Fiat has tasked its dealers with winning custom from local small and medium businesses and announced its new Dealer Fleet Specialist (DFS) programme.

It is in the process of appointing 10 dealer members, and aims to increase this to 15 eventually.

Each dealer will be set a local fleet sales target, employ dedicated fleet sales specialists and put on corporate demonstrators. Finance training will be provided to enable each fleet specialist to engage with companies about a wide range of finance options including contract hire and contract purchase.

In aftersales, each DFS will provide a collection and delivery service in their local area for company car drivers who need their car serviced.

Fleet and remarketing director Adam Pumfrey believes hundreds of thousands of smaller companies who run small numbers of of company cars or vans provide a real sales opportunity for the brand.

“Our aim is to establish a group of dealers that will employ dedicated people to focus on developing relationships with fleets in their local area,” said Pumfrey. "Our regional corporate sales team will work with each dealer to help them identify fleet prospects and to convert these relationships into sales.

“We are spending more time and money on marketing to the fleet market and we want to link this interest at a local level into our fleet specialist dealers. There are countless numbers of smaller companies who don’t run a structured fleet policy and who want something that is both stylish and practical enough on running costs,” said Pumfrey.