The Store Plan
Ninety days, one rooftop, four sections.
A written plan for a single store: what is going to rot on the lot, where the money should actually point, what the ad is allowed to say, and the scoreboard both of us agree to before any of it starts. Recon’s core artefact, and a quarterly deliverable inside Full Desk.
A note on the name
In a store, MAP means one thing, and this is not it.
Elsewhere in marketing, MAP means a marketing action plan or a marketing automation platform. Inside a dealership it means Minimum Advertised Price — the per-brand floor on what you may advertise a vehicle for, which is not the same as what you may sell it for. Honda and Acura bar advertising below MSRP. Toyota and Mazda work off invoice. Subaru, Nissan, Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz each run their own version, and they are revised annually.
It is not law and no regulator enforces it. The manufacturer enforces it by withholding your marketing allowance, which makes it a cash problem.
Separately, and for a different reason: I will not take a second rooftop of your brand competing for your buyers. That is not a MAP question, it is a Sherman Act question — an agency writing the advertised offers for two competitors is the hub in a hub-and-spoke arrangement. The second one gets declined, which is written into the agreement.
So the plan is called the Store Plan. The MAP floor sheet is a production constraint I maintain per rooftop and check every price-bearing asset against. It is a guardrail, not a deliverable.
Specimen
The four sections.
Constructed example. Structure and method are exactly what you receive. The store, the units and the figures are invented.
Second Pencil · Store Plan · Q3
Rooftop 01 — [FRANCHISED STORE, MIDDLESEX COUNTY]
Section 1 — Inventory triage
VIN-level, by days on lot and by turn. What is going to rot, what is going to sell itself, and therefore what is worth spending against. The second column is the one that saves money: a unit that turns in eleven days does not need advertising.
| Cohort | Units | Avg days | Call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Used, 90+ days | 14 | 118 | Spend. Individually merchandised, trade-led offer. |
| Used, 60–89 | 23 | 71 | Spend. Cohort creative, weekly rotation. |
| Used, under 30 | 41 | 16 | Do not spend. These are turning without help. |
| New, floor-restricted | 96 | — | Availability-led only. MAP floor blocks price creative. |
Section 2 — Money
Your current spend, line by line, off your own statement — reallocated, with the co-op position on each line stated as a fact rather than as a promise.
| Line | Now | Proposed | Co-op position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third-party listings | $9,800 | $6,400 | Not claimable. Largest single reallocation available. |
| Brand search | $10,300 | $10,300 | Approved vendor. Untouched deliberately. |
| Non-brand search | $1,900 | $4,100 | Verify per program. |
| Used / aged merchandising | $0 | $4,900 | Typically outside program. |
| Owner base & service | $700 | $3,200 | Typically outside program. |
| Total | $22,700 | $28,900 | Difference is a decision, not a recommendation. |
Section 3 — Offer structure
What the advertisement actually says, written to survive three tests before it ships: it has to desk — a deal a manager can actually work from it; it has to clear the brand’s MAP floor; and it has to satisfy N.J.A.C. 13:45A-26A, all-in price with the doc fee inside it and any credit terms adjacent to the vehicle rather than in a caption.
- Aged used, 90+: trade-led. “What your car is worth against this one.” No payment, no rate, no term.
- New, floor-restricted: availability-led. Specific trim, specific colour, on the ground, today.
- Owner base: equity-led, first-party audience only, routed to the desk rather than to a form.
- Excluded this quarter: anything stating a monthly payment. Triggering terms, and the approved agency already runs that creative inside co-op.
Section 4 — Scoreboard
The baseline is written down and signed before month one. This is the section that makes month three an argument I win rather than an attribution fight I lose, and it is the section most vendors do not offer because it is the one that can convict them.
| Measure | Baseline | 90-day target |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per sold unit | $641 | $520 |
| VDP to lead | 1.9% | 2.6% |
| Appointment show rate | 44% | 55% |
| Units off 90+ day inventory | 3 / mo | 7 / mo |
| Prequal submissions to sold | not tracked | tracked from day 21 |
| F&I gross per campaign cohort | not tracked | reported monthly |
What section 4 depends on, stated plainly. The bottom two rows require a month-end F&I export from your controller. That is a manual report from somebody with a close to run, and the honest risk is that it stops arriving in month four. The agreement therefore carries a data-delivery term with a fee consequence attached, in both directions — because if the export stops, the deliverable you are paying the top tier for stops existing, and neither of us should pretend otherwise.
How to get one
Paid, always. A free plan is a proposal, and gets read like one.
The Store Plan is the core artefact of Recon at $2,450 a month, and a quarterly deliverable inside Full Desk, rewritten each quarter against what actually happened.