OAK BROOK, Ill. -

In a recent entry on his Velocity 2.0 blog, vAuto founder and chairman Dale Pollak employed what he calls a well-known car business adage — “popcorn cars” — and took it a step further to stress the importance in each of the various “ingredients” to strong used-vehicle sales.

He explained that just as one must have kernels, oil and fire to cook popcorn, successful used-car sales can’t be achieved without blending several integral elements.

“Many dealers are familiar with the phrase ‘popcorn cars,’” Pollak wrote. “This refers to cars that sell or “pop” quickly off the lot. The analogy between cars and popcorn however, may have more relevance today than ever in the past."

He added: “Anyone that has cooked popcorn knows that some kernels pop quickly while others more slowly. When most of the kernels are popped, there are always some left over that never popped.”

Pollak then offered the following comparison, with the used vehicles being the kernels, the vehicle photographs and descriptions being represented by the oil and the fire representing the pricing.

Using this comparison as an illustration, Pollak stressed that just as popcorn is not possible without all three ingredients, success in the used-car markets depends on having the “right cars, great marketing and proper pricing.”

“It’s obvious that no matter how hot the flame, you can’t make popcorn with feed corn or without oil. In other words, if you have the wrong cars and poor marketing, bargain basement pricing will never be enough,” he emphasized.

“Similarly, you can have the most desired vehicles and tremendous marketing skills, but if the vehicles are over-priced it just won’t pop,” Pollak continued. “The reality is, like popcorn, you have to have the right cars, great marketing and proper pricing.”

So how can dealers make sure they can “pop” each unit in their inventory? Pollak pointed out that new information — search results page hits and vehicle detail page conversions — can help.

Pollak then shed some more light on the specifics of an SRP and a VDP.

He gave the example of an online shopper punching in a search for a 2009 F-150 truck. Say the searching brings up five pages of results.

Typically, each results page would have anywhere from 25 to 50 trucks listed.

If, for example, a dealership’s vehicle was on page 4 and the shoppers just scrolled through pages 1 through 3, there would not be an SRP credited to the dealer.

“If the shopper who looks at page 4 drills down on your vehicle to see all the photos and description, then you get credit for a VDP,” Pollak emphasized. “Keep in mind that on a third-party classified advertising site, nothing of any value occurs for a dealer until and unless the dealership gets a VDP view on their vehicle.”

Continuing on, Pollak gave the example of two vehicles in a dealer’s inventory being advertised online.

Fifty SRP and 15 VDP hits have gone to Car No. 1 in 15 days of it being in stock, whereas six SRP hits and no VDP hits have gone to Car No. 2 in the same time frame.

“The first vehicle that received 50 SRPs is one that is much more sought after than the second vehicle that received only six SRPs. Essentially, the first vehicle is gourmet corn, while the second vehicle is feed corn,” he surmised.

“The fact that the first vehicle converted SRPs to VDPs at the rate of 30 percent suggests that its photos and description are superb and the price is proper,” Pollak continued. “The fact that the second vehicle didn’t convert any of the SRPs into VDPs suggests that the marketing and/or pricing is not right. Put another way, all the ingredients for popping this car off the lot are missing.

“The question is whether the individual in your dealership that is responsible for popping cars off the lot has any awareness as to the SRP and VDP performance of their inventory,” he added.

Interestingly enough, the back-end of places like AutoTrader.com and Cars.com have provided SRP and VDP data for quite some time, Pollak noted. He stressed, though, that the bulk of used-car managers don’t know this data is out there or don’t realize how useful it can be in fostering fast used-car turn rates.

“Such information has traditionally been viewed as merely Internet metrics without much relevance to used vehicle production. In fact, the tracking of SRPs and VDPs on a per-vehicle basis is probably the most important used-car management metric in the car dealership today,” he pointed out.

“Knowing whether the vehicles in stock are ones that people are searching for, whether the photos and descriptions are differentiating and whether the current price is right are the essential ingredients for used-car success,” Pollak concluded.

The complete blog entry can be read at www.dalepollak.com.