For a South African dealership to bag a top international award is a huge accomplishment. This is exactly what Hyundai Pinetown, under the leadership of its Dealer Principal, Sidney Francis, achieved when it was awarded a 4th place in the Top 100 Hyundai dealerships worldwide.
Under Sidney’s leadership, Hyundai Pinetown managed to kick dirt in the eyes of nearly 5 000 other dealerships of the brand across the globe.
“The aim now is to the occupy the number one spot worldwide,” an excited Sidney told Dealerfloor about this remarkable feat.
“I truly believe this recognition is the result of our well-structured, goal-driven work methodology. Our success of selling nearly double the number of new (140 units) and used vehicles (110 units) than dealerships of a similar size does show that our recipe produces great results.
“Everyone at Hyundai Pinetown has a well-defined and achievable goal, and the result is measured every day through accountability. Nothing is left to chance, and all problems must be resolved. It is not only the sales team members who have to canvass a quota of potential customers a day, complete a certain number of applications and get at least one or more approvals a day, as the same applies to our service teams.
“The reason why we service more than 12 000 vehicles in a year is because we contact Hyundai owners even of older models, show them we care, explain the advantages of servicing with us and to attend to any problems or queries Hyundai owners might have,” Sidney tells us.
He says understanding the work culture at the dealership and constantly shaping it, plays a major part as well. “You must know the strengths, the likes and the dislikes of your team members and utilise them accordingly. That makes for a happy, professional and successful team.”
This is how you achieve a commanding 33.7% market share in your regional territory, a benchmark achievement within the Global Hyundai Motor Group’s network.
Sidney tells Dealerfloor this work-ethic has helped him to excel during his entire career in the automotive retail industry from his early career at a Renault dealership to where he is today. Testament to this are the various accolades as a top sales person at Hyundai dealerships and even some sales records he achieved.
He has been a sales executive and later assistant manager at Hyundai Hillcrest before joining Hyundai Pinetown as sales manager for three years and then taking the reins as Dealer Principal in 2022 at the same dealership.
“I believe in leading by example. Sales is my passion, but taking care of my team and our customers is what it is all about. We must be able to assess a customer immediately as that makes the complete process for the customers and the dealership as effortless as possible and is at the heart of our customer-centric approach,” Sidney tells Dealerfloor.
And we end where we began with the important question: We asked Sidney what the next step was. “We will get the number one spot on the podium,” he concluded.
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