Mercedes Brushes Up Sales Skills in China

Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz Cars unit has established a unit based at its Stuttgart headquarters that will coordinate marketing, sales and training for the brand's sales group in China.

The move is part of Daimler's campaign to boost its lagging luxury vehicle sales in the world's largest car market. The initiative is being led by Hubertus Troska, who was named late last year to a newly created management board post for Chinese operations.

Mercedes is trying to hone the salesmanship of its staff in China after merging its two competing sales organizations there in December. The company has hired Bernhard Auer, former sales chief in China for Volkswagen AG's Audi brand, to head the new sales group.

Mercedes says it also will "fast-track" growth of its Chinese distribution network to prepare for the debut of 20 new or updated models by 2015. The brand intends to add 75 dealerships this year for a total of 335 outlets.

Troska says the work is beginning to pay off. The company's passenger vehicle deliveries in China, which fell 12% in the January-March period, grew 11% in April and 7% in May for a five-month total of 79,400 vehicles, down 4% year on year.

But in that period rivals Audi and BMW boosted Chinese deliveries by 14% to 183,700 vehicles and 10% to 148,300 units, respectively.