Unstoppable and Confident, Beaver Toyota Continues to Win Against Big Box Retailers

Every month between 25,000 – 30,000 of used cars are retail sold in the state of Georgia. “We are focused on doing everything in our power to make sure that 350 – 500 of those cars are ours,” declares Hugh Palmer, Director of Used Cars at Beaver Toyota in Cumming, Georgia. “Even if that number got cut in half, and the market began to be constrained, we still want to be the dealer that sells 350 – 500 used cars per month.”

Beaver Toyota is an award-winning car dealership that sells all models of New & Certified Pre-Owned Toyota’s, as well as over 500 Beaver Direct Certified vehicles of all makes and models. It’s no accident that they’ve been recognized as the number one Toyota store in Georgia.

The entire team at Beaver Toyota is committed to doing what they need to do to get their unfair share of vehicles and customers in their market. They have proven that they are willing to do the work.

“VINCUE has been one of the biggest lifts in our used car operation,” claims Palmer. “It caused us to be able to create the shift in the organization that we needed towards acquisition.”

In May of 2021, Beaver Toyota signed up on the VINCUE Vehicle Buying Center or VBC. This is when their journey to acquire vehicles from private parties began and they haven’t looked back.

Hugh and General Manager, Patrick Abad, saw an opportunity to go after used cars in their market that no one else was attacking. Now they compete with the likes of Carvana and Carmax for private party vehicle acquisition. And they are doing it well, acquiring more than 150 vehicles per month from PPA alone.

They credit the VINCUE VBC platform which provides an automated acquisition CRM covering all inbound and outbound private party channels into one dashboard. The quantifiable and measurable data provided allows them to make decisions on the fly on which vehicles to acquire for their store. They loved the VBC so much that they decided to go all in on the entire VINCUE suite of capabilities.

“The acquisition capability worked so well for us that we adopted their entire suite. We use VINCUE as our sole source for our inventory management. VINCUE ties into the third party resources we use including our CRM, DMS, website and beyond.”

The secret to outperforming the market is to know which vehicles people prefer and will buy. Hugh’s team uses the data to inform them on the vehicles that no other competitor has and provides the capabilities to merchandise them in such a way that they know Beaver Toyota has the vehicle they want. The data is so powerful and accurate that it has allowed Hugh to relinquish control of appraising every car. Four sales associates and four service associates appraise vehicles daily with Hugh providing limited oversight.

Beaver Toyota is focused on obtaining the Highest Authentic Value for every car on their lot. In other words, to sell each car for what the market dictates. Using real-time market data to understand vehicle features, options, interior and exterior color combinations, sell-through rate turn, availability, and more – all of these factors are used to put a number on a car when acquiring and selling.

“I trust that the people who are using the tool are so equipped and prepared to use that information, and the information itself is so accurate that it allows me to inspect what I expect, instead of having to do it all for them.”