Sam Liu – Sales Manager, Porsche Centre Shenzhen Longhua, Jebsen Motors
Besides knowing how to do something, you must learn how to be a good person first. Doing work well is in my nature, and being a good person has been fundamental to cultivating this habit.
“Extremely goal-oriented” perhaps best describes who I have become over the years. Since joining the automotive industry in 2005, goals have defined every area of my life. Fulfilling them has been pivotal to my personal and professional growth.
For most drivers, the ultimate goal is driving a Porsche, cruising down the freeway at the speed of light. I’ll tell you that for people working in the automotive industry, the sought-after dream is also about Porsche—selling them, particularly. So when I joined as Sales Consultant of Porsche Centre Guangzhou Tianhe in 2014, it felt like a dream come true. I was very excited, with high hopes for my career.
Being a Sales Consultant taught me new skills beyond just counting the number of cars sold. I learned to balance the customer’s needs with the company’s interests when making a decision. This skill is important because the sale of a car can come with other services such as mortgage, insurance, and other add-ons; when thoughtfully packaged, these items can add value to the customer’s purchase while also generating more profit for the company. I developed and applied these goal-setting skills throughout my sales work, which I believe helped me earn the top sales performance award I received in 2018.
I am honoured to be part of a company that truly values talent. After being promoted to Showroom Supervisor in 2018, I was immediately entrusted with bigger responsibilities such as online prospect sales. This career advancement gave me a better understanding of the company’s business operations. In this role, I also gained more resources and opportunities to plan showroom events and groom a more collaborative team.
The more people I came to manage, and the higher the sales goals I had to achieve, the more I wanted to make progress. Thanks to the opportunities afforded to me by Jebsen, I learned that making progress also means embracing change. This mindset led me to use market pulsing to understand customers’ evolving shopping behaviors. I began observing that customers nowadays come into showrooms ready to make a purchase, because they had earlier done their research online. This insight had me looking at how we can promote our online channels better to facilitate more immediate sales.
When I was promoted to Sales Manager, I had the opportunity to connect with even more people and understand that some goals are best achieved together. For example, meeting our annual sales goals has required me to be in close cooperation with all departments within the Group. We have to plan different activities with our marketing department to target different types of customers, keep track of the inventory levels of each vehicle to push strategic promotions, and follow up with our customer relationship management team on customer analysis and telephone solicitations.
Just as I’ve never stopped aiming for my next progress target, Jebsen has never stopped recognising my achievement and nurturing my potential. In 2020, I was assigned to oversee the opening of our new store in Porsche Centre Shenzhen Longhua. I am now entrusted to build and train the team, as well as map out the workflows between the company, other stores and Porsche manufacturers. As I lead the team throughout every aspect of the store dealings, I am reminded of a line from the Tang poem, “Rise up another level if you wish to see a thousand miles,” which I have reversed and reinterpreted to “If you wish to rise up another level, you must first see the big picture.” Indeed, I’ve learned that in order to seamlessly build a new Porsche Centre from the ground up, I would need to take a step back, review my whole experience at Jebsen, relearn essential information about the Group, and apply them in this new environment.
Successfully selling a car brings me joy, and there is great satisfaction in meeting the company’s sales targets each year. I recall being new to Jebsen in 2014, and how excited I was to realise my first dream of working as a Sales Consultant here. Little did I know that this career path would take me this far. Jebsen has inspired me to keep finding a new goal as I made my way up the career ladder. My stay here has motivated me to keep advancing to the next level, making me realise that I can decide where the dreaming ends. For now, the possibilities look extremely endless, filling me with even greater ambitions for the future.