The shift to online car sales is altering the skills mix needed by dealer sales staff. Derek Webb, sales director at the online recruitment business Jobco-op Automotive said the skills needed by dealer sales people had not changed much with an emphasis on people skills. “However, if your dealership is completing 50% of its used car sales online, as might be the case within a few years, then these skills will be of little use – you may never speak to or meet the customer. “Instead, your approach must be very structured and efficient in order to fulfil the sale as efficiently as possible. Also, your ability to communicate in writing must also be strong as you interact with the customer through e-mail and other online channels. “Additionally, of course, you must have excellent IT skills and be able to work closely with your…

Kia plans to grow its dealer network to 195 sites to achieve its target of selling 100,000 units by 2020 and is already holding capacity planning sessions with its partners. The brand currently has 177 dealers and has identified geographical locations it will need to fill as its volumes grow. “We have done a review of the country based on our long term plan to get to 100,000 sales and believe the optimum number is 195. As we grow our volume more of those territories that currently don’t have representation will become viable as standalone points,” said Paul Philpott, Kia’s UK CEO and president. “Typically the first people we’ll talk to are the neighbouring dealers. We have a lot of dealers who would like to go from one point to two, or two points to three and we have a number of good quality…

Hyundai’s i40 is this month’s fastest selling used car in the UK, spending an average of 28 days on dealer forecourts, according to research conducted by Glass’s. Other quick sellers include the Audi Qs (31.1 days) and Audi S3 (31.2 days). The slowest sellers was led by the Mercedes R-Class (104.7 days), Ford Street Ka (97.8 days) and Nissan Leaf (95.5 days). “The i40 is incredibly good value for money and it seems that retail promotions have created quite a demand for the car – this has led to stock levels dropping, demand increasing and days to sale improving quickly,” said Rupert Pontin, Glass’s chief car editor. “Audi takes three of the top 10 spots, which isn’t unexpected – it just confirms the popularity of the brand in the new and used markets. What is interesting is that Audi’s main rivals, Mercedes and BMW,…

Trader Media Group has rebranded as Auto Trader following a strategic move to simplify its operations. The initiative was introduced last year by new managing director Trevor Mather and has already seen the company, the UK’s biggest digital automotive marketplace, drop the Razor branding from its dealer marketing operations and bring Bike Trader, Van Trader and Motorhome & Caravan Trader under the Auto Trader banner. Until recently the group operated 41 brands. As part of the change the company has been trialling a new dealer service with one Auto Trader representative assigned to all aspects of their business. “We spend over £15m a year on the Auto Trader brand, so it makes absolute sense for this to be our primary focus,” said Mather. “Over 37 years we have built in too much complexity with acquisitions and new products and we need to make things…

Dealers bosses have been urged to watch out for “digital burnout” among staff using remote devices to stay in touch with work outside of working hours. Derek Webb, sales director of Job co-op Automotive, the specialist online recruitment business, says the issue can be a particular problem for sales staff, who use remote working to follow up leads even on their days off and is advising dealers to discourage excessive usage. “Modern technology means sales staff can do almost everything that they could do in the dealership by accessing their DMS or sales system remotely from a laptop, tablet or smartphone,” he said. “This means that some of them effectively use this capability to work seven days a week. They continue to monitor and progress all on going sales activity even when they are on holiday. “In some respects, this is good for the…

WMS Group has launched a range of service plans for used car dealers with no mileage or age restrictions which for used car customers allows security and peace of mind. The company collects service plan premiums direct from the consumer and holds them in a secure ring-fenced account, so dealerships do not need to handle any funds. Each service plan can be renewed on expiry and can also be transferred to the customer’s new vehicle. Items not covered such as MOTs, brake fluid changes and air conditioning refills can be covered at extra cost. The dealership can access detailed reports to help them manage their workshop business. WMS Group’s business development director Eric Stone said selling the plans would generate guaranteed service work for dealerships Original Story Taken from Motor Trader – http://www.motortrader.com/latest-news/wms-group-launches-service-plan-range/

The UK new car market clocked up 24 consecutive months of growth in February with year-on-year sales up 3% to 68,736 units, according to the SMMT. “The rise in February new car registrations marks two full years of continuous month-on-month growth; a real endorsement of consumer confidence and the attractiveness of the new car market,” said Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive. “While February is typically a quieter month ahead of the March registration plate-change, we expect the arrival of the new 14-plate and increasing economic confidence to maintain a steady rate of growth.” Ford’s Fiesta continued to dominate new car sales with 4,415 registrations, followed by Vsauxhall’s Corsa and Astra. Premium brands also featured in the top 10 with the Mercedes C-Class the seventh biggest seller (1,231), followed by the Audi A3  in ninth (1,148) and BMW 3 Series in tenth (1,085). Brands getting…

Lookers turned in a strong performance in 2013 with pre tax profits up 27.9% to £43.9m on turnover up 19.4% to £2.46bn. Retail new car sales rose 19%, outperforming the overall UK retail market, which rose 15.6%. In the fleet sector, Lookers’ volumes fell by 3% as the company pulled away from low margin business. Whilst volumes were lower, overall gross profit from fleet business increased in the year. The overall UK fleet sector rose 6.7% Gross profit per unit on new retail cars rose 6.5% compared to the prior year, whilst gross profit per unit on fleet business increased by 10%. Whilst used car transactions in the UK were static Lookers sales rose 20% and gross profit per unit increased by 3.6%. Lookers said its website was helping to drive used sales and generating 20% more leads than a year ago. The group…