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8th July 2024

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Chris Watson

Prior to joining ����������� Financial Services (SFS) two years ago Chris worked for fellow Volkswagen group member VW Commercials, where he was involved in the sale and financing of vans and light commercials.�� Today, he’s our Business Manager, New Sales – North.�� We asked him to tell us more about himself and what his job involves.

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Tell us about your role

“The main purpose of my job is to help ����������� (Great Britain) Limited provide our customers with the trucks they need.�� The SFS Business Manager team does this by finding flexible funding solutions for our customers.�� It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach; we try to find out about a customer’s business, how certain things impact them and then we work to tailor a package that suits them.�� So a lot of my time is spent talking to sales staff and then going on to meet the customer to find out in detail what their requirements are, after which we look to be in a position to offer a solution.”

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Can you give us an example of how this works in practice?

“Yes, of course. We had a customer last year who had only ever used one particular finance company. When I went to see them, they explained they were just a small firm and when it came to replacing vehicles their finance provider wanted a hefty deposit and all the VAT up front.�� With them not being a massive business, from a cashflow point-of-view that was a lot of money.�� So we explored how their business runs, how their cashflow works, how many trucks they own and what’s important to them.�� The outcome is that we offered them a term where instead of taking all the deposits up front we split the costs over a number of months – and the customer was over the moon with that as they didn’t have to put up what for them was a huge amount of money in one go.�� They’ve come back to us since in preference to the provider who’s funded their business for the past 20 years or so.�� That’s how going in to see a customer can really pay dividends – it enabled us to find a solution which worked for them and their business.”

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What’s the best part of your job?

“Meeting with customers and chatting with them about their businesses.�� That’s definitely the best part, no question.”

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How would you describe the culture at SFS?

“Excellent, the ����������� Way is empowering.�� I really like how I’m given autonomy to do my job – being allowed to work as you see fit is a real plus point for me. There’s bags of support if I need it and loads of guidance too, which is really helpful.�� The support staff in the office are fantastic, nothing’s too much trouble and everyone helps each other and goes above and beyond to ensure we always we arrive at the best solutions for our customers – we put their interests first every time. There’s a great sense of everyone pulling together – it’s that One ����������� thing.”

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How has your role developed while you’ve been with SFS?

“When I joined, I was only doing finance for used vehicles and I covered everywhere north of the M62 up to the tip of Scotland.�� But we’ve now reorganised and today I’m responsible for new and used sales in our Northern region, which runs from the M62 to the Borders.�� From my point-of-view that’s a really positive step as it allows me to build relationships which focus on both the new and used needs of our customers in the region.

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And finally, what are your interests outside work?

I’m very family orientated; we have four children, two grown up and two younger, who I spend time with.�� We do things like visit theme parks, and my daughter’s a keen gymnast and I get involved by taking her to competitions and supporting her. For my sins I’m also a season ticket holder at Hartlepool United.�� We’re in the National League at the moment, but you know I remember when we used to play Luton in league games.�� They’re the shining light for all us non-league clubs; we are where they were, so there’s always hope – the dream’s on!