Autotrader’s Deal Builder | Leads Down, Fees Up, and Dealers Revolting
Release Date: 11/13/2025
Oliver Phillpott, Co-Founder of Generational | Fast Stock Turn on EVs
Selling In The Motor Trade
We are back with Oliver Phillpott from Generational to discuss used EV values and stock turn. What you’ll learn Battery health needs to linked to used EV values The need for a healthy used EV market How to improve stock turn in used EV’s Customer confidence in EV buying process Include battery health in your whole sales funnel If you’re a dealer principal, used-car manager, buyer, or seller of EVs and looking to tighten your EV process. Press play and share this with your sales and buying teams. Finding this useful? About Symco Training: Symco Training was...
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Oliver Phillpott, Co-Founder of Generational | Battery Health Beats Mileage (Part 1)
Selling In The Motor Trade
Battery health now beats mileage for used EVs. I sit down with Oliver Phillpott (Generational) to cut the noise and show you how state of health (SOH) drives value, trust, and stock turn. What you’ll learn The battery factors that actually move price, and how to explain them simply to buyers. Practical SOH thresholds dealers use to retail vs trade. PHEV vs EV: different degradation patterns and what they mean on appraisal. Warranty basics, servicing pitfalls, and when to test anyway. The battery health report: the one-pager that reduces returns and speeds up the sale. ...
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Wendy Harbutt, Leadership Coach | Why Your Team Don’t Run to the Phone (and How to Fix It)
Selling In The Motor Trade
Leadership isn’t about shouting “be more driven”. It’s about creating the conditions where people choose the right behaviours. In this episode, I talk with leadership coach Wendy Harbutt about practical management strategies you can use today: getting beyond “carrot and stick”, setting agreements that people actually keep, and replacing lazy money fixes with recognition, growth, and clear processes. What we cover Nature vs nurture: you can encourage drive, you can’t inject it. Focus on the outcome and design better routes to it. “Why won’t they answer the phone?”...
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Wendy Harbutt – Dramatic Improvement | Our Strengths When Overdone Become Our Problems
Selling In The Motor Trade
We are joined by Wendy Harbutt from Dramatic Improvement, who specialises in leadership and management coaching. You’ll hear: - How role play is a powerful learning tool - Ensure you build relationships for your next step - Stop reading and start putting things into place - Try to catch people doing things well and talk about it We are delighted that Wendy will be back in the next episode to enlighten us with more top tip leadership skills. About Symco Training: Symco Training was founded in 2000 by Simon Bowkett and it was his belief...
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Daksh Gupta & Andrew Wakelin | The playbook that took a Peugeot site from 168th to #1
Selling In The Motor Trade
In this episode, you get two motor trade veterans’ perspectives on leading teams and fixing underperforming sites. Daksh discusses imposter syndrome, making your ambitions visible, and why you start with the numbers, not vibes. Andrew breaks down the turnaround that took a Peugeot site from 168th to 1st in two years. Daily basics, visible metrics, relentless follow-up, and genuine appreciation for the team (yes, even fish-and-chip vans). If you run a department or you’ve just stepped into management, this is a practical hour on what to look at, what to ask, and how to get people...
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Autotrader’s Deal Builder | Leads Down, Fees Up, and Dealers Revolting
Selling In The Motor Trade
In this episode, I unpack Auto Trader’s move to make Deal Builder mandatory and ask the question dealers care about: who owns the customer and the deal? You’ll hear: What Deal Builder actually does (reserve for £99, PX, finance) and why Auto Trader says those journeys convert better and often happen after hours. The real-world headaches dealers are reporting: reservation timeframes, cars marked “reserved”, and customers vanishing over a weekend. Why “omni-channel” is right in principle—but the line blurs when a marketplace inserts itself between you and the buyer....
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(Part 2) Steven J. Whitton, Founder of Menable | Fix your sales culture with five words
Selling In The Motor Trade
Part 2 with Steven J. Whitton (Menable) goes deeper into performance, burnout and fixing sales culture without fluff. We unpack why living in the red burns people out and how leaders can make honest conversations the norm. You’ll get the exact word tracks to open a room fast (“What had your attention before you walked in?”), the shift from mental health box-ticking to mental wealth with mental health champions, and the metrics that tell the truth. Attrition, absence, honest absences. If you want reps who sell hard without leaving a mess, this is how. About Symco Training: Symco...
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Signs you’re losing people: the workhorse, the class clown, the quiet exit | Stephen J. Whitton, Founder of Menable
Selling In The Motor Trade
A straight-talking chat on culture, leadership, and mental health in the motor trade. Stephen explains what a “psychologically safe” dealership looks like in practice — people performing best when they can be 100% themselves — and why that starts with managers realising they manage people, not just the sales sheet. He shares the origin of Menable (the “Men-Able” idea and that bracketed M) and how the brand widened to mean enabling open conversations across the trade. We cover early warning signs on the showroom floor — the ever-present workhorse, or the class clown masking things...
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Part 2: Chris Cormier, Mercedes-Benz Head of Sales | How to Build 25-Year Loyalty, Wow-Factor Deliveries & an AI-Proof Sales Team
Selling In The Motor Trade
Our 250th episode! For over 5 years, we've been the No.1 podcast for automotive sales and management training. In total, we’ve delivered 5 days, 3 hours, 55 minutes and 33 seconds of advice, news and stories from some of the biggest names in automotive. Today, we’re back for part 2 of my conversation with Chris Cormier, Mercedes-Benz Head of Sales. We’re talking about what keeps customers coming back for their 2nd, 3rd and 4th car, and how to lead a veteran team without burning them out. We discuss radical transparency on numbers, a culture of two-way feedback, and “wow” test-drive...
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Mercedes-Benz Head of Sales | “What You Tolerate, You Condone” - Chris Cormier
Selling In The Motor Trade
Inside Mercedes-Benz Brooklands. Test tracks, heritage floors, AMG experiences and all. Chris Cormier breaks down the leadership techniques he uses to keep a prestigious site performing. From apprentice technician to head of sales, Chris shares the non-negotiables (effort, accountability, humility), why “what you tolerate, you condone,” and how to create a culture where performance feedback is safe, specific and data-led. We dig into hiring for attributes over CVs, the difference between motivation and discipline, and the story of building a whole sales team from industry newcomers,...
info_outlineIn this episode, I unpack Auto Trader’s move to make Deal Builder mandatory and ask the question dealers care about: who owns the customer and the deal?
You’ll hear:
- What Deal Builder actually does (reserve for £99, PX, finance) and why Auto Trader says those journeys convert better and often happen after hours.
- The real-world headaches dealers are reporting: reservation timeframes, cars marked “reserved”, and customers vanishing over a weekend.
- Why “omni-channel” is right in principle—but the line blurs when a marketplace inserts itself between you and the buyer.
- Data control worries when PX and finance run through a third party—and what happens at renewal.
- The money question: it’s free until end of 2025… so how will it be monetised next? Plus the background noise on rising platform costs.
- Practical alternatives and diversification routes so you’re not over-exposed to a single source of demand.
If you’re pro, anti, or just unsure, this one gives you the questions to take back to your team.
About Symco Training:
Symco Training was founded in 2000 by Simon Bowkett and it was his belief that the business had to offer its clients something different. That difference was clear to Simon from his days in the dealership when he experienced many sales trainers who had all the answers, but were unable, unwilling or both to actually show the delegate how they could be implemented. It remains the ethos of the business today. You see, Symco only employ trainers that are committed to delivering not only in spiring and insightful training, but are equally as happy to demonstrate these skills and techniques with real customers in your own showroom. We believe in order for sales training to be effective and in Simon’s words ‘real world’, it needs to be tried and tested in the only place it matters the showroom floor. There is no room for theory when your goals are for your team to sell more cars, hours or parts and retain more profit. In dealerships around the world the focus applied by many of the sales executives is to try and sell a deal. Symco specialise in getting your teams to focus on selling themselves, the product and then supporting this with the deal.
To find out more visit: www.symcotraining.co.uk