Rethinking Used Car Inventory: Aligning Sourcing, Storytelling & Market Pricing

Featuring: Ed French of AutoProfit
Air Date: January 22, 2026
1 pm Eastern/12 pm Central / 11 am Mountain / 10 am Pacific
Program Length: 45 minutes 
SKU DVA4

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As acquisition channels shift and margins tighten, dealers can no longer rely solely on traditional inventory pipelines. The modern dealership is now sourcing from private sellers, social platforms, digital marketplaces, and other non-traditional channels, each bringing new opportunities, challenges, and strategic implications.

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This shift changes the core question from “How do I find the right car at the right price?” to “How do I find the right car for the right reason?”

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To capitalize on this change, dealerships must adopt updated inventory distribution methods that reflect today’s buying behaviors, market transparency, and customer expectations.

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This workshop provides a practical framework for dealership leaders who want to build an intentional, high-performing inventory strategy that supports modern sourcing trends.

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This workshop will cover:

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• Developing your inventory strategy

• The 5 categories of inventory

• Why the new measurement is "leads per vehicle"

• STOP pricing your cars: Price your market

• Every VIN has a story: Are you telling the story correctly?

This workshop is the foundation for a broader exploration into modern inventory operations. In upcoming sessions, we’ll take a deeper dive into why private-party acquisition units must develop a robust “scoring system” to evaluate opportunities consistently and avoid emotional or biased purchasing. We’ll also introduce the new way of strategizing price—a forward-looking approach that moves beyond competitive matching and instead aligns pricing with demand signals, market elasticity, and vehicle story strength. Together, these sessions build a complete roadmap for dealers ready to modernize acquisition, distribution, and pricing for today’s marketplace.

Ed French is a renowned automotive retail strategist with decades of leadership experience. A former dealer principal and trusted advisor to top-performing stores, Ed delivers clear, actionable insights that help dealerships modernize operations, optimize inventory, and elevate performance in today’s evolving marketplace.