4:50 pm, October 15, 2010
THE Warranty Group has launched a ‘specialist aftersales business managers’ programme, believing it’s the future.
Called ‘superchampions’ the new business managers would be charged with the job of exploiting service plan and warranty sales, along with other aftersales KPIs.
The new concept is a development of the ‘champion’ model says The Warranty Group’s sales and marketing director, Ian Simpson (pictured).
He said: ‘Our experience in the last couple of years with selling service plans is that putting a ‘champion’ in place who has their own place in dealer processes produces by far the best results when it comes to delivering sales of the product.
‘We have been working on extending this concept in a number of ways and arrived at the idea of a superchampion – someone who is effectively an aftersales business manager – and whose brief is to maximise dealer profitability across a whole range of key indicators including service plans and warranties but also much more.’
Simpson feels that aftersales is the key battleground for dealers to concentrate upon.
He added: ‘New car sales are likely to remain in the doldrums for some time, used car sales are steady but unlikely to show much growth, so aftersales is the main avenue through which franchise dealers can maintain and grow profitability.
“To do this, they must find new ways to retain customers over longer periods of time, and service plans and warranties are likely to be key tools in this battle. Aftersales business managers with a specific brief to cover this area will be, we believe, the answer for many franchises.’
by JAMES BATCHELOR
