Discussion
snuffy said:
shropshireAston said:
Sales wise - speak to Gerald at Derby - he's damn fine fella
This is a long shot, but when I bought my Lotus Esprit V8 from Peter Smith Sports cars near Derby, the sales guy was called Gerald (and how many people are called Gerald ?). Is he quite a small chap, must be late 50s now I would guess.Back to the subject of Stratstones in general, like most things in life, you simply cannot generalise. I bought my car from Stratstone in London and would not have any future dealings with them whatsoever. Stratstone Derby have sorted out the problems they left me with and serviced the car since to a standard I am extremely happy with.
rjn21 said:
If you do agree anything to be included with your purchase, it must be on the invoice eg - Millbrook full day £0. Or External Car Cover £0. Or 10,000 mile Service £0. If its not on the invoice, be ready for some arguing. Emails will all be discounted as they provide in the email footer, that nothing is binding unless it's sent by a company director (of which there are few and certainly none at any dealer).
Good advice given my after sales issues with the supplying dealer, luckily my local dealer has so far been excellent.snuffy said:
This is a long shot, but when I bought my Lotus Esprit V8 from Peter Smith Sports cars near Derby, the sales guy was called Gerald (and how many people are called Gerald ?). Is he quite a small chap, must be late 50s now I would guess.
He is a small fella.. Gerald Flint - he's been with Aston for 8 years I think he said.Purchased my V8V (bomberh's car) from Derby and the process was a pleasant one. Purchased my DBS from Hagley and again the process was excellent and the p/x they gave me for the V8V was brilliant. Mike who runs the service dept at Hagley is a top guy too. All that said I now use indies for servicing 
roughrider said:
Great thread.
In my opinion, sales specialists of low volume Luxury brands should be paid on a percentage of the profit margin. This motivates them!! It makes customer service way better. It improves profitability at the dealership. It leads to strong residual values. Which in turn inspires confidence in prospective buyers. Eventually improves new car sales, and makes the factory happy. Its a win/win/win situation..................
It would appear from the PLC accounts that their high end vehicle dealerships make little if any money. "Profit" is extremely difficult to calculate in car retailing given that at the start "gross profit" is highly variable due to all the overrider/cashback/bonus incentives from manufacturers, which are applied retrospectively - Tesco appears to be struggling with that at the moment! Given what I understand to be their sales remuneration system, I can see why a sales person would consider not getting out of bed in the morning.In my opinion, sales specialists of low volume Luxury brands should be paid on a percentage of the profit margin. This motivates them!! It makes customer service way better. It improves profitability at the dealership. It leads to strong residual values. Which in turn inspires confidence in prospective buyers. Eventually improves new car sales, and makes the factory happy. Its a win/win/win situation..................
rjn21 said:
Stratstone is a division of Pendragon PLC, which is a huge company. However the dealers are randomly clumped in different entities, not by brand or location, as a result of Pendragon's acquisitions splurge. Hence 1 dealer of 1 brand can be in a totally different entity to another of the same brand, or the brand next door. Because of their divisional accounting, same brand dealerships actively compete against one another, even though part of the same group. It would seem they are incentivised in the race to the bottom - ie volume of sales and % business for service appear to count for more than quality / customer satisfaction. Their archaic accounting inefficiencies requires "sales" at a dealership to physically transfer cash to "service" to pay for things like PDIs or winter health checks. Cash pooling and book entry internal accounting must be horrific. Last I heard their sales staff were remunerated on the same basis, irrespective of brand. Sell a Fiesta, get x. Sell an F12 also get x, but because you can't sell many of those, 'premium' dealer brands tend to attract the less effective personnel - why bust your ass to sell 1 car, when you can shovel fiestas or a higher volume brand off the lot all day for (net) more money. Given their turnover, their net margins are razor thin. Whatever the reason, some people are good, some are not so, just like any group. Personally, in my area, not to keen on one of their brand's dealer, but 3 others are ok.
common practise from what I hear and not just Pendragon/Stratstonesroughrider said:
In my opinion, sales specialists of low volume Luxury brands should be paid on a percentage of the profit margin. This motivates them!! It makes customer service way better. It improves profitability at the dealership. It leads to strong residual values. Which in turn inspires confidence in prospective buyers. Eventually improves new car sales, and makes the factory happy. Its a win/win/win situation..................
EVERY sales person for ALL sales should be, it would stop this crap of discounting for turnover leaving nothing to "maintain" the relationship.Its the way we do it and boy does it work
It takes a leap of faith to disclose profits and good admin to be sure what they are
Unfortunately not too many managers have the balls or ability to do it
mikey k said:
EVERY sales person for ALL sales should be, it would stop this crap of discounting for turnover leaving nothing to "maintain" the relationship.
Its the way we do it and boy does it work
It takes a leap of faith to disclose profits and good admin to be sure what they are
Unfortunately not too many managers have the balls or ability to do it
What he said Its the way we do it and boy does it work
It takes a leap of faith to disclose profits and good admin to be sure what they are
Unfortunately not too many managers have the balls or ability to do it
AMDBSNick said:
mikey k said:
EVERY sales person for ALL sales should be, it would stop this crap of discounting for turnover leaving nothing to "maintain" the relationship.
Its the way we do it and boy does it work
It takes a leap of faith to disclose profits and good admin to be sure what they are
Unfortunately not too many managers have the balls or ability to do it
What he said Its the way we do it and boy does it work
It takes a leap of faith to disclose profits and good admin to be sure what they are
Unfortunately not too many managers have the balls or ability to do it
shropshireAston said:
He is a small fella.. Gerald Flint - he's been with Aston for 8 years I think he said.
Yes, now I recall his surname. I bought my Esprit from Peter Smith's about 10 years ago. 2 years later I wanted to see if they were interested in taking it back but I was told he'd left (so that would be 8 years ago - so that would be right). Odd how you remember these things.steveatesh said:
My son worked for two before he gave it up as it didn't meet his values.
In one he was told to add an extra months Finance in the calculations and if the customer noticed say it was a slip of the fingers on the calculator.
In another a woman brought her car in for a problem. It was left all day then it was moved to another bay before she was due back. They then gave her a large bill for several hours labour when they had replaced several parts and diagnosis.
These were both main dealers.
For clarity, neither were Aston.
Shocking, but not really surprising. In one he was told to add an extra months Finance in the calculations and if the customer noticed say it was a slip of the fingers on the calculator.
In another a woman brought her car in for a problem. It was left all day then it was moved to another bay before she was due back. They then gave her a large bill for several hours labour when they had replaced several parts and diagnosis.
These were both main dealers.
For clarity, neither were Aston.
rjn21 said:
Let's say a dealer has a new customer contact and reply target per quarter. One could imagine a scenario where dealer staff would be told to have their mates phone in and be called back to tick the box on customer lead contacts target. Who knows if such a plan would be operated.
seen that as well, goes back to the bonus on profit scenario againThe PH AM Sales mans bible thread all of a sudden! I've seen sales guys stall a contract into another quarter because they'd made their target this quarter and their pipe looks thin next.. and split deals to increase the incentives they receive. Profit only selling can destroy long term relationships in my game too so we have different models for different situations, but one thing is for sure, whatever system you put in, a commission hungry sales guy will quickly bend to the model in place whatever the consequences for the company or the customer.
Of course - "invoice date" and "delivery date" are flexed to meet salesperson individual targets per month, quarter or annum. I would imagine HMRC would be less than impressed with some of the date management, particularly when it results in deferral of VAT payments into the next 1/4.
cayman-black said:
strats wilmslow at least they are consistent another over priced car arrives today. Wake up.
They have one car there they offered to sell me for less as a new car and now its used.I think they like to have expensive nearly new stock on the forecourt, even better its on SOR, as it makes new car sales look tempting with big discounts. Try part ex a nearly new car and see how WIDE the gap is... against the car I mention, probably 20k
Jon1967x said:
The PH AM Sales mans bible thread all of a sudden! I've seen sales guys stall a contract into another quarter because they'd made their target this quarter and their pipe looks thin next.. and split deals to increase the incentives they receive. Profit only selling can destroy long term relationships in my game too so we have different models for different situations, but one thing is for sure, whatever system you put in, a commission hungry sales guy will quickly bend to the model in place whatever the consequences for the company or the customer.
Ah Demming at work eh? Gaming the system, historically well known but always seems to come as a surprise to people running the system! II'm with you on this one
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