In this episode, I unpack Auto Trader's move to make Deal Builder mandatory and ask the question dealers care about: who owns the customer and the deal?

You'll hear:

• What Deal Builder actually does (reserve for £99, PX, finance) and why Auto Trader says those journeys convert better and often happen after hours.
• The real-world headaches dealers are reporting: reservation timeframes, cars marked "reserved", and customers vanishing over a weekend.
• Why "omni-channel" is right in principle—but the line blurs when a marketplace inserts itself between you and the buyer.
• Data control worries when PX and finance run through a third party—and what happens at renewal.
• The money question: it's free until end of 2025… so how will it be monetised next? Plus the background noise on rising platform costs.
• Practical alternatives and diversification routes so you're not over-exposed to a single source of demand.

If you're pro, anti, or just unsure, this one gives you the questions to take back to your team.

About Symco Training:

Symco Training was founded in 2000 by Simon Bowkett and it was his belief that the business had to offer its clients something different. That difference was clear to Simon from his days in the dealership when he experienced many sales trainers who had all the answers, but were unable, unwilling or both to actually show the delegate how they could be implemented. It remains the ethos of the business today. You see, Symco only employ trainers that are committed to delivering not only in spiring and insightful training, but are equally as happy to demonstrate these skills and techniques with real customers in your own showroom. We believe in order for sales training to be effective and in Simon's words 'real world', it needs to be tried and tested in the only place it matters the showroom floor. There is no room for theory when your goals are for your team to sell more cars, hours or parts and retain more profit. In dealerships around the world the focus applied by many of the sales executives is to try and sell a deal. Symco specialise in getting your teams to focus on selling themselves, the product and then supporting this with the deal.

To find out more visit: www.symcotraining.co.uk