This business is predictable and consistent, and given any one number dozens of estimations can be made. A few months ago I was talking to a Dodge dealer in Phoenix. He had casually mentioned that he had 800 cars in stock. From there I quickly correctly guessed that he probably sells about 250 cars a month, has 20-25 sales people, spends $100k a month in advertising, has approx. 250 appointments and 625 walk-ins per month, 3 sales people that sell over 20 cars a month consistently and don’t rely on lot traffic, 5-6 that are always on the edge of failure and the rest are fairly consistent and average with huge potential. The phone went almost silent and we laughed about how consistent the patterns are in this business. Along these lines, if you wanted to sell 20 cars a month and your ‘plan’ was to wait and watch the front door, you would have to get about 100 ups this month, or about 3 times national average. If you wanted to sell 20 cars this month to appointments you would need about 40 appointments, or 2 a day everyday…more than possible. To sell 20 cars a month this month, you could also go for a mix, say 2 carry-overs, pre-selling one customers trade, booking 20 appointments, ensuring 1-2 lot/phone/internet leads per day, 2 sales to service customers, and of course 1 or 2 lucky lay downs…very workable. My point is this. You need a realistic plan that actually makes mathematical sense according to the numeric laws of automotive retail. Sales is essentially a math problem, and before you try to solve the math problem of having to much month at the end of your money, you have to create a working plan that allows you to take advantage of the metrics of your business, and stop the dreaming that all too often has those same numbers take advantage of you! Sell well my friends…