
How to Sustain Operational Excellence in Your Dealership
Last Friday, VINCUE had the opportunity to bring five VINCUE dealers onto David Long’s All Things Used Cars Clubhouse to talk about operational excellence and what they do to maintain it in their dealerships. they do to maintain it in their dealerships.
Their insights highlighted the core elements that define operational excellence, and how dealers can sustain it every single day.
Operational excellence in inventory management for a car dealership means having the right vehicles, in the right condition, at the right time, to meet customer demand while maximizing profitability and minimizing holding costs.
But what does that really look like in action? Let’s break it down:
1. Right Sourcing Strategy
Dealerships need to proactively acquire high-demand vehicles through multiple channels, trades, auctions, service drives, and buy-back programs. Successful sourcing isn’t just the job of the buyer or manager; it’s a team effort that involves the entire dealership. Leveraging data to forecast demand helps prevent both overstocking and understocking, keeping inventory aligned with market needs.
2. Speed to Front Line (STFL)
The goal is to reduce the time it takes to get a vehicle from acquisition to retail-ready status. This requires streamlined reconditioning processes with clearly defined steps and accountability at every stage. The best-performing stores target just 3–5 days to get a car front-line ready, allowing them to capitalize quickly on demand.
3. Profit-Focused Pricing Strategy
Market-based pricing tools, like VINCUE, help dealerships stay competitive while protecting margins. Understanding each car’s full investment and profit potential—both front-end and back-end is key. Tools like PTM+ help dealers calculate a vehicle’s total authentic value, and dynamic pricing adjustments are made based on real-time activity, age, market trends, and turn rate.
4. Aged Inventory Control
Dealers should implement a tight age policy, such as a 30-, 60-, or 90-day turn plan, and stick to it. Proactive markdowns, merchandising refreshes, and advertising efforts can help move stale units. Accountability is essential at every level to ensure aging inventory doesn’t erode profitability.
5. Real-Time Visibility & Reporting
Daily reporting on inventory health, gross performance, and days-to-turn keeps everyone informed. Clear dashboards provide transparency for appraisals, reconditioning status, and lot-ready counts, while KPIs like average cost per vehicle, ROI, turn rate, and gross per copy are monitored consistently.
6. Tech-Enabled Workflow
Daily reporting on inventory health, gross performance, and days-to-turn keeps everyone informed. Clear dashboards provide transparency for appraisals, reconditioning status, and lot-ready counts, while KPIs like average cost per vehicle, ROI, turn rate, and gross per copy are monitored consistently.
Why It Matters
Operational excellence in inventory management means your inventory works for you, not the other way around. It’s more than managing cars on a lot, you’re managing a dynamic, moving investment portfolio. Every vehicle represents capital, and your job is to optimize how that capital flows through your dealership. By keeping the right mix of vehicles in the right condition and moving them quickly, you maximize profitability while minimizing holding costs.
When processes, from sourcing and reconditioning to pricing and reporting, are finely tuned, your inventory becomes a powerful asset that drives growth and keeps you ahead of market demand. Sustaining operational excellence is a daily commitment, but it pays off with faster turn rates, healthier margins, and a stronger competitive edge. In today’s market, making your inventory work efficiently is key to long-term success.
For more insights on strategy and operational excellence, view our Resources tab.
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VINCUE boasts an exceptional team and an outstanding platform. Our performance manager, Bryan Ball, is truly remarkable and incredibly patient. In over a decade of working with automotive vendors, I’ve never encountered a performance manager as dedicated and hardworking as Bryan and his team. Their efforts have significantly enhanced our business efficiency and success.
Stephanie Jacobs
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New to the VINCUE family, and I’m very impressed with the immediate support provided by the team. Charlie Basham has been a key factor in getting the dealership started on a great path with the VINCUE system. He has been very responsive to my questions and has made sure I can navigate the key reports and understand the process used. Cheyenne Currier has also been very responsive with merchandising uploads needed by the dealership. I look forward to working with the VINCUE Team in the future.
Lynn Burns
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I use VINCUE on a daily basis and cannot imagine using any other platform. It’s user friendly with it’s drop down menu and search bar at the top of the page. So much so that I haven’t had the need to use live rep assistance as of yet.
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