80 terms every dealershould already know.

Turn Over. When a salesperson hands the customer to a manager (or another rep) to close the deal — usually because the rep can't get to a yes on price, payment, or trade.

Gladius angleA T.O. is a coaching event, not a failure. Most CRMs log nothing; Gladius captures who T.O.'d to whom and what flipped.

A customer who walked the lot without buying and is expected to return. 15-20% of ups come back; about 40% of those who do, buy — so the be-back close rate is roughly 8%.

Gladius angleBe-backs WITH a set time are buyers. Be-backs without a time are tire kickers. Most CRMs treat them identically.

The choreographed tour of the vehicle the salesperson gives — exterior, sit in the back seat, pop the trunk, open the hood, demo the tech. Done right, it's a 10-minute emotional anchor.

The proposed numbers handed back from the desk — vehicle price, trade, down, term, payment. The first pencil is almost never the last pencil; the back-and-forth is the negotiation.

Gladius angleThe pencil math has to match the floor math. When the four-square doesn't reconcile, deals die in the gap.

Pile every available rebate, incentive, loyalty bonus, conquest cash, and OEM stair-step credit onto a deal to make the bottom-line number work. Done right it saves the deal; done sloppy it gets bounced at funding.

A lead nobody owns — typically an unassigned internet inquiry, a be-back that left no name, or an orphan from a rep who quit. Often distributed to the next up or the BDC.

A customer who's there to negotiate for sport with no real intent to buy — works every floor for hours, asks for the manager three times, leaves with a business card. Veteran reps spot them in 90 seconds.

The manager assigned to the showroom floor for the shift. Approves pencils, takes the T.O., manages the ups rotation, and keeps the desk moving. Usually a sales manager doing a shift, sometimes the GSM directly.

The raised desk (literally elevated in old-school showrooms, figuratively in newer ones) where the sales managers sit and oversee the floor. Every pencil passes through the tower.

A fresh walk-in customer. "You're up" means it's your turn in the ups rotation. The single highest-converting lead source in the building (18-28% close), still managed in most stores by a paper sign-up sheet.

When a customer who was "yours" buys from another rep — usually because that rep was on the floor when the be-back returned. A skated deal is the fastest way to lose a rep's trust in management.

A lead with deep credit problems — multiple charge-offs, recent bankruptcy, no income proof. Worth talking to (the subprime grosses are real) but takes 4× the desk time of a prime deal.

A no-credit deal — typically a cash buyer or a customer with established credit but no recent activity. Limited by which lenders will touch them; subprime houses live on stick deals.

An underpriced unit — usually a trade-in that came in cleaner than the appraiser thought. The first salesperson to spot it on the lot tries to write it up before the desk re-prices.

The dealer's profit on the vehicle itself — sale price minus dealer cost (with pack added). Average new-car PVR in 2026 is roughly $1,800-$2,400; used can run $1,900-$2,800 when the store knows what it's doing.

Gladius angleMost CRMs don't even know the front gross. Gladius reads it from the DMS deal record and ties it to the rep, the lead source, the cadence, and the appointment.

The F&I profit — finance reserve plus product menu (VSC, GAP, PPM, tire & wheel, appearance, etc). Often beats front-end gross by 2-3×; in many stores, F&I is where the deal actually gets paid.

A deal split between two salespeople — often because one wrote it up and the other delivered, or because the second rep stepped in mid-negotiation. Each rep books half a unit and half the commission.

The test drive. Longer demos correlate strongly with higher close rates — the worst thing a rep can do is cut a demo short to "get back to the desk."

Both a verb (to get the customer to sign) and a noun (the technique used — payment close, trade close, alternative-choice, assumed-close). Every veteran has 12-15 closes they pull from situationally.

An increase the desk wants on a deal — bump the down, bump the price, bump the payment, bump the trade allowance down. Multiple bumps per deal are the norm; the rep delivers each one to the customer.

A rookie salesperson, typically in their first 0-18 months. 80% wash out inside year one. Identifiable by the still-creased polo and the death grip on the iPad.

A customer who agrees to the first pencil without negotiating. Rare, suspicious, and worth double-checking the credit app on — sometimes the easiest deals fall apart hardest at the bank.

A customer who negotiates every line — $50 off the doc fee, $200 off the price, another $300 on the trade. Eats 4 hours of desk time for a mini-deal. Veteran reps either embrace them or hand them off.

Finance and Insurance — the office where the deal is funded, products are presented, and contracts are signed. The F&I manager is usually the highest-paid producer in the building.

Gladius angleF&I is a product menu, a compliance checkpoint, AND a customer experience — most CRMs ignore all three.

Guaranteed Asset Protection — covers the gap between what the customer owes on the loan and what the insurance company pays if the car is totaled. Sells for $700-$1,000 on a deal that costs the dealer $150-$300.

Vehicle Service Contract — extends mechanical coverage beyond the factory warranty. Sells for $2,200-$3,500 in F&I, often with a $800-$1,200 dealer cost. The single biggest back-end product in most stores.

A protection product covering tire and rim damage from road hazards. Sells for $700-$1,200 with a huge margin — almost always a profit center, especially in pothole markets.

A VIN-etching product (sometimes paired with a tracking device) sold as anti-theft protection. Small ticket, easy attach, frequently bundled into the F&I menu's lowest tier.

Slang for raising the price, payment, or term on a deal once the customer is in the F&I office. "Lift the rate" = increase from buy rate to sell rate; "bump the term" = stretch 60 months to 72.

The two-bucket framing of dealership profit: front = vehicle gross, back = F&I gross. Combined PVR (per vehicle retailed) is the headline number a GM watches daily.

The lender's margin — the difference between the buy rate (lender's wholesale rate) and the sell rate (what the customer signs at). The CFPB caps it at roughly 1.5-2 points; on a $40k loan that's $1,200-$2,400 paid to the dealer 30-60 days after funding.

A deal financed at the buy rate with no reserve markup — F&I makes nothing on the finance side. Done either out of compliance discipline, lender restriction, or to save a deal that would otherwise fall out.

The interest rate the lender quotes the dealer based on the customer's credit profile — the wholesale rate. F&I marks it up to the sell rate, within the regulatory cap.

The interest rate the customer actually signs at — the retail rate. Sell rate minus buy rate, times the loan, equals the dealer's reserve.

The percent of deliveries that take a given F&I product. VSC penetration of 45-55% is healthy; GAP penetration is often 65%+ on financed deals. Penetration math drives F&I compensation.

Gladius anglePenetration is a downstream metric. Gladius predicts product fit BEFORE the customer walks into the box, so the menu is pre-built.

Per Vehicle Retailed — average gross per unit. New PVR, used PVR, F&I PVR, total PVR — every one is tracked daily. F&I PVR benchmarks: $900 weak, $1,400 average, $1,800-$2,400 great.

Delivering the vehicle the same day the customer signs, before final lender approval clears. Common, legal in most states, but the deal can unwind if the bank declines — leading to the yo-yo.

When a customer is asked to re-sign a spot-delivered deal at a higher rate or different terms because the original lender didn't approve. Regulated heavily by state UDAP laws; mismanaging it is a fastest-known path to a CFPB investigation.

Prepaid Maintenance — a service contract for routine work (oil, tires, brakes) bundled into the deal. Sells for $800-$1,500 and pulls the customer back into the service drive for years.

Aged Stock Notification — alert flag on inventory that's crossed a days-in-inventory threshold (often 60 or 90 days). Triggers price drops, dealer trades, or a wholesale send to auction.

The line of credit a dealer uses to finance vehicle inventory. Every car on the lot is paid for with floor plan dollars; interest accrues daily, so old units bleed money. "Floor plan interest" is a real, monthly P&L line item.

Number of days a unit has been on the lot. Velocity dealers panic at 30, sell at 45, dump at 60. "Dead in the water after 60 days" — every day past that is depreciation plus floor plan interest.

Where dealers buy and sell used cars to each other and to wholesalers — Manheim, Adesa, BSC, plus regional houses. Most aged inventory exits the retail lot through an auction lane.

Reconditioning — the cosmetic and mechanical work done to make a used car frontline-ready. Cost runs $400-$1,800 per unit; every day in recon is a day not on the lot earning.

Certified Pre-Owned — used vehicles that pass an OEM-defined inspection and qualify for manufacturer-backed extended coverage. Commands a $1,500-$3,000 premium over a comparable non-CPO unit.

Industry pricing guides — Black Book (wholesale), KBB (consumer-facing), MMR (Manheim Market Report, the auction read), J.D. Power. Different books give different numbers; appraisers triangulate.

Software platforms that read live market data + auction history to recommend a retail price and an appraisal value. vAuto is the dominant player; Lotlinx, AutoIQ, and ProfitTime compete on the velocity-management framing.

The physical inspection of a customer's trade-in by the sales manager or used-car manager before pencil. Walked BEFORE the test drive — once they fall in love with the new car, any appraisal feels like an insult.

Detail-bay work — wash, polish, interior clean, paint touch-ups, wheel refinishing. Fast turnaround ($150-$500), big visual lift. The difference between a car that sells in 14 days and 45.

Service-bay work — brakes, tires, fluids, alignment, any check-engine codes. Higher cost ($500-$1,800), slower turnaround (3-10 days). Often the bottleneck in a velocity-driven store.

A used unit that has cleared recon, has photos taken, is priced, and is live on the lot + the website. Days-in-inventory clock starts the moment a car becomes frontline ready, not the day it was acquired.

The process of a vehicle accumulating days on the lot. Aging reports break inventory into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91+ buckets. Healthy stores keep 70%+ of inventory under 60 days.

A perfect trade — low miles, clean Carfax, one owner, every service record. Cherries get retail-priced fast and rarely sit. Veteran used-car managers can spot one walking onto the trade walk.

The corner of the lot where deeply aged, mechanically suspect, or rough trade-ins live until they're wholesaled. Some stores keep a literal back lot; most maintain a virtual list inside vAuto.

An internal cost adder ($300-$800) loaded onto a vehicle before commission is calculated, so reps earn on a lower gross. Invisible to the customer; sales staff resent it, dealers depend on it.

2-3% of MSRP the manufacturer rebates to the dealer quarterly. On a $45k truck, $900-$1,350 to the house — but typically not part of the commission base.

Dealer Management System — the system of record for accounting, inventory, deals, parts, service, payroll. CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds, Dealertrack, PBS, and Auto/Mate dominate. Switching DMS is a 6-month, 7-figure project.

Gladius angleGladius reads from and writes to the DMS through a documented bridge — we never make the DMS our system of record, and we never lock the dealer in.

Customer Relationship Management — the system reps use to track leads, log activities, schedule follow-ups, and (in theory) close more deals. Most automotive CRMs were designed in 2008 and bolted onto a DMS afterward.

Auto-Dealer Format — the XML schema used to deliver internet leads from OEM sites and third-party providers into a dealer's CRM. Spec was published in 2002; every modern CRM still parses ADF.

Dynamic Number Insertion — a tracking system that swaps the phone number on a dealer's website per-visitor so the source of every call can be attributed. Powers most call-tracking platforms (CarWars, CallSource, Gladius call-tracking).

Where a lead came from — OEM website, third-party (Cars.com, Autotrader, CarGurus, TrueCar), referral, walk-in, phone-up, service-to-sales. Attribution matters because cost-per-sold varies 10× across sources.

Logging customers who walked the lot without buying so they can be followed up with. The most-broken function in most automotive CRMs — usually a check-box and a free-text note, rarely a real workflow.

Time from lead-arrival to first meaningful response. First 5 minutes is the highest-conversion window; after 30 minutes, conversion drops ~80%. Most stores respond in 2-6 hours.

Gladius angleGladius responds in under 60 seconds with a vehicle-aware, real reply — no "thanks for your interest" template.

The scheduled sequence of touches (text, call, email) on a lead that hasn't closed yet. A 90-day cadence is industry standard; almost no store actually runs one — leads go quiet after touch 3.

An AI- or rule-generated to-do item assigned to a rep — "call John about the RAV4, he replied yesterday," "Sarah's lease is in equity, run a renewal pencil." Smart tasks replace the rep's mental load with a queue.

A lead from an aggregator-style site (Cars.com, Autotrader, CarGurus, TrueCar). Cheapest per-lead, worst close rate (4-8%), because the customer is shopping 3-5 stores simultaneously.

Two lead types with very different close rates. Walk-in ("fresh up") closes 18-28%; phone-up closes 12-20% if an appointment is set. Both vastly outperform internet leads on conversion.

Business Development Center — the back-office team (4-10 reps in most stores) that handles inbound calls, internet leads, and appointment-setting. Funnel: 100 leads → 60 contacted → 25 set → 15 shown → 4 sold.

Customer Satisfaction Index / Dealer Satisfaction Index — survey scores the OEM uses to rank dealers, tied to bonus money, allocation, and program eligibility. A 9 out of 10 is a failing grade in CSI math; OEMs want 10s.

The structured product presentation (typically 3-4 tiered options) shown to the customer in the F&I office. Modern menus are tablet-based ("eMenu") and let the customer self-configure before signing.

Desking software — generates the four-square (price, trade, down, payment) in seconds based on credit tier, lender programs, and OEM incentives. RouteOne, Dealertrack Uplink, MakeMyDeal, and Gladius Pencil compete here.

The covered lane where customers drop off vehicles for service. The single most-underused sales channel in the dealership — every customer in the drive is a known buyer who already trusts the store.

Gladius angleService-to-sales conversion sits at 22-35% when done right, and costs nothing to acquire. Most CRMs ignore the service drive entirely.

Repair Order — the work order opened when a customer brings a vehicle in for service. Tracks labor, parts, sublet, and the customer-pay / warranty / internal split.

Average billable labor hours per repair order. 1.4 is poor, 2.0 is healthy, 2.4 is elite. The single most leveraged metric in fixed ops — half an extra hour per RO across 60 ROs a day is real money.

Total labor revenue divided by total labor hours billed — the actual realized rate, which is usually 10-20% below the door rate after warranty work, internal work, and discounts. $145-$210/hour in metro markets.

A service work-stall where a technician fixes vehicles. Bay count and bay utilization (% of bays with a car being worked on, in real time) are the two big capacity numbers in fixed ops.

Technician — the person who actually turns wrenches. Paid flat-rate hours (book time per job), so a fast tech can earn 50+ billable hours in a 40-hour week. Top techs out-earn most salespeople.

Service Advisor (a.k.a. service writer) — the front-counter person who greets the customer, writes the RO, sells the work, and presents the bill. Paid 5-8% commission on customer-pay labor + parts; top advisors clear $110k-$180k.

A separate service drive lane for quick, predictable work — oil change, tire rotation, multi-point inspection. Designed for ~30-minute turn time; pulls maintenance customers who'd otherwise go to a quick-lube shop.

Service performed under the manufacturer's factory warranty, billed back to the OEM. Lower labor rate than customer-pay, tighter time allowances, more paperwork — most techs prefer customer-pay work.

Service done on the store's own inventory (recon, lot maintenance, dealer-trade prep). Billed at cost or internal-transfer rate; doesn't generate retail gross but keeps the techs busy when customer volume dips.

Work the dealership farms out to a third-party shop — alignments, glass, paint, upholstery — because the dealer lacks the equipment or capacity. Marked up modestly when billed back to the customer.

Service work paid for directly by the customer (not by warranty or internally). Highest gross retention in fixed ops — 40% on parts, 70-78% on labor. The bucket that pays the bills.

A vehicle returned to the service drive because the original repair didn't fix the problem. Comebacks are unpaid (warranty-style), painful for the tech, and the fastest way for a service department to lose CSI.

A repair order that hasn't been closed out and invoiced yet — vehicle is in process, awaiting parts, or waiting on customer approval. Open RO aging is a fixed-ops health metric; a stack of 4-day-old open ROs means the shop is jammed.

Service-advisor slang for a 3-up sell on a single RO — typically tires + alignment + something else (cabin filter, brake fluid flush, wiper blades). Frequently associated with monthly advisor contests.

Identifying current service-drive customers whose trade-in equity, lease maturity, or payoff position make them likely buyers — and offering them a new deal at the counter. The highest-leverage cross-sell in the building.

Gladius angleEquity mining is the cheapest lead source a dealer has and the one most CRMs cannot do because they don't read the service RO file.