Maruti ties up with B-schools to train dealership execs

Chennai: As part of its 2020 target of 2 million units in sales, passenger vehicle market leader Maruti Suzuki is tying up with business schools to extensively train its dealership manpower. Under the programme, the company has already trained over 500 managers in FY17-18 and will train another 1000 in the next financial year.

The three-day residential programmes are co-curated by Maruti and the faculty of IMT Ghaziabad and MDI Gurugram. The training is critical to Maruti’s strategy of improving dealership interface with customers and covers its 2,590 dealers including 300 Nexa showrooms. “We are undergoing a lot of transformationat dealerships. The infrastructure has been enhanced with the rollout of new-format showrooms but the teams at dealerships should be able to deliver customer experience, as well asand salesvolumes. A number of these sales managers have been in the profession for 10-20 years and their presentation and people management skills need to be enhanced. The objective of the training is to build these new age competencies” said R S Kalsi, senior executive director, marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki India. The programme which began in January is targeted at customer care managers and quality managers from across India to ‘step up engagement and interface with customers and improve the quality of sales’ said company officials. It keeps in mind ‘business challenges and focus areas’ and are part of the key initiatives taken by the company to hit its 2 million units in sales target by 2020. The others include new models and technologies, search for new segments, improving customer interface and expanding the network including Nexa, Arena and standalone True Value outlets.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited