Just because it’s easy to buy salvage cars from online or in-person dealer auctions doesn’t mean that every used car dealer should just start stocking up the first chance they get. In fact, having lots of cars on your lot that don’t move extremely quickly can be a big hindrance to getting any sales at all. The key to making money from buying salvage cars is to choose the vehicles your customers actually want.
What Is Your Market?
Probably the only way you’re going to find the cars your customers truly want is to understand your market. Why are your customers coming to you in the first place? Who are they? If they are suburban parents who need to keep their budget in check while still getting plenty of room for the family, you’ll be selling a lot of minivans, SUVs, and large sedans. Furthermore, families tend to prefer vehicles that look good cosmetically.
On the other hand, if your primary market is comprised of young twenty-somethings on a shoestring budget in college, they are likely looking for something that gets top-notch gas mileage and requires very little maintenance. You can probably get away with cars that don’t look as nice in exchange for better performance.
The point is that, to buy salvage cars for your market, you have to know them and what their daily needs are. If your lot is stocked with dozens of pickup trucks in an area where parking is hard to come by, chances are your profits won’t be that great.
Get Your Team On Board
It’s not enough to have a lot full of cars that your customers want; you also need to have cars that your sales team will sell. If they aren’t excited when you bring home the new goods, then there’s not much you can do to convince them to push the used cars on the lot. Then you’ve wasted all that time buying the salvage cars for nothing.
So get your team together for a meeting when you bring in used cars, and explain the benefits of each new acquisition. Talk to them about who would be the best buyer for each car, and make sure they all understand the basic specs. Of course, your team should be trying to sell every car on the lot, but the truth is that many sales team members will automatically steer customers towards new vehicles. Get them on board when you buy salvage cars for better resale returns overall.
The more confidence you have that you are meeting your customers’ needs, the more your team will catch on, and the more your customers will be presented with the right salvage car for their needs. That makes auctions even more lucrative for you, because you know that every salvage car you bring to the lot will be sold very soon. Explore our Vehicle Auctions, as well as finding more information about How These Auctions Work.
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