30 April 2018

It was clear to all that attended this week’s Auto Retail Network Used Car Conference that the theme of the event was speed.

We’re not talking about the speed of cars, but the speed with which cars are sold, or stock turn to be more precise.

Several of the speakers touched on, or even majored on, this topic.

Perhaps the two biggest advocates of moving used car stock faster were ASE’s Mike Jones and Auto Trader’s Chris Penny.

Mr Jones urged retailers not to get emotionally attached to cars and look at them simply as a way of generating profits. To prove how a faster stock turn is possible and really can result in greater profits he used the example of a retailer who was turning his stock of 102 cars every 14.44 days. The result was a gross profit per week of £41,332.

Mr Penny reinforced this approach of speed. Pointing out that hanging on to a car until that one car has returned a profit is the wrong way to look at the business. He argued that holding a car that long takes up a space on your forecourt and stops that space making money. So it’s not how much that slow-selling car has made, it’s how much you’ve lost in potential earning from that space.

Several speakers pointed out the difficult bit is admitting that a mistake has been made with a particular car.

And this was one of the more important take-home messages from the conference; learn by failing fast.

Failing fast means you’ll get to success quicker and in the case of used cars that success will come from a faster stockturn.

* A full report on the Used Car Conference will be appearing in Auto Retail Agenda’s sister titles Auto Retail Bulletin and Auto Retail Profit. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up here.

Tristan Young

Editorial Director

Auto Retail Network

Tags: Used Car Conference, used cars