Ford Transit Centre

“We are now able to fulfil the needs of the SME better. Think of the corporate world, the way they fund themselves, the way they know what they want and we’ve focussed more on the process. It is interesting when we split the car and van sales teams, we actually pulled some car people across, plus some financial expertise, which in terms of trade cycle management, helps with the understanding of the better ways to finance vehicles – that will be more in tune with SME customers.

“We’ve also focused on the process, the first bit is to measure them on qualification .So we’re keen to make sure that our dealers are qualifying our customers properly. We’re using mystery shopping and getting an index together, to show where we are properly qualifying the customer. In the corporate world, there’s less qualification to buy – they know what they want. However, you might still have a customer walking in, who doesn’t necessarily know whether he or she wants a Connect or Custom or even a Courier. After proper qualifying, having all the financial solutions in place, presenting the product properly, then demonstrate it and the output should be a positive one.

“I hope this might lead them on to thinking, that they actually got advice there and that it was a nice place to do business. What we’ve produced is a respectful environment, because it’s a proper showroom, these are expensive vehicles and they shouldn’t feel like a second-class customer, as it’s a process more in tune with their needs.

“Ford was typically a white van company, now more than 50 per cent of the vans we sell aren’t white. So we’re selling more colours than white vans and that’s due to the growth in artisan small businesses community, that like Deep Impact Blue, that like red, that like silver and that in turn gives us an uplift in residuals. This is because the vans are higher specced that go through the SME segment, as we’ve understood the needs of the buyers more.

“Our SME business has gone up 47% since the start of the Transit Centres. One of our first centres was opened in Abingdon, Oxford, in November 2013. It was a bit of pilot really, as we didn’t have everything in place. We’ve gradually morphed it into what it is today. Previously they were selling vans out of the car showroom, by guys who were 80% car people and their reach which is the South of Oxford was15 miles – it has now increased to 40 miles.

“If the market is up 25% and the SME market is up 47%, we’ve got to be conquesting from other brands. I’ve had some stats from various dealers, that say that their conquest statistics are quite high, but I think a healthy renewal process also comes into play.

“To another extent, we’re seeing the fruits of our hard work over the last couple of years.

“I’m now looking at ways to grow our servicing proposition, how we find different ways to make ourselves available to the customer. Whether that’s going to the customer, opening  more hours, or finding a different way to deal with our customers, to make it as easy as possible and less intrusive for the customer. So when he’s sleeping we could be working on his Transit.

“We’ve turned the wick up with the Transit Centres and increased the level of attraction, staffed it with the right people, put in the right processes in and it works!“

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