Winning in New Car with Halliwell Jones
Recently I had the absolute pleasure of visiting Halliwell Jones’ Warrington dealership, and sitting down with New Car Sales Manager, Alan Rigby, and Stock Manager, Alex Houghton, to discuss the new car market.
During our conversation, we spoke about how Halliwell Jones has managed to navigate some of the big challenges retailers are currently facing in the new car market, and how they’re making a success of new car sales, particularly with electric vehicles (both new and used).
As well as explaining how expanding their showroom digitally across the UK - to get maximum exposure for their brand-new vehicles and offers - has been invaluable, Alan and Alex shared their first-hand experience of how consumer expectations and behaviour have changed over recent years. Adapting to those needs, and utilising data effectively, has been key.
We’ve been investing heavily to support our partners meet the challenges in the new car market, such as the new regulatory targets, softening retail demand, and increased supply. This includes our largest ever marketing campaign which has been designed to drive new car buyers to our partners’ stock. Launching ahead of the key plate change month of September, the multi-million pound campaign will run for six months, and reach around 96% of the UK’s adult population at least 35 times, showcasing our partners’ 20,000 brand-new cars and 37,000 nearly new cars available on Auto Trader today.
We’ve also partnered with What Car? to power its new car platform - as of 1st October, consumers on What Car? will be able to conveniently access the brand-new cars advertised on our platform. It means that for the price of one Auto Trader package, retailers will extend the reach of their new car stock to a highly engaged new car audience at the beginning of their journey. The ability to engage and influence even more consumers higher up in the new car buying funnel, will help drive more highly qualified leads, and in turn fuel more sales.
You can watch the interview with Alex and Alan below. If you’d like to discuss any of the points they highlighted, or how we can support your new car objectives, please don’t hesitate to get in touch brandnew@autotrader.co.uk.
If you’re not currently advertising your new car stock on Auto Trader, you can get your first 2 months absolutely free when you sign up for a New Car package (full T&Cs)