Patent ID: 7966210

Claim:
A method of scoring potential purchasing dealers within a network of competitive dealers, the method comprising: (a) obtaining, by a computer, sales history data for each of the purchasing dealers in the network, the sales history data corresponding to vehicles comparable to a vehicle for sale and including a plurality of sales indicators corresponding to prior sales made by the respective purchasing dealers, the plurality of sales indicators including at least two of i) number of bids made, ii) quantity of vehicles sold, iii) quantity of vehicles purchased, iv) frequency of bidding by the potential purchasing dealer, and v) return on investment for the vehicles comparable to the vehicle for sale; (b) assigning, by the computer, a score and a weight to each of the sales indicators for each of the potential purchasing dealers based on the sales history data, wherein the weight assigned to each of the sales indicators is based at least in part on the combination of sales indicators in the sales history data; (c) generating prior to receiving bids for the vehicle for sale, by the computer, a smart score for each potential purchasing dealer by aggregating the weighted assigned scores for the sales indicators, wherein the smart score indicates the likelihood that each purchasing dealer will bid on the vehicle for sale; and (d) ranking the potential purchasing dealers in the network based at least in part on the generated smart scores.