Old school tactics in new dealer days

What measures will a company take to undercut its rivals and get a firsthand look at what kind of staff are on the market?

Sussex-based dealership Autocall was slammed by fellow dealers last week for doing just that, with what appeared one minute to be a stroke of marketing genius completely backfiring before the gig was even over.

Within hours emails and phone calls were circulating around London-Sussex areas warning of the supposed scam.

Obviously fellow dealers are outraged at being subject to such deceit.

But is it really that outrageous? It's all in the name of competition, after all.

In the golden days of mobile, such an exercise might have been perceived as a completely acceptable way of conducting a shrewd, efficient, innovative business.

But that was then, and this is now, when business etiquette is much sharper and there is a host of sophisticated market data and analysts at your fingertips.

Autocall's Geoff Allen made the point in defence of his company that it could be compared with a standard retail mystery shop.

The only major difference he has missed is that those are in house initiatives that will benefit the company and not at the expense of another.