Fleet sales erratic
July 7th, 2010 by Richard Aucock
FLEET sales are indeed seeing big rises, say industry experts epyx, confirming sales analysis stats published by the SMMT.
However, dealers should be warned the business of company car sales is highly erratic on a day to day basis.
Orders are up 50 percent on last year, said head of business development Ken Trinder. That’s still not quite up to 2008 levels, but a handy boost regardless.
‘However, we do see an interesting effect which we believe is a reflection of the erratic economic recovery,’ he commented: ‘We’ll have perhaps two busy days (on the epyx ecommerce fleet sales platform), followed by a noticeably quiet one.
‘Fleets are certainly buying cars and vans in much higher numbers than during the last couple of years but are not automatically repeating orders in the same way they would have done before the recession.
‘Instead, each order for a single vehicle or a batch is clearly being carefully considered.’
For car dealers, this means the challenge of fleet sales remains… companies are willing to replace cars, but they are doing so less predictably than before.
To best harness this growing sales channel, dealers must therefore try to be as proactive and flexible as possible.
How is your dealership responding to the tempting challenge of business sales?