guess what? The other eight people out of the 12 submissions said the same thing. So there's no urgency. Why do I need to get in a hurry? There's eight of them out there. There's the problem.
John Anderson: Yeah, and I and I would submit to you that mm part of that challenge is Salesman's mindset, right? If we're most of us pay our salespeople and should on performance, right? So most salespeople are paid on a combination of salary, commission, unit bonus, all those things go into salesman's comp plans. and I may be forgetting a thing or two. F and I penetrations and things like that. But my point is, is most salespeople are paid on performance based compensation plans and so think about it from a perspective and more in what we do with our with our model that serves our dealer partners is that we filter out all the minutiae that we're asking our salespeople to do on a daily basis. And I use that word minutiae because it fits in this form. And I'm not saying that the stuff is not important. I'm not saying that sending your customer following up with your customer that has a birthday today is not an important thing. I'm not saying following up with your customer that it's their anniversary today is not an important thing. I'm not saying that following up with your customer that was in the service department five days ago and you want to follow up and see how the service visit went is not an important thing. But what I what we are saying is that i if you if one of your salespeople has sixty active leads, and you're asking them to filter through those things every day, and their intentionality is not set on the highest priority leads and that what by that is leads sent you a lead the customer sent you a lead on a vehicle that's still in stock and that customer's still active, or that or we've already paid the We've already paid the average two hundred and fifty dollars of marketing money to get that lead to our store and then we had several leads on that car and then that car sells quickly and so maybe we had seven leads on it, it sold quickly. Now we have six people sitting there that sent us a lead. We've paid for we paid for that to get to our store and now they're sitting in our C R still active, but the vehicle that they wanted is sold and we have other inventory that we could place them in. That's that's to me is just as high of a priority as that in stock customer on that car. And so it I can remember this, believe it or not, as old as I am, I can r I can remember having to work through a CRM and I got behind in my task and I can remember being frustrated as hell that I needed to sell a car, right? And I'm looking at my these overdue tasks and none of them have anything to do with me selling a car that day. And my thought is I don't have time to do that shit. I gotta be out on I gotta be out on the front of the store finding a customer I can sell a car to, right? And so my point to what I just said is if you're watering down your salespeople an early on in the day with a bunch of these tasks that have nothing to do with them selling a car, and we talk about our intent our attention spans today with these things, right? These it's shortened. We all have attention spans like a gnat. How quickly is it before your salesperson tunes out and says, I've worked, they're saying to themselves subconsciously, I've worked my ass off this morning and I don't have any appointment, right? Because they've subconsciously they've made a lot of attempted contacts to nothing that is really gonna result anything. And so dealers, managers, I listen, I would really dig in and make sure that the beginning of every day, right? if you talk to any coach, any business coach, 99%, 99.9% of the time, what they're going to tell you to attack every morning first thing is the hardest stuff, right? Go after that. Right. And so I want I what's what would I consider hard stuff? Hard stuff is those customers that Chris showed you on $35,000 inventory that we got leads on, and we need to convert to sales. That's hard stuff. We got to go after it. So have your team going after that first thing in the morning. Let's go after it every morning. Right. And that's all we're trying to say. There's an efficiency with which you can work at that will provide major results. But you gotta work at it. You gotta work at it. So yeah.
Chris Keene: Renaldo, final thought.
Renaldo Leonard: Final thought. We gotta get laser focused on what is important. And when it comes to salespeople.
Chris Keene: What is urgent? What is urgent? Because everything's important.
Renaldo Leonard: Well, no, not everything's important. It's all perspective, but not everything's important. What's important for a salesperson or for an organization that is run by sales is having your people take care of the resources that you're trusting them with. And the most valuable resource that they're responsible for is time. And turning that investment every single day that they're investing in their time, their effort, and energy towards following up with your customers. Being as efficient as possible and getting the biggest return on that investment is what you have to teach, train, and hold them accountable to. So if they don't understand the amount of time they have during the day and what they have to accomplish in order to perform to the best of their abilities and to help the dealership achieve their goals. If we don't have that in front of them every single day, but we're managing them with 35 leads, call, text, email, make sure that you talk to them every four or five days. If that's the way we're approaching it, we're missing the missing the boat. You gotta tie what they're responsible for and what you're asking them to do on a daily basis. to what they're gonna get from it, that return that you want them to work towards. Checking the box, touching each one of those leads, doesn't get it done. A sense of urgency to reach out to these people and sell them this vehicle because they're in the market and we have what they want to buy. You have to convert that. If you need help, call me. But this is how you do it. Practice drill rehearse, inspect. That is how you get, from metrics we were looking at a minute ago. Average three days on vehicles that are priced at 102% of the market, by far the most valuable return on the investment that dealership's made in inventory. That's how you get people to act on what you're asking them to do. Don't hold them to the mere standard. Tie their activity to the goal that they're working towards. Everybody's working for a reason. And if you won't pay your bills at the end of the month, call these people with intent every single day.
Chris Keene: So to put the final bow on all that to put the final bow on that please don't be the leader that says do this. Don't be that guy. Be the leader that says, do this. Here's how you do it. And then inspect that every single day. And when you identify somebody that's just not getting it yet, coach them up. Invest in your people by coaching them up, by putting your hand in the dirt with them. Do that. And I promise you'll see
Renaldo Leonard: Let me
Chris Keene: Results.
Renaldo Leonard: And if you if you don't know how to do it, there are people out there who will help you. Yeah. So some will have to pay a pretty penny, but some are just willing to do it to give back.
Chris Keene: But don't just send your people to learn how to do it. You go learn it. You're the leader of the store. You're the leader of the department. You're the leader of that team. Everybody learn it. Again, I invite you. LotTalk podcast dot com. I hope we pushed a nerve today. Because we're pushing the nerve for you to prove us wrong and be better than what we see on a daily basis. If you need help with it, or if you're just flat out pissed off about what I said and feel like I called you out, 405-234-6402. LotTalkpodcast.com. You can find any of our information there. We are happy to go step by step with you. We'll go arm in arm with you. And we will help you improve today better than what you were yesterday. On behalf of Mr. Anderson, Mr. Leonard, and our entire Lotpop family, we thank you guys for tuning in. I'm Chris Keene. We sign it off. And until next week, we wish you nothing but the success. We out.
