The Automotive Sector and The Coronavirus!

Let me get straight to the reason for this post, the rationale, (what is required - which is probably not that much), can follow at the end!

As much as I do not want to be alarmist, I am a pragmatist and a realist who has navigated many used car market challenges from the recession of the early nineties, the fuel crisis, the 911 terrorist attacks and the financial crisis, but the fear and contagion surrounding the Coronavirus feels different, therefore reactions need to be different.

All markets hate fear and the unknown and that is what we have right now, so unfortunately like many other sectors not all of our businesses may survive the shock that may be coming; sadly people may lose businesses, (myself included), and people will lose their jobs.

So in sensing how I feel the used car market is likely to evolve, I came to a decision to do what I feel is the right thing; to open my services and expertise up to the motor trade family for free during this period. As a business I am still able to deliver consultancy and specialist used car business development programmes to our clients remotely but the standard trading “Modus Operandi” is being turned on its head.

For those of you who are not clients I am offering a free consultation call to discuss the worries and business challenges we are all facing in the Automotive Sector; a call when you can set the agenda and I will deliver for free some of the strategies that will be required in order to survive the market turmoil and the many ramifications it has for the sector; issues such as;

·      Revised sales strategies for continued used car retailing.

·      The strategies required to ensure that used car losses are kept to a minimum.

·      The revised staffing structures required.

·      The skills your used car business needs right now.

·      Used car stock acquisition strategies for markets in turmoil.

·      The importance of cash generation.

·      Building a winning mentality within your sales team.

Obviously I can’t help everyone and some businesses are better placed to survive than others; there is also the fact that I need to be speaking to the owners and senior directors in the businesses concerned, in order to deliver value and the strategies that will be required to make the immediate operational changes required to survive this market turmoil; those with “Skin In The Game” who can make a decision, therefore primarily this is offer is probably best suited to those owning and/or running the independently owned franchised dealerships, small groups or independent used car businesses.

Sadly those running businesses owned by the big PLC’s could be disadvantaged at this moment; if only because of the time taken to get to those responsible for making operational decisions in the here and now, if at all possible? However if you feel I can help, please feel free to reach out.

I will be running these free consultations in between my business development conference calls for clients, beginning the week commencing 23rd March.  Anyone wishing to take advantage of this genuine offer to support our community need only contact me via LinkedIn or my email address; [email protected], so we agree a mutually convenient time to book conference call.

Although traffic on the platform has drastically reduced, I will also be running this message continually on LinkedIn to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to see this and to take advantage, so please bear with me if you continually see the message in your feed.

For the followers of my Used Car Business Development Blog and my used car business development articles; now feels like the time to suspend the planned content flow until content more akin to current trading landscape and therefore more valuable at this time, can be written; rest assured it will be forthcoming.

Regards.

Andrew Banning.

Used Car Business Development Director.