SMS & Wholesalers
Text Your Wholesalers a Trade, Get Offers Back
Vehicle Fair Trade sends an evaluation to every wholesaler at once, by text, and returns their offers to a single place. This replaces calling buyers one at a time and tracking replies across separate phones.
In Vehicle Fair Trade you build the evaluation, select your wholesalers, and send it to all of them by SMS in one action. Replies arrive in a live conversation thread per buyer, and the offers attach to the evaluation. There is no copy-paste, no calling buyers individually, and no risk of skipping one.
How the wholesale blast works
You appraise the unit, then send it to your buyer list in one action using Send to Wholesalers. Every wholesaler receives the same evaluation by text at the same time. Each reply returns to its own conversation thread, tied to that wholesaler, and the offers attach to the evaluation so you can compare them side by side. Vehicle Fair Trade can also read the offer amount out of each reply automatically, so the number lands as a recorded bid.
Across four years of use, this represents approximately 29,000 texts and 11,600 offers. About 83% of evaluations receive at least one offer, and the median time to the first offer is around 55 minutes. Sending to everyone the same way each time lets the buyers compete, which sets the price.
Why “send to everyone, every time” matters
The cost of the manual method is omission. The older routine took four or five minutes per trade and was prone to entering the wrong engine, missing a photo, or skipping a wholesaler. Each miss has a financial cost, because the best offer may come from the buyer who was left out. Sending the same evaluation to your whole list automatically removes that risk.
Before you send, the unit should be booked and the build confirmed. The Canadian Black Book value provides the benchmark, and the OEM window sticker confirms the options the buyers are pricing.
The offers come back to a place you control
Every message and every offer lives in Vehicle Fair Trade, not on a personal phone. When wholesale bids live in texts on one person’s device, there is no record and no oversight. In Vehicle Fair Trade, anyone with the right access sees every thread, every offer, and every time an offer was changed or deleted, and by whom. The result is built-in control and an audit trail.
Keeping the salesperson and the wholesaler apart
The person who appraises the vehicle should not be the person negotiating with the wholesalers. When the same person handles both, a buyer has the opportunity to influence the appraiser to win the bid. When the salesperson does not touch the wholesaler side and sees only isolated offers, that risk is removed. Running the blast through Vehicle Fair Trade rather than a personal phone is what makes that separation possible.
When this is not for you
Vehicle Fair Trade relies on having a wholesaler list and wanting those buyers to compete. If you retail every trade and never wholesale, the blast provides little benefit. If you already have a system that texts your whole buyer list and keeps the bids in one auditable place, there is no need to switch.
FAQ
Do all the wholesalers get the evaluation at the same time?
Yes. You send once, and every wholesaler on the list receives the same evaluation by text at the same time. There is no need to send them individually.
Where do the offers show up?
Each wholesaler’s replies arrive in their own conversation thread, and the offers attach to the evaluation so you can compare them in one view.
Do I need a wholesaler’s permission to text them?
Wholesalers opt in to receive texts. The consent step is part of setting up a buyer for SMS, so you are not texting anyone who has not agreed to it.
Can more than one person at the dealership see the conversations?
Yes, with the right access. Messages and offers live in Vehicle Fair Trade, so an owner or manager can see every thread and every change, not only the person whose phone received the texts.
Where does my dealership’s texting number come from?
It is provisioned automatically when your plan includes SMS conversations. Wholesalers see that one number for your store, and every reply to it lands back in Vehicle Fair Trade.
What happens to the message history?
It is retained. Every message and offer is kept and searchable, providing a record of what was said and offered long after the deal closes.