ALPHABET presented its new vision for leasing broker Partners at its Relaunch Conference held at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon on 20 June 2024.
Led by Head of Indirect Sales Richard Chadwick, and Hollie Crumlish, Head of Broker Partnerships, the pair outlined where the funder wanted to move its Partner relationship.
“The market has changed since we launched with the original 34 Partners, and we have changed because we are now part of BMW Finance, so we need to reflect that change,” said Richard.
“And now we now want something more equitable out of the exclusivity agreement. There are both Partner brokers here and non-Partner brokers present. The decision over having a committed relationship with Alphabet is your choice,” he told delegates.
Hollie then explained how a new balanced and weighted performance scorecard would determine the relationship in the future.
She said that the scorecard would measure broker performance across key metrics. These will be:
- Volume
- Maintenance Penetration
- Profitability
Underpinned by the following criteria:
- Credit Acceptance
- Paperwork Delivery
- Compliance
- Tactical Penetration
- Spirit of Partnership
“We need to find the best performing brokers. So, we’ll introduce more brokers initially in what are essentially ‘play offs’ to be included in the Alphabet Partner ‘Premiership’.”
Hollie added that they weren’t looking for churn, but broker partners that bought into the spirit of the exclusivity agreement, including those “prospects in the room”.
She said that future broker performance meetings would discuss the metrics and where the broker was falling outside – as well as exceeding – key indicators. It would also determine the eventual make-up of the Partner-base.
Reacting to the presentation, one broker told Broker News:
“I really like the idea of the scorecard. It gives you transparency and what a funder expects of a broker. So, I think that’s a really positive addition to the Partnership relationship.”
Lee Wolstenholme, Managing Director of Vehicle Consulting, who is not currently a Partner, said of the opportunity to become a Partner:
“It was very nice to attend and be invited to the Alphabet Conference as a guest potential partner. I found the day very informative. Hopefully we can move forward and partner with them with the innovative new Alphabet scorecard.”
Among the other changes to the Partnership proposition was greater tactical involvement with brokers on commit to purchase and partner-led tacticals, changes to Finance Lease and a brand-new salary sacrifice platform (see separate story); greater API (application programming interface) integration, which had been led through a partnership pilots, including with Rob Marshall of Gateway2Lease.
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Edinburgh based broker Gofor was presented with the Alphabet 2024 Spirit of Partnership Award, which went to the Partner that embodied the spirit of the exclusivity provided by Alphabet Partnership. Presenting the award to Iain Bennett, Gofor’s Managing Director, Hollie Crumlish praised Gofor’s success in coming top overall of all the new scorecard metrics measured over the last two quarters. She praised Gofor’s quality of customer and its increasing market penetration, saying: “When Gofor started it was a small part of our business; it has now moved up to take a much bigger part of the business and fully understands what it means to be an Alphabet Partner.”
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Ralph Morton is the leading journalist in the leasing broker sector and editor of Broker News, the website which provides information and news for BVRLA-registered leasing brokers. He also writes extensively on the fleet and leasing market in both the UK and Europe.
