Dealer to Dealer: UCMLink.com Launches Web-Based Communication Network for Used Car Managers

If you’re not using all the tools — electronic and otherwise — at your disposal to market and sell vehicles from your lot, you’re a dinosaur roaming the earth.

That’s the word from Gregg Hall, Internet manager with Frontier Motors in Pensacola, Fla., who has been utilizing all the tools at his disposal for 14 years at the Northern Florida dealership.

Hall said he utilizes Facebook, Twitter, Flicker, YouTube and now, UCMLink.com to market vehicles both retail and wholesale, to maiximize his reach and move inventory off his lot quickly.

“We sell about 200 units a month and keep a $6 million, 300-unit inventory at most times,” Hall said. “We sell mostly highline—BMW, Mercedes,—and midline units like Nissans, Toyotas and trucks and SUVs.

To keep the inventory churning, Hall recently turned to UCMLink.com, a Web-based dealer-to-dealer communications network, which allows dealers and their used car managers to sell aged inventory to other dealers and find vehicles they need to plug holes in their inventory, or to match a buyer with a specific vehicle immediately.

UCMLink is the brainchild of Robert Benoit, who calls the service “the Facebook, Craigslist and Autotrader for the dealer-to-dealer wholesale environment.”

“Managers are able to instantly broadcast their needs, requests and inventory through a comprehensive network,” Benoit said. “Car Managers and dealers can find, list, trade, request and communicate about inventory—all in one place.”

Hall said there are no fees for the site currently, and that it is working out like an OVE.com or Facebook for dealers. Only dealers can sign up to use the site. The goal of UCMLink is to enhance the everyday activities of Used Car Managers by using the network to vastly increase audience size.

“With a few clicks of a mouse, UCMLink.com can give managers the real-time exposure that would otherwise take weeks to establish by phone,” Benoit said.

Hall said he has purchased a number of units from the Mississippi area, and sold vehicles as far away as Texas. One of the many concerns among retailers with a transaction dealer-to-dealer service is who is standing behind the vehicles if they purchased and turn out to be not as advertised.

“I’ve not run into any issues,” Hall said. “I always speak with the dealer I’m doing business with, and will not buy or sell without feeling comfortable about the transaction.”

He noted that UCMLink is working to have the service fully integrate with a variety of DMS systems. Currently, he said, customer service is great.

“If I have a question or a problem, there is always someone there to answer the phone or respond to an e-mail,” Hall said.

Benoit said security and trust among UCMLink.com users was an important consideration during all phases of the site’s development. Features such as an advanced VIN decoder and integration with a dealer’s external accounts such as Carfax, AutoCheck and OVE provide peace of mind when doing business with other members.

The service is very easy to use. When members register with UCMLink.com, they first set “preferences” such as vehicle make and distance willing to purchase or sell from), then how they want to be informed (e-mail, text, or both). After that, members can broadcast vehicles that they already have in inventory and want to sell, request vehicles they need, request bids on vehicles they are trying to trade for and view vehicles being offered by other dealers. A host of tools are also provided to keep track of bids, appraisals and contacts.

Hall said 2009 was the best year in Frontier Motors history and 2010 is on pace to surpass that record.

“I believe that dealers must take advantage of all the social networking and electronic means at their disposal to move inventory,” he said. “If you’re not doing this, you’re losing out on sales that are going to your competition, who are using these tools. It won’t be long and you’ll be extinct.”

As part of the roll-out process, and to promote maximum membership, UCM Link is free of charge for a limited time. Managers and Dealers can simply click on the “register” button at ucmlink.com and provide some basic information.

“We have become large enough now that some of our new members are selling cars their very first day!” said Jeff Richardson, Operations Manager for UCMLink.com.