Cliff Snell – Our New General Manager
Very recently, our former General Manager, Kate Close was elevated to the position of Fleet Director, which left the role of overseeing the day to day, ‘on the ground’ operations of the company vacant. We’re very pleased to announce that Cliff Snell has now received a promotion to this role from his former position as Sales Manager at our Bolton Branch.
Cliff came to us over three years ago as we prepared to open our brand new (at the time) Bolton Branch. With a wealth of prior experience accrued over decades, Cliff already brought plenty to the role in terms of his knowledge of cars and light commercial vehicles, as well as processes and methodologies from his time working with well known National brands. Cliff also brought with him the skills of a time-served painter and decorator, which he put to good use even before the Bolton Branch opened its doors and he more or less single handedly painted the entire building himself.
More than anything though, in the Sales role, Cliff’s work ethic, sense of decency, his approach to always taking care of the customer and skill at rapport building were exactly in sync with our company ethos and Cliff has been instrumental in the success of the Bolton branch from which, despite being a small branch, Cliff consistently manages to sell 30 to 40 vehicles per month single handed, in addition to looking after the long term rental side of the branch as well.
Cliff’s accent betrays him as not being from around ‘these parts’ – from an early age he worked with his Dad on Market Stalls down south from where he picked up his enviable knack for rapport, he worked with other family members in the decorating trade before moving on to career in the auto-trade. While he no longer lives in London, he still has quite the commute to Bolton, living on the other side of the Pennines in Holmfirth.
Cliff has always been known for his meticulous attention to detail when it comes to ensuring the pitch display is well laid out and inviting. It’s a trite truism that “Straight Lines Sell Cars” and our Cliff Snell has turned making a neat, orderly display into an artform. There’s no denying the pride Cliff takes with the presentation of the Bolton sales pitch and he’s been similarly exacting at our Wigan head office whenever he’s spent time there, leading by doing and sharing his experience with those around him.
Sharing experience has been a hallmark of Cliff’s time with us and he’s always striving to find ways to help the rest of the team do things a little better. His experience with National chains in particular has been instrumental in us establishing ourselves as a multi-branch business and in particular he’s also been able to provide insight and guidance on the myriad areas of procedure and compliance, necessary evils with which companies of our size must wrangle.
Cliff’s new role will formalise much of what he’s been doing for some time. While still based at Bolton, he’ll be responsible for looking after the customer facing team across the Westwood group. Improving performance through his knowledge and natural ability to coach and motivate.
Congratulations Cliff and thanks for everything you do.
