Dealer Stories: Q&A with Danny Ivancevic, Signature Mazda
Every successful vehicle dealer knows that their business’s success depends directly on efficiency, a sharp competitive edge, trust and transparency. At OPENLANE, we’re committed to delivering all of that — but don’t just take our word for it, take it from Danny Ivancevic from Signature Mazda, a pro who’s been in the business for 16+ years. Let’s dive in.
Danny, tell us a little bit about yourself and your dealership.
I’ve been here at Signature Mazda for 16 years. We’re the number one dealership in Western Canada. During that time, I’ve mostly been a sales manager but was a leasing manager for a portion of it as well.
How was starting on OPENLANE? What was the biggest challenge that has improved since then?
We’ve been with OPENLANE, I think 7, possibly 8 years now. So, we used to deal with wholesalers directly. As a dealership, that meant a lot of phone calls, a lot of back and forth, a lot of time. If we didn’t use OPENLANE, we would 100% need to hire another person or two. I think in the last 30 days, we’ve wholesaled around 110 cars on OPENLANE.
So, the biggest help has been getting time back and the ease of the wholesale process. OPENLANE makes everything a lot faster and easier.
You mentioned to our team that you love that you can adjust floor prices so that buyers get a guaranteed sale. Can you describe how this results in quicker sales for you?
It results in quicker sales because it helps generate excitement for the buyer. It’s important for us that buyers know they are going to get the car — so if the bids are close to the floor price, we will frequently drop it so that buyers know it is a guaranteed sale. It also creates a quicker sale because you start building trust and a relationship with the buyer.
Your dealership has a reputation for being a high-volume seller with a high closing ratio. How has your strategy behind how you use OPENLANE contributed to this?
Not only is it important for us to make sure the buyer knows they are going to get the car, but that they know they are going to receive exactly what they expect to receive. That pays off because you develop good relationships with buyers. For example, maybe there’s something wrong with the vehicle that we didn’t know about that doesn’t qualify for an arbitration. We’ll still go out of our way to come to a solution. It’s little things like that.
You frequently use Market Guide. Can you give us an example of how it has helped you?
Yes, the best thing about Market Guide is that when I go to price a car, it pops up with a price range. I remember a time with a Honda Civic where the book values were higher than I assumed, which allowed me to set my floor price for the vehicle a little bit higher as well.
I’ve also had instances where I went to price a car and the Market Guide showed me that the price I wanted to put was too high. Then, when I went back and looked, it turned out that the vehicle was stocked incorrectly on our end. We were then able to get ahead of the issue before we even ran the car.
So, it’s been very useful protecting us from both undervaluing and overvaluing vehicles.
What would you say is the biggest difference between OPENLANE’s data and other appraisal tools you’ve used?
I’ve seen other pricing tools be off at times, but the data at OPENLANE always holds true. I remember seeing a case where other tools were pricing two different models of cars as the exact same, even though there was an $8,000 difference between them from the manufacturer. So, not only were there not enough auction results translating into these tools, but they were off by thousands of dollars.
However with Market Guide, there’s no guessing.
Ready to make wholesale easy?
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