With a lack of production, new inventory may be low for the foreseeable future. As a dealership, it’s critical to change your marketing and sales tactics to focus on used inventory. The challenge then arises on how to find this used inventory. Traditionally, we would take used vehicle trade-ins, but with lower new vehicle sales, the trade-ins are dwindling as well. Here are a few other ways that you can buy more used vehicles for your dealership.
- Build Relationships
Auto dealers are constantly asked if they can take a motorcycle or ATV on trade. Their typical answer is, “we don’t”, because they don’t have a source to move them. An easy way to do this, is to take your card to all the local dealers around you, even ones that sell inventory that your don’t. You will be the one they call for buy figures in the future and it could lead to a handful of more units bought each month. - Leverage eBay
There are hundreds to thousands of vehicle listings added every day. And not all of these are busts! Some are from dealers and some from owners. Some in poor condition and others in nearly-new condition. There is a bounty of opportunity that just needs a little effort. You can set up searches by vehicle type, make, and distance if you don’t want the entire country and save the search. From there, just add email alerts when new inventory is added. You will have a daily feed of new inventory to scan through in under 15 minutes to see if there is anything to buy. - Utilize Local Classifieds
Similar to eBay, these website allow to do a search of listings in your area based on your criteria. You can then save the search and subscribe to email alerts. A few to check out are Cycle Trader, ATV Trader, and PWC Trader. - Create Facebook Ads
Target customers that are interested in motorcycles, powersports, or PWC with a social media advertisement to get a trade-in valuation on their vehicle. You can then drive this traffic to the trade-in page on your website. - Store Buying Events
Host a buying event at your store on a Saturday or even host a virtual event over zoom or Facebook. This gives your customers a chance to ask questions or even show you their vehicle for a preliminary valuation. You could event put an advertising budget behind it to have a better, more targeted turn out.
Building a used inventory strategy now can be a backbone to your success moving forward. With LotVantage, you can easily run trade-in campaigns alongside your inventory on classifieds, social media, and elsewhere. Contact us to get started!