With the help of enquiryMax, Motor Trade News is tracking showroom footfall and enquiries into UK motor dealerships. The latest data covering the month of March 2017.
For those who are new to this column, enquiryMAX is an automotive sales lead management software company, providing a system that allows for a mobile, interactive experience with customers in the showroom when capturing sales information. The data you see here is compiled from a sample size of approximately 530 UK dealerships.
Looking at the data, it was a good month for dealers when it came to enquiries with significantly more coming in from all sources other than the vehicle manufacturers, compared to the same month last year. Encouragingly, this increase in enquiries translated into a significant increase in orders per dealership.
| Average enquiries per dealership | ||||||
| Year | Telephone | Visit | Service | Internet/Email | Manufacturer Lead | Total |
| 2017 | 51 | 75 | 4 | 24 | 18 | 173 |
| 2016 | 38 | 60 | 3 | 13 | 22 | 136 |
| % change | 36% | 26% | 0% | 84% | -17% | 27% |
| Average sales & orders per dealership | ||||
| New | Used | Total | ||
| 2017 | 26 | 25 | 51 | |
| 2016 | 20 | 19 | 38 | |
| % change | 34% | 31% | 32% | |
| Number of vehicles sold on the first day of enquiry by customer per dealer | ||||
| 2017 | 28 | |||
| 2016 | 20 | |||
| % change | 40% | |||
| Total sales by finance type per dealer | ||||
| Description | Sales | % of sales | ||
| Own Finance | 707 | 8% | ||
| Contract Hire | 317 | 4% | ||
| Hire Purchase | 660 | 8% | ||
| Cash | 3496 | 40% | ||
| Motability | 379 | 4% | ||
| Personal Contract Purchase | 3125 | 36% | ||
Explaining what the figures indicate, Jon Sheard, Operations Director at enquiryMAX says, “”March was a busy period for franchised dealers, with the average number of enquiries per dealership up by 27% year-on-year. This was then matched by a 32% year-on-year increase in the number of enquiries converted to sales on the first day of customer contact. Manufacturer leads did diped slightly, however this only reinforces the fact that dealerships are continuing to hold their own as the sales channel of choice. With a focus on lead generation, nurturing and sales processes, this is likely to remain the case for a good while longer.”
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