Humor is when you grow anyway

Humor is when you grow anyway

Mr. Schwaiger, how is business in the automotive sector going? 
Michael Schwaiger: I have to say, things are going really, really well. We had a setback in the Corona crisis year of 2020 with a decline of 2.6 percent. However, this was after 2019 was a record year. Within just a few years we have grown to a financing volume of more than one billion euros; in 2019 it was 1.35 billion. 

And this year?
This year we want to make more than 1.5 billion euros, which would be a new record! 

Despite a still difficult environment including delivery bottlenecks?
Indeed. As the saying goes: If you're not lucky, you'll also have bad luck. After Corona, the automotive industry was hit by a semiconductor shortage. We see this here too: There are leasing contracts that were approved five months ago but have still not been settled. The NoVA increase also shook the market. 

Why are things still going so well for you?
There are several reasons for this. First of all, the trend towards leasing is unbroken. And we have a good, broad base – with trading partners of different brands and sizes, including used car dealers – so that we can compensate for fluctuations in some areas. The cooperation with Ford, where we have been operating as Ford Credit for a year, is of course having a positive impact. We now have over 1,700 active partners and are continuing to grow both in the number of partners and through greater penetration among existing partners. We actually see ourselves as partners, as one big family, which I think is well received. And then we really have an incredibly good team! Our sales staff are well connected - in the car business you have to know each other. 

Is the potential now slowly being exhausted?
No, I still see a lot of potential, including room for improvement. Employees sometimes perceive this as criticism, but it is not. I like to compare this to sport: the best footballers in the world constantly train to improve. A Cristiano Ronaldo is often the last to leave the training pitch. We can also further optimize and improve internal processes. 

Speaking of which, has Corona also led to a boost in digitalization for you?
Yes, absolutely. We were able to make fantastic use of the pandemic to make a lot of progress here. We will be launching our first online leasing product with a brand as a partner this year. The customer can complete the entire closing from home. 

Keyword: partnership relationship: There is the Santander master class, where sales training is offered for employees of their customers. How's that going?
These are high-quality training courses with an exclusive supporting program. We do around ten training sessions a year for just twelve people each. We are happy to make this investment. There are four different blocks: classic sales training, existing customer management, online marketing and used car management. By the end of the year, around 500 people will have taken part in the face-to-face and online training since 2017.