From ‘Lot Ready’ to ‘Lead Ready’: Why Speed to Market Is the New Gross
This Isn’t About Perfection — It’s About Momentum
I remember the car clearly — it was a low-mile, off-lease Q7 that checked every box.
Perfect spec. Great color combo. Clean CarFax.
The kind of unit we used to fight for at the auction, and this one landed right in our lap.
We got it through recon in 72 hours.
Detail had it gleaming on the front line by the end of day three.
I walked past it and thought, “That one’s gone by the weekend.”
But it wasn’t.
Ten days later, it was still sitting.
No leads. No calls. No VDP views.
Gross starting to erode, and team my morale with it.
Why?
Because while it was lot ready, it wasn’t lead ready.
And in 2025, that difference is everything.
Where It Went Sideways
I dug in. We had…
No photos.
No price live on our site.
Description pulled from the OEM site with specs no customer cares about.
CRM hadn’t assigned the lead to anyone.
Marketplace listings hadn’t pushed yet.
We forgot to flip it to retail in our systems, this cost us everything above.
Basically, we were prepared to sell it, but we never gave it a chance to be seen.
And that mistake cost us over $1,000 in margin by the time we chased the market and negotiated the deal.
That was a gut check.
The Shift: Speed to Market > Speed to Lot
For years, we celebrated getting cars “frontline ready.”
Photos could wait. Pricing could wait. CRM updates could wait.
Not anymore.
Today’s buyer doesn’t care when your lot is ready.
They’re shopping from their phone, at night, after the kids go to bed.
They’re sorting by price, mileage, and photos and if your car isn’t listed yet, you don’t exist.
You’ve got about 48 hours after recon to make that car visible, priced right, and compelling.
Wait longer, and the market moves without you.
What I Changed — Immediately
After that Q7, we reworked our definition of "ready."
It now means:
Photos taken and uploaded same day as detail finish
Market-based pricing assigned before it hits the line
Vehicle goes live on all marketplaces within 24–48 hours
CRM lead routing is automated and verified
Custom descriptions that speak to humans, not robots
It is categorized as (R) retail.
The truth?
We had all the tools.
We just didn’t have the urgency. My fault!
This Isn’t About Perfection — It’s About Momentum
That Q7 taught me something I’ll never forget:
A car that’s ready to sell but isn’t live online is just expensive inventory.
And in this environment with higher floorplan costs, tighter margins, and more selective customers every day you lose is a day of gross you won’t get back.
The best operators I know are treating speed to market like a KPI.
Not a task.
Not a nice-to-have.
A non-negotiable.
Final Thought
We used to judge performance by how fast we could get a car on the line.
But that’s not the world we’re in anymore.
Now I ask my team one question:
Is this car ready to generate a lead today?
Not tomorrow. Not when photos are done.
Today.
Because in 2025, lot ready is just the beginning.
Lead ready is where the profit starts.