What are your five best selling used vehicles? If you write down your favorite five vehicles and then ask your sales managers, buyers, and salespeople to do the same - youıll probably come up with ten to twenty different models. How can you be sure that you are stocking what sells in your area? One of the best ways is to run a report from your computer system of all used vehicles that sold in less than 45 days at a gross profit amount greater than your average. Subtotal the report by the model. Compare this list to your current inventory listing. Thatıs a good start to stocking what sells. Unfortunately there are two major problems with this approach: 1) What if you donıt purchase or receive trade-ins of the hottest vehicle? 2) What if you purchased the hottest vehicles at a higher cost so they had a lower gross profit average and donıt show up in your report? Another approach is to use a marketing service like Maxis Inventory Watch Series to forecast what models you should carry. This company uses a combination of data sources- your current inventory, your sales history, and external databases-to determine which models are the hot sellers for your area (and if you have enough in stock). It even provides a ³shopping list² to take to the auction. Because the database is regional, you wonıt get suggestions like Corvettes in Wyoming in January. The Maxis rating system is simple - you get a five star rating for best-rated models and a one star for the least. The example below taken from their Market Reference Guide by Manufacturer report; The Century would be the best-rated model for ³1995 and newer Buicks² in this market area, and it also happens to also have a high MaxIS All-Star rating which reflects the dealerships own sales performance. The highest All-Star vehicle is the model that has sold the most the fastest with consistently good grosses - in other words a combination of the Volume, Days and Gross Profit ratings. The report also provides the mileage ranges for the model. Other reports provide sales performance by model, zip code performance, and total inventory valuation based upon auction sales (great to have at tax time!) Some other technology tools available are used vehicle pricing guides that can be kept on a hand-held computer. Kelly Blue Book, Black Book, and NADA have their guides available on hand-held computers that can be taken to the auction or out on the lot. Jeff Sacks & Associates markets a hand-held computer, SalesLink, that can combine the Maxis Inventory Watch data with the current inventory data from a dealerıs in-house computer system. UCS has introduced SAM which is virtually the same as having the full in-house system with you out on the sales lot via radio transmission. Regardless of what new technology you use to manage your inventory, the most important key is to stock only what sells. It is time to provide your buyers and sales managers with the tools that they need to quickly determine what are the hottest vehicles in your marketing area to avoid costly mistakes and tying up your precious capital in ³dead² inventory.