Last month, Sam Walker of Reed Autos won the coveted Dealer Principal of the Year title at the Motor Trader Awards 2018.
Reed Autos has an extensive range of used vehicles on offer in Foxton, Cambridge. The dealership is a specialist in used cars and vans and takes pride in its team’s knowledge of the automotive industry. To celebrate their latest achievement, myself and James Angelsea visited Reed to find out the secret to Sam’s success.
Joe: “So Sam, firstly, congratulations on the award, did you have a good night? I can imagine there were a few thick heads in the morning?”
Sam: “Yeah absolutely, we had the England game before, obviously that was a loss, but this made up for it. The whole evening as a whole was great. The Motor Trader team put on a fantastic event and I think the Reed Autos lot definitely made the most of it.”
James: “How many of you went down?”
Sam: “We booked a table for 12 of us. Some people had only just recently started with us and some people have been with us forever, so it was nice for the majority of the team to go to an event together.”
Joe: “Yeah, I can imagine there was a real feel good factor to it?”
Sam: “Definitely. There were broken heads the next day mind, we didn’t sell many cars that day.”
*All laugh*
Joe: “What is it that you think made you stand out from your competitors?”
Sam: “I think probably age comes down to it slightly, I think I’m probably one of the youngest people in the motor trade to be not necessarily running a business but running a business on this scale.”
James: “How old are you Sam if you don’t mind me asking?”
Sam: “I’m 29.”
James: “29! Easy paper round then?!”
Sam: “Ha ha, funnily enough my Dad used to have a paper business so I did used to have a paper round.”
Joe: “So when you say it’s your age that makes you stand out, why is this?”
Sam: “I think obviously, the business stood out because when some of the guys from Motor Trader came in and met the team, saw the facilities and what we do, I think that did shine through but also I think they were impressed that a young team is doing so well.
“In this kind of industry, especially people higher up, they’ve normally been doing this 20 – 30 years and worked their way up. Which I have done, I’ve just done it much faster. I’ve worked as a Valeter and I’ve worked as Sales Manager, I’ve done most of the jobs but I’ve progressed very quickly.”
Joe: “For me, this is the first time I’ve ever been here and I said to James when I walked in that the atmosphere in the office is fantastic.”
James: “There’s definitely a buzz about the place and I think that’s refreshing for your customers to walk into.”
Sam: “Yeah I totally agree, I think if you read a lot of our reviews on the internet, you see customers say things like how great the salesperson was, how happy and fun the place is. That’s not just the customer experience though, it’s the office atmosphere full stop.
“Even when we are working it’s just continuous fun, but hard work. They’re a young team, all came out of school and not a lot of them have gone to university. I want them to have decent money and I want them to have fun while they’re doing it. I think the customer can see that when they come in.”
Joe: “Great stuff. Do you think Click Dealer’s software played a part in the winning the award at all, if so how?”
Sam: “Yeah massively, Click’s really, really good, obviously. Not to mention any names but our previous providers were pretty rubbish.
“Click is quick, everyone knows how to use it, the things that we like is how well you link with Auto Trader from our website, previously we were uploading things to the Auto Trader system and then filtering that to our website or onto other systems but now we can upload to click and it’ll automatically feed to everywhere else we need it to.
“I know that other companies do that as well but I don’t think they do it as well as you do, I think other things like the attention grabbers going over. Pippa is the main person who dealt with us initially and she seems like she’s on the ball and the company is definitely going in the right direction.”
Joe: “Do you have plans to use your award as a platform to propel your business to a greater height, if so, how?”
Sam: “Yeah, massively! It’s already on our website, saying ‘Motor Trader Industry Winner’.
“All of our marketing, it says it, and it’s how we’re going to promote our business and bring customers around to enquire about a car. First of all; they like the car and then they check the dealership out.
“If you were going to read that this dealer is multi-award winning and has just won an award, then it obviously increases the chances of them buying.
“Plus, with companies like yourself, it’s nice for us to link together and push it for the both of us.”
Joe: “Yeah definitely. So, it’s sort of a similar question but, how much of an effect has winning the award had on your business so far?
Sam: “I want to say massive but I don’t think the effect has been massive just yet.”
James: “It’s great for the mindset though, isn’t it?”
Sam: “Yeah, every year we’ll want to enter something. But, I really would have loved to win Sales Team which we were highly commended for – that’s the one I wanted to win because these fellas are great.
“My award is a little bit on me, but it’s coming in and seeing all of us and everything we do, so I can only put it down to me to a certain extent. Obviously, it feels good, though.”
Joe: “Where do you see the future of technology going for dealerships?”
Sam: “Online, which you guys are obviously at the forefront of. I think it will certainly be an element of customers coming into dealerships to test drive and look at cars, but there is going to be quite a big proportion of customers who purchase just cars sold on the internet.
“I can’t remember where I have read it recently, but some survey found that 30 per cent of consumers aged between some certain bracket would buy a used car online and have it delivered to their house. So, I think there’ll be a massive increase! But yeah, buying a car online with more things like finance online as well and with less of the paper stuff; most companies pretty much do that already, but pretty much just across the board.”
Joe: “I think with the youth, like myself, as long as the business has got a lot of transparency, all they want is convenience, don’t they? I bought my car off Carwow, and yeah fair enough it was a new car, but I think that me purchasing the car online shows the shift in mindset from the younger generation.”
Sam: “Yeah 100%, but you also have to be very good in the background as well, sending videos of cars and lots of photos. Also, those cars have to be prepped to a really high standard because as soon as you do deliver one and it has got a scratch on it or something, then they could say, ‘’Well my car has been delivered and it has got a scratch on it’’, and then it falls down to you.”
Joe: “Couldn’t agree more. As an award-winning dealer, how important do you think integration is for dealerships?”
Sam: “I think it’s really important. I like the fact that we can advertise our cars on it, invoice off of it… There’s not a lot of systems that do everything, and not only that with Click, Click actually does the workshop side of it. Some companies only do the sales side and some only do the workshop. You can run a whole business from it so it does do the job!”
Joe: “Last question then, What are your plans for the next 2-3 years?”
Sam: “I can’t give specifics, but we’re going to grow probably double or triple the size we are now in a very short period of time. We’ll be growing, getting more stock and more staff etc. We’re pretty well stocked up with staff at the moment in anticipation of our growth.”
Fantastic. Well Sam, thanks for letting us visit and we really appreciate you taking some time out of your day to ask you some questions. You really have got a brilliant team there and we wish you all the best for the future.
J Pod.
