Appraisal
The Look-to-Book number every dealer should track
You know your close rate on retail. Do you know your close rate on appraisal? That gap is still under-measured in used-car acquisition.
Define "Look" and "Book" without ambiguity.
A "Look" is any customer who received a real appraisal number — walked, phoned, online tool, service drive, doesn't matter. A "Book" is any Look that ended in you owning the vehicle. Retail purchase from a private party, trade at time of sale, pure buy, all count.
Instrument the top of the funnel.
Every appraiser writes down every appraisal, even the ones that don't buy from you. Even the ones you don't want. Especially those. Because your rejections are as diagnostic as your wins.
Publish the Look-to-Book rate weekly, by appraiser.
Not a punishment. A mirror. Spreads between appraisers are usually a training, judgment, and confidence gap — not a fixed talent ceiling. Coach to the gap you actually see in your own report, not to a number you read somewhere else.
Separate 'walk' losses from 'lose to competitor' losses.
A walk is the customer choosing to keep their vehicle. That's usually a pricing problem — you didn't stretch. A loss to a competitor is a market problem — someone else stretched harder. Different diagnoses, different fixes.
Set a floor and a ceiling — then prove them locally.
Build the report first. Then set a floor and a ceiling your UCM can defend in the meeting. A healthy Look-to-Book range depends on your inventory mix, your market, and your appraisal volume — there is no single number that transfers across stores.
Treat Look-to-Book like Close Ratio.
Bring Look-to-Book to the same table where you argue retail close rate. Same cadence. Same ownership. Same expectation that a number without a name next to it is theater.