[Replay] Gavin Hydes | One Dealership to 23

Joe Duffy Group boss Gavin Hydes on grit, culture and keeping customers happy. Over the past six months, our listenership has grown so much. Many of you missed this 2020 chat with Gavin Hydes, and regulars keep telling me it’s the episode they still quote back at their teams. So we’re giving it another spin.

It was recorded mid-lockdown over Zoom, Gavin’s in a glass-and-tile Porsche showroom, so the sound’s a bit “bathroom-y”. Stick with it, the ideas are gold.

Who’s Gavin?

Chief Executive of the Joe Duffy Group, Ireland’s largest privately-owned dealer network.

Took the business from one BMW site in 2005 to 23 dealerships and 22 franchises today, representing BMW, Audi, Porsche, Volvo, VW, Mazda and more.  Now oversees 1,600+ staff, the fixed-price used-car brand ZuCar and a huge stake in UK giant Vertu Motors.

What we cover:   {0:02} – Leaving the family hotel trade for a Y-reg Toyota sales job

{5:30} – Why “no” is just step one.

{11:40} – From Bolton BMW to Dublin: how love (and ambition) moved him to Ireland

{14:15} – Surviving the Celtic Tiger crash.

{19:00} – The balanced-scorecard no-commission pay plan

{27:00} – “Teams that play together stay together”

{33:10} – Launching ZooCar: fixed prices, “zoo-guides” (no salespeople) and customers who appraise their own part-ex online.

{40:45} – Post-COVID car buying: fewer walk-ins, more serious buyers—and why the 15-minute reply window now matters. 

{46:00} – Career advice

Enjoy the rerun, and thanks for being part of the next wave of listeners.

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