Thread: Now's the time to be a car salesman.....

And that was one of the secrets of their success. Too small to go volume so manage the sales pipeline to your advantage

The family who had always owned the business sold out a few years ago

Originally Posted by 3toes

And that was one of the secrets of their success. Too small to go volume so manage the sales pipeline to your advantage

The family who had always owned the business sold out a few years ago

I don't think for a moment that they 'managed the sales pipeline'. They just got customers to form an orderly queue (10 years waiting list at the time of the filming ! )
They could have been much more successful with only a few changes which they refused to take on board.


Colin

A friend and former colleague of mine , in the 1960s, planned to get a Morgan while he was living in the UK - but the waiting list convinced him to get a TR4 instead. But he spoke at length about his factory tour.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

A friend and former colleague of mine , in the 1960s, planned to get a Morgan while he was living in the UK - but the waiting list convinced him to get a TR4 instead. But he spoke at length about his factory tour.

Hi John,
If you get time have a look at the link I posted earlier.

I haven't seen it for years but remember the cars being pushed from building to building zig-zagging around the site. No production flow.
The single most expensive item was put in first then spent 3 months being pushed around in the chassis.

I guess a 'catch 22', huge waiting list and couldn't afford the disruption to sort out the workflow and improve methods.

The Troubleshooter program was interesting as Sir John Harvey Jones visited a number of companies and those that listened to his advice typically increased their turnover. He was the Chairman of ICI for a few years in the early 80's.John Harvey-Jones - Wikipedia

Morgan carried on 'successfully' but how much more successful could they have been......


Colin

Originally Posted by gromit

............

Morgan carried on 'successfully' but how much more successful could they have been......

Colin

The Freeman model was very successful but only came in black.

Had a chat with the owner of an MG dealership about 6 weeks ago, he told me that they are the only make at present that can supply a new car without any waiting period. Other manufacturers cannot get sufficient supply of electronics components to be able to turn out cars at a rate to meet demand. All of the electronic components used by the vehicle manufacturers are supplied (or not supplied, as is the current case) by china. MG are wholly made in china.

In the UK MG has stopped taking orders for new cars as they have sold out the entire 2022 stock allocation and cannot source more from the factory

Originally Posted by gromit

Hi John,
If you get time have a look at the link I posted earlier.

I haven't seen it for years but remember the cars being pushed from building to building zig-zagging around the site. No production flow.
The single most expensive item was put in first then spent 3 months being pushed around in the chassis.

I guess a 'catch 22', huge waiting list and couldn't afford the disruption to sort out the workflow and improve methods.

The Troubleshooter program was interesting as Sir John Harvey Jones visited a number of companies and those that listened to his advice typically increased their turnover. He was the Chairman of ICI for a few years in the early 80's.John Harvey-Jones - Wikipedia

Morgan carried on 'successfully' but how much more successful could they have been......


Colin

It was a good series which I very much enjoyed. While could agree with most of the recommendations I do not think he really understood the Morgan business

They are a small volume manufacturer who had an order book that was full. Agree perhaps too full but the business like all others is cyclical. The full order book protected the business from years when orders were less than optimal. No discounting on retail price of new cars. This also kept the price of second hand cars high which also added to the saleability of the new cars

Without the protection of the pipeline in the tougher times the cash flow would not be there and they would have long ago gone the way of so many small volume manufacturers