Generating customer-specific vehicle proposals for potential vehicle customers

A data mining and analysis system for automotive dealers comprising:

• a computer system for automatically identifying which past customers are candidates for new vehicle transactions on terms favorable to the customers for presentation to the candidates as new favorable deal proposals;
• the computer system having access to a large database of records of previously sold vehicles, the records including, for each previously sold vehicle:
• the customer for the previously sold vehicle and that customer's contact information, the customer comprising a past customer not currently shopping or looking for a new vehicle;
• a vehicle identification number of the previously sold vehicle;
• data from the deal that resulted in the previous sale to the customer, the data sufficient to show or obtain:
• the customer's current payment, which comprises the customer's monthly payment for the previously sold vehicle;
• an estimated trade value of the previously sold vehicle;
• and
• an estimated payoff amount of the previously sold vehicle;
• the computer system configured to analyze the data from the deals that resulted in the previous sales to the past customers and automatically analyze a new deal proposal for all of a large set of past customers to determine which past customers are good prospects to offer a new vehicle on favorable financial terms, where the favorable financial terms comprise at least the same or lower monthly payment for the replacement vehicle, the analysis comprising:
• receive changed internal data and changed external data on a periodic basis wherein the period comprises receiving the changed data dynamically, the changed data comprising data relating to financing data for new suggested vehicles for past customers and values related to the previously sold vehicles for past customers;
• automatically determine for each of the past customers a new suggested vehicle for the previously sold vehicle, wherein the determining comprises algorithmically associating the previously sold vehicle with one or more new suggested vehicles based on category, classification, or grouping;
• search an inventory of the automotive dealer for the new suggested vehicle for the customer, thereby limiting use of computer resources by analyzing one new suggested vehicle for the determination of whether that customer is a candidate for outreach;
• determine at least two new proposed payments by:
• obtaining a price of the new suggested vehicle;
• obtaining a net trade-in equity by combining the estimated trade value with the estimated payoff amount of the previously sold vehicle, wherein the trade-in equity may be either negative equity or positive equity;
• determining an amount to be financed by combining the price of the new suggested vehicle with any obtained net trade-in equity, whether positive or negative;
• using the amount to be financed and currently-available rate information for at least two different loan durations to determine the new proposed payments;
• comparing the customer's current payment and the new proposed payments to determine one or more differences;
• and
• analyzing the differences to determine if at least one of them meets a criterion to identify the customer for outreach because a new favorable deal proposal has been identified to get that customer into an upgraded vehicle comprising at least one of the new suggested vehicles;
• the computer system being configured to adjust at least one changed financing data parameter for suggested new vehicles;
• and
• iteratively analyzing whether the at least one changed financing parameter increases the number of customers who can favorably get into an upgraded new suggested vehicle;
• the computer system thereby identifying new revenue opportunities from the past customers that are candidates for new vehicle transactions, even when those candidates are not shopping for a new vehicle, and, for each candidate, identifying at least one specific and available new favorable deal proposal relating to a specific new suggested vehicle;
• and
• a visual alert system for notifying dealership personnel of the new revenue opportunities automatically identified by the computer system by collecting and, for each specific and available proposal, displaying specific proposed transaction details to an automobile marketer to assist in marketing outreach to the candidates;
• the visual alert system configured to allow a user to select what is displayed and control the system to instantaneously switch between views;
• the visual alert system including at least one deal sheet view that arranges all of the following into a simultaneously-viewable screen for display to a user to facilitate outreach regarding the specific new suggested vehicle to each candidate customer:
• the candidate customer's contact information;
• the candidate customer's previously sold vehicle, its year, and its vehicle identification number;
• the candidate customer's current payment;
• the estimated trade value of the previously sold vehicle, the estimated payoff amount of the previously sold vehicle, and the net trade-in equity;
• the new specific suggested vehicle and its year;
• and
• multiple options for the new proposed payment under the different loan durations, arranged side by side;
• each new proposed payment juxtaposed with the difference between it and the customer's current payment.