Why we know the car industry better than most

John’s relationship with the car industry started a long time ago…

While John Ashcroft is well known as the founder and Principal of Beyond Ink, back in the era of Magnum P.I. he held roles as Fleet Manager and Sales Manager at a number of South Australian car dealerships. Over that time, he was a leading sales person and won awards for his efforts. Since working directly within dealerships, he has maintained his involvement and connection to the industry through providing training to sales staff within dealerships.

While the car industry has changed over the years, the fundamentals remain.

Although times have changed, particularly with the increase of online sales funnels, the importance of maintaining an awareness of who your customers are and where to reach them remains. To test this theory, John tells the story of driving to facilitate a sales training session. On his drive he phoned the businesses he saw marked on passing vans, introduced himself, and asked when they were likely to upgrade their vans…by the time he arrived at the training session he had 3 firm leads for the dealership.

For John, the modern way to sell anything is through your individual circle of influence and to never lose sight of your product or the people in your backyard.

Beyond Ink have designed 12 car dealerships in South Australia, John’s background and keen interest in the car industry influences each design. Dealerships must be practical, efficient to build, and align with the way dealerships work.

“The most important design consideration is how to achieve the outcome at a reasonable cost, without compromising the things that matter”

Years ago, dealerships were designed as the designer saw fit, working with manufacturers requirements for elements like signage. Today, modern dealerships are driven by the manufacturers more than ever before. The skill now lies in how the manufacturers’ requirements are translated into a reasonable cost building, and in a way that still allows the dealership to maintain their uniqueness.

Through John’s background in selling cars and the continued development of the industry, he has a far better understanding of how a dealership operates practically, the challenges, processes, dealership hierarchy and the relationship between new and used cars. This insight is something John has passed on to his team and underscores their approach to the design process – dealerships need an efficient, streamlined development process that ensures cost-effective results driven by a knowledgeable, multi skilled team.

“Its one thing to go to a firm that just designs dealerships, the benefit with Beyond Ink is that you have someone who’s actually sold cars and really understands dealerships”