Auto Special: Luxury automaker puts emphasis on team training

Thirty finalists competed on Aug 27 for 15 training opportunities with German luxury carmaker BMW in Germany or the UK, after leading four national rounds that tested professional skills and customer service.

The fourth BMW National Sales Competition of Excellence and third MINI National Sales Competition of Excellence were held in Beijing to provide training for the competition winners.

Half of the 20 finalists from BMW and 10 from MINI earned further training abroad in Munich or London.

Jochen Goller, senior vice-president of sales and marketing at BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd, said at the event that BMW's sales staff is nurtured to be extremely competent and to strive hard, as well as to be customer-oriented.

More than 6,000 sales staff took part in the intense four rounds of competition held nationwide since May.

Sales consultants, sales managers and trainers were among the contestants in this year's NSCEs, expanding the platform to showcase their talent and encouraging them to share ideas and knowledge with each other.

The purpose of the NSCEs, as part of the BMW China Training Academy program, is to help BMW staff increase their learning from their peers, to teach them to challenge themselves, increase their professional standards and raise customer satisfaction, according to the company.

The BMW China Training Academy holds regular competitions to improve staff knowledge and skills, also inspiring staff loyalty to the brand and staff members' sense of responsibility.

Sean Green, vice-president of MINI brand management at BMW China Automotive Trading Ltd said: "MINI is a unique brand. MINI has won popularity among the public and is a brand closely recognized by Chinese customers. Ever since MINI entered China, it has been a great success story.

"In addition to our innovative MINI cars, our talent pool and sales team have been contributors (to this success). We are always improving to achieve the best and be more successful in China."

Training support

BMW China opened its fourth training center in Xi'an this month in accordance with its global standards.

The company has established an extensive and efficient training network that covers all provinces in China.

The BMW China Training Academy already had training centers operating in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and a further 15 training bases throughout China.

Joachim Geissler, vice-president of Qualification, Retail HR at BMW AG, said: "Our training approaches and methods are at the same high level worldwide. We ensure this through not only training people in retail, but also our trainers are trained and certified through us."

The carmaker also works with universities and vocational schools. BMW cooperates with 15 universities in China to train students and then direct them to its dealerships.

Geissler said: "This is very special, because the cooperation with universities and vocational schools doesn't have anything comparable in the world. It has no comparison within BMW in other countries."

The Munich-headquartered group employs four focuses in its training strategy - talent assessment, training, development and retention. It uses the same Learning Management System and processes globally.

In 2015, the BMW China Training Academy introduced a range of approaches for teaching online, in classrooms and through internal training.

As the first premium auto brand to provide such large-scale training to its dealers, BMW Group continues to provide long-term support to its dealer partners and to assist them to overcome the challenges of fierce competition and economic changes.

Some initiatives, including field-specific training projects for auto shows, were launched to improve sales skills and boost dealers' overall competence, to help them better adapt to China's "new normal" market trends.

"Qualified people in our network are the basis by which to aim for profitable retail partners and to be number one in customer satisfaction in sales and after-sales," Geissler said.

"Only with well-qualified people are we and our retail partners able to achieve our goals. We see qualifications not as a cost factor, but as an investment."

Premium people

BMW's vision is to strive to have the most talented people and ensure the high performance of its retail partners.

"BMW stands for a premium brand and stands for premium cars," Geissler said. "We have to deliver the performance at a premium, so we need premium people."

BMW was listed for the third consecutive year among automakers on the 2015 top 100 best employers in China by Universum Business Consulting, which surveyed more than 60,000 students across the country.

"We offer state-of-the-art retail HR solutions, from recruiting to retaining, and contemporary and effective qualification methods and formats, such as, mobile learning solutions," Geissler said.

A mobile phone application was specially developed so users can easily learn at anytime, anywhere.

The company views its qualifications as three pillars. The first pillar is to find the right people, the next is to develop their skills and the third is to retain those now-qualified people.

BMW carefully prepares its managers for leadership, in addition to paying good salaries to avoid talent loss. All of its managers receive training to guide their staff as an important part of their qualifications.

Sun Qiang, a workshop manager for BMW in after-sales service since 2004, told the media he took the responsibility to pass his repair and maintenance experience and service philosophy to new employees.

Geissler said: "People development for us is an ongoing process, or in other words, a lifelong journey. It's really a career path. It's about learning from others. It's learning from history."

haoyan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/08/2015 page15)