1 rich Libsyn https://www.libsyn.com 90 600 Graeme Potts has run motor retail at every level worth running. He joined Sir Peter Vardy in 1983 when Reg Vardy was three dealerships, and was still there when it had grown to 85 and was turning over 900 million pounds. He then led the RAC turnaround with 10,000 people and a 765 million pound price tag, ran 1.6 billion of turnover at Inchcape, and then walked away from all of it to start Eden Automotive with five dealerships in 2008. In this episode, he talks through what he learned at each stage and what still holds true in 2026. What's covered: • Why knowing your numbers separates good operators from great ones, and what that looks like at the sales consultant level&amp;nbsp; • What Sir Peter Vardy built at Reg Vardy and the attitude that drove the growth&amp;nbsp; • Why there is always business to be done, regardless of weather, economics or what is on television&amp;nbsp; • How Eden bans the phrases time-wasters and tyre-kickers, and why that matters&amp;nbsp; • The infrastructure shock of leaving a PLC and building a dealership group from scratch&amp;nbsp; • Whether standalone dealerships can realistically stack up in 2026&amp;nbsp; • Why culture is the hardest thing to change in any acquisition, and the most important&amp;nbsp; • What changes in how people respond when you become the owner rather than the executive Graeme Potts is CEO of Eden Automotive Investments, a group he co-founded after senior roles at Reg Vardy, the RAC and Inchcape. He has spent more than four decades in motor retail, across every scale from a three-site family business to a multinational PLC. His perspective covers both the corporate and the independent sides of the trade, and he has the track record to back it. If you are a dealer principal, general manager or anyone building or running a dealership group, this one is worth blocking out proper time for. About Symco Training: Symco Training was founded in 2000 by Simon Bowkett and it was his belief that the business had to offer its clients something different. That difference was clear to Simon from his days in the dealership when he experienced many sales trainers who had all the answers, but were unable, unwilling or both to actually show the delegate how they could be implemented. It remains the ethos of the business today. You see, Symco only employ trainers that are committed to delivering not only in spiring and insightful training, but are equally as happy to demonstrate these skills and techniques with real customers in your own showroom. We believe in order for sales training to be effective and in Simon’s words ‘real world’, it needs to be tried and tested in the only place it matters the showroom floor. There is no room for theory when your goals are for your team to sell more cars, hours or parts and retain more profit. In dealerships around the world the focus applied by many of the sales executives is to try and sell a deal. Symco specialise in getting your teams to focus on selling themselves, the product and then supporting this with the deal. To find out more visit: www.symcotraining.co.uk Selling In The Motor Trade https://symcotraining.co.uk/podcast/ <iframe title="Libsyn Player" style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/41443545/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/88AA3C/" height="90" width="600" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe> https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/content/202361710