So the 2nd quarter is over! Some of you will have succeeded and some of you will have not, either way it has been a bruising and challenging period as the sector, as a whole, adapts to some very different trading conditions and comes to terms with how the trading landscape is evolving, and sadly these challenges are not going away!
As our sector and business model continues to be aggressively attacked by technology based businesses, there will be a pressing need for businesses to plan how they continue to thrive in the new trading landscape, and central to this will be the war for customers, their data and their future business.
Those of you who follow our Used Car Business Development Blog will know that we have been warning about the aggressive business models that are attacking our established trading model, and these businesses are not targeting our sector because there is no money involved, on the contrary, there is £millions involved and these technology based businesses have realised that you don’t even need a dealership or dealer network to be successful. In fact we would argue that at a time when even some manufacturers are questioning the folly of having a network of multi £million dealerships that customers infrequently visit, these technology based businesses are probably better placed for the challenges that are coming to Automotive Retail Sales Market.
But that subject is for another day and another article; the question to be posed here, which though directly linked to how you combat the challenges mentioned above, is regardless of how you have fared in the first 2 quarters of this year, (whether you have succeeded or not), how do we change the nature of how we run sales operations to ensure our continual success and that we can combat the challenges that are coming, those that threaten our long term business objectives?
And this is a multifaceted question, involving some challenging answers, that will also be different for every business, but one thing we can say is that there is no “Silver Bullet” not one thing that you can do to ensure continual sales success and the combating of the trading threats the sector faces.
We are often asked about our statement; “The Growth in New and Used Car Sales You Require Is Already within the Walls of Your Business” and what that means in the here and now? Well in reality it means that regardless of the challenges coming your way, you still have many advantages; for sure you are all losing the war on customer data and the immediate ability, (post GDPR legislation), to leverage large volumes of customer data for sales purposes, but there will be business being lost and now more than ever we must adapt our sales and operational procedures to ensure we continue to be successful during the period of time it will take for the sector to catch up with some of the aggressive business models driving change in the Automotive Sector.
And this process will involve some evolution in terms of the methods and operational procedures we use to measure and manage enquiries; for sure we will still continue to have to be the consummate automotive professionals we have always been in order to succeed, but it is no good being akin to the best typewriter on the market, the day the home computer was launched, because we all know how that turned out!
One of the biggest changes over the last couple of years has been in the way that customers look to research their purchasing decision and if the enquiry process is evolving with customers, then we must evolve if we are to continue to be available to consumers, in the way they require, then manage that engagement to successful sales outcomes.
We predict that there will be much change in our sector over the next 5-10 years, maybe more than we have ever seen over a period of time this long before; and our first recommendation would be to start by ensuring that the business that is currently slipping through your fingers, is maximised, and this process will require a change in the operational and enquiry management procedures within sales operations, and dealerships as a whole. You must look to combine the tried and proven practices of the past with the new operational and enquiry management procedures required in the modern retail trading landscape, if you are to ensure that you remain successful in the coming years.
The best place to start this process? Well that would be a full sales and operational auditing process of your business from top to bottom, combined with an open mind and an understanding of what must change, if your business is to continue to succeed in the coming years. Alongside this challenge will be the fight for the bright minds required for this journey; a lot of the skills and the professionals possessing these skills are already within the industry, but many of the entrepreneurial skills required are not; they are working in more forward thinking sectors of the economy and have chosen not to work within the all too common “Race To The Bottom” environment seen in the Automotive Sector, (when it comes to employing and developing staff), and you will need to make the salaries and working environments required to attract these professionals to your business, available if you are to ever expect them to come to your business.
So how to start this process, the all-embracing sales and operational auditing process of your business? Well this a highly skilled process involving the evaluation of every business process within your dealership that has an impact on your success, from your sales department right through to your aftersales department. Only once this process is complete and you have the blueprint of your business required, can you begin to construct the action plan required and implement the changes required.
If you don’t have these skills within your business, well that is where we can help; if you would like to know just where the next growth in new and used car business is within your business and the operational and managerial procedures required to take advantage of continual year on year growth in new and used car sales, then we would be delighted to complete the forensic audit of your business.
For more information about our sales and operations audit, please follow the link to the relevant page on our website and if our Sales And Operations Audit process is of interest and/or you would like to know more about our new and used car business development consultancy programmes, because you would like to partner with an organisation of professionals who have faced the challenges of fast paced evolutionary markets and know how to develop successful and profitable new and used car operations on your behalf, (in order to keep your new car and total business objectives growing and on track), then we would very much like to hear from you.
The owners of Autoformance have owned and run successful new and used car businesses and been at the forefront of the development of both new car training programmes and approved used car programmes for a host of manufacturers. For an exploratory conversation regarding our services and/or to book your exploratory meeting/conference call, please do not hesitate to contact one of our Founding Directors; Andrew Banning at ajb@autoformance.com or Malcolm Thomas at mgt@autoformance.com
Alternatively please feel free to call us on either 07796 260261 (Andrew Banning) or 07834 600642 (Malcolm Thomas).
For more information about our services please visit our website at www.autoformance.com
Andrew Banning.
Used Car Business Development Director.
So the 2nd quarter is over! Some of you will have succeeded and some of you will have not, either way it has been a bruising and challenging period as the sector, as a whole, adapts to some very different trading conditions and comes to terms with how the trading landscape is evolving, and sadly these challenges are not going away!
As our sector and business model continues to be aggressively attacked by technology based businesses, there will be a pressing need for businesses to plan how they continue to thrive in the new trading landscape, and central to this will be the war for customers, their data and their future business.
Those of you who follow our Used Car Business Development Blog will know that we have been warning about the aggressive business models that are attacking our established trading model, and these businesses are not targeting our sector because there is no money involved, on the contrary, there is £millions involved and these technology based businesses have realised that you don’t even need a dealership or dealer network to be successful. In fact we would argue that at a time when even some manufacturers are questioning the folly of having a network of multi £million dealerships that customers infrequently visit, these technology based businesses are probably better placed for the challenges that are coming to Automotive Retail Sales Market.
But that subject is for another day and another article; the question to be posed here, which though directly linked to how you combat the challenges mentioned above, is regardless of how you have fared in the first 2 quarters of this year, (whether you have succeeded or not), how do we change the nature of how we run sales operations within franchised dealer networks, to ensure our continual success and that we can combat the challenges that are coming, those that threaten our long term business objectives?
And this is a multifaceted question, involving some challenging answers, that will also be different for every business, but one thing we can say is that there is no “Silver Bullet” not one thing that you can do to ensure continual sales success and the combating of the trading threats the sector faces.
We are often asked about our statement; “The Growth in New and Used Car Sales You Require Is Already within the Walls of Your Business” and what that means in the here and now? Well in reality it means that regardless of the challenges coming your way, you still have many advantages; for sure you are all losing the war for customer data and the immediate ability, (post GDPR legislation), to leverage large volumes of customer data for sales purposes, but there will be business being lost and now more than ever your franchise partners must adapt their sales and operational procedures, in order to ensure that they continue to be successful during the period of time it will take for the sector to catch up with some of the aggressive business models driving change in the Automotive Sector.
And this process will involve some evolution in terms of the methods and operational procedures they use to measure and manage enquiries; for sure they will still continue to have to be the consummate automotive professionals they have always been in order to succeed, but it is no good being akin to the best typewriter on the market, the day the home computer was launched, because we all know how that turned out!
One of the biggest changes over the last couple of years has been in the way that customers look to research their purchasing decision and if the enquiry process is evolving with customers, then you and your franchise partners must evolve if you are to continue to be available to consumers, in the way they require, then manage that engagement to successful sales outcomes.
We predict that there will be much change in our sector over the next 5-10 years, maybe more than we have ever seen over a period of time this long before; and our first recommendation would be to start by ensuring that the business that is currently slipping through the fingers of your franchise partners, is maximised, and this process will require a change in the operational and enquiry management procedures within sales operations, and dealerships as a whole. You must look to combine the tried and proven practices of the past with the new operational and enquiry management procedures required in the modern retail trading landscape, if you are to ensure that you remain successful in the coming years.
The best place to start this process? Well that would be a full sales and operational auditing process of the businesses of your franchise partners, (from top to bottom), combined with an open mind and an understanding of what must change, if your business and franchised dealer network is to continue to succeed in the coming years. Alongside this challenge will be the fight for the bright minds required for this journey; a lot of the skills and the professionals possessing these skills are already within the industry, but many of the entrepreneurial skills required are not; they are working in more forward thinking sectors of the economy and have chosen not to work within the all too common “Race To The Bottom” environment seen in the Automotive Sector, (when it comes to employing and developing staff), and you will need to make the salaries and working environments required to attract these professionals to your business, available if you are to ever expect them to come to your business.
So how to start this process, the all-embracing sales and operational auditing process of your franchised dealer network? Well this a highly skilled process involving the evaluation of every business process within the businesses contained within your franchised dealer network, (that has an impact on your success), from the sales departments right through to the aftersales departments. Only once this process is complete and you have the blueprint of your businesses required, can you begin to construct the action plans required and implement the changes required.
If you don’t have these skills within your business, well that is where we can help; if you would like to know just where the next growth in new and used car business is within your franchised dealer network and the operational and managerial procedures required to take advantage of continual year on year growth in new and used car sales, then we would be delighted to complete the forensic audit of your businesses.
For more information about our sales and operations audit, please follow the link to the relevant page on our website and if our Sales And Operations Audit process is of interest and/or you would like to know more about our new and used car business development consultancy programmes, because you would like to partner with an organisation of professionals who have faced the challenges of fast paced evolutionary markets and know how to develop successful and profitable new and used car operations on your behalf, (in order to keep your new car and total business objectives growing and on track), then we would very much like to hear from you.
The owners of Autoformance have owned and run successful new and used car businesses and been at the forefront of the development of both new car training programmes and approved used car programmes for a host of manufacturers. For an exploratory conversation regarding our services and/or to book your exploratory meeting/conference call, please do not hesitate to contact one of our Founding Directors; Andrew Banning at ajb@autoformance.com or Malcolm Thomas at mgt@autoformance.com
Alternatively please feel free to call us on either 07796 260261 (Andrew Banning) or 07834 600642 (Malcolm Thomas).
For more information about our services please visit our website at www.autoformance.com
Andrew Banning.
Used Car Business Development Director.
So the 2nd quarter is over! Some of you will have succeeded and some of you will have not, either way it has been a bruising and challenging period as the sector, as a whole, adapts to some very different trading conditions and comes to terms with how the trading landscape is evolving, and sadly these challenges are not going away!
As our sector and business model continues to be aggressively attacked by technology based businesses, there will be a pressing need for businesses to plan how they continue to thrive in the new trading landscape, and central to this will be the war for customers, their data and their future business.
Those of you who follow our Used Car Business Development Blog will know that we have been warning about the aggressive business models that are attacking our established trading model, and these businesses are not targeting our sector because there is no money involved, on the contrary, there is millions of Euros involved and these technology based businesses have realised that you don’t even need a dealership or dealer network to be successful. In fact we would argue that at a time when even some manufacturers are questioning the folly of having a network of dealerships that customers infrequently visit, these technology based businesses are probably better placed for the challenges that are coming to Automotive Retail Sales Market.
But that subject is for another day and another article; the question to be posed here, which though directly linked to how you combat the challenges mentioned above, is regardless of how you have fared in the first 2 quarters of this year, (whether you have succeeded or not), how do we change the nature of how we run sales operations within franchised dealer networks, to ensure our continual success and that we can combat the challenges that are coming, those that threaten our long term business objectives?
And this is a multifaceted question, involving some challenging answers, that will also be different for every business, but one thing we can say is that there is no “Silver Bullet” not one thing that you can do to ensure continual sales success and the combating of the trading threats the sector faces.
We are often asked about our statement; “The Growth in New and Used Car Sales You Require Is Already within the Walls of Your Business” and what that means in the here and now? Well in reality it means that regardless of the challenges coming your way, you still have many advantages; for sure you are all losing the war for customer data and the immediate ability, (post GDPR legislation), to leverage large volumes of customer data for sales purposes, but there will be business being lost and now more than ever your franchise partners must adapt their sales and operational procedures, in order to ensure that they continue to be successful during the period of time it will take for the sector to catch up with some of the aggressive business models driving change in the Automotive Sector.
And this process will involve some evolution in terms of the methods and operational procedures they use to measure and manage enquiries; for sure they will still continue to have to be the consummate automotive professionals they have always been in order to succeed, but it is no good being akin to the best typewriter on the market, the day the home computer was launched, because we all know how that turned out!
One of the biggest changes over the last couple of years has been in the way that customers look to research their purchasing decision and if the enquiry process is evolving with customers, then you and your franchise partners must evolve if you are to continue to be available to consumers, in the way they require, then manage that engagement to successful sales outcomes.
We predict that there will be much change in our sector over the next 5-10 years, maybe more than we have ever seen over a period of time this long before; and our first recommendation would be to start by ensuring that the business that is currently slipping through the fingers of your franchise partners, is maximised, and this process will require a change in the operational and enquiry management procedures within sales operations, and dealerships as a whole. You must look to combine the tried and proven practices of the past with the new operational and enquiry management procedures required in the modern retail trading landscape, if you are to ensure that you remain successful in the coming years.
The best place to start this process? Well that would be a full sales and operational auditing process of the businesses of your franchise partners, (from top to bottom), combined with an open mind and an understanding of what must change, if your business and franchised dealer network is to continue to succeed in the coming years. Alongside this challenge will be the fight for the bright minds required for this journey; a lot of the skills and the professionals possessing these skills are already within the industry, but many of the entrepreneurial skills required are not; they are working in more forward thinking sectors of the economy and have chosen not to work within the all too common “Race To The Bottom” environment seen in the Automotive Sector, (when it comes to employing and developing staff), and you will need to make the salaries and working environments required to attract these professionals to your business, available if you are to ever expect them to come to your business.
So how to start this process, the all-embracing sales and operational auditing process of your franchised dealer network? Well this a highly skilled process involving the evaluation of every business process within the businesses contained within your franchised dealer network, (that has an impact on your success), from the sales departments right through to the aftersales departments. Only once this process is complete and you have the blueprint of your businesses required, can you begin to construct the action plans required and implement the changes required.
If you don’t have these skills within your business, well that is where we can help; if you would like to know just where the next growth in new and used car business is within your franchised dealer network and the operational and managerial procedures required to take advantage of continual year on year growth in new and used car sales, then we would be delighted to complete the forensic audit of your businesses.
For more information about our sales and operations audit, please follow the link to the relevant page on our website and if our Sales And Operations Audit process is of interest and/or you would like to know more about our new and used car business development consultancy programmes, because you would like to partner with an organisation of professionals who have faced the challenges of fast paced evolutionary markets and know how to develop successful and profitable new and used car operations on your behalf, (in order to keep your new car and total business objectives growing and on track), then we would very much like to hear from you.
The owners of Autoformance have owned and run successful new and used car businesses and been at the forefront of the development of both new car training programmes and approved used car programmes for a host of manufacturers. For an exploratory conversation regarding our services and/or to book your exploratory meeting/conference call, please do not hesitate to contact one of our Founding Directors; Andrew Banning at ajb@autoformance.com or Malcolm Thomas at mgt@autoformance.com
Alternatively please feel free to call us on either 0044 7796 260261 (Andrew Banning) or 0044 7834 600642 (Malcolm Thomas).
For more information about our services please visit our website at www.autoformance.com
Andrew Banning.
Used Car Business Development Director.
