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Fiat India - Sales Thread

Discussion in 'Fiat India News' started by Ravi, Jun 1, 2010.

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Page 21 of 53

amit Superiore

Messages:

767

Location:

Navi Mumbai

PaddleShifter said:

If Fiat can target i20 and give dual tone interiors with better quality interiors in Punto even if they raise the price by 5-10k and sell the Punto 1.2active at 4.45lacs ex-showroom with current offers, it can do 2.5k units/month which is a decent figure.
It is to be noted that i20 does not have free warranty+insurance etc, so i20 base variant costs a lot more than Punto active.
Click to expand...

Easier said then done.

The first problem of falling sales is prospective buyer's disconnect with Fiat and it's products.

When a prospective buyer shortlists the car's he wants to buy, he doesn't include Punto or Linea in that list. The first step for Fiat is to make sure people are aware of these cars and that they include them in their shortlist. Currently, out of 10 maybe 3 buyer's check out Fiat products. Even if you have a 50% strike rate, you will end up sale of 1 grand unit! How are you going to sell cars when the buyer doesn't even visit your showroom?

Once a buyer has visited your showroom and test driven your cars, then automatically you have a 50% chance to making the sale. That's where the sales team comes into the picture. Of course, the product has to impress the buyer enough to have him keep them in his shortlist.

The best salesguys will probably have a strike rate of 20% (Iam excluding Maruti, Hyundai, Honda & Toyota here as their sales staff barely have to do anything to sell these cars). This means out of 10 prospects, Fiat will eventually sell to 2 people.

Fiat's are not easy to sell today. I know how difficult it is to sell such cars. I used to sell VW's in Canada. It was harrowing convincing prospective buyer's of reliablity, niggling issues, spares, service costs.

amit, Oct 5, 2010

#201
Arun1100 Regolare

Messages:

442

Location:

Bangalore

A very long discussion ended in .anshuman's Punto thread in Team Bhp. Sidindica tried hard to bash Fiat. PaddleShifter, CleverMax etc posted very meaningful posts. All posts are now deleted as they were OT.

It was really nice to see good reviews from fellow Fiatians about the ASS of Fiat these days. Hope Fiat starts selling in good numbers. ::T

Arun1100, Oct 5, 2010

#202
PaddleShifter Staff Member Janitor

Messages:

2,702

Chandigarh

Grande Punto 1.3

Thanks Arun.
It's surprising how SidIndica even gave his Punto a name- "Urmila". He filled pages after pages with his poetry for his Punto. Look at him in other threads. :confused
Too bad our posts got deleted as the world need to see Sid's double stand on a brand. Own it yourself but do not let others own it.

Also, he did not answer my question because its a hard fact. He had to admit that he was lucky he bought Punto. Punto did protect his family better than most other hatchbacks. We can safely say that his Punto served him well with full loyalty.
His posts clearly discourage Fiat lovers as he speaks only of the negatives. No doubt he got infracted. Well, I better not go offtopic here.

PaddleShifter, Oct 5, 2010

#203
cartoos

Messages:

83

Location:

New Delhi

PaddleShifter said:

Thanks Arun.
It's surprising how SidIndica even gave his Punto a name- "Urmila". He filled pages after pages with his poetry for his Punto. Look at him in other threads. :confused
Too bad our posts got deleted as the world need to see Sid's double stand on a brand. Own it yourself but do not let others own it.

Also, he did not answer my question because its a hard fact. He had to admit that he was lucky he bought Punto. Punto did protect his family better than most other hatchbacks. We can safely say that his Punto served him well with full loyalty.
His posts clearly discourage Fiat lovers as he speaks only of the negatives. No doubt he got infracted. Well, I better not go offtopic here.
Click to expand...

Sidindica is a Joker of Team-Bhp :hit , thats all I can say. I don't believe him anymore.

cartoos, Oct 5, 2010

#204
nav75 Amatore

Messages:

54

Location:

Pune

Looks like not visiting tbhp has made me save some time.

nav75, Oct 6, 2010

#205
ancientmariner

Messages:

149

Location:

Bangalore

Read that Fiat has hired Accenture to boost its sales. They might have as well gone through TFI in entirety

ancientmariner, Oct 10, 2010

#206
Ravi Staff Member Janitor

Messages:

6,001

Bangalore

Grande Punto 1.3

Some interesting points -

Fiat India Automobiles Ltd on Friday launched two variants of its flagship Linea sedan and said it has engaged consulting firm Accenture Plc to help improve sales and enhance visibility.

The Indian joint venture of Tata Motors Ltd and Italy’s Fiat SpA has seen sedan sales decline by 7.99% to 11,863 cars in the six months ended September, according to industry lobby group Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. September sales dropped 35.72% to 1,650 units.

“We thought a common dealership for two very different brands is going to be easy, but the experience told us it’s not as easy as we thought,” Rajeev Kapoor, president and chief executive at Fiat India, said on Friday.

Since the Tata and Fiat brands are positioned very differently, “the dealers were living double lives”, he said.

Fiat sells the Grande Punto, Linea and Stile models in India. With the entry of new models, such as Volkswagen AG’s Polo and Vento, and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd’s Micra, among others, it has been facing rising competition.

Accenture has been studying Fiat India’s weaknesses in product, price, positioning and distribution for almost a month now, Kapoor said.

Tata Motors has been helping Fiat strengthen the dealer network. Fiat India has expanded the number of Tata-Fiat dealerships to 175, making it the largest after Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Hyundai Motor India Ltd and Tata Motors.

Kapoor said the new T-Jet premium variants of Linea will help his company reach the premium sedans segment, which sells about 10,000 cars a month, led by Honda Siel Cars India Ltd’s City model.

The variants are priced at Rs.8.84 lakh onwards (ex-showroom, Mumbai). To begin with, they will be sold in Mumbai, Pune and the Delhi-National Capital Region, which accounts for at least half of the sales for such models, Kapoor said.

Puneet Gupta, an analyst at forecasting firm CSM Worldwide, said while Fiat has good models, it hasn’t been able to address fears about after-sales service and resale.

“They shall be able to turn the tables if they come out with schemes that warrant a good return when people are trading their old Fiat cars with new ones,” said Gupta.

In August, Carl-Peter Forster, group chief executive and managing director, Tata Motors, said the company is not satisfied with the Tata-Fiat joint venture in terms of volumes and was looking at ways to sell more Fiat cars.

In the quarter ended June, the three-year-old joint venture made a cash profit of Rs.22 crore against a loss of Rs.166 crore a year earlier.
Click to expand...

Source - livemint

Ravi, Oct 10, 2010

#207
Ravi Staff Member Janitor

Messages:

6,001

Bangalore

Grande Punto 1.3

Economictimes reports -

“We recruited close to 1,000 personnel at the dealerships, trained them, gave them new uniforms, did salary corrections and added incentives,” said Mr Kapoor. “Customers buying the Tata and Fiat products are different.” He hoped that this will have a positive impact on Fiat sales in the country.

Fiat has just launched a new 1.4-litre T-jet powered petrol variant of the Linea and it plans to roll out a face-lift Linea in 2011 and a new small car, below the Punto, in 2012. The company has also decided not to increase car prices despite rising input costs.

While Fiat brands are struggling in the country, its engines are much loved. Maruti Suzuki’s diesel vehicles such as Swift and D’zire, which are powered by Fiat’s multijet diesel engines, are among the most popular cars in the country.

Similarly, introduction of Fiat engines in the second generation Tata car platform played a critical role in the performance and growth of brands such as Indica Vista and Indigo Manza.

Clearly, the alliance is dear to the Tatas and the company is doing its bit to ensure its success, according to its spokesman. Carl-Peter Forster, the recently appointed global CEO of Tata Motors, reviews the Fiat India operations on a regular basis. “Every month we have review meetings where he looks into the progress of product development, dealerships, and sales,” he said.

The thinking among Fiat’s management is that while the Tatas have benefited by powering some of their cars with Fiat engines, the joint dealership and engine collaboration has yet to help the Italian carmaker spruce up its front end, they said.

While sales touch-points were increased, people connected with marketing say that Fiat India was not satisfied with the sales progress. So, recently the Italian carmaker roped in consultancy firm Accenture to diagnose the weaknesses at the sales point and completely revamp the front-end of the dealerships. It was felt that there was a lack of focus due to the overlapping sales people who were pushing both Tata and Fiat brands. Now Fiat has created a distinct identity for its front-end staff, in line with the positioning of its products.
Click to expand...

Ravi, Oct 11, 2010

#208
atulalvenkar

Messages:

349

Location:

Hyderabad

good to see they are making efforts.Saw a very small ad in TOI today near a sports column by Sanjay Manjrekar. It's just a red background with FIAT logo and text saying FIAT LINEA - TJET Admiration Guaranteed.

atulalvenkar, Oct 11, 2010

#209
amogh Staff Member Janitor

Messages:

1,377

Pune

Grande Punto 1.3

Hope Accenture visits this thread.

Ravi : your question about Fiat's response to low sales ? (during my interactions with them during the T-Jet launch)

Exactly the same what you have written above

The minimum 5 km test drive is another step in the right direction.

amogh, Oct 11, 2010

#210

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