Selling In The Motor Trade

This episode has been requested by one of our loyal listeners. His sales team were struggling to meet and greet customers that walk in, as so many initial contacts are made digitally or over the phone.

Simon explains that we should treat meeting a customer like an interview. They are interviewing you to be their sales person. Now, that’s a scary thought!

We then explore some straight forward techniques that can help get over the initial barriers and start a conversation.

It’s important to be yourself, and introduce yourself to everyone in the buying party. 

Here are the highlights:

{01:48} Remember your interview conduct

{03:17} Starting  a conversation

{07:34} Introduce yourself within a few minutes

{09:26} The used car meanderer

{11:18} When you can smell ‘just looking’

{17:28} Introduce yourself to everyone

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 inspiring 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

We are very pleased to announce our podcast association with Carwow, and look forward to working with the team.

Estelle Miller, the inspiring Co-Founder of EV Experts Ltd, has been kindly introduced to us by Carwow, and we are delighted to share her interview in this episode.  

Estelle and her husband Martin, established the business in 2017,  with the aim to help customers make informed decisions about moving to EV.  They had experienced difficulties themselves when trying to source a second hand EV and thought there was a GAP in the market.

She explains that customers can take longer in the buying process moving to electric, and to start with its often not about the car, but seeking information on range and charging. Ensuring your systems are in place to keep in contact with those customers is key.

We go on to discuss everything from sourcing electric vehicles to depreciation curves and the disposal of the batteries.

Here are the highlights:

{01:14} The start of the journey

{17:20} VAT rate at public charging stations

{18:58} The drawbacks of hybrid technology

{31:51} Depreciation on electric vehicles

{58:21} Is Hydrogen the future?

{01:03:22} Advice for selling EV’s

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 inspiring 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

We continue with the second instalment of our much requested series on the 5 key touch points in your service department.  Darren Bedford joins us again, to provide expert guidance for your team with the vehicle drop off.

What does a good vehicle drop off look like these days?  We have self-service options with 100% of upsells offered to 100% customers, 100% of the time. Is the human interaction still needed?

Although we are not talking about the vehicle health check in this episode, it’s important that the VHC is explained and it’s the last thing the customer is left with at the drop off.

Some simple actions explained in this episode that can made a big impact in your productivity and upsell success.  The next instalment of this series will be the VHC.

Here are the highlights:

{00:55} 5 Touch points refresh

{08:28} What is a good number of people for service advisor to see in a day

{14:08} Look at the previous VHC

{17:05} Explain the VHC, build trust in amber work

{22:52} Air Conditioning Service

{33:02} Desk Aids

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 inspiring 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

It is with great pleasure that we interview John Veichmanis, CEO of Carwow.  

John certainly has admirable credentials, with 30 years experience working for global brands including Dell, Apple and Skype. The second half of his career has been focused on helping to build scalable marketplaces for Expedia, Farfetch and Carwow.

We delve into some of the myths around Carwow. How they have grown and changed in the last four years to become a marketplace that is trusted by customers, dealers and OEMs alike.

The future is very exciting for them: developing Ai to improve listing quality on auctions and building new capabilities on dealer facing tools.

An insightful conversation for all.

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 inspiring 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

We are very pleased to interview Matthew Elwell co-founder of Elite Closing Academy. Matt discusses his journey from door to door sales to starting his own training company.

Closing is obviously an essential skill to anyone in sales, and great closers are like anyone who is a master of their trade, they do the basics every time. We look at when to start closing and how to earn the right to close.

Some great tips for anyone in sales.

Here are the highlights:

{07:28} Learning from the All Blacks

{20:18} Don’t lie to your customers

{28:46} Elite closers move slowly

{38.13} Selling and closing are two different skills

{41:03} Earning the right to close

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 inspiring 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

We welcome back our Operations Director Andrew Clark, to have a discussion round EV’s, pay per mile, OEM’s and tariffs.

There is a lot of discussion around pay per mile at the moment, as the government looks to replace their lost revenue from electric cars. Obviously, that raises questions around how this would be managed, and the technology in our cars.  This then leads us onto looking at the manufactures, and how they are going handle their zero emission production targets for new cars, the future and used car values.

Lots to think about.

Here are the highlights:

{01:26} Pay per mile

{07:30} ZEV Mandate

{19:51} Changing landscape of OEM’s

{18.13} 2030

{22:59} Chinese brands

{33:01} Value of used EV’s

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 inspiring 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

It’s our pleasure to introduce Richard Keeney, Co- Founder of the Markee Group, who were pioneers of bite sized video training modules in the United States.

Richard has been in the industry for 46 years and he talks us through his journey, from car sales to starting the Markee Group with David Martin. There is a lot he’s learnt on the way, and we delve into what makes a great dealer,  a great sales person or service advisor.

Here are the highlights:

{04:19} Don’t prejudge

{15:34} Prove the naysayers wrong

{16:53} Recurring income

{19:26} Drip feed ideas

{22:40} Strong standards and structures

{37:05} Take your time to hire

{50:45} Communication Skills

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 inspiring 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

This is the first part of a series on the 5 key touch points in your service department.  We are joined by Darren Bedford to discuss the first point, which is the booking and pre-call.

We hear from a lot of service advisors that they just don’t have enough time.  Well one of the first things you can do to improve this, is to have a robust system in place for bookings and pre calls.

Don’t miss this episode if you are looking to fine tune your service department.

Here are the highlights:

{01:18} 5 Touch points

{03:50} Where problems can start

{05:40} Rugby pass

{07:15} Bookings compared to service work

{11:09} Other garages problems

{15:45} Good pre-call

{25:00} Top Tips

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 inspiring 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

This week we are joined by our new training consultant, Adam Wright.  We discuss Adams journey into the motor trade and the experience he has to draw from when training.

There are lots of top tips for those new and old to sales, new managers and aftersales. Everything from work ethic to prospecting.

Please join us and get to know Adam.

Here are the highlights:

{06:40} Lead from the front

{09:48} Try to do every job

{16:13} Make the most of your day

{28:21} Sticky training

{33:07} Dinosaurs

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 inspiring 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

We can sell GAP again.  However, I know some dealers aren’t going to offer it, but others will because they believe in the product.

Surely, we need to let customers know about it and then let them be the judge!

In this episode, we discuss when to talk about the product, how to bring it up, and then handle some common objections.

Here are the highlights:

{04:00} When 

{06:47} How

{10:59} 2 Car Flippy/Flip

{14:48} Objections

{26:00} Promise me

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 inspiring 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