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Are you running a retail dealership from a wholesale vantage point? Chris Keene and John Anderson break down why anchoring appraisals and pricing to MMR and auction data turns good operators into wait-and-see dealers, and what it cost one new client about $3,000 per trade on F-250s he sold in 11 and 16 days. They unpack the Carvana vs. CarMax numbers (38% growth vs. a 1% drop in the same market), what Van Horn's 2.42 to 1 used-to-new ratio has to do with a 98.86% review response rate, and the "money, machine, or me" test every manager should run before touching a price. Then Chris shares his screen: a top-performing 389-unit dealer with a Kona at 86 VDPs and zero leads, a market that moved 5% in four days, and roughly 100 units that went the wrong direction inside a week. Plus the Q4 game plan: sell what you stock, 65% out of the first 30 days, and under 10% aged by November.
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What is LotTalk Podcast powered by Lotpop?
LotTalk powered by Lotpop, explores timely topics in the automotive industry with weekly updates and features guests from various sectors of the automotive world. Learn more at www.lottalkpodcast.com
Chris Keene (00:04)
I love it. Here we are, folks. We are back. You are tuned in. We are tuned in. We are ready to rock and roll. You have tuned it back into Lot Talk, powered by Lot Pop. I'm Chris Keene, one of the co-hosts, joined by the all-knowing, the grand poopah, Mr. John Anderson. Still out on assignment as our brother Ronaldo. But hopefully soon we'll be back. We've just got him out the trenches with fine dealers like yourself. John.
I want to get into it, brother, because some of that news that you shared with me right before we came on, I've been so damn busy. I haven't had an opportunity to look at some of the the news and things going on at automotive right now. And arguably I would say a lot of our listeners and viewers, they've probably missed out on this as well. Do us all a favor, John. What you shared with us earlier, with with Brett and I when we're backstage just 90 seconds ago.
Share it again. The viewers and listeners gotta hear it. Go.
John Anderson (01:00)
All right, well first thing I the first thing I think that we should probably drop in there is Mannheim index fell another one point two percent
Chris Keene (01:10)
Oof.
John Anderson (01:11)
in the first half in the first half of August and is now flat year over year after a hot spring. So used truck prices rose almost four hundred last month while SUVs slid around a hundred and thirty.
And with the roughly three hundred thousand leased EVs hitting the used car market this year, and that was up from a hundred thousand last year. So you got a lot of inventory that is making the wholesale market move, right? and so I bring that up only to get you get you fired up because I know ha
I know one of your I know one of your pet peeves and I and and let me say, by the way, I happen to agree with it, right? Are we in the retail business or are we in the wholesale business?
Chris Keene (01:54)
Mmm. Mm. Mmm.
John Anderson (01:58)
So
so let me ask you this, Chris. How much how much do we want to cause it I you know here, look, earlier this we or was it the end of last week, I think. I don't remember.
Chris Keene (02:08)
It's all running together, John.
John Anderson (02:10)
Yeah, I don't remember. One of the one of our PEs on our on our internal channel dropped in dropped in some information on on wholesale.
Right. And and so he dropped in a couple charts, week over week wholesale price changes. and and so and then he highlighted some of the changes. And so I asked a question, I said, John, just curious. I guess I just said who that was, but just curious from your perspective, how does this affect what we do for our dealer partners? Right. Cause I
And
I and I was just I was I was sincerely curious about his response because of what we always talk about, right? should we be focused on that? How does it affect what we do, right? Because once you own the car now get listen, I get it for sourcing. From a sourcing aspect, I get it, right? But once we own the car, are we are we are we truly looking at what the wholesale value is, or are we trying to retail the car? So
What's your feelings on all that, Chris?
Chris Keene (03:05)
So here's my feelings back to what you said gets me fired up. Okay. Are we in the wholesale business? Are we in the retail business? Here's my exact this is the reason why on our internal channel I did not in no way, shape, or form respond to it. Is it important?
To understand, and I'm looking at it, I'm on other screen here. Is it important to understand that week over week wholesale price changes? Okay, is that important information? So I am not going to discount the information. The information is important if our exit strategy on a piece of merchandise is wholesale. So I can't step up.
If I'm looking at a piece of merchandise and I have deemed it as, hey, this vehicle ain't for me. For whatever reason you looked at it and said, this vehicle isn't for me. It's not good for my market in my store with my people. This vehicle sucks. Okay, great. Then I need to understand the wholesale market. To your point, John, sourcing.
I need to understand the sourcing. I need to understand from a wholesale mindset, which you were talking about in the my Mannheim index falling, and then you were breaking down very specific classifications of vehicle, intermediate SUV, compact SUV, large pickup, et cetera. Okay, I need to understand the wholesale of that. Because if I'm a Hyundai store, my bread and butter.
Is going to be the compact to intermediate SUV, period into paragraph. So the wholesale changes you need to understand. But it goes back to the question, listeners and viewers, if you are a wholesaler, what I'm about to say does not apply to you at all. But if you are in the business to
Retail sell a vehicle and you get your mind tied up like a frickin' pretzel over these wholesale values, you will lose one million percent of the time. And if you think I'm wrong.
405-234-6402. I've just proved to a brand new client of ours that stepping up on an F two fifty and giving more money for it than what the wholesale market said, he will sell that rig in under 30 days.
And he will make money.
This week, the vehicle pulls up in his sold data. And he owned it for the moon, the stars.
And I get what you viewers and listeners say, well, Chris, you understand. I got the car and then I got a pack it, I got a jacket, and I gotta smack it. My service department's gonna hit me over the head, and then my ownership has got four million dollars worth of pack on it. You're right, they do. If you don't like all the pack, get your money together and go buy your own dealership. They reserve the right to pack the car.
But when you have these situations, when you have these vehicles, I'm gonna pull it up just because I want to quote an exact number here. On a dealership that swore up and down, they can't trade for the vehicle that way. MMR is this. The book says that. Well, here's both those F-250s.
And one of them they owned for ninety-three percent price to market. Or excuse me, ninety-three percent cost to market.
He rolls out at ninety seven.
And his first appraisal on this thing was about three grand less. But it's because he was looking at what the wholesale is.
Yes, you need to understand the wholesale market.
But not at the expense of being a retail dealership. That's my opinion on it, John.
John Anderson (06:47)
You know, you're that's good stuff. And and you know, while you're talking, my brain is going a million miles an hour 'cause I right or wrong, right or wrong, when I was on the dealership side
Chris Keene (06:59)
Chit John,
one more thing. He sold that thing in sixteen days too, by the way.
John Anderson (07:02)
Yeah.
There you go. Retained
Chris Keene (07:04)
The other one
the other one in eleven days.
John Anderson (07:07)
r retained a maximum gross on it and that because of very little holding cost.
So back in the dealership days, I when I was on the management side, right? I my thought process was unless it was broken, I'm retailing it. I'm not I'm not I know there's a lot of talk about best end user, and I'm not I'm not please hear me out everyone, I'm not going against that. But I just had a mindset in my opinion that everything was retailable. Now
That mindset may have gotten me in trouble a few times, but it I I won more than I lost. Right. And so you know, here's here was my here was my point to that and why I felt that way. And I really related it to a lot of times I related it to the bricks and mortar operation because a lot of times, Chris, you and I will tell our dealer partners, right?
what you would do in your bricks and mortar, you need to do on your virtual lot, right? There's no difference. You are you're operating two lots nowadays. You have your physical lot, you have your virtual lot. by the way, the majority of your customers visit your visit your virtual lot first, right? And so,
Chris Keene (08:09)
John, it's it's
far more than the majority.
John Anderson (08:11)
Yeah, yeah. So my feeling was is if I if I've if I've got a car that that I can trade for that I've never had any experience with before.
and i'm able to trade for it guess what i just did i just opened up a pathway for a new set of customers to enter into my virtual lot right if i've never if i've never had experience selling a Subaru before which by the way is that's you have one of the most loyal buying customer bases on Subarus that there is out there right
Chris Keene (08:44)
Yeah.
John Anderson (08:44)
and if I've never
If I've never if I've never tried a Subaru before, but I'm able to trade for a Subaru and I have that Subaru in stock, and I'm not I'm not ridiculous, right? in other words, I'm not I'm not trying to go out there and make the moon and the stars for the thing out of the gate. I'm being realistic because it's something that I've never tried before. So I'm not gonna, you know, I'm gonna start out with the intention of trying to get traffic on it early and get rid of it, right? Then all of a sudden I've got
Subaru customers visiting my store for the first time. Maybe
Chris Keene (09:17)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (09:17)
they've never been to my store. They don't know anything about my store. And now all of a sudden they're on my website and they're looking at my photos. They're looking at my staff. They're checking out my reviews, right? Because we're going to get into that here in a little bit about reviews, right? So they're doing all these things that had I not had that Subaru, I wouldn't have been able to be introduced to that customer, right?
Chris Keene (09:38)
Nope.
John Anderson (09:38)
And so for me, that's how I looked at it. Right or wrong, that's how I looked at it. I'm on a trade, and I'm there the best end user is me. That's I'm the best end user, right? Now, having said that, I had a line in the sand. Right? If that thing's still sitting in inventory by day 25 or day 20, and I don't have any action on that thing, then I'm gonna find a better you end up better end user than than I am, right? Or I'm gonna figure out where it is that I feel like that car.
retails that and I'm gonna put it on the money and I'm gonna get a customer and I'm gonna take I'm gonna take my short deal or maybe a little bit of a loss in the first twenty days and I'm gonna get a trade and I'm gonna get some F and I and I'm gonna move on. Right. So I just, you
Chris Keene (10:19)
Mm.
John Anderson (10:19)
know but you here's the point, circling back around to why I went down that direction. You're not gonna accomplish that if you're not if you don't have a retail mindset. If you're i i if you're if you're
Look, I get it, right? To Chris's point, we want to understand the wholesale side, but we're we're we're running retail dealerships, right? And and here's the thing. the wholesale may give me a number, but I also I also might know that that I'm selling trucks. To use Chris's example of those two, I'm selling trucks in an average of sixteen days, at at ninety nine percent.
And I've got my trucks, I have an average of ninety-two percent cost of market in there. So I'm selling them quick and and I'm making seven percent on them, right? I know everybody wants to make 15 to 20 percent on a transaction, but that's not realistic.
Chris Keene (11:06)
Yeah.
John Anderson (11:08)
It's not realistic, right? Because the the first thing, and again, there's a lot of things we can debate. A lot of things, right? And this is one of them, right?
I'm a believer in volume. I believe that you at the very minimum you should sell what you're stocking every month. So I'm a believer.
Chris Keene (11:24)
Yes.
John Anderson (11:25)
I'm a believer in volume because if you don't let's just be, hey, it's simple math, guys. If I'm stocking a hundred and I'm selling fifty each month, guess what? I'm gonna have fifty cars or you can get a day older and then two days older, then three days older, and they're gonna continue to age on me. And now I'm getting now my 61 day plus inventory, my sixty day plus inventory is building on me. Or
if you're more up to date my forty five day plus inventory, because really you should be you should really have a have a a forty five day so all those things right I is is just I've got to put myself in a retail mentality. So that's why I was just cure
Chris Keene (11:59)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (12:00)
I that's why I was just curious because again we start out the headlines with wholesale. so so moving on
This
I this is where I wanted to go with this today, and we talked about this off is Carvana and CarMax are telling two opposite stories. Carvana just posted its tenth straight quarter as the fastest growing, most profitable auto retailer. Vehicle sales are up thirty-eight percent, net income to five hundred and thirteen million dollars. Carmax saw retail used unit sales drop by one percent.
And I profit per retail unit fall to 2115. Same market, very different execution. And so when I read that, Chris, the word that jumped off the page at me was execution. Right? And so I went down as I continue to read down through here, automotive news top 100 used dealership groups.
Report frames report frames this as the reason more groups are leaning harder into used car inventory because new car pricing topped fifty grand for the first time after.
Average new car price top fifty grand. Right? So so now you
Chris Keene (13:07)
That's that's
that right there, when you got the new car, obviously when it goes up, used car goes up, and everything going up at a rate far exceeding earnings from the consumer public, I mean it's gonna lead to some disaster if you're not prepared.
John Anderson (13:23)
One hundred percent. You know what it goes on to say? dealers who stocked up heavy in March and April for the spring selling season, and I think it's funny they say this now. I think they're a little they're a little bit too late to the party with this. But deal dealers who stocked up heavy in the spring selling season, March and April,
Need a margin plan now that wholesale values have cool, not a wait and see approach. Not a wait and see approach. What were we just talking about? Am I a retailer or a wholesale?
Chris Keene (13:51)
Mm-hmm. But as a reminder though, John, as a reminder, by design, by design, when you start making your retail decisions based upon wholesale transactions, you become a weight. Because when you're looking at that wholesale transaction, you're looking at lagging data.
John Anderson (14:07)
One hundred percent.
Chris Keene (14:08)
So think about that. You just created a wait and see mentality by operating as a retail dealership.
From a wholesale vantage point.
I I think a lot of it's self inflicted, John.
John Anderson (14:21)
Well here, viewers and listeners, if you if you're in management at a dealership, I know there are several people out there that watch or listen to us that are in that position. I would ask you a question or ask yourself this question. Have you ever
Passed up on a deal.
Chris Keene (14:38)
Hmm.
John Anderson (14:38)
Only to have that vehicle still in inventory at day forty eight or fifty and you're looking for a deal on it.
Chris Keene (14:47)
And you're going,
John Anderson (14:47)
Right, 'cause the reason
Chris Keene (14:48)
Hey, hey John, how many times have you sat there and go, Hey, John, go call that guy back that we talked to three weeks ago. Tell him we'll do the deal. And
John Anderson (14:54)
Right. Right. Right.
Chris Keene (14:59)
then you're that salesperson, you call him back and you come back to the desk, he already bought.
And now what'd you do? Not only did you lose a car deal, and as a reminder, you cannot replace a customer, but you can replace a car. Not only did you lose a deal, but you just spun your salesperson up and they ain't gonna be worth a shit for three days.
John Anderson (15:18)
And so to that point, right, we talked about the Carvana versus Carmax. And and you know
from the the macro view, the large view, right? Two great operators.
Same conditions,
Chris Keene (15:30)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (15:30)
right? Conditions nationwide, but very different outcomes, right? So now we start thinking about what's happening on the micro side, the micromanagement side, what's happening, right? When we talked about I use that word execution. and and so I'll finish with this. congratulations, kudos goes out.
To one the Van Horn Auto Group. they are they were ne recently named number one nationally for a used to new sales ratio. Two point four two to one used to new. Or the
Chris Keene (16:03)
Wow, it's been a while
since we heard something like that.
John Anderson (16:06)
More than double the industry standard. That's awesome, man. Congratulations to that group. Right. But I want to go on to mention this. This is how it finished. Review response rate of ninety-eight point eight six percent, nearly thirty points above benchmark. Strong example of volume backed by reputation management, not just price.
So
hold that thought. Cars.com 2026 Dealer of the Year winners. Congratulations to Phillips Chevrolet in Frankfurt, Illinois, White River Toyota in Vermont, and Honda of Concord in North Carolina, among others. These were the top three. And I more importantly, tying it into Van Horn and then ultimately tying into what we're talking about, quotable stats.
Nearly nine ninety percent of the cars dot com dealer of the year winners consistently respond to customer reviews versus fifty-two percent for everybody else.
And then I'm gonna I'm gonna kick this to you. But everything that we just talked about comes down to execution.
And when I'm when I am working with our dealer partners and I'm looking at things on the macro level, twenty thousand foot view, and when we onboard new dealer partners, which we're in the process of doing right now, and I see the data, ninety percent of the time it's exactly what that comes down to is execution.
execution on the things that we know make us successful and execution on the things that that need to be executed on day out and day in and day out in our in our industry that help make us successful, right? We can't
Look, if we a lot of it just is your mindset, guys and gals out there, what what is it that you want to be, right? If if our goal is to be a top dealer, if our goal is to serve our consumer our customer base, in a way that brings them back, we don't have the luxury to take a day off of our execution. We just don't.
Chris Keene (18:06)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (18:08)
You know, I talk to you and I'll finish I'll finish with this. I I talk to you about, you know, I get up every morning and I wa and I I I'll read the Bible and then I jump on YouTube early in the morning and I watch a a channel called Motiversity. it's just motivation. some of the best motivational speakers, they put these things together and it's about it's they're about thirty minutes and I love watching because they set my mind right for the day. and to s and this morning
The person that was on there, the featured person on there was David Goggins, which he refers to himself as Goggins now 'cause he doesn't like David because David Goggins was the old overweight guy, right? So he could work he
Chris Keene (18:42)
Ha ha ha.
John Anderson (18:43)
likes he likes referring himself to Goggins. But what what he said that really set me back in my chair was the narrator asked him, 'cause for those of you that don't know Goggins, I would
First of all, I would highly recommend that you look him up and follow him. and two, for those of you don't know, he's notorious for running. famous for running these two hundred, two hundred and fifty mile, they're not marathons, they're just grinded out. I'm running two hundred and fifty miles, right? They have these contests, and so he's famous for running these long
200, 250 mile grueling contest. And and and so and he finishes. He finishes. and so the narrator asked him, he said, so you you like running? And and he goes, I hate effing running. And I was like, I sat back in my chair, I was like, what?
Chris Keene (19:32)
But how do you hate running?
John Anderson (19:34)
I gotta understand. I gotta
understand. You know, explain that to me like I'm a five year old. And and and here's what he said. He said, I get up and run every morning, and I and I and I've extended the the length that I run for this very reason. Because it's the it's the thing I hate the most, and I do that first every day because it coaches me and it has trained me to no matter what my stirk.
no matter what my circumstances are, I can achieve it and I can work through it. And it it leads me to the detail of my life. Is that I gotta look at the details and I can't, I I ultimately what he said was there's nothing that I cannot execute on. Right. And so that's really when you and I were talking prior to this our podcast, I think
This is what I see a lot right now is what's going to separate the successful dealers. And this might listen, some of you might be listening to this and going, well, duh, right? Well, okay, I get that. But you if you saw it from our end, right, I could sit there and say, duh too, but it seems to be an area that is a consistent struggle, is consistently doing the things that we know will make us successful to the point where they make us successful.
And it's the it's that it's that execution on the
Chris Keene (20:49)
Yes.
John Anderson (20:50)
things, right? And not getting distracted. How easy managers out there, how easy is it for you to get distracted because you're wearing 19 different hats during the day, right? I gotta submit deals, I gotta appraise trades, I gotta talk to salespeople, I gotta work deals, I gotta TO deals, I gotta go back and can't handle customer heat back in the service department, I gotta go out and arrange the lot with the lot guy.
Whatever the all those different things that we're doing through on a daily basis, and and swapping those hats off, how easy is it for us to not execute on some of the things that we know are gonna make it and I'll get to it tomorrow. And I'll get to it tomorrow, and I'll get to it tomorrow. And the next thing you know, it's the end of the month and I still haven't touched it, right? So Yeah.
Chris Keene (21:32)
Mm-hmm. And
we're scrambling trying to get forty five deals to hit our objective on the last
John Anderson (21:36)
Right.
Chris Keene (21:36)
day of the month.
John Anderson (21:37)
Right.
Chris Keene (21:37)
So my feedback and thought to that there, John, is this there's no doubt you have to you have to execute. Okay. I think it goes without saying that everybody wants at some degree or level to be better today than they were yesterday, and so forth. I believe wholeheartedly. And I believe that there are people that have reached certain pinnacles within their career, within our industry, that
Now we're looking at sustaining that. Like, man, I don't want to go backwards. Okay. And I agree with every last bit of that. And I know for a fact that we have to execute.
But
Like you talked about with David Goggins when he talked about he hated to run. Even though he does these ridiculous, like I think they're called ultra marathons or something like that. But even though he hates doing it.
In the work that goes into it.
Yes, he has to execute on all the practice. Yes, he has to execute on all the preparation.
But like the title of this says
Are you game day ready? You just can't be ready on game day when that customer walks in the door. You can't be just game day ready when F and I pages, John Anderson, meet your customer on the showroom for delivery. You can't be ready then.
You gotta have a key word is you got the discipline to do it each and every single day. And that's where we see a lot of want to level up, to sustain, to get better. But we don't see the discipline to do what it takes, like Goggins does, though he hates to run, he knows for him to compete at a high level.
There are things he has to do leading up to that point so he can compete. That's where the differentiator is between good to great to elite, is what's your level of discipline in between those moments leading up to game day. And I think that's where a lot of things get missed.
Because to your point, John, we mismanage the differentiation of important because all those things you listed off.
Directing your lot manager to put the lot the way you want it, to directing your team on this, to directing ourselves to a heat case, to this thing is important, that thing's important. Every last bit of it's important. But the million-dollar question is: when you look at all the important things, what is urgent? And what are you gonna put your head down and pay attention to?
Because last time I checked.
In the dealership, there's two things when it comes to newer use car inventory doesn't matter. There's two things that are are most important.
Fill the parking spots and drive activity to it. That's number one. Number two is take the activity that's on those vehicles, pull it off there, sell the car, empty the spot, so we can go back and repeat number one. And what I've really just described is inventory management and sales management. You can call it lead management, you call it opportunity management, but at the end of the day, our job is to manage sales.
As a manager, as a sales consultant, salesperson, product specialist, sales extraordinaire, whatever your job job title is. You're an individual contributor, you're a car salesperson, your job is to take your group of customers that you have on cars that are out there on the lot.
and do all the necessary things to help those customers make an educated buying decision so that way you can be their guy or gal to sell a car, empty the spot, so that way your managers could wash, rinse, repeat, fill it all up again.
But we get too busy making sure the task schedule's clear.
Making sure that all of my vehicles are at the target objective. Making sure that these vehicles that I have are SEO and SEM friendly. We get too busy with that. We get too busy fighting with our third-party reps. We get too busy arguing with the lending institution because we're trying to take a square peg and put it in a round hole and jam a customer in a vehicle that they really shouldn't be in.
We get too busy doing all those things versus looking at what's most important.
That's my take on it, John, is the discipline to understand what is urgent.
John Anderson (25:40)
You know, I was thinking while you were talking, I don't know that we've ever taken the time, and this is not a
I don't want this to be we always we always say this. We I and I and I'm sincere, I don't you know, we try very hard. We work at it extra hard not to have a commercial for for Lip Pop, right? I you know obviously I believe in who I work for and what I do or I wouldn't be here for ten years plus. so I and and not only that, I used it for three years in a store that I was running, so I know it
Chris Keene (26:11)
Yeah, you
you you was a client of ours.
John Anderson (26:13)
Yeah, I know it I know it works, right? but but where I was going with that is you know, we we we've been fortunate enough that we've heard from several folks that do listen to us week on a weekly basis on the podcast. and I don't I'm not so sure that we've ever because we've tried to we've tried to stay very neutral, but I think it's important that listen
A lot of times when Chris and Ronaldo and myself or some of our guests and we have Jason on, you know
A lot of what we talk about in the areas that we the reason why we go the direction that we go a lot of times is because our two core principles are one, sell what you stock. So if if you're gonna stock a hundred cars on your used car lot, then sell that hundred, sell a hundred every month, right? sell what you stock at a minimum, a twelve term, a twelve annual term. and then
Chris Keene (27:03)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (27:03)
the other
the the other side of that equation is when I'm when I start selling what I'm stocking, then I want to start maneuvering my aging buckets to where I'm selling sixty-five percent or higher out of my zero to thirty day inventory. Well why is that? Because that's where the that's where your highest amount of gross and net profit reside is in your zero now listen, I can confidently say that because I can confidently sit here and tell you that for the last 10 plus years
working for Lop Pop, that's been a question I've routinely asked dealers as I meet them. Would you agree that your highest profit retention and net retention comes out of the inventory you sell in the first thirty days? And I've never yet heard anybody tell me, no, I don't agree with that. Right. So all of you agree with that statement that the
Chris Keene (27:51)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (27:52)
highest amount of return come out of my fresh sales. So when Chris and I and Ronaldo
and Jason or whoever's on this that is representing Lap when we're talking about some of these things that we talk about and try to bring some of this content to you guys, hopefully that you find valuable and some of it hopefully you try out and put into practice. It's all it's all geared around those two things, right? And some of the things that we're not seeing and so not seeing happen and not only listen not at one or two dealers
We start seeing things across the country with several raw dealers. And we're like, you know, two week sell rate, but for instance, starts to drop. Right. We want to if we're gonna sell what we stock every month, we want a two week sell rate of fifty percent. Last 15 days, we're selling fifty percent of our used cars, right? If we start to see that drop, then that's an moment. Okay, what's happening out there? Right. And then we start digging in and looking at it. And and so
Chris Keene (28:46)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (28:46)
I I just thought.
You know, Chris, I wanted to revisit that and preface that because, you know, hey, listen, you might be watching or listening to this and you you have a totally different mindset. And that's okay. That's what makes the world go around, right? but I but I wanted to preference you know, because when you when you talk about when you talk about especially going into the time of year that we're going into where
Up until the end of November, the middle of December, you'll typically start to see shoppers start to come back into the market looking at inventory. typically coincides with their shopping for Christmas and they don't really start acting, don't really start moving and buying cars until you know end of January when they know they're getting close to that tax money coming in. Typically what you see year in and year out. So
Here we are in September. So we're at the beginning of September. So September, October, November, December. We're four months.
We're four months right here. that that and w and and we're and on top of that, we're in election year. And you know what happens as we get closer to November, right? every all the focus is on that, right, for the most part. So there's some headwinds that we typically come into. And here's what here's what I can emphatically say. If you become a if you become
If you come if you become relentless in your execution
So what does that what does that mean? Well that means that
If I've got vehicles sitting on my lot, on my virtual lot, and they're not getting any attention. I haven't gotten a lead on them. maybe they're getting a low VDP conversion.
Chris Keene (30:17)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (30:17)
instead of doing what we've always done, which is the easy thing to do, and go shrink my margin by changing my price, I take the time to jump on my website.
or jump an auto trader or cars if they're a partner of ours. And I look at my photos and my description and vet out how that vehicle is being displayed to the consumer. Is there anything in there like IE I found on a dealer's website this morning that had the entire Christmas tree lit up on the dash that
The vehicles, the vehicle
Chris Keene (30:46)
About
that because it's those little things right there where we're not disciplined.
John Anderson (30:50)
Right. Well,
it's it's here, and that's the reason why I'm going into this, Chris, and and I know you're gonna add to it. I just look, I think it's important if we're gonna if we're gonna sit here and go execution, execution, well, what does that look like? Right? because execution can mean many things, right? But again, going back to the beginning of this conversation that we started, we're in the retail business. So our
Chris Keene (31:11)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (31:12)
our execution has to be now listen, once we get to the point where we feel like we're gonna wholesale.
Then by all means shift your attention. Okay, what's the wholesale on this car or this truck or this SUV? I would prefer that you didn't do that because I think everything's retailable and there's reasons why. I want to get a customer, I want to get a trade, I want to get F and I, right? If I just wholesale the thing, some other dealer gets that stuff. I'm giving it some other dealer, right? But I I think
Chris Keene (31:36)
Yeah, but if
you're not if you're not staffed for it, you don't have the capability for it, then of course no one.
John Anderson (31:39)
Right, right, right. No, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
No, one hundred percent. But but when you're talking about execution, it's it's it's the things that I have to be relentless in, right? And and so instead of pressing the price change button all the time, because that's the easy thing to do, and then by the way, the the next thing I'll do is complain about my lack of gross because I'm always pressing the the price change button, right? I could it be possible that
There's something in my merchandising that's preventing a customer from sending me a lead. And to that point that I brought up, that a 57-day old intermediate SUV. It was a GMC
Chris Keene (32:14)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (32:15)
SUV, 57 days old, and the picture of the dash, every light on the dash and the car was running because I saw the tack, the tachometer was right. So it wasn't like they just turned on the key and the car wasn't running. Car was running, every light on the dash was on.
Right. And so I I that's something I have to be relentless in my execution because I gotta find that. Right. Now I didn't ask I didn't I didn't ask the dealer. It was a new dealer. I was looking through their merchandising and I found it. I didn't ask them, hey, do you know how long that's been sitting there like that? I would assume fifty seven days because they haven't got a lead on the car and nor had they had a lead on the car ever. Right. So I assumed that that
Chris Keene (32:52)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (32:53)
was the initial picture and then no one ever caught it. No one ever did anything about it. And so that's the kind of stuff
Right, that that I have to be re as a manager, I have to be relentless in in if I'm not working a deal, I'm not submitting a deal, I'm not I gotta I can't I I can't afford to go back and and you know, I'll take a lunch hour, but and I'm not trying to sound ridiculous. I'm just saying that's the kind of stuff I gotta make time for. I gotta take a look at it. Does that mean I gotta look at my all my inventory on my website every day? No. It's right,
Chris Keene (33:24)
It it's not necessary to.
John Anderson (33:26)
exactly.
Exactly. I just gotta find the
Chris Keene (33:29)
If you have it
if you have it clean from day one, if it looks i if everything's right from day one, you don't have to worry about that day fourteen.
I think that's what everybody misunderstands.
John Anderson (33:40)
How about right now? How about the transition we're about to go through in the next three months? What if I'm in a what if I'm in a what if I'm in a state that
Chris Keene (33:45)
Right it it it
John Anderson (33:48)
gets that gets snow and then I've I I've got a picture on my on my website of green trees behind my car and I've got snow on the ground. What about
Chris Keene (33:57)
And the d and
the the thermometer says it's ninety six degrees outside.
John Anderson (34:01)
Right, right. So I I think I think, yeah, Chris, I d just some of these things, listen, guys, these are things that you can do that will help you, right? Don't be don't be the don't be the dealer. And if you are, again, it's what makes the world go around. I'm not I'm not saying anybody's wrong here. What I am saying is the stuff that we're talking about when ex
when executed upon it drives success. Listen, I use
Chris Keene (34:30)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (34:30)
I I I I I can confidently say this. I'm not pulling this out of my ass. I use this at a at a de I use these strategies at a dealership and they and they help the dealership become more successful. I've been with Lot Pop over ten I've been with Lop Pop over ten years now and I've seen this stuff
help dealers become more successful. So these types of things, look, what I was about to say is don't be the dealer that's in there that I I no matter what I change my prices every five days. I get on every five days, I change my prices. Right. Now you may be that you may
Chris Keene (35:02)
Yeah.
John Anderson (35:03)
be that person. You may be that person. Right?
But here
Chris Keene (35:05)
But you're missing the boat.
John Anderson (35:07)
go ahead, Chris. F go ahead with that. Run with that because I want I'm interested to hear
what you have to say about
Chris Keene (35:12)
So here's why you're missing the boat. I'm gonna share my screen, John. I'm gonna share my
John Anderson (35:15)
Okay.
Chris Keene (35:15)
screen. So for for the viewers, okay, you're gonna get to see this. For the listeners, you should be going to YouTube anyways and checking out Lot Talk Podcast, you know, on YouTube because you'll get to see this.
But here is herein lies the problem. Herein lies the problem. Okay. And I'm gonna go to the screen here. Let me make sure I got the right one. I think it's this one.
Yeah, that's screen three. All right. So here herein lies the problem.
When you sit there, and if you're the guy that says, my inventory management tool, I've got it set to where I don't look at my inventory every five days, seven days, 14 days, whatever the case may be.
You don't have to have Lot Walk to find this information. It'd be easier. But you don't have to have Lot Walk to find this information. Now you are going to have to go look at every one of your vehicles to stay on track of this. But look at this for just a minute. You've got inventory out there right now. Here is a top performing dealer. This dealer has three.
Hundred and eighty-nine pre-owned cars. Three hundred and eighty-nine.
And they have a systematic approach, the way that they do business. And I would tell you ninety percent of their strategies are things that we have consulted with them on.
But because the market is moving so quick, just like John was talking about. And when you see that transitional difference between Carvana and Carmax, arguably, I would sit there and tell you, Carvana right now is diving even deeper into the facts of what is and isn't working. And that's why you're seeing them ahead. But look at this for just a minute, folks.
Listeners, I'll do my best to describe it. You got a vehicle.
You got a vehicle here. A twenty two Hyundai Koda.
This thing is getting searched. So people are searching and looking for a 22 Hyundai Kona SEL.
This particular vehicle is showing up in search. I know this because there's VDP conversion. You can't get VDP conversion without there being search. Which means people in this guy's market are intentionally looking for a 22 Hyundai Kona SEL, but he hasn't had one lead on it. Not one.
It's got thirty three photos.
So it's photoed up. And just for argument's sake, let's just say they're all the right photos. The car's clean. It doesn't light up like a Christmas tree. All four sides of it are TV ready.
He touched this vehicle four days ago. And four days ago, just four short days ago, he thought he was at 92% of the market. In that four day period of time, this thing moved five percent, a thousand dollars damn near. And he hasn't touched it in four days.
And the market has already shifted to ninety seven percent.
And this is a good operator. Vehicle right above it, 100 to 107 in a five-day period of time. Vehicle above that, in a six-day period of time, from 100 to 108.
And the list goes on and on. And all these vehicles here, all of these vehicles, all had changes within the last seven days. He went and touched 326 of 389 units, 326 of them. And I've all had a change in price in the last.
Seven days or less. And of this list, of the 326 he went and touched, here's the crazy part.
When you look at it
Fully.
When you look at it completely now, forty units, forty units.
Have changed value in less than a week.
John Anderson (40:32)
In the wrong direction.
Chris Keene (40:34)
in the wrong direction has put him in a trick bag. excuse me, it is more than that. I apologize.
It's 100. 100 of the 326, almost a third of them.
have gone the wrong direction on
And this is a good operator.
John Anderson (41:04)
So let's that's great. That I'm glad you pointed it out, Chris. So dealers that are watching and listening, let's put that in the context of what we brought up today. But the the and I don't I don't know this to be the case, but I'm gonna use this as context. So let's take the the Carmax versus Carvana context, right? And so here's the thing that
vehicle that Chris brought up that in four days went from a hundred a hundred percent price to market to a hundred and eight. So it had an eight percent drop in market. and by the by the way we can see so the the dealer's not in there raising prices. That's not from a price raise, that's from a market drop. Or market shift. I shouldn't
Chris Keene (41:43)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (41:44)
say, you know, it could have been it could have been that a bunch of cars
got taken out of the market and that's what caused it to shift. There was a market shift. Eight percent market shift. All right. so you're never gonna get you're never gonna hear this statement. Hey I've been watching your inventory online and I noticed that your pricing went from a hundred to a hundred and eight percent if you can
If you can sell it at 105%, I'll buy it. That you're never going to hear that statement because customers don't know that. But but going back to that that example of Carmax and Carvana, what if part of that result difference between those two companies is that
Carvana refuses not to execute on everything. They execute on everything. So they are in their, they're in their inventory looking over their inventory every day, and they see that move and they make the adjustment based on that market move to get back to where they initially were because the market dropped. They make that adjustment. Carmax misses that adjustment.
They have two similar cars and the customer is online looking at both cars.
one has made the adjustment based on the the move in the wrong direction on the market, the other one hasn't. All things being relative, where's that customer? Where's that customer going to end up sending that lead to?
High percentage of time they're gonna send unless it's just, you know, hey, I'm gonna pay up for the car because it's the I gotta have this color. But 99 point percent of the time, it's gonna be all things relative, I'm gonna I'm gonna save myself some money. Right. And and so that's just one example. But that's the type of listen, the whole reason why we're we're going down this road today is because of where we're at in in this time of year.
the dealers that are going to come out of this, and here's what here's what I'm going to tell you. If you if you can enter into if you enter into the month of the month of November and and you have a clean inventory. So
Chris Keene (43:40)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (43:40)
by clean by clean I mean you're selling what you're stocking every month and you're selling you have
Let's put it, let's do it the other way. You have less than 10% of your invent total used car inventory sitting in your 60 day plus buckets.
Then you are going to be in a position to to take advantage of dealers that have not done that. Because they're gonna have to start shedding inventory at that
Chris Keene (44:05)
Yeah.
John Anderson (44:06)
time, getting prepared for the shift of 26 to 27 model, 26 to 27 year. Everybody does it. We start freshening up, getting ready for tax time. And you're gonna be able to take.
the advantage of that situation if you're clean going into that time, let alone staying clean through this next three, next 90 days, is going to bring so much more net profit to the bottom line of your used car department. And so it it these types of activities, understanding, right, what's understanding what inventory I have that's not getting, that's getting just like Chris showed.
It's getting blown up on VDPs, but we're not getting a lead. What's the customer telling you when that's happening? I'm looking at this car. A lot of people are looking at this car.
Chris Keene (44:54)
they're talking to you.
John Anderson (44:55)
Yeah. What is what are they telling? Listen, I gotta think that way, right? Don't think like a dealer. Think like a customer.
Chris Keene (45:01)
Take like a consumer.
John Anderson (45:03)
What what what am what is a customer telling you when you have a car that's getting literally blown up?
And you're not getting leads on it. What is the cut? What is the customer telling you, customers, excuse me, customers? What are the customers telling you when you have 15 leads on a car, but the latest lead came in 22 days ago, and nobody has come in to buy that car? What are they telling you? Right? What is it that I need to know as an operator?
Chris Keene (45:31)
John,
that goes that that goes back to the basic the basic things in I learned this in '99 when I first became a used car manager. My mentor taught it to me. Okay. And you've heard me say it on this call. You've heard me say it with our dealer clients. You've heard me say it with prospective new clients. You've heard me say it in this, in our industry in general. Three things. Three things that will drive a piece of inventory. It's either the money, the machine.
Or me. And if there's no leads on it, you could eliminate it's not a me problem because I haven't had the opportunity to screw the lead up.
So it's either the money or the machine. And in that Hyundai Santa Fe that we looked at just a minute ago, or that Hyundai, whatever it was, in that Hyundai that had that shift in it.
Kona, that's what it was. There are 86 virtual ups on that vehicle. 86 people entered your virtual dealership and looked at that vehicle.
And if the photos are good.
If it looks good, feels good, smells good.
The only thing left, because you've eliminated the money, you've el or the machine, because the vehicle looks good, feels good, smells good. You've eliminated the me factor, because I ain't had enough to screw it up with. The only thing left is the money. And that's the customer telling you, we are searching for that Hyundai Kona. We desire that Hyundai Kona.
But you just ain't there. Even though you thought you was at 92%, we see different.
You're really at ninety seven.
That's that's the customer talking to you.
And to your point, John, when we could get out of our own damn way and stop thinking like a car guy, because ain't none of us paying each other a profit.
It's the consumer buying public out there.
That pays the profit. And they're telling you, point blank telling you, we have 86 of us came in and looked at that rig.
You ain't relevant. That's what they're saying to you.
Well that shit gets me fired up, y'all looking at that. I mean, I just it fires me
John Anderson (47:21)
It's good. Hey, listen. No, good. Hey, listen.
Chris Keene (47:24)
up.
John Anderson (47:25)
To follow up on what Chris just said, have any of you ever had a customer that walked in your store and said, Hey, I've been watching this car for two months.
You finally got it
Chris Keene (47:34)
Hmm.
John Anderson (47:34)
to the you finally got it to the price I wanted to pay, so I come in to buy it. Right. Have you ever heard that, right? Maybe that Kona situation right there where you got eighty six people and nobody's moving towards it. So
guys I
Chris Keene (47:45)
And the thing about
it is they think it's a laydown and it's really not.
John Anderson (47:49)
Right, right.
And so I I would here, I I would end with this on my end, just to challenge, and I think Chris would agree. I would challenge you right now. the first thing I'd challenge you on is to ask yourself a serious question. Are you a retailer or are you a wholesaler? If you're a retailer, then keep it simple. Right?
Chris Keene (48:07)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (48:07)
I have the car.
Or the truck or the SUV or the van, now what?
Chris Keene (48:12)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (48:12)
If I have it online and it has a full set of photos and I'm sure it's online, right? Because a lot of times we find out where we think it's online and the feed's not coming through and it's dark, right? So I a lot of times, how many times will we go over and look and it shows that there's photos? We get on the website and the there's no photos, right? So if I've verified it's online, right, then have I looked at have I confirmed my merchandising?
my my merchandising
Chris Keene (48:38)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (48:39)
on that vehicle. Do my photos and my my my comments my description my hot points that I'm pointing out to the to the customer do they stand the test? Do if
Chris Keene (48:49)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (48:49)
I have a if I have a fifty thousand dollar vehicle, is it being presented like it's a $70,000 vehicle? Right? And so
Chris Keene (48:56)
We can go.
John Anderson (48:57)
if it stands the test, then next would be
Okay, do I have a customer? If I have a customer, exhaust every opportunity you can to get an appointment. And that hey, o I'll say that. Owners, general managers, general sales managers, it's okay to pick one of these things up and call your salesperson's customer. It's perfectly okay. Right? I I listen.
Chris Keene (49:17)
You hey you
you would te you would te o if they were at the dealership.
John Anderson (49:20)
Exactly. 100%. And do do yourself a favor, do it in front of your salesperson so he can hear a professional handle a call. Right? Training in that. Right.
Chris Keene (49:28)
An experience somebody with some experience.
John Anderson (49:31)
100%. You've had more experience. That's why you're in a position you're in. So let them hear you talk to the customer, right? Pick up that phone. If it doesn't have a customer on it, then go back to your merchandising. Don't what I'm saying is don't be so quick to go, okay, I'm gonna change the price.
Because it's not always the price. It's not always the price. Right? Listen, Chris just said it to you. It's the money, the machine, or me. What which of those is it? It's it's it's it's to me, that's the process of elimination, right? The money being the last, right? First I gotta first is it is it the is the machine ready? Do I have it ready? Is it merchandised properly?
Then do I have a lead on it? And are we are we are we making sure that we're following up, we're answering the questions, we're hitting that lead where they send the listen, and I know I'm I know I'm going over here, but I think this is important to say. lead sends you a customer sends you a lead at 8:30 at night, and all your resulting correspondence is at 830 or 9 in the morning, and you're not getting any conversation going between you and that customer.
Chris Keene (50:35)
Mm.
John Anderson (50:35)
Right? Is it is it because they don't want to reach back to you or is it because the only time they're available is eight thirty at night? But I'm sending them all my com c communication at 830 or 9 in the morning, right? Read the lead. Fig if I'm not getting communication, is there a reason why? Don't just assume the customer is ghosting you. Look at read the lead. Did they ask us a question and we're not answering it? Right? Th
Chris Keene (50:57)
Yes.
John Anderson (50:58)
this is all this execution that we've been talking about on this call. And we could go on for days because we see it.
Day in and day out. And so I think it's important enough, especially going this time of year, guys, take some time and and vet out all your stuff that's going on in your store and look for breaks in your execution. I promise you, if you'll find those breaks and you'll fix them, you're gonna have a successful fourth quarter and you're gonna roll right into twenty twenty-seven.
Chris Keene (51:25)
Million percent. So with that being said, you know, just to very quickly recap, because we've got a little bit over here, which is no surprise. Brett's like, my God, you morons. you know, to John's point, I'll echo this a million times over. Okay. Number one, there ain't a cross on top of your dealership. So you're you're a for-profit organization. You're not a church. We are retailers. Okay. Period. We are retailers.
So look at everything from a retail standpoint. Yeah, they're gonna be wholesale situations, but that's the exception, it's not the rule. make sure you're paying attention to your inventory, not based upon what an inventory management says is acceptable, or what your corporate policy says is acceptable, or what quote unquote we've always done.
And we do price changes on Thursdays. We look, you know, we we go vet everything out on Thursday going into the weekend. Yeah, no, not a good idea. Not a good idea at all. You know, start looking at your inventory from the mindset of, hey, if I don't have activity on it, then we've got to make sure that we are exhausting all avenues to make sure that I haven't created that self-inflicted wound while of not having activity.
And then lastly, this is the number one thing that I would leave you all with today. You could want it all day long. We could all talk about executing.
And you know, that's always the thing, whether it's a locker room or whether it's in the workplace or whether it's trying to meet a goal of weight loss or whatever the case may be. Okay, we got to execute on this plan. Sure, you've got to execute the plan, but do you have the discipline to do the things necessary to execute on the plan? Check yourself up from the neck up.
Do you have the discipline to reach the goals that you want to reach? Do you have the discipline to go do those little things that amount to the big things? If you've got that, the sky's the limit for you. But until then, all you've got is not a goal, you've got a dream. So, on behalf of Mr. Anderson, myself,
Everybody at the Lot Pop family, we thank you all for tuning in. We wish you nothing but the most success. We're thankful college football's back. And you'll hear a lot of shit talking coming because you just will. It's college football season. it also thank you guys. Tune in again. Make sure to go to Lott TalkPodcast.com. Connect with us. We're happy to walk through anything with you at any given time.
And if you just want to call and say, Chris, you're a moron, I don't believe in anything you're saying, great. Prove me wrong. But I bet you dollars to donuts. I'll look at the facts, even at your store, and I can find you five opportunities right now that you could do to improve on your business right now. So check us out, lottalkpodcast.com. We thank you so much for tuning in.
As we always wish for, as we always hope, we wish you nothing but the most success. We out.