Tesla Motors is looking to focus on its sales department after it struggled with its sales performance in China and California, a strong market for the company. As a part of the reform measures being taken, Jerome Guillen, vice president of global sales and service, has been reassigned a customer-satisfaction role, and the company is seeking new regional executives to better its sales operations and maximize customer satisfaction, says a report from Bloomberg.
Tesla restructures sales department
In the aftermath of the company’s disappointing sales in key markets, Tesla is planning to hire sales executives in various regions, namely, Asia, North America and Europe, as it looks to increase its vehicle deliveries, says the report from Bloomberg.
Further, Jerome Guillen is expected to focus more on customer satisfaction after the new sales division is in place. As stated by Tesla, Guillen will be focusing on post-sales activity starting from delivery to long-term customer care.
“Jerome has not been demoted in any way,” Tesla said in a statement. “He has been and remains part of the senior executive team, reporting directly to Elon.”
Struggling sales a concern
Since the company’s expansion into new markets and almost doubling of the workforce to 10,161 employees in 2014 from 5,859 a year earlier, the sales division has failed to live up to the company’s expectations. According to the California New Car Dealers Association, sales in Tesla’s strongest market fell almost 27% to 6,110 cars in 2014. Moreover, deliveries of just 2,500 cars in China compelled the firm to cut its staff there. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has blamed the Chinese sales team for the dismal sales figures.
Tesla Motors aspires to boost deliveries by 74% in 2015 after falling short of its production goals last year. In a recent letter to shareholders, the company also reflected on a need to evenly divide its vehicle sales in the above-mentioned regions. As per data, Tesla sold about 15% of its vehicles in the Asia Pacific region, 30% in Europe and 55% in the North America region.
In addition, the firm is set to launch its first sport utility vehicle and is attempting to create an energy storage division by building world’s largest battery factory.
