The day the whiteboard died.

I am not just a "car guy". I am a business man. A business man that has spent the last 20+ years of my life in car dealerships, with the majority of it managing large used car departments. Out of necessity, I created a reconditioning software that allowed me to control and scale my business. In my new role as Founder of iReconCars, I speak to dealers and dealership managers every day. And every day I hear the same pain points and concerns and get asked the same questions, over and over again. How do you get your Sales Managers and Vendors to utilize the technology? Who is going to be responsible for user engagement? The answer is simple. Everyone. That's called creating a culture of accountability and visibility. Or, my personal favorite excuse for not using a program at all-"we have a good handle on reconditioning." Right. What they mean to say is that they have no program or process of managing reconditioning, so it is impossible to spot problems until there is a big one. I get it. Reconditioning isn't sexy. Nobody has walked into a Saturday morning meeting, pounding their chest, screaming "I'm at 4 days in recon! Who's your recon daddy!?" But the reality is that your money is made or lost, long before you retail the car.

Business evolves, remember? All things change and being in the automotive business, that can be both good and bad. Change creates opportunities. Unfortunately, the majority of people and businesses have to experience a catastrophe to realize that they were not prepared for it. Being ahead of the curve and embracing change is your best offense to survive it. Which inspired me to write this article and how it pertains to the automotive industry.

The automotive industry has been up for a while, but what goes up, always comes down. Remember 2008/2009? Dealers were forced to revamp their way of doing business to maintain profitability. By utilizing new technology, we found that we could target a broader audience by pricing with a plan. At that time it was a novel idea. Use real data and market research to understand market-based pricing! OMG! It was almost like we became real business people. It worked, it still works and will keep on working! But wait, If we outsell our ability to restock, we will need to buy MORE, MORE and MORE! ..... and so does everyone else. So we drive each other up on the wholesale level while putting competitive pressure on the retail price. Face it! Your money is made or lost in your reconditioning and holding costs. It is not about spending less. It's about spending correctly and strategically. This isn't a huge deal to a lot of people now, but when things slow down, and they always do, the dealers who take the time to understand and control their speed to market and recon costs will be the ones left standing when everyone else is wondering where they went wrong. One of my favorite things to tell dealers is that "growth for the sake of growth is a bad business model" and that "you are only as good as you are scalable." Even if you decide not to call me or use my product, please invest in someones. Throw away your whiteboards, sharpies and hide the balloons, there is a better way of doing business. www.ireconcars.com