OREANDA-NEWS. December 23, 2015. The final of the EcoSport 5-Step Walk Around competition took place at the Henry Ford Academy in England earlier this month.

The competition was an opportunity for UK dealership sales staff to hone their skills and demonstrate how they could sell the features of the EcoSport and help customers to get the best from whatever model they purchased.
With the small SUV market growing rapidly in the UK, the competition was timed to coincide with the launch of the new EcoSport and was open to all car dealer sales executives.

The key attributes the judges wanted the sales executives to demonstrate during the 5-Step Walk Around were:

  • Strong qualification and engagement with the customer
  • Ability to tailor the presentation to the specific customer
  • Strong knowledge of the product
  • Confident and clear delivery and explanation of the technologies and features of the vehicle
  • Ability to comprehensively explain accessory offerings on the vehicle
  • Enthusiasm for Ford and the product.

Dealer rounds of the competition ran throughout early October, where
hundreds of sales executives took part, with the winner from each participating Dealership progressing to the Zone rounds which were held in late October.

Zone winners progressed onto the District round, which was held during November. The winners of the District round and the finalists were: Alan Platten of Jennings Stockton, Jack Wallace of Trust Ford Banstead, Gerard Miller of Evans Halshaw Glasgow and Neil Pulling of Days Garngoch.

The four finalists were assessed by judges Paul Singleton, dealer operations director, and Tom Ginsberg, EcoSport product specialist.

Alan Platten of Jennings Stockton eventually came out on top, receiving 125,000 Ford Excellence Points, which were presented to him by Kevin Griffin, sales director, Ford of Britain.