Volvo Car UK achieved a 19.7% growth in company car sales in 2010 (19,934 units), a 3,283 sales increase over 2009 and a 1.9% share of the fleet market, at a time when the entire corporate sector grew by 9.2% to 1,072,891.
This impressive performance has been supported by Volvo's new relationship with Magma Services, part of Magma Group, which began in the summer of 2010.
Magma is providing Volvo with a six strong team of Business Development Managers (BDMs) with the aim of increasing sales appointments with decision makers in 100-300 vehicle fleets and supporting 5-100 fleet sales with Volvo's 24-strong business centre network.
It is also proactively managing B2B (Business-to-Business) sales leads and promoting Volvo's own car leasing product which is underwritten by Volvo Car Leasing.
Volvo's network of business centres is benefiting from joint prospect visits with dealer staff and members of the BDM team with a view to increasing market share on a local basis. The aim is to increase new car sales, but also to gain extra servicing and maintenance work from local fleets.
The BDM team supplements work by Volvo's own team of six area development managers which is building relationships with 300 plus fleets, current fleet accounts, growing its share of the public sector, building affinity schemes, employee schemes and Dealer Daily Rental volumes.
"We know from experience that once a fleet decision maker or driver gets behind the wheel of one of our cars for any length of time it makes its way onto the company's car choice list and is chosen by employees," explained James Shires, Volvo's National Corporate Sales Operations Manager.
"Magma is providing Volvo with experienced BDM's to inform a greater number of fleets about the Volvo product range and how the range has changed over the past couple of years and its suitability for corporate use. The stats already show that we are getting onto more choice lists which are steadily building fleet sales," he added.
A BDM demonstrator programme has been set up to support all fleet sales activity to increase awareness of Volvo's current product range, with specific focus initially on S60, with fleet decision makers and user choosers alike.
"The BDM team has effectively doubled Volvo's corporate sales team and prospecting activity overnight, which is starting to pay dividends both locally and nationally. Our team comprises experienced fleet professionals that use their own expertise and contacts to build awareness and sales momentum for the Volvo product," explained Keith Hawes, BDM Programme Manager.
