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The Six-Figure Mistake Nobody's Talking About
Here's something that will make your eyes water: A 50-day-old truck sits on your lot. It's not moving. So what do you do? Drop the price $6,000. It's still not moving.
Then what? Drop it again.
This is the automotive equivalent of pressing the same button over and over, expecting a different result. And it's costing you money hand over fist.
This week on LotTalk Powered by Lotpop, we sat down with Dick Austin, a performance manager at VinCue, who decided to pull the scab off this wound. And honestly, his perspective is exactly what the industry needs to hear right now.
The Virtual Lot Is Your Front Porch—Treat It Like One
Think about how you treat your physical lot. You make sure the bumpers line up. You organize your inventory. You probably walk that lot regularly to ensure everything looks sharp and organized. Everything is positioned for success.
But here's the thing: Your customers aren't starting their journey in your showroom. They're starting it on your website.
"We don't take that same approach to our virtual lot where the majority of our customers start their visit with us," John Anderson pointed out during the episode. And he's right. If your VDP (vehicle details page) looks half-baked, your customer is gone before they ever meet your sales team.
In one real example Dick shared, a truck with poor lighting made the interior look like it had two-tone seats—except it didn't. The shading was just bad photography. That single merchandising detail? It was likely responsible for a significant bounce rate and lost leads.
Your action item: Do a brutally honest audit of your top 10 aged vehicles right now. Look at the photos, the description, and the overall presentation. Would you click on it? More importantly, would a customer with options click on something else instead?
Here's What Actually Kills Sales (Hint: It's Not Just Price)
Dick made a statement that should be printed and hung in every dealership: "Did you do anything to try to sell this vehicle other than lower the price?"
It's a simple question, but it cuts right to the heart of the problem.
When that truck wasn't selling after dropping $6,000, nobody asked questions. Nobody walked the lot with the sales team to understand what was wrong. Nobody retook photos. Nobody rewrote the description. Nobody changed the placement. Nobody did anything except lower the price.
"If it was just price, that truck would be on someone's plates," Dick said bluntly. "So it's gotta be something more than that."
The "something more" is usually one of these three things:
1. Merchandising
Your photos and description are often your only chance to make a first impression. If they're mediocre, no price cut will save you. An 18-day delay in getting proper photos on a vehicle that needs to sell in the first 30 days? That's leaving money on the table before anyone even calls.
2. Communication (Or Lack Thereof)
John shared a story about finding out a salesman knew why a car wasn't selling—it smelled like mildew—but nobody had bothered to tell management. If your team isn't communicating what they know about your inventory, your management team is flying blind.
3. Training
Here's where things get uncomfortable: A lot of managers promoting to leadership roles after COVID never learned how to train. Dick called it "the blind leading the blind," and unfortunately, it's everywhere. If your sales team doesn't know how to confidently discuss a vehicle outside their usual brand or market segment, you've already lost the sale.
Your action items:
- Stop asking "should we lower the price?" and start asking "what haven't we tried?"
- Require your team to do lot walks together and communicate what they observe
- Spend time training your staff on product knowledge, not just process
Authenticity: The Secret Ingredient You're Ignoring
Here's something that hit differently in this conversation: customers don't want games anymore. They want authenticity.
Think about the most popular content on social media. It's not polished perfection—it's real people showing their actual lives, including the messy parts. Why? Because people connect with authenticity.
Yet in car sales, we're still doing things like squeeze pages and site-unseen appraisals (which, spoiler alert: Chris absolutely torched in this episode). We're pretending we can withhold information customers can get on their phone in 30 seconds. We're acting like they don't know we're not being straight with them.
They know. And they resent it.
What if instead, you showed your internal repair orders in your photos? What if you said, "Here's what we actually did to this vehicle and here's what it cost us—that's value we're passing to you." That's authentic. That's real.
"If we're not being real and authentic with our staff so that they're real and authentic with our customers, and then we wonder why we're not doing business, we're freaking kidding ourselves," John said.
He's right. Your staff takes cues from you. If you're being dodgy with them, they'll be dodgy with customers. If you're real with them, they'll be real with customers. And customers will respond.
Your action item: Look at your typical customer communication this week. Where are you being defensive or evasive? Where can you be more transparent? Start there.
The Generation Problem (And Why It's Not Their Problem)
One important note from the conversation: Dick mentioned that after COVID, many mediocre salespeople got promoted into management, and they never learned how to train. Meanwhile, a younger generation is stepping into roles they might not be fully prepared for.
Chris made an important distinction here: This isn't an indictment on younger leaders. It's an indictment on the leadership that promoted them without proper training and mentorship.
Renaldo added something equally important for younger team members: You have to step up too. Ask questions. Demand mentorship. Don't accept mediocre training and blame everyone else. Invest in yourself.
But here's the real message: Training matters. Expectations matter. Clear processes matter.
If you haven't explicitly told your team what you expect, how they should handle situations, and why it matters, you can't blame them for not doing it.
Your action item: Do you have documented, communicated expectations for your sales team and management? If not, create them. Today.
Find Your Why (Or Step Aside)
This one's going to sting a little.
Dick asked: "What are you doing? And if that elicits a response, then get in front of a mirror, grab a statement and break it down into, is it working for me? Is it working for my store?"
If the answer is "I'm not really sure," then you've got a bigger problem than aged inventory.
The dealership business hasn't fundamentally changed since 1904. You need people to sell cars. You need those people to be trained, motivated, and equipped. You need to walk the lot. You need to understand your inventory. That's it. It's not complicated.
What has changed is the excuse-making. "The system didn't give me the right data." "The market's just slow." "Nobody wants these vehicles." Nope. If it's not working, look in the mirror.
And if you've lost your passion for this business? Step aside. Let someone who cares take the wheel. Your team will feel your lack of passion, and it'll tank morale faster than anything else.
Your action item: Be brutally honest with yourself this week. Do you have a game plan for Q4 and into 2025? Can you articulate your strategy with confidence? If not, sit down and figure it out before you show up to manage your team.
The Bottom Line
Stop the price-cutting spiral. Stop assuming customers will just accept outdated information. Stop promoting people without training them. Stop pretending you have a strategy when you don't.
And for God's sake, stop doing site-unseen appraisals. (We're pretty sure Chris didn't appreciate those either.)
Instead, be intentional. Be authentic. Be trained. Be passionate. Train your people. Walk your lot. Use your eyes and ears. Communicate. Then—and only then—adjust your price if the fundamentals still aren't working.
That's how you move aged inventory. That's how you grow your business. That's how you stay relevant in 2025 and beyond.
Because 2026 isn't knocking on the door. It's already opened it, looked you in the eye, and asked, "Are you ready?"
Are you?