Marshall Motor Group has today announced the launch of a new initiative to attract and retain this key resource by guaranteeing a sales executive salary of £25,000.

The aim is to address the industry-wide problem of sales executive attrition,

From Monday all new sales executives will be employed on a first year guarantee of £25,000 irrespective of previous experience.

In addition, in order to encourage and reward sales executives to stay with the business, loyalty bonuses will be paid. £1,000 will be paid on the second anniversary of their start date and £2,000 on the third anniversary. There is no cap on earnings.

Plus, all new starter sales executives will attend a mandatory training programme for their first two weeks with the company, with the aim of ensuring they are motivated, inducted, compliant and skilled when they arrive in the dealership on week three.

This leaves the dealership management team to focus on dealership orientation, brand immersion and reinforcing the training learnings, said Marshall chief executive Daksh Gupta (pictured).

Gupta said: "We believe this new initiative will have a huge impact on the attraction and retention of sales executives in our business.

“Having recently been ranked for the second year running as one of the UK’s Best Large Workplaces, we believe we have a very exciting proposition for new colleagues.

“In addition, we are committed to bringing new talent into the sector with our new recruitment approach which goes to market to find the right fit in terms of values, customer service ethos and attitude, rather than looking for someone with previous automotive experience.”

Marshall also has an ongoing programme, via an external agency, which contacts by telephone every sales executive leaver to understand in detail what led them to leave and what Marshall could have done differently, in order for them to constantly review their employment experience for those in the role.