THERE has been a clear trend over the past towards a significantly lower, and decreasing, level of interaction between leasing brokers and manufacturers compared to between brokers and dealers.
The figures for frequent interaction between brokers and dealers in the latest wave of the Leasing Broker Federation’s research, powered by APD Global Research, moved from 86% in wave 1 to 97% in wave 3 which is in direct contrast to the frequent
interaction with manufacturers falling from 48% in wave 1 to 36% by wave 3.
This does raise one big question, are the manufacturers missing a big opportunity by not engaging more closely with leasing brokers?
A number of manufacturers declined to comment in this, but a Ford spokesman said: “This is an important market sector in the UK, and we remain as active in this market as we have always been. While we continuously evaluate our strategy, we are confident we have the appropriate go to market approach for this sector, for our partners, our brand and our dealers.”
Stephen Tomlinson, Head of Fleet Operations at Mazda UK, said: “We have historically adopted a cautious approach to our dealings with brokers, that said we do have direct relationships with a number of the larger brokers out there.
“As things stand we have a direct relationship with 18 brokers which is the highest number we have had for some time. We have, by industry standards, a relatively small team and as such focus our efforts where we see the largest opportunity, so ‘our broker’ are hand selected on the basis that we can get the best possible return from the limited management time we are able to dedicate to this channel.
“In terms of our interaction levels I would suggest that they have not decreased over the past 12 months, and as a result of introducing a few additional brokers to our list in recent months, arguably our interaction levels have increased.”
You can find out more and get access to the LBF survey here.
