A Strategic Approach to Acquiring Off-Site Appraisals

In my new role, I get the opportunity to visit and collaborate with the brightest minds in automotive retail across the country. I get to see what works, and I also sometimes see the opposite side of that. I also frequently get asked similar questions, from different people from all over the world around certain topics. So I've been keeping track of the most common questions, and I will be using my YouTube channel to address these topics at scale, beginning with this video.

And one of those topics is addressing two types of used vehicle acquisition. The first type is off-site, or sight-unseen vehicle appraisals. The second type of acquisition would be dealership service drive vehicle acquisition. I plan address the nuances of service drive acquisition in more detail next month.

We address off-site appraisals in this month's video, as well as topics like, "why so many Used Car Managers will pay more for the same vehicles at the auction than they are willing to do for the same vehicles when appraising them Off-Site, in the Service Drive, or even in the Showroom?"

I don't know what the "silver bullet" is for any of those topics. However, I do know thousands of ways that DON'T work when it comes to those topics. I'm guilty of learning many of those ways, the hard way.

This episode will be the first in a series around used vehicle acquisition. It specifically addresses the philosophy regarding dealership handling of Off-Site Appraisals, aka Sight Unseen Appraisals, aka Virtual Appraisals, Blind Appraisals, Remote Appraisals, etc. Basically any used vehicle valuation of a vehicle that is not On-Site at the dealership.

The intended audience for this episode is automotive dealership Used Car Managers, New Car Managers, Sales Managers, Finance Managers, General Sales Managers, General Managers, Dealer Principals, OEM partners, automotive vendor partners, and independent dealers that are looking for progressive ways to acquire more desirable used vehicle inventory for car dealerships in the United States and Canada. So I will apologize in advance for drilling so deep into this topic, during this episode.

This episode addresses the "mindset" of off-site appraisals for dealers. Some topics covered may be controversial, compared to some with legacy beliefs. but I feel that its long overdue that we address these issues as an industry.

Topics covered during this video:

• The clarity needed for dealership staff for an off-site appraisal process
• Questioning the "religion" of just "getting 'em in" for an appointment
• The dichotomy of used vehicle valuations. And why many Used Car Managers pay more for vehicles at the auction, than they do for the same vehicles when appraising them Off-Site or on the Service Drive.
• What factors are driving the fact that only 39% of consumers to trade-in a vehicle, when purchasing or leasing a new vehicle?
• Where do you begin with addressing these issues in your own dealership?
• Less fairy tales around vehicle acquisition, and more real world examples of how to attack used vehicle acquisition in a digital acquisition world.
• Appraising vehicles digitally/Off-Site is actually the key to tripling the amount of physical vehicle appraisals opportunities in your dealership.