Selling In The Motor Trade

This is episode 300 of Selling in The Motor Trade. Thank you to everyone who has listened, shared an episode or come on as a guest along the way. Nobody picks up the phone and hears, "I'm speccing up my new car. You must be a mind reader." You will get an objection on almost every call. Simon Bowkett's view is that the salespeople who win on the database have a planned answer ready for that objection. Too many say "okay, no problem." In this episode he shows how to fight for the objection with a simple three-step technique. He then covers what to say when a customer swears off a brand or your dealership. He also tackles inflation head on. Customers who set their monthly payment three or four years ago now face a higher figure, and Simon shows how dead money and fuel savings can close that gap once you get the customer face to face. What's covered: • The three-step answer that works on most prospecting objections, ending with "it's never going to be as cost effective as it is right now" • How to find out what went wrong, apologise and use feel, felt, found with an unhappy customer • Why you should never ask "what do you want to pay this time?" and what to say about pre-inflation money • How tyres, windscreen cover, roadside assistance and the MOT add up to dead money a customer can stop paying • Why customers trust a fuel saving sum they watch you work out, and how AI does it in seconds • The gap in fuel consumption you need for the savings argument to stand up • How staying in touch from the day of the sale lets one of the best prospectors Simon has seen open a call with "what colour do you want this time?" Simon Bowkett hosts Selling in The Motor Trade and trains dealer sales teams through Symco Training. On his courses the team makes live prospecting calls, so these techniques come from the phone and the showroom. He admits the phone still gets heavy for him too. If your team keeps saying "no problem" the moment a customer pushes back, this episode gives them better things to say. 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

The easiest way to push up a closing ratio is to log fewer customers. Tim Hargraves agrees, and he has a red work story to match: a site that booked customers' clutch jobs as red work and reported 100% conversion. In this episode, Simon Bowkett asks Tim, a former head of business turned KPI coach, what managers should do with the numbers once they know them. Tim names the three KPIs he'd check daily on day one, explains why a long workshop lead time is an opportunity a head of business is missing, and shows how pushing productivity on its own can drag utilisation down. He also takes on group stock, the Skoda sitting on a Jaguar Land Rover website, and a MINI handover where the customer got a bow on the car and no number plates. What's covered: Labour sales, red and amber work and lead time: Tim's three daily numbers Why technicians earn you more than they cost, and what that means for a long lead time Inbound enquiries, conversion and used car days in stock for the aftersales manager stepping up How a faster technician can leave you with longer breaks between job cards Why the internal rate protects margin in aftersales Why sales managers keep non-franchise stock, and why Tim would move it as an MD How a six month order turned into a rushed month end registration Tim Hargraves has sat in the sales manager and head of business chairs and now coaches people preparing for a head of business role. He says it's hard to read the label from inside the jar. If you run a dealership on KPIs, listen to this one and then go and check how your team is recording theirs. 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

Your service department might be carrying two-year-old job cards in work in progress. Tim Hargraves moved from sales manager to head of business with the aftersales lingo off pat, then inherited a commercial vehicle workshop holding three times the work in progress of a passenger car workshop twice its size. He puts the write-off at about £20,000. Tim tells Simon Bowkett why he thinks most heads of business come from sales, why the people hiring them keep choosing candidates who followed the same path, and what he believes that costs dealer groups. He also takes apart the four-week service diary that looks healthy while diagnostic customers drive to the specialist independent down the road, and says no service department has ever quoted him a figure for how many enquiries turn into bookings. What's covered: •    How sales managers talk their way into head of business roles on aftersales vocabulary •    Why recruiters who came up through sales keep hiring sales managers to run dealerships •    A £350,000 work in progress figure defended because it used to be £750,000 •    Why writing off old jobs feels painful and why your first loss is your best loss •    The engine management light customer who waits a couple of weeks while a routine service gets in within two or three days •    A booking call where the customer heard a price with no value built in, asked for the service manager and gave up •    Why service advisors should go through the main dealer journey as customers themselves Tim Hargraves spent 21 years at a family-run dealer group in Suffolk, rising from sales executive to head of business. He now works with managers moving into head of business roles and the people already in them. Heads of business, aftersales managers and anyone signing off a service department's numbers should hear this one. 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

Customers still walk into used car dealerships expecting to get stitched up. Craig Walker decided to let them in before they arrive. In this episode, Craig talks to Simon Bowkett about Dealership Diaries, the YouTube channel where the whole team films behind the scenes, mistakes included. Craig explains how pointing out every mark on a car calms a nervous buyer, how a customer flew up from Kent to buy an F-Type after watching the channel, and how a £24.99 a month service plan brings buyers back to the workshop. Craig puts take-up at around 40%. The conversation also covers using the workshop to buy stock, treating the appointment as the new sale, hiring for personality and running KPIs through Claude straight from a DMS export. Craig finishes with the challenge still to crack: finding a number two. What's covered: •    Why Craig puts 'disarming the customer' in the brand book and how the team does it on every car •    How Dealership Diaries got the whole team on camera and what it has done for sales •    The difference between active and passive customers, and how to stay in front of both •    Running a £24.99 a month service plan at break-even, and the take-up of around 40% that Craig reports •    Using the workshop and service advisers to spot cars worth buying in •    Why Craig sees the appointment as the new sale, and why trial closes matter after the test drive •    Hiring salespeople for personality and training everything else •    Dropping a DMS CSV into Claude to track KPIs and stock turn, plus Simon's tip for recording sales meetings with Wispr Flow Craig Walker runs The Walker Motor Group, which owns Culloden Cars on the outskirts of Inverness, and co-owns the Top Car Services workshop with business partner Liam Grant. Craig says the group employs 17 people, and that the workshop, which started with three ramps, is moving up to seven with an MOT testing station. Craig still loves being in the weeds of the business. If you run an independent or manage a used car or service department and want more repeat business out of every customer you sell to, give this one a listen. 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

Craig Walker bought into a car dealership without putting in a penny. The deal: turn a struggling business round, get the owner his money back, and take half the company as payment. Two years later, he had it. Now he runs Culloden Cars in Inverness with 45 to 50 cars in stock and 55 to 65 going out the door every month. That's more than 100% stock turn, on an independent's cash, where every unprepped car behind the workshop is money that can't buy the next one. In part one, Craig tells Simon Bowkett how he got there, what he'd do again, and the convertible that cost him a fortune. What's covered: •    Why being made bankrupt at 19 became the thing that drives him every day •    The letter to every Inverness dealership that got one reply, and the unpaid month that followed •    The no-money-down deal: turning a business round to earn half of it •    Why closing a business he'd grown from six cars to 30 was the right call •    Being the bottleneck: what happens when the owner tries to be in two places at once •    Stock turn vs margin, and why he wants both •    Getting cars online fast: washed, photographed and listed before they're fully prepped •    Buying at the door, using TikTok and YouTube to tell local sellers 'We'll buy your car' Craig Walker is the owner of Culloden Cars, an independent used car dealership in Inverness. He spent years in franchise sales management before moving to MotoNovo Finance, where he saw first-hand how independents win and lose. He then bought his way into ownership without capital, and now runs one of the faster-turning independents you'll hear about. If you've ever said 'I'd run my own place if I had the money', listen to this before you say it again. 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