Dale loves to hear from you…

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dp head shot small Dale loves to hear from you...In addition to being a best-selling author on Used Car Sales in his book Velocity, Dale Pollak is the chairman and founder of vAuto, Inc., a company that provides retail automotive dealerships with a better way to appraise, manage and price their pre-owned vehicle inventory. In addition to serving as vAuto’s spokesperson, Dale is responsible for strategic planning and development.

Prior to vAuto, Pollak served as VP of Sales and Business Strategy at Digital Motorworks, the market leader in data integration and application development for OEMs, mega dealers and third party providers. Pollak helped build the company from inception to its successful acquisition by ADP in 2002.

Pollak received his B.S. in Business Administration from Indiana University and is a graduate of the General Motors Institute of Automotive Development. Pollak also earned a law degree from DePaul University’s College of Law, and is a four-time winner of the American Jurisprudence Award for top performance in his class.

Dale Pollak is one of the leading authorities on automotive dealership management strategies. Tap into Dale’s experience, insight and knowledge.

Need advice about your dealership’s inventory pricing management?

Looking for guidance with regards to managing your departments more effectively?

Send your automotive/dealership related questions to Dale; all questions will be answered and discussed with the Velocity community

Ask a question or share your feedback.

Contact Dale: dpollak [at] vauto.com

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  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Hey John,

    If I’m correct, I think your dad is Jerry. If so, please give him my regards.

    Yes the book is available on Audio CD at Amazon.com. Please let me know if you need additional assistance.

    Dale

  • Tom Cole

    Dale,
    I’m experiencing issues with vAuto due to connectivity issues with Reynolds. Is there a plan in motion and what is the time frame for a resolution? You know I love your program and have been a customer for a long time, but I need an operational tool.
    Regards,
    Tom Cole
    Acura Columbus

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Tom,

    Thank you. As we just discussed on the phone, we are pursuing several different solution alternatives. We’re all in this together, please have confidence. Together we’ll work through it. I’ll be in touch with you tomorrow with more information.

    Respectfully,

    Dale

  • Jerry Pfeil

    Dale,
    I remember visiting your booth at a NADA convention, maybe 5-6 year ago.  I was blown away by your presentation and waited afterwards to ask you about your product offering in Canada.  You quickly brushed me off once you realized I  was from Canada and explained that you didn’t have the source of information in Canada to make your program run.  It was kind of funny at the time.  But I never forgot about the presentation and in fact when I got home from the convention, I told my wife about your program as my highlight of the trip.
    Well it only took 6 years and your finally here!  As soon as I found out you (vAuto) was available in Canada, I signed up.  Waiting for setup to get started.  Looking forward to it….
    Jerry Pfeil
    Grey Motors Mazda

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Jerry,

    Thanks so much for your note and I’m so sorry if you felt that I gave you a “brush off”. I honestly try, and in fact do spend a lot of time with dealers and managers with whom I have no business relationship. I recognize that this world is round and surprisingly small, so again, please accept my belated apology. On a happier note, yes, we are now in Canada and wow, what a journey it was. Our Canadian version of vAuto is getting stronger every day as we create new compelling features based on your unique needs.

    I want to remind you and others that the vAuto system is much more than software, first and foremost it’s a strategy or methodology of management. As you probably know, I’ve written two books on this subject, and I would definitely recommend reading, if you haven’t done so already, Velocity 2.0: Paint, Pixels and Profitability. The book is available on Amazon, or I’d be happy to send you a copy if you provide me with your mailing address. If you are able to adopt the strategy of Velocity and use the software properly, the results for your dealership are significant. You will come to learn much from our Canadian based performance managers. These individuals will engage with you and your staff on a regular basis to ensure that you’re getting the improvement that you deserve. Please keep me in the loop as you proceed on the Velocity journey and let me know if I can be of personal assistance. Again, thank you for your patience and understanding.

    Respectfully,

    Dale

  • Jerry Pfeil

    Dale,
    That was quick response!  No apology necessary.  You had a line-up of people that wanted to have a word with you after your presentation and I wasn’t at all offended by your polite ”brush off”.  I am very excited to finally experience your software.  I would also like to take you up on your offer of sending me a copy of your book.  Please feel free to send it to my attention, to the dealership below. 
    THANKS!
    Jerry Pfeil
    Grey Motors Mazda 
    RR#5 P. O. Box 790
    Owen Sound ON
    N4k 5W9

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Jerry,

    Thanks again, the book is on its way. Stay in touch.

    Dale

  • Autotraderdave

    Dale,

    I heard you mention a certain ratio of VDP’s to a sales.  Is it .0085%?

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Dave,
    Thanks for the question. Yes, that’s very close to the .008 factor that I use, however you must be very, very careful about the use of factor. First, it is really only a very rough guide that I and others use to equate VDPs to SRPs. It is not so exact that you can use it with competence against any dealer’s VDPs to estimate their used retail sales. If you were however to take the VDPs of 50+ dealerships, add them up, apply the factor, you would be fairly close to their combined used retail sales. The real important point here, is not so much the factor, but the fact that there is a mathematical relationship that generally exists between the number of VDPs and the number of used retail sales. In other words, the more VDPs, the more sales. Another benchmark that I commonly look to is the attainment of 10,000 VDPs. Generally speaking, you’d be hard pressed to find a dealership that sells more than 100 used retail without generating at least 10,000 VDPs. This doesn’t necessarily mean that if a dealership doesn’t generate 10,-000 VPDs it will sell 100 used retail because you still have to have a good sales process. Let me know if this helps.

    Dale

  • Matt

    Dale:  Will you be doing any training or putting on any courses at any conferences in the near future?  I’ve got some new managers that I want to have hear you speak in person.  I went to your class at the Digital Dealer Conference in Orlando and it was amazing.  I know you’re busy running a business, but it sure is nice to hear from you in person every now and then!

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Matt,

    Thanks so much for your note. Unfortunately I will not be at Digital Dealer or the Driving Sales conferences next month. My middle son Alex is studying in Vienna for his first semester of Junior year and we’ll be going over there to visit with him. It really hurts to miss the conferences, as I look forward to seeing everyone. I’m also in the midst of writing my third book, so I’ve tried to keep my travel down just a bit. I will however, be a speaker at the NADA 2012 conference in Las Vegas. In the meantime however, I would be happy to host any of your managers for a session in Chicago. Let me know if this is something that you’d like to pursue and we’ll make the arrangements. Please stay in touch and let me know how you’re doing.

    Respectfully,

    Dale

  • Mike

    Question for Dale:  Is there correlation between market days supply and number
    of days it should take to sell at average market price?  If so, why. 
    I not, why?

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Mike,

    Thanks for the question. First, let me explain how market day’s supply is calculated. It is a fraction, with a numerator being the number of current vehicles available for sale in the market, identical to the one in question. This number is divided by the denominator, which is the average daily retail sales rate over the past 45 days of that same vehicle in that market. In other words, if a particular vehicle had 10 available for sale in the market and they were selling at 1 a day retail over the past 45 days, you would divide the 10 by 1 and have a 10 market day’s supply.

    Another way of looking at it is if no new ones came into the market like the one in question, but they only continue to sell retail at the current rate, in 10 days they would all be gone.

    I don’t think that it would be reasonable to assume that a vehicle priced at average would take 10 days to sell. First, this is not the meaning of the calculation and second, there’s so many factors that affect a vehicle’s sales velocity other than price. It would be too simplistic to assume that a vehicle will sell in any given period of time, at a given price. Remember that these are used cars and they need to be merchandised properly. It is only when proper pricing is combined with proper merchandising and proper sales technique that a vehicle should be expected to transact.

    Dale

  • Bcollins

    Hi Dale,
    I have been working with you guys for over 2+years now. Mike and I are on a first name basis now due to this. Quite a dynamic and progressive guy. I have requested improvements and changes that have been implemented by your staff to help all dealers. Years before Vauto I wrote a plan that held the used car department as accountable to all other departments. The status qou despises this… Why , because they aren’t held accountable…plain and simple. Most of them love to work their own hours and dictate what cars are worth while at the same time paying stupid money at the auctions. Call me crazy but you try to trade a car at rough book and the same Used car manager pays clean or extra clean at the sale for the same car. It is a travesty and so old school that dealers must wake up. So many buy Vauto as a quick fix when they must know they must look at ALL the analytics to truly use Vauto. My last REQUEST is that you digitize your books and have them available to all, whether IBooks, Kindle or Nook. A Small request since I have now made some not so happy with me but the truth nonetheless.
    Peace and Godspeed, Bob Collins

  • http://twitter.com/NickDavisCanada Nick Davis

    Hi Dale,
    I’ve been using vAuto for 3 months now and absolutely love it! How close are you to coming out with a BlackBerry app? Thanks!

  • Rfrench

    Dale,

    If a client is spending $1300 a month on a website like Autotrader.com what would be a good amount of VDP’s if they have an average of 50 vehics?  

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Nick,

    Thanks so much for your business and note. I wish I had better news for you, we do not currently have plans for a Blackberry version of the application. As you’re probably painfully aware, Blackberry applications lag far behind ones for Apple and Android. This is because historically, the Blackberry operating system has not been very friendly to the internet. Its primary focus has been email communications, where it has really excelled. Creating and maintaining applications on multiple level platforms is very time intensive and given the present landscape of users is not presently on our road map. I hope this news doesn’t discourage your use of vAuto, if it does, I’d be happy to purchase an Android or Apple device for your use.

    Thanks,
    Dale

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Rebecca,

    There is simply not enough information for anyone to properly answer this question. How many VDPs a dealer gets has much less to do with how much money they spend, than how they spend it, how they merchandise, what inventory they stock and how competitive is their market. Dealers often labor under the false impression that because they wrote and sent a large check to AutoTrader or Cars.com, they have done their part and now it’s time for the site to deliver. As I often say that when a dealer writes such a check, all they’re doing is paying to play in the used car, on-line, classified advertising arena. If you don’t know the rules of the game, or if you’re not good at playing by the rules, no amount of money can return certain results.

    Dale

  • Andy

    Hi Dale!

    Just sent an email to Barbara in the marketing department at vAuto asking this same question before I found this method of contact directly to you. Who are the best US companies with national coverage for installing auto security systems? Hard to find this information from the UK and after looking at the vAuto website, which I found through your Twitter page, I felt that if you don’t know, no one would.

    Thanks – Andy

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Andy,

    Thanks for your note. The automotive security business in the US has steadily changed over the past decade. As electronic anti-theft mechanisms have been built into vehicles by the manufacturers, the after-market installed products have steadily dwindled. This trend has been hastened by GPS tracking devices that are now also standard or optional equipment in a growing number of vehicles. For example, General Motors On-Star is a service that can remotely lock, unlock, arm, disarm and track the physical location of any vehicle. Combined with a computer chipped key system, there is little room for after-market providers.

    Even prior to this move to OEM electronic security, the automotive security after-market industry was highly fragmented. There was a dearth of manufactured mechanical devices installed by local agents. For a brief period of time there was a company called LoJack that looked like it would emerge as a national provider of security and tracking systems. Although this company is still around, I think that their value proposition has been largely eclipsed by the OEM systems described above. This new electronic OEM security landscape is why I think it’s been difficult for you to identify a community of prominent national providers.

    Hope this helps.

    Dale

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_K66XMLYUXFW3KUFTSCGCJKDTDI T C

    Hi Dale! Working with an under performing dealer. What are some cost effective (free) ways for a dealer to increase their SRP to VDP ratio?

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    TC,

    Thanks for the question. It’s actually hard for me to think of any ways to increase the SRP to VDP ratio that aren’t free. Basically, it’s just about how you merchandise the vehicle on the SRP page. Specifically, the selection of the most stellar thumbnail photo, the number of photos that you say are available on the VDP page, the price, and the quality of the seller’s notes. There is obviously a lot of nuance in doing each of these 4 items, so I would definitely recommend that you draw on the expertise of the representative from that site. If you’re not able to get the support you need, give me a call and I’ll make sure that you get it. I hope this helps.

    Thanks,

    Dale

  • http://twitter.com/Lally221 Adam Lally

    You mentioned you’d be speaking at NADA 2012.  I’m just booking now and want to make sure I don’t miss you, any idea what day/time?

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Adam,

    Thank you. My speaking times are as follows:
    Friday, February 3, 12:15pm
    Sunday, February 5, 8:30am (this session will be internationally translated) and 2:15pm
    Monday, February 6, 8:30am.

    Dale

  • DJ

    Hello Dale,

    If this isn’t too personal.  I’m interested in how you first acquired the vision for the company.  From your bio, it doesn’t mention any technical training.  How were you able to create the innovative digital tools that your company offers?  Did you write the software or hired others to do it.  I’m a recent graduate and I’m interested in learning more about entrepreneurship. 

    Thanks

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Don,

    Thanks for the question. Success is seldom a singular effort. Previously I was involved in a young start-up company in Austin, Texas called Digital Motor Works (DMi). Ultimately, we sold that company to ADP Corporation. During those years I learned the automotive retail technology landscape, but more importantly, had the unique privilege of working with a team of the best automotive data developers on the planet. With our success, we became close, like a band of musicians that know how to improvise and jam.

    Later on when I started vAuto, I was able to put the band back together and once again reunite with the development team in Austin, TX, as well as many of our former high-impact management contributors. Reunited without needing to go through the usual trials, tribulations and organizational dysfunctions, we once again made incredible music. So the beat goes.

    Respectfully,

    Dale

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Don,

    Thanks for the question. Success is seldom a singular effort. Previously I was involved in a young start-up company in Austin, Texas called Digital Motor Works (DMi). Ultimately, we sold that company to ADP Corporation. During those years I learned the automotive retail technology landscape, but more importantly, had the unique privilege of working with a team of the best automotive data developers on the planet. With our success, we became close, like a band of musicians that know how to improvise and jam.

    Later on when I started vAuto, I was able to put the band back together and once again reunite with the development team in Austin, TX, As well as many of our former high-impact management contributors. I also had incredible fortune of reuniting with Michael Chiovari, my former comptroller from my dealership. Michael is a tech wiz, but also has the unique ability to relate to people, specifically those in dealerships. Reunited without needing to go through the usual trials, tribulations and organizational dysfunctions, we once again made incredible music. So the beat goes.

    Respectfully,

    Dale

  • Chris

    Dale,
    I’m currently in the process of reading your book and I am finding all the information very useful and helpful. I have been in the business for 2.5 years and I was just promoted head manager of the used car department at a toyota store in PA that sells 75 cars a month with an inventory of 85-100. My GM wants us to sell 100 cars/month while not increasing inventory. Is this possible? Also, do you know or have any good microsoft excel programs that you have obtained throughout your career that help manage retail/wholesale inventory? Finally, how do you calculate ROI?? (dumb question????)

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Chris,

    Congratulations on your promotion. It is not only possible to sell 100 units with 85-100 on the ground, but it is common among dealers that subscribe to the Velocity Method of Management. In fact, today, I could show you a thousand of dealerships that consistently sell 150 retail per month with only 100 on the ground at any given time.

    Such performances however require a deep understanding of Velocity methodology and stellar execution and discipline. From an ROI perspective, I think the best way to measure return on investment is to compare your total used vehicle gross profit (front, back and reconditioning) relative to your average monthly inventory investment.

    Finally, regarding your question on spreadsheets, I’ve made my life’s work developing systems and tools to achieve high ROI Velocity results. vAuto is what I believe to be a best-of-breed system and tools for achieving Velocity success. If you haven’t seen the system, and would like to do so, please send me an email and I’ll have one of our product specialists contact you. Please stay in touch and let me know how you’re doing.

    Thanks,
    Dale

  • Anonymous

    Dale,
    How important do you think online reviews are? Is it worth asking customers that appear satisfied to review the company on certain sites to increase the amount and quality of reviews? Will this help the SRP to VDP conversion? Enjoyed your book and thank you for your time.

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Thanks so much for your question. Yes, I believe that actual consumer reviews about your dealership are important and will be even more so in the future. I also think that they will help SRP to VDP conversions, particularly if the third-party classified advertising sites features or links to such reviews.

    Thanks for your question and stay in touch.

    Dale

  • Anonymous

    Thank you for your answer. How would you encourage a team who isn’t used to pushing reviews online? Contact solid customers or ask sales to ask new customers to review? Incentives to each? Service seems like the best option? Thanks again

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Thanks for the question. The first thing that I’d like to state is that dealers should separate the notion of the physical front line from the virtual front line. Best practice is to have your vehicles on-line with a price, description and photo within one working day. This raises your question of how to get quality images before the vehicle has been fully prepared for the physical front line. The answer is that you do the best you can. Many dealers will take a recently acquired car and give it good wash, and then take a limited number of photos from the most favorable perspective and distance that best represents the vehicle. Once the vehicle is detailed, final photos are taken and those photos replace the earlier ones. While this photo strategy is not ideal, it is far superior than waiting several more days until the car is ready for the physical front line.

    I also want to take this opportunity to address what I think is best practice for getting the vehicle to the physical front line. I think that two working days is the max providing there is no body work, and four if the vehicle needs to go through the body shop. If you can’t get cars ready for the physical front line on these time schedules, then you need to figure out what changes need to be made to do so. Every single day that a vehicle is not on your virtual and front line for sale, you lose money. Unfortunately for our industry, this loss doesn’t show up in a line item on your financial statement. If it did, dealers would be much more determined to get it done faster. Hope this helps.

    Thanks,

    Dale

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    I’m really not sure about best practice for getting positive reviews on-line. Perhaps some of our other blog visitors can share their best practices.

    One thing I would say however, and that is that I would not offer incentives to customers of positive reviews. It’s OK to ask, but I would not offer outright incentives to do so. You might want to reward sales or service personnel for positive reviews; however I would advise that you stop there with incentives.

    Thanks,

    Dale

  • Frankiec21

    Hi Dale,
       I was recently employed as a Used Car Mgr. at a dealership in Pittsburgh, Pa.. I was so impressed with VAUTO.  I’ve become an advocate. I’ve been out of work since leaving there in Nov.. I would like to know what I could do to become part of the VAUTO group.  I Know I would be a great asset to you and your company.
      If there are no openings at this time, I would like to know if you have to be a dealer to purchase your monthly program. Also, I have Ideas I think we should talk about that would enhance your product.  I would appreciate a chance to chat with you.

                                                                         Thank you,

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Frankie,

    Thank you very much for your interest and enthusiasm for vAuto. Yes, we are always interested in talking to talented people about prospective employment. Please send me a resume. Also, please feel free to send me an email directly (dpollak@vauto.com) so that I can review your ideas/thoughts to make vAuto better.

    Again, thanks.

    Dale

  • Mike

    V-auto on steroids otherwise known as “Provisions” right? Hi Dale, we have waited about 90 days to let what we thought would be the dust to settle around the new Provision product. We should have known better than to wait. We are two days into this new tool and all I can say is am disappointed that we waited so long. Our buyer Andrea just bought our first vehicle on through a proxy bid with this new remarkable tool at 91% price to market and 76% cost to market with $2000 in recon, our pack, transportation, and margin included. Now I will never get sleep knowing we can buy like this. This new tool is worth its weight in gold solely based on the ease of selection. We have one buyer that works diligently every day to fulfill our procurement needs, Provisions has just brought her efficiency and effectiveness to new level.
     
    Although we are in the early stages of using Provisions, we think we understand the fundamentals of this tool. We could however use some help or guidance on a question. In addition, of course we have one suggestion.
     
    The question is what factors into the suggested bid price? Based on our historical bidding standards for margin, recon, transportation and fixed pack, most of the recommended bids are below what we would have likely bid on the same vehicle. As a note, all of our settings remain on original default recommendations. Just for the record I am not complaining about getting vehicles for less, the issue is that we do not want to pass or under bid a vehicle due to lack of understanding.
     
    Regarding the suggestion, it would be helpful to have an area for notes on each vehicle saved in favorites. If this exists today, we cannot find it.
     
    Thanks again for all you do.
      

  • http://www.dalepollak.com Dale Pollak

    Mike,

    I’m thrilled to learn that you’ve discovered Provision. I’ve been saying for some time now that this new system is a game-changer, and I’m now beginning to receive that type of validation, like yours, from the marketplace. In fact, just in the last ½ hour, I showed our performance managers an incredible new enhancement called Advanced Workbench. Without going into a lot of detail here, it literally allows an inventory manager to genetically engineer his inventory based on attributes that are most important, like demand, interest, profitability, volume or the like. The experience of seeing the cars in the market that possess those attributes that are most important to you must be like the scientist that first looked into an electron microscope. It will absolutely blow you away when you see it.

    Regarding your question about Provision’s bid guidance. To be clear, bid guidance is just that, “guidance”. The bid guidance is an amount that you can justify paying in order to cover your cost of acquisition, reconditioning, profit objective and price the vehicle in the market at the exact dollar amount that will create the most immediate amount of consumer attention. That doesn’t mean however, that you can’t justify paying more for the right car assuming you’re willing to either sacrifice some of your profit objective or price competitiveness.

    With the assistance of executives at Manheim, I’m currently working on strategies and tools that will provide vAuto provision users an advantage when proxy bidding. While I can’t control the prices in the market, I can provide meaningful information and useful tools that will help you place proxy bids that are more likely to win vehicles. There will be much more to come on this issue in the future, so stay tuned. In the meantime, be mindful of the bid guidance, but be prepared to pay more for the right vehicle.

    Finally, regarding your suggestion about notes on the favorites page, I’m not sure if the system allows for this functionality at the present time. Please check with your performance manager and let me know.

    Mike, once again I just want to say thank you for your note and for the intellectual contributions that you and your group have provided us during our partnership. Stay in touch.

    Dale

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