Text | Xu Cheng
When it comes to Jinshang, people will unconsciously think of the salt industry and ticket numbers with a long history, and in today's mountain, the automobile industry also shows the spirit of enterprising and dedicated Jinshang. Headquartered in Jincheng, Huayang Industry and Trade Group (hereinafter referred to as Huayang Group) is known to almost everyone in the local automotive circle.
Huayang Group has been in the automotive industry for more than 20 years and currently has 7 4S stores. The second-hand car rookie incubated by Huayang Group, Dayou Car, has also begun to emerge in the industry. Li Xinbo, the "leader" of DayouChe, is a post-90s returnee, and it is his past that gave birth to the brand of Dayouche.
Li Xinbo, vice president of Shanxi Huayang Industry and Trade Group and general manager of DayouChe
Used car complex: the experience of buying and selling cars in the United States
More than 10 years ago, Li Xinbo studied in Los Angeles, the United States, when he first arrived, he found that the public transportation in the United States is far less developed than china, and the car is the most commonly used means of transportation, so under the introduction of a friend, he bought a second-hand BMW 328 in a 4S store.
A few years later, when Li Xinbo graduated from college and was preparing to return to China for development, he wanted to dispose of this machine, and an American classmate suggested that he go to Carmax to sell it. As a result, as soon as he walked into Carmax, Li Xinbo was shocked, the huge scale and venue, the independent logo, just like walking into the mall.
Not only that, the Carmax collection process is also very efficient, first the staff from the model library and Li Xinbo's BMW 328 condition close to the same model, let it refer to the price of the vehicle, and then began to evaluate the car, after the evaluation is completed, Carmax staff printed out a car condition report, marked with the price, a price to collect the car, can not negotiate.
Li Xinbo felt that the price could not be discussed very strange, so he took this list to several other dealers, and the dealers asked whether the car had been evaluated in Carmax, and if they could issue an evaluation report from Carmax, they could add 500 to 1000 US dollars on the basis of Carmax's bid to collect the car.
Li Xinbo realized at that time that Carmax had become an industry standard in the United States, and the credibility of the brand could be recognized by the automotive industry. Since then, Carmax used cars have planted seeds in Li Xinbo's heart.
Used car business "first to show its skills"
After returning to China, Li Xinbo began to work for Huayang Group, although he has been paying attention to used cars, but it has not involved the specific operation of used cars. After a few years, Li Xinbo became the vice president of Huayang Group and the store manager of bmw brand stores, and after becoming familiar with the automobile circulation system, he began to step into the second-hand car circle.
With the support of a number of policies, domestic used cars in recent years have shown rapid growth characteristics, used car trading volume began to approach new cars, Li Xinbo believes that the time to enter the used car retail business is ripe, so in 2020 created the "Dayou Car", Dayou Car is invested by Huayang Group, all the used car business of the group is put to Dayou Car to do, Li Xinbo as the general manager.
When DayouChe was first established, including Li Xinbo, the team was only 5 people, and they were all transferred from several brands of Huayang Group's 4S stores, except for an appraiser, the others were previously responsible for new car sales. When the business was just starting out, the source of used cars was mainly based on the replacement of several brand 4S stores of Huayang Group.
In Li Xinbo's view, no matter how the second-hand car changes, it is still a car sales in essence, and only with retail capabilities can it reflect the value of the second-hand car business. The reason why the second-hand car business is not directly placed within the group but independent is to hope to make Dayou Car an independent brand, which is also the consensus reached by Li Xinbo and the board of directors of Huayang Group. And Huayang Group also gave Great Support to Dayouche:
The first is people, including knowledge and experience at the human level. For example, how to make the management more refined, the Dayou car team can understand how to manage the FAW Toyota store and the treasure store of Huayang Group, and also include support at the after-sales level, such as the maintenance records of the vehicle, which can be retrieved through the group's 4S store as an endorsement of the condition of the second-hand car.
The second is financial support, Huayang Group's financial support for Dayou Car is very strong, and it does not need to finance in order to survive before achieving a scale of hundreds of millions of yuan.
The third is flexibility. Huayang Group's second-hand car business is all operated by Dayou Car, and the used car business of each 4S store of the group adopts a centralized management method, and the overall responsibility is attributed to Li Xinbo, so that the operation is very flexible, and the 4S stores will not fight for each other. In the words of Li Xinbo, only when the mechanism is flexible, there will be no constraints in the business.
When the specific operation, the replacement vehicle sources of each 4S store of Huayang Group are disposed of by Dayou Car, and the vehicles in good condition can be used as retail vehicle sources, while vehicles that do not meet retail standards are disposed of by auction through small lemon auctions.
After cooperating with the auction platform, Li Xinbo's most intuitive feeling is that the overall business of second-hand cars is more relaxed.
Do not underestimate the auction platform, Li Xinbo said, the small lemon auction of the human car ratio to achieve 2:1, and through the cooperation with the small lime auction, the transaction volume of the big car has increased significantly, 80% of the car source can be sold and quickly disposed of.
In Li Xinbo's view, Xiao Lime Pai not only makes the digital process efficient, but also satisfies the user with the friendliness and convenience of the APP interface. In the long term, digitalization is an important foundation for making the entire auction process replicable and standardizable.
Not only that, through cooperation with Xiao Lime Auction, the premium rate of the wholesale business of Dayou car reached 30%, and the gross profit increased from 6% before the cooperation to 9%. The auction allows the wholesale business of the car source to be disposed of efficiently and the procurement is more relaxed, which is a very strong support for the retail business.
"The auction is actually very fair, a car may not sell for a higher price in the local area, but after the transfer to a different place, because of its regional environment and brand preferences, the vehicle can often get a higher premium rate, and the auction is the best way to achieve a high premium rate." Li Xinbo said.
Used car retail should be refined and refined
After two years of development, today's Dayou car team has grown to more than 30 people, although there is only one storefront at present, but the monthly retail sales of used cars can reach 60 to 80 units, and a larger area of new showrooms is also in planning.
At present, 70% of the retail vehicle sources of Dayou car come from group replacement, and 30% come from external procurement. With the continuous development of Dayou's retail business, the proportion of the group's replacement source will gradually decrease, in the words of Li Xinbo, Dayou car to optimize the structure of automobile retail vehicle source, so it is necessary to continue to increase the amount of external procurement.
But in the second-hand industry, the purchase of a car is often a "gray area", which is not lacking in the test of "human nature", which is why many car dealers purchase car sources by the boss himself.
But Li Xinbo believes that if the procurement must be done by the boss, it is difficult to make the business really bigger. When the vehicle is priced, dayou car adopts the mechanism of the pricing team, and in the future, it is hoped to combine its own data and external data to have a more accurate judgment on the price of the vehicle.
In Li Xinbo's view, used cars are an industry that particularly needs values, and although opportunism can have some immediate benefits, it will definitely hurt personal development in the long run. In the process of operation, it is especially necessary to grasp the dependence on people and systems.
"At the beginning, Dayou Car used to rely on 8 people to operate for more than half a year, at that time, the system was not important, because the communication cost was very low, everyone could see and touch every day, and what was done was clear at a glance. However, with the development of business and the increase in the number of teams, the system will become more and more important, and the team at this time needs to use the system to manage, so in different stages of business development, the way of management is different. Li Xinbo said.
At present, There are all used distribution methods to operate used cars, and since there is a policy orientation, Li Xinbo believes that this is a business mode that will definitely change in the future of second-hand cars.
Not only that, Li Xinbo believes that a very important difference between Dayou car and traditional car dealers is the after-sales service of second-hand cars.
Li Xinbo put forward a slogan for Dayou Car called "Suitable Life", he believes that people's experience of travel is actually pursuing a kind of comfort, so the mission of Dayou Car is to make everyone's travel more comfortable.
The comfort of this is not only the car itself, but also the comfort brought by the service. In terms of service, Dayou Car currently provides customers with 7 days of no reason to return and replace, 15 days of replacement, 30 days of all problems, whether it is engine problems or wearing parts can be replaced, and then provide a year of 30,000 kilometers of seven major package warranty.
There was a customer who bought a second-hand car of more than 40,000 yuan, and as a result, there was a burst cylinder within a month, and after the customer found it, the big car directly changed the car, and the final customer was very satisfied. But in fact, the gross profit of this car is only two or three thousand yuan, and after the exchange, the big car lost more than 10,000 yuan.
"I think this is very useful in the industry, because only when the service is satisfied can we win the trust of customers, each customer is actually not just a point, but also connects many points to form a face, which is difficult to see directly, but over time will establish a brand integrity." Li Xinbo said.
Established an association to empower the used car industry
Not only is he also the vice president of Huayang Group and the general manager of Dayouche, Li Xinbo also serves as a cppcc member of Jincheng City. During the two sessions of Jincheng City this year, Li Xinbo submitted two proposals, one of which was the "Proposal on the Establishment of a Second-hand Car Circulation Industry Association".
According to reports, the Jincheng Automobile Circulation Association was established late, only established in 2020, and Jincheng's used car companies as many as one or two thousand, Li Xinbo believes that the establishment of the second-hand car industry association is not only to make friends and meet resources, but also through the association platform to deepen exchanges between each other.
Secondly, whether it is the local commerce bureau or the department of commerce, they need to talk and communicate with the participants in the industry, and they must assist in the formulation and implementation of some policies through the association. Having such a channel of dialogue as an association is very helpful for both policymakers and market participants.
Moreover, with a fixed organization, you can often organize business exchanges and share experiences, including the sharing of some management skills, etc., which is like when reading and going to school, it is difficult for one person to learn, but a group of people will have a kind of competitive momentum.
epilogue
Looking back on the two years since the establishment of Dayou Car, Li Xinbo has a lot of feelings, used cars are a deceptively simple, but behind the extremely complex industry, but he frankly said that he is a very simple, very pure, very real person, not only like this industry, but also think that the used car industry is particularly suitable for themselves, compared to the new car business, used cars can dig more things.
When talking about the next planning, Li Xinbo said that there are two very important tasks to be done this year: the first is the establishment of external procurement channels, and the channel relationship and mechanism should be sorted out; the second is to dock several capitals, so that capital can be understood first, including early guidance and future incubation, although there is no shortage of funds now, but second-hand cars themselves are a capital-intensive industry, and it is important to maintain stable cash flow. In addition, the introduction of capital can also make the company's mechanism more scientific, so that the management system of The Big Car is more in line with the governance structure of modern companies, rather than the boss's one-line thinking.
On the public account of Dayou Car, there is a very simple introduction: a second-hand car dealer without a routine. This is invariably the same as Li Xinbo's simplicity and purity. Perhaps in most people's minds, a little simpler, a little less routine will make the industry better, but it is far from easy to do in practice. For Li Xinbo, there is still a long way to go to complete the mission of "making everyone's travel more comfortable" by Dayou Car.