Page 34 - GIADA-Dec 2017-Final

AUCTIONS

Rise of the Anytime, Anywhere Auction

Technology Makes the Wholesale-to-Retail Process Faster and More

Efficient By Allowing Dealers to Buy and Sell 24/7 From Multiple Platforms

By Alan Lang
In a world with shrinking margins and EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY FUELS SUCCESS gate passes, ordering transportation and
increasing competition, independent While those four dealers have very different post-sale inspections, and checking title
dealers are infusing speed and efficiency philosophies of how they approach and status. That allows him to spend the time he
into their wholesale-to-retail process – conduct their respective businesses, they wants in the lanes.
from acquisition and floorplanning to have universally embraced technology and
inspection and transportation – to meet digital tools to help them streamline their He’s gone from writing checks for everything
their profitability goals. processes and are focused on making their to using ACH, which automatically pays and
operations faster and more efficient. receives payments for his transactions. And
They are part of a fast-growing contingent he gets gate passes and orders transportation
of independent operators who are buying Many dealers are spending too much time from his phone.
and selling vehicles on their own terms – standing in line and managing the auction
in-lane, digitally, 24/7, mobile, simulcast process when they could be serving their “I like the simplicity of being able to email
– because they can. customers. my gate passes directly to my transporters so
they aren’t calling me left and right,” he said.
You can call it the Amazon effect, but the According to the 2015 “Plus it allows me to hold my transporters
rise of the anytime, anywhere auction was Manheim Vehicle Solutions accountable as to where my cars are.
inevitable because it’s meeting needs as
diverse as our dealer universe. Concept Test, while 72 percent “It’s important for our inventory managers
of dealers manage all wholesale to know when cars are being dropped off so
For example, Joe Wilkins, acquisition activities internally, just 52 they can get them into our system in a timely
manager for the Auto Store Group in manner.”
eastern North Carolina, likes to “buy percent are satisfied with their
from my feet, not my seat,” while Ron current wholesale process. Because Wilkins has buyers at several
Wilkes, who owns Ron’s Used Cars in locations, he uses a dashboard to keep up
Sumter, S.C., buys almost exclusively at It’s not uncommon to spend 20 minutes with what they’re buying in real time.
mobile auctions. after each physical or digital auction
transaction managing paperwork, ordering “I can see what everybody is buying so we
For Van Stewart, a partner in Music City post-purchase services and transportation, don’t overbuy or buy too much of the same
Autoplex in Nashville and Dallas, about settling the transaction and checking status, thing,” he said.
50 percent of the cars he sells in the lanes with much of that time spent waiting in line
are sold through simulcast, and at any or communicating with auction location A true believer in mobile sales, Ron Wilkes
given time he’s got at least 100 cars listed staff in person, via email and/or on the goes to six or seven Manheim mobile
online. phone. auctions a month because it’s where he finds
Twenty minutes might not sound like a lot, the freshest inventory for his customers. He
Bruce Jewer, president of Jewer Family but it means for every three transactions you also buys vehicles to wholesale, which he
Holdings in Toronto, has a standing make, you could easily spend one hour per lists online.
arrangement for a pre-sale inspection, week handling the paperwork and processes.
condition report and cleanup on every Most of the cars he buys are as-is, but he looks
vehicle, making it easier to sell in the Managing those disparate activities is an for trade-ins that need minor reconditioning
lanes – and digitally. enormous distraction and ends up taking that he sells for a healthy profit margin. He’s
a significant amount of time and resources gone paperless to speed up the post-sale
Less than five years ago, those dealers away from buying and selling cars – the two process.
would never have been able to buy and things that actually grow the business.
sell cars in so many ways. Now they’re “I think mobile sales are the way of the
on board with it in a big way because Wilkins does pretty much everything future,” he said.
it’s helping them save time, make more digitally now – making payments, getting
money and control their business.

32 | GIADA Independent Auto Dealer DECEMBER 2017