Myth Busters: Car Dealers Need Data
Data, data, data. While it’s critical to a business’s success, these days it can feel more like a buzzword. More importantly, it can lead to analysis paralysis. What type of data do you need? Who and where do you get it from? Don’t worry, we’ll cover all that. But before we do, here’s the truth — unless you’re an analyst or are managing data daily, it isn’t the most important resource to have — it’s the insights you get from the data that matter.
Think of data as the groundwork, with the insights you extract being the real money maker. Insights are what lead to more informed decision making and strategic planning. So, grasping the difference is essential.
Understanding the Difference: Data vs. Insights
Data comprises the raw facts and figures sourced from sales reports, inventory stats, etc. Your data is your “what.” An insight is your “why.”
For example, maybe you experience a surge in sales for a specific vehicle model. The raw data will show you that there’s been a spike, but unless you do market research or ask for customer feedback, you won’t have a reason for why that is happening.
Now, let’s go through some quick ways busy car dealers like you can get valuable insights, so that you can make more informed decisions.
How to Get Quick Insights
Keeping up with resources the automotive industry supplies, as well as industry publications, is a quick way to get data insights.
Auto Remarketing Canada and Automotive News Canada are two examples of industry publications that will give you quick nuggets of actionable information. This is because they will include both the reports, and what you should be taking away from them. These helpful bits of market context can assist you with everything from your bidding strategy to forecasting. Examples can include automotive market analysis reports or reports on top selling vehicles. Another popular resource you can also take advantage of are DesRosier Reports. Their reports will include everything from high level insights, down to nitty gritty takeaways.
Lastly, you should check in with your frequent wholesale partners to see what types of reports they use. Many of them will use tools that can create helpful tools like sales dashboards. But they can also have access to export or trend reports. Chances are, they also have dedicated teams whose core job functions revolve around making these informed takeaways both on a micro and macro level.
If you’d rather be supplied with the high level data and make the insights yourself, you can also use tools like our Market Guide. You can read more about that here.
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