Used Car Stock Acquisition 101,,,,,Your Business Must NEVER Be Not Buying!

Welcome the 4th article in the series of articles exploring the golden rules of used car stock acquisition, those golden rules and pieces of advice explored and first outlined in the article listed below, and written for my Used Car Business Development Blog;

Used Car Stock Acquisition 101!

As the process of exploring all the pieces of advice contained within the original article continues over the coming weeks, those wishing to read the previous articles will be able to do so by following the links to the articles below.

Used Car Stock Acquisition 101!,,,,,,, “If You Are Doing The Same Thing As Everyone Else, Then Stop!”

Used Car Stock Acquisition 101!,,,, Successful Used Car Stock Acquisition Professionals Are Not Buying Used Car Stock From Auctions!

Used Car Stock Acquisition 101!,,,, The Business That Controls Access To Used Car Stock, Controls Access To Used Car Customers!

Now, back to today’s article exploring the golden rule of used car stock acquisition contained within the heading, a piece of advice that is inextricably linked to another contained in the original article; that:

Never not buying is a financial structures and people business; one aligned to a successful used car business!

So, back to the heading; when I am working with businesses building their used car stock acquisition programmes and business, or even just starting the exploratory discussions with each other (in order to see whether or not we will be a “Good Fit”), this will invariably be the concept that the vast majority both question and can’t grasp.

Unfortunately fully embracing and understanding (as a business) the business strategy contained within the heading of this article is pivotal to success; any used car business or franchised dealer that can’t grasp the importance of the heading and then how you ensure that they develop their understanding to ensure that the business can deliver, will only be locking-in terminal decline.

And the reason for this is that some businesses will! And invariably these will be your competition, and a business understanding, fully embracing and delivering on the operational and used car stock acquisition sentiment contained within the heading of this article, will over time starve other businesses of stock.

So where do the problems with understanding how to take a business on this used car stock acquisition journey begin? Well, in “One Dimensional” thinking, aligned to a complete lack of expertise; let me expand further. At inception (I am yet to speak to the exception to this rule) all used car businesses think in terms of a stocking allowance equating to a maximum stock holding.

Now in certain respects they are right but where they fail is in this thinking; the fact that your stocking budget dictates the maximum level of used car stock; it doesn’t. Of course I can’t give everyone all the answers for free, knowing how to deliver on this is part of my intellectual IP. But I can tell everyone reading this, if you think the answers to understanding and obtaining the knowledge required lies within the automotive sector, then you are wrong.

You are wrong because no matter how much money you have for used car stock, which is then aligned to “One Dimensional” thinking, you will always run out of money! Just ask We Buy Any Car; even they run out of money and are then NOT buying!

To understand and then be able to enjoy the benefits of this operational understanding you have to understand the importance of the foundations lying beneath, those contained in the second “Golden Rule” listed above; that never not buying is a financial structures and people business; one aligned to a successful used car business!

Too many reading this article and then those that I have exploratory discussions with, limit their thinking and ambition to what others are doing. Take used car stock acquisition and the threat of We Buy Any Car; too many try to take We Buy Any Car on and replicate what they are doing, because they have become blinded by both their success and the imaginary threat.

Now the frailties of the We Buy Any Car Business model is for another article. My advice to everyone is to not to let your business thinking become restricted by the “Modus Operandi” of a business that has no other option, because it doesn’t enjoy the trading advantages that you enjoy; those that you currently choose to ignore. In other words learn to;

Observe The Masses And Do The Opposite!

Unfortunately though, hitherto unknown to you or your business, used car stock acquisition professionals, have been taking the role into new and previously unknown territory. The skills required to deliver on the heading for this article have been brought together from experience of running successful acquisitions campaigns in many commodities and progressive/alternative investment markets.

Constructing and delivering successful acquisition campaigns in these markets broadens knowledge and expertise, especially in the regard to creative funding structures, those required to ensure that you are NEVER not buying. The truth is that everyone reading this article has enough money to be NEVER not buying; what they lack is the knowledge and expertise. That said, to deliver you will need the professionals required.

First and foremost successful used car stock acquisition is a people business; if you are copying everyone else and relying solely on tech (ala We Buy Any Car) you will fail, of that there is no doubt. For sure the leveraging of technology is important (it plays a role in all the campaigns I am building) but only in the hands of the used car stock acquisition professionals who know how to use it.

Then you will need the used car operation capable of delivering. For most this will be a huge journey, one I can but won’t expand upon here. However, a journey that is best summed up in the understanding that your used car operation must regard it is an abject failure for a used car to arrive on site not sold! 

Now I have no doubt that the vast majority of you reading this will probably ridicule these ambitions; that will be because you are not a successful used car stock acquisition and used business development professional; in the same way as I am not an accounts professional or a Michelin starred chef. But it can be and is being delivered upon; I should know because I am taking these initiatives to a few select used car businesses right now.

For those curious, ambitious, capable of opening their minds and taking their strategic used car business development thinking on the journey required, I would say this. In the used car markets to come, those with used car vehicle parks of 680,000 less vehicles, (in terms of available stock), my question would be; how well set up is your business to survive?

In truth the vast majority aren’t. It is the inconvenient truth of our times that you can have the best people and operational procedures imaginable, but if you don’t have the professionals required to secure used car stock holdings in the volumes and at the prices required to remain profitable? Well it is all going to be for nothing.

I have observed how the used car stock acquisition landscape has evolved during the last 12-24 months and I promise the vast majority reading this, you will not be ready for how the acquisitions landscape has evolved; to the point where (as mentioned above) all those relying on the used car stock acquisition initiatives and skills of the recent past, will be left floundering.

For these businesses, those reactionary businesses purchasing stock on a hand to mouth basis and in the moment, (in what I call the “Just In Time” market), it will be a challenge to acquire used car stock at prices (and in the volumes) that ensure your business remains profitable.

But there are others, albeit very few, those who (like me) spent the lock downs monitoring the market and rewriting previously very successful programmes of used car stock acquisition, from the ground floor up, in order to develop the programmes and initiatives required to ensure that used car stock holdings are being secured for future markets right now. And via campaigns and initiatives that will leave the competition with years of work to catch up; even if they can find the skills required already within the four walls of their business?

The used car stock acquisition skills now required to secure success can’t be taught via any training programme, it is too fast moving a discipline and covering too vast an array of skills-sets. So in reality successful used car stock acquisition now necessitates an environment of strategic alliances via commercial arrangements. The market value of the skills involved would also make it too financially restrictive to employ genuinely successful used car stock acquisition professionals; there are too few of us, so for the moment those days are gone.

That said I am working with two businesses building and delivering the used car stock acquisition programmes they require; having made a commitment to work with three at all times. So for those grasping the seriousness of their current situation and wanting to take immediate action, I will be working with another business over the next 12 months, in order to deliver the used car stock acquisition expertise and initiatives required, for that business to survive and prosper in the used car market to come.

Should you wish to explore synergies and the potential to collaborate in this regard, please do not hesitate to contact me via LinkedIn, so we can arrange a mutually convenient time for an exploratory call.

Andrew.