Sara, please tell me I’m not the only one sitting on a mountain of used equipment. What’s the fastest way to move it without losing my shirt?
First, you’re not alone! You wrapped up your selling season, you took in some trade-ins you thought would fly off the lot, and now, surprise, they’re sitting there staring at you like expensive lawn ornaments.
Between manufacturers pushing next year’s orders, talk of tariffs, and that off-season lull, it feels like every dollar is trapped in a unit you can’t move fast enough.
Here’s the good news: your best customers to move that inventory quickly aren’t strangers on Facebook Marketplace. They’re the people who’ve bought from you before, the ones who already know you, trust you, and are more likely to say yes if you just show up in front of them.
And I’m not just talking sales. This works for your parts, service, and rental customers too; the whole shebang. If they’ve done business with you once, there’s a good chance they’ll do it again.
That’s why I love running 30 Days of Deals campaigns. It’s not complicated, and it gets people talking. For 30 days, feature your used units – tractors, UTVs, RVs, mowers, and any other used items currently on the lot – and invite customers to make an offer. Yes, you set the minimum. But keep in mind, our philosophy is that it’s better to make one dollar of profit than to pay one dollar of interest. Cash flow is the goal.
So, no, you don’t have to take the $3 bid on that mini excavator (someone will always try it). But at least you’re starting conversations, getting engagement, and most importantly, creating cash flow. And in the slow season, cash flow is your best friend. Protect it at all costs, because selling one giant RV that looks like it belongs on MTV Cribs doesn’t help you make payroll if it just sits there looking pretty.
Here’s how to get started:
Step 1: Get your customer list together.
Grab names, email addresses, and phone numbers from your CRM, Excel sheet, or even your Rolodex (yes, we had a dealer recently whose entire customer database was handwritten on cards; hey, it worked for them). The goal is to get them in one place where you can actually use them.
Step 2: Tell them what you’re doing.
Send an email or text that says, “Hey, we’re running 30 Days of Deals. We’ve got great used units ready to move. Come make us an offer.”
Make sure you’re only emailing people who’ve opted in, because otherwise you’re just another spam caller with bad timing.
If you need an easy place to start, we really like Mailchimp. It’s simple, effective, and you can get going for as little as $0, our favorite marketing spend, depending on the size of your list.
Step 3: Follow up.
Most dealers miss this step. Once someone clicks or shows interest, reach out personally. Not in a creepy “I saw you clicked on the zero-turn in my email, and I’ll now text you every single day for the rest of the month… and it’s only the 3rd” kind of way.
Instead, say something like, “Hey, this is Sara at ABC Dealership. I saw you checked out our 30 Days of Deals. Anything I can help you with?”
Friendly. Helpful. Human. That’s it.
Here’s the last thing to remember. Marketing’s job isn’t to sell. It’s to create opportunity. You can’t expect an email to close the deal on a $15,000 side-by-side. The email’s job is to get someone interested enough to talk. Your team closes the sale.
If you want to learn how to build campaigns like this and actually measure what’s working, that’s exactly what we cover in our Marketing Master Class. We’ll show you how to plan, create, and track campaigns that actually move the needle without burning you out or blowing your budget.
👉 Learn more and sign up here.
Because even in the slow season, there’s money to be made. You just have to go get it.
– Sara