Manitoba dealer takes top honours in TRADER contest
PORTAGE LAPRAIRIE, MAN. – Craig Dunn Motor City in rural Manitoba is tops in the country in the 2015 Driven to Perform Contest.
The contest, which debuted for the first time early last year, is part of TRADER Corp.’s strategy to recognize the top-performing dealer in Canada.
The inaugural winner was selected based on key performance metrics using the vAuto inventory management solution, including: turn rate, average days in inventory, cost to market and price to market.
“When we compared their performance prior to using vAuto to where they are today, it’s really quite impressive to see the growth transition and efficiencies the product has created,” says Robert Rath, V-P of business development at TRADER.
vAuto is an inventory management solution that integrates live local market data.
Over 8,500 dealerships subscribe to vAuto in North America, which is offered in Canada through a licencing agreement with TRADER.
“I was surprised by the results [of vAuto], it’s absolutely the only reason I can remain competitive outside of major metro [Winnipeg], especially in today’s economy where there may be less consumer demand,” says Tyler Dunn, sales manager of Craig Dunn Motor City.
The dealership, part of the Murray Group of dealerships, has been a vAuto subscriber for over three years and is located 100 kilometres outside of Winnipeg in Portage LaPrairie.
“We needed a way to attract customers without spending thousands of dollars marketing every single unit,” he said, noting vAuto helped them source the right vehicles in demand in its market and price them right from the beginning.
He admits that while it did take some time to get buy in from his team, vAuto has made a huge impact on his dealership performance, bringing in more and more customers from surrounding areas.
He adds, “Since using vAuto, we’ve improved our volume and gross per unit every year, the sales guys are happy, the customers are happy, and we continue to sell more cars.”
Eligible dealers interested in competing next year are invited to participate. TRADER reps said the winning dealership would receive its current vAuto subscription free for 2017.
