It is amazing what customers will do when they know something exists. It is also amazing how much dealers assume because we live the car life daily.
Customers don’t know you buy cars. And you think every customer knows you will buy cars off the street.
I can’t tell you the number of dealers who told us, “we have a sign in our service drive” or ” a sign in front of our dealership,” letting customers know WE BUY CARS but were barely acquiring any off the street. And then they put our software in to all of a sudden… magic! Used vehicle acquisitions are now happening from the service drive and sold database without anyone having to make a cold call or walk into service.
In 2022 30% of total deals with some kind of FRIKINtech attribution were for vehicle acquisitions. That’s right – straight purchase, no trade-in. I think many of those were ordered vehicles, but the dealer got the used car to sell instead of waiting for their new car to arrive.
Thus far into 2023, that 30% has remained consistent. 1 in 3 deals is a used car acquisition. It will be interesting to see if this adjusts as new cars become more available. I think it will continue to surprise us while used car values are above pre-COVID valuations.
If you aren’t using us to automate this for your loyal customers (making them more loyal), at least consider a strategy to grow your street buying.