Event proves its value to getting fleets into 3008: Company Car In Action 2018

Fleets added the Peugeot 3008 to choice lists this year after test driving it at Company Car In Action 2017, Neil Hunter (pictured), head of corporate sales – north, Peugeot, Citroen & DS fleet, told Fleet News at this year’s ride and drive event.

Which models have been the most popular with fleets on your stand this year?

We've had the focus on SUV this year, we've brought along our range of SUVs from Peugeot - 2008, 3008, 5008 - and 3008 has won a number of accolades over the course of the year and it's been immensely popular at CCIA with people who want to drive the car and experience it and see what the hype is about.

I think we've had about half a dozen customers who have been back on the stand this year from last year who have now listed that vehicle.

We've brought along new Citroen C3 Aircross and C4 Cactus, which we launched earlier this year and again the uptake on these vehicles has helped us make sure that fleets are aware of these vehicles and they get to try and drive them.

And then the big one is the push on DS7 Crossback and the vehicles have been out all day which has been fantastic.

The feedback has been that people feel it's the right product, it's got good materials, it's well-priced, it's got a good P11D, it's got a good CO2 so the signs are good for DS.

What is your priority this year?

We're going to continue our back to basics approach.

We're continuing to focus on the customer so we’re trying to find out exactly what it is that they need because the market is changing so rapidly with all the questions around diesel and CO2 and WLTP.

We continue to task our CSMs (customer service managers) with making sure they do all the basics right so making sure we get our demos into customers, making sure we've got information at hand.

Because we're just one PSA group with the three brands we've got a one stop shop for customers to ask any questions they want. And, again, that has proved to be successful this year, we've grown the pool of customers that we deal with and we're holding our own, vans are doing well, cars are doing well. The back to basics approach is working.

What are your fleet sales expectations for the rest of this year and longer term?

The ambition is to repeat what we did last year and at the moment we're on track to do that but the main focus is around bringing more customers to the brands so we want to increase the pool of customers that we deal with.

Every month we're looking at the teams out in the network and asking them what new customers have come in and then how can we build long-term relationships with them so two years, three years, five years from now they'll continue to buy our products in whatever guise that we have at that time.

Longer term? At the moment we don’t know, the market is challenging that's why the plan we have is not so much based around numbers, it's based around doing all the right things correctly so we can support customers.