Recruiting the right person for the job is never easy, but finding a line manager or dealer principal involves more effort than most.

The manufacturer you hold a franchise with will provide guidance and help to ensure that you employ someone that fits in with the culture of the brand, as well as with your dealership.

“We’re here especially to help those dealers that have never gone through the recruitment process before,” says Samantha Emery, academy development manager at Audi. “We provide a support mechanism to help them find the right person.”

Audi dealers can receive interview guidance from the manufacturer, as well as generic job descriptions for various roles. These can be tailored by the dealership to ensure that it fits in with their ideal candidate.

“These services are free from Audi,” says Emery. “We can also provide ad-shells and psychosometric testing for a subsidized rate.”

There are also field-based teams on hand to help dealers conduct interviews and to advise on the suitability of candidates.

At DaimlerChrysler the recruitment process is more central. “A dealer will come to us looking to fill a role,” says a spokeswoman. “We will then look through our database of people that have previously applied for jobs with us or just sent their CVs in speculatively. We will also advertise the position on our website.”

The manufacturer then picks candidates that match the profile of the job and interviews them.

“After this we send the person to be interviewed by the dealer themselves; if they decide they’re right for the job then they go on to a management assessment centre,” says the spokeswoman. “The process helps us to recruit people that will work with the dealers to drive our business forward.”