Your Appraisal Process Has a Blind Spot (Hint: It’s Look to Book)

For years, dealers have used the metric to judge appraisers: how many cars did you appraise, and how many did you buy?

That sounds clean until you look underneath it.

In this ASOTU Edge Webinar, Patrick Janes, Associate Vice President at vAuto and Cox Automotive, and Rachel Holloway, Used Car Advisor at Gilchrist Automotive, dug into what Look to Book can miss.

Holloway oversees used-car operations across 22 stores. When her strongest appraisers kept landing below 40%, she started pulling the process apart.

That’s where things got interesting.

Look to Book only works when every appraisal gets counted.

That sounds obvious. In practice, unfinished appraisals, missing sources, and incomplete records can make one appraiser look much better than another.

Janes pointed out that pressure around the metric can create some strange behavior. An appraiser who completes fewer tough opportunities can post a prettier percentage because those cars never reach the denominator.

Holloway found all of those gaps across her group: appraisals left open, sources missing, notes skipped, completion steps missed.

At one point, her 22 stores had roughly 300 open appraisals sitting in the system.

That changes the first question.

Before asking why Look to Book is 38%, ask whether the store captured every appraisal cleanly.

A customer standing at the desk with keys in hand carries a different conversion rate than someone requesting a number from their couch.

Holloway standardized appraisal sources across all 22 stores so managers could separate those opportunities instead of blending them into one percentage.

That gives the number context.

Janes said a dealer hitting around 20% Look to Book on sight-unseen appraisals can have a strong process. Meanwhile, the same percentage on in-store appraisals deserves a much closer look.

Customers also have more places to send the car. CarMax, Carvana, KBB, private-party listings, and competing dealers are all fishing in the same pond.

Holloway’s approach is simple: show the customer the data behind the offer and give the appraisal enough credibility to keep the conversation alive.

“The more cars you appraise, the more opportunity,” she said.

Here’s the math that makes Look to Book much more useful.

Janes used a store selling 100 cars as the example.

A strong store may need roughly 200 customer opportunities to sell those 100 units. Around 60% to 70% of those customers may have a vehicle to dispose of, which puts the store around 140 appraisal opportunities.

Bring in 50 trades and Look to Book lands around 35%.

Thirty-five percent can look ugly on a report.

Fifty trades against 100 retail sales gives the manager a much better operating question: Where did the other cars go?

Janes takes that math down to the salesperson level. A rep sells 12 cars and brings three trades. Now there’s something worth reviewing.

That’s a much stronger coaching conversation than asking everyone to somehow “get Look to Book up.”

Once Holloway stopped leaning on one percentage, she had more to coach.

Was the appraisal finished? Was the source correct? Did the appraiser leave useful notes? How many in-store appraisals did they complete? How did that compare with the same period last year?

Those questions give managers behavior they can inspect.

Holloway also separates the work appraisers can control. She pays closer attention to in-store appraisals because the appraiser has more influence there than on a sight-unseen lead bouncing between five offers.

One of her examples makes the point: an appraiser could stay around 39% Look to Book while doubling in-store appraisals from 100 to 200.

The percentage barely moved. The opportunity doubled.

That’s exactly why one number needs company.

Holloway’s used-car managers have a morning routine: price inventory, finish the previous day’s appraisals, then review the opportunities that got away.

She calls them missed appraisals.

That wording puts the focus back on the dealership’s process.

Saturday gets busy. Ten deals hit at once. A customer leaves. An appraisal sits open. Monday morning gives the manager another swing at the opportunity.

The same thinking can sharpen the old save-a-deal meeting. Review the sale, the trade, and the finance opportunity together. Find where the customer slipped through and give the team something specific to fix.