This year one of our colleagues celebrates her 10 year anniversary with Martec Europe.
In 2002 she joined our Customer Contact Centre, ShowroomScout™. Her enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge meant her role in the business developed considerably, in fact it wasn’t long before she was running the department.
In late 2002 she took responsibly for running Martec’s Prospect Management Programme for Audi UK and continued to do so until 2004.
After 10 years she is now training Salespeople and Sales Managers nationwide, helping them get the most from their Contact Management Systems.

Interested in a career at Martec? Take a look at our careers page.

Goals

• Initiate and reinforce a robust sales process
• Increase CSI ratings through excelling in Customer Experience

Success Story – Kevin Newitt, Operations Director

Kevin Newitt, Operations Director for Yeomans starts the story. “I had concerns about a particular dealership in the group who were selling enough cars and the workshop was busy. The management team, for all the right reasons, were young and inexperienced and we suspected that they were only actually selling the deal on price.”
He had read about the importance of the customer experience and its relationship with PPU and add-on sales and felt that if they could establish a robust sales process and give his sales team sales and relationship skills training, he would have a chance of making prospects fall in love with Yeomans and the car before negotiating on price.
A colleague had recommended Martec, so Kevin invited them and three other training providers to come up with a solution and after short-listing two he decided on Martec.
“It was an easy decision to go with Martec” said Kevin, “they spoke the same language as us, they understood our requirements and they knew exactly where we needed to start making changes.”
Martec in conjunction with the Yeomans management team re-wrote the sales process and built a sales training programme around it that included telephone and face to face enquiry handling as well as general interpersonal skills coaching.

Kevin continues. “We rolled the programme into a single site and the impact was immediate. Within a couple of weeks team motivation was soaring and we were seeing individuals growing in confidence as they put into practice what they were learning from the coaching sessions, it was an easy decision to take to extend the programme into other dealers in our network.”
As well as rolling the programme into nine more dealerships, the effect on sales performance and team motivation was so impressive that Kevin extended the programme to include the Aftersales teams too. CSI rates were in the upper quartile in the UK and seemed to have reached a plateau.

Needless to say, Yeomans experienced similar rapid results as CSI ratings immediately began to rise.
“In my opinion”, says Kevin, “what has been key here is the fact that we have ten of our dealership teams all singing from the same songbook or should I say using the same robust, consistent and credible process that gives them the confidence to deliver a great customer experience. That makes them successful as individuals and as a team. We all know that success breeds success and we’re seeing that the process has become a catalyst for sharing best practices within the teams.”

Achievements

76% of sales people have so far achieved the IMI QAA in Customer Showroom Experience

About Yeomans

Yeomans sell new and used Toyota, Honda (including the exclusive NSX range), Nissan, Peugeot and Citroën cars from a series of state of the art showrooms, workshops and used car areas across the South and South West of England.
All of their premises are designed to provide customers with a relaxed, comfortable and efficient environment, where they can find out all the latest information about new and used cars, or have their current vehicle maintained by fully trained and professional technicians.
Yeomans we are always looking for ways to improve their service and make the ‘Yeomans Experience’ as satisfying as it can be.

Here’s what he said;

“Just wanted to say thanks again for the course, I feel I have truly learnt from you! And to add, I followed the process today to the best I could word for word and guess what? It worked! Sold a new unit, with finance, GAP AND GardX! It was the presenting figures part that I think really did it for me, so thanks again!” Dom from Worthing.

•    Increase retail service hours bookings
•    Increase CSI ratings

Success Story – Sam Patterson, Dealer Principal

Sam Patterson, Dealer Principal at Truscotts joined the business in mid 2010 not long after the global economic crisis began to seriously impact new car sales. Opportunities to sell service hours were diminishing and following a conference with Peugeot in late 2010 the message from the manufacturer was simple and to the point, “increase retail service hours and CSI ratings!”
An influencing factor was that due to better production processes, longer service intervals and extended warranties, dealers have less contact with the customer and the service department is almost the only customer touch point.

Sam takes up the story. “Because of these rapid market changes I felt it was vital that the service sales processes needed a big re-work. I had to have my service team fully understand the importance of their roles and the relationship they had to customer loyalty. The service desk language and approach had to change and to achieve that each employee had to feel empowered to drive the changes.”Sam continues “I had previous experience with Martec and because of their knowledge of the auto market they understand that service department people are the ones who work the longest hours, get shouted at the most and usually earn the least. With that in mind we needed a programme to turn my team around to believe that by selling more hours and increasing customer satisfaction the whole team would see the benefits in their pockets.”
Martec’s solution started with TelephoneSuccess™, their market leading call recording and analysis programme that enables them to assess telephone skills, followed by group SalesMinded™ for Service Training sessions and an ongoing coaching programme for each individual based on their telephone skills analysis.

Sam takes up the story again. “We made a significant investment with Martec so it was important that we achieved a visible return and what a return there’s been! We started the programme in December and by February we were seeing tangible improvements in performance. The better news is that it’s been improving ever since. By August our CSI rating had increased from 71% to 91% and service hours sold are running at 10% above the national average. The other benefit we’re seeing is with the team. They love the trainers and training and because of the call recording and analysis programme they can easily see where they’ve improved and what still needs to be worked on. With the whole team understanding what the goals are there’s support and real motivation within the team. They feel empowered and the work is more enjoyable as a result and our investment has proved to be well worthwhile. It’s a win/win for everyone!”

Achievements

CSI ratings improved from 71% to 91% in nine months.
Service hours bookings running at 10% above national average.
300% Return on Investment.

About Truscotts Exeter

Truscotts Exeter are part of The Helston Garages Group, a family owned and run Company established in 1960. The Group operates 29 dealerships across the South West and supports a well-balanced portfolio of brands ranging from Porsche and Ferrari to Peugeot and Volkswagen.
The Company believes that its 50 successful years can be firmly attributed to the loyalty and commitment of its staff in every one of its dealerships. It is through this loyalty and commitment that the Company has been able to provide the very best in customer service and continually build on its reputation of quality and stability.

Harnessing that knowledge we are announcing a new programme; The Personal Impact Initiative (PII). Tailored for Business Owners, Directors, Managers and Salespeople this programme is not an out of the box, one-size-fits-all development programme to make better salespeople, managers, leaders or parents. It is a programme for the individual that helps identify personal or business challenges and constructs the action plan and tools that overcome them.

Here is some of the positive feedback that the PII programme has received.

“The training has had a motivational effect on the team as they value our attempts to raise their skills and enhance their abilities. There is a greater focus from the Sales Team around how they interact with their customers and in the language they use. They listen more intently and are having a more balanced (confident conversation) than before.
There has been an overall improvement in communication particularly amongst those that were not communicating clearly as they now understand that everyone has a different approach!
The programme provides a structured approach to individuals as well as taking them on a journey. They are all at different levels but this is allowing them to all work towards a common goal.” Mike, Volkswagen Used Cars

For more information call us on 0844 854 9670

Click image for full feature

Neil joined Martec all the way back in 1994 initially as a Sales Trainer. In 1995 Neil was then appointed Regional Manager and then joined the Board of Directors in 1998. Two years later, after a management buy-out he was appointed Managing Director.
Passionate about Sales and Sales Management training, Neil believes that great customer experiences and service start on the sales floor…  Read more

As a certified Licensed NLP Trainer he inspires others to be the best that they can be and in 2011 developed the Personal Impact Initiative Programme (PII), tailored specifically for individuals to help identify and overcome any perceived personal or business challenges they may have.
Congratulations on this brilliant achievement!

Name: Neil Pursell

Position: Managing Director

What was your first job? Autoglym Certified Car Valeter.

How did you get to where you are today? I am really really interested in people, which has helped me to be more influential with my colleagues and competitors.

What was your first car? VX Viva, with big speakers and bucket seats.

What’s the most enjoyable part of your job? I am enthralled everyday by helping people find their true potential.

What’s the most challenging part of your job? Finding new Martec people.

What’s your best sales tip? Really get to know your prospects and engage with them 100%.

What are you working on at the moment? Martec’s Personal Impact Initiative. This is the programme that gives people more impact in all directions.

What do you drive now? Audi TTS Coupe… Terrific car.

Favourite car of all time? Audi R8 Spider. The guys at Colbornes very generously lent Martec one for our 20th Birthday Party and I had the benefit of driving it. What a great car.

Interests and activities: My new big thing is competing in Triathlon’s, but in reality it is all part of my aim to be the best I can be.

Thought of the day: Bones heal.

What are Bad Habits?

Actions that occur everyday are habits. Good or bad, it is these habits
that shape the success of our day. Read more

As managers we assume responsibility for the working habits of
those in our charge. Can we choose whether they are good or bad?

We can if we know!

Have you ever evaluated the routines of your sales people and
measured them against the habits you expect?

If you did, how many were about seeking out and maximising
prospects for now and future sales?

Start today and create a new set of “good habits” in your business

• Evaluate the current routines

• Establish good from bad

• Design good behaviour

• Start the habit

• Continue the behaviour, create the habit