Franchise Director – Mercedes-Benz Truck and Van
Location: Marshall Motor Group, South of England
Salary and benefits: Up to £145,000 basic salary, depending on experience plus up to 50% bonus, premium brand company car, private healthcare, pension scheme, life assurance plus other associated benefits
We are seeking a Franchise Director for our four Mercedes-Benz Truck and Van operations in Fareham, Andover, Southampton and Portsmouth. Our ideal candidate will have substantial sales and aftermarket experience in the Truck and Van field, and be able to demonstrate a successful career path at a Dealer Principal / Franchise Director level.
Reporting directly to the Group Managing Director, the Franchise Director for Mercedes-Benz Truck and Van will have overall responsibility for the day-to-day operations of all Mercedes-Benz Truck and Van sales operations along with aftermarket activities incorporating servicing and repair and parts distribution. This senior leadership role will centre on business performance, whilst delivering high levels of client experience through a large and motivated team of proficient leaders and colleagues, across all locations.
You will be supported by a strong internal leadership structure, allowing the business to maximise the opportunity for all stakeholders, along with a Group Leadership and Financial team to assists in all key areas of the business.
Who we are
Marshall Motor Group is one of the UK’s largest car dealer groups representing 23 of the world’s most popular and celebrated car, van, truck and motorbike manufacturers with 142 dealerships situated across 33 UK counties.
We are as passionate about our people as we are our customers. As part of the Constellation Automotive Group which includes webuyanycar, cinch and BCA, there are huge opportunities for you to find your place and build the career you want.
What are the key accountabilities?
As the Franchise Director, you will have accountability for all people and performance for the area. With support from your Head of Business team, you will:
- Lead, develop and motivate a diverse team of automotive professionals
- Grow and nurture a high-performance, customer focused culture, coaching and developing colleagues, enabling internal succession, and ensuring great performance is recognised and rewarded
- With the support of your Head of Business team, oversee the sales and aftersales departments, ensuring performance is maximised with potential over performance opportunities explored
- Assist the Group MD in setting financial and growth objectives for each business, and plan accordingly to ensure profit and product targets are met, including OEM scorecard
- Ensure a clear focus on high levels of customer satisfaction, good customer outcomes, through the dealerships consistently achieve exceptional levels of CSI
- Accurately finalise reporting alongside your market area Finance Controllers, in line with Group reporting frameworks
- Establish and develop strong relationships with manufacturers to grow our partnerships, ensure our team develops in line with the brand partner framework and expectations
- Maintain exceptional key controls, across Health and Safety, Compliance and Group Policy
- Ensure all market area activity is conducted in line with Marshall Motor Group, Manufacturer, and Regulatory requirements
Do I need experience?
Given the nature of this role, as a minimum, previous experience as a large site Dealer Principle level within commercial vehicles is essential. Multi-site experience is preferable. Ideally, previous experience working with premium automotive manufacturers would be beneficial but isn’t essential to the success of this role. In addition to your previous experience, we are seeking individuals who display the following attributes:
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to lead and motivate a large and diverse team
- An innovative mindset with the ability to devise and implement improvement initiatives and embrace broader responsibilities as the business grows
- Commercially savvy with the ability to navigate barriers, to proactively ‘get things done’ through the performance of your teams
- High levels of personal integrity
- The ability and agility to shift between strategic projects and operational activities
- Confidence to inspire teams, drive engagement and hold teams accountable for their performance; create an environment for teams to thrive
- Exceptional relationship management: credibility and personal style will play a big part in creating trusted relationships across a variety of internal and external stakeholders
- Extensive knowledge of the automotive retailing sector; the division will move at pace and the candidate will need to be up to speed on market trends and insights
- A professional and calm approach with strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence internal and external stakeholders
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to foresee potential barriers - provide critique and take decisive actions
- Excellent customer management skills to build long lasting relationships and ensuring they are at the heart of our activities and outcomes
- A commitment to living the Group Values
Our policy is to employ the best qualified people and provide equal opportunity for the advancement of employees including promotion and training and not to discriminate against any person because of gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion, belief, or disability.