Eicher’s No.1 national dealer for 18 years
Talwar Auto Garages Pvt. Ltd. (TAG) was founded by Mr. Sunil Talwar in 1986. The Talwars have been associated with Eicher since 1986 as an authorized dealer for the reputed brand for the entire Telangana and Kurnool regions in Andhra Pradesh, with its headquarters at Somajiguda in Hyderabad.
TAG has been Eicher’s No.1 dealer for a whopping 18 consecutive years with the best sales performance and best overall performance in the country. MOTORINDIA explores the TAG success story in a tete-a-tete with Mr. G.K. Reddy, President – Sales/Marketing & Administration, TAG.
Mr. Sunil Talwar, Chairman & Managing Director, TAG, has been the cornerstone for the dealership’s sustained success over the years. He has always been at the forefront of TAG operations, even today interacting with individual employees to ensure that their entire needs are fulfilled.
TAG is totally focused on customers, and a key factor contributing to its success is its transparency with customers. In the highly competitive Indian market, the company has been able to perform well owing to its two major strengths – the quality of Eicher products and its loyal customers, says Mr. Reddy. TAG employees continuously strive to enhance customer satisfaction, driven by its slogan ‘Customer smile, our pride.’
TAG offers the complete range of Eicher trucks including the light duty vehicles with 3.5 to 6 tonne payload, the medium duty range spanning a payload of 6.5 to 9.5 tonne and the more recently introduced heavy-duty range having a payload of 10 to 27 tonne. In the passenger carrier segment, Eicher offers 25 to 41-seater fully-built buses and also chassis for 40 to 65-seater variants. The light- and medium-duty truck (LMD) segments contribute 60 to 65 per cent of TAG’s annual sales, with 27 to 35 per cent coming from buses and the remaining from the heavy-duty truck segment.
Talwar Auto commands a market share of around 55 per cent in the LMD segment in the regions it operates. The dealership has been one of the most reputed and trusted ones in the region with most customers placing repeat orders, which is a reflection of the quality of service delivered by the TAG service and support teams.
It has six workshops which are strategically located along important highways in Andhra Pradesh. The state-of-the-art workshops, having a combined bay-strength of over 100, are fully equipped with high quality machines, training centre, conference hall and other facilities required to service over 150 vehicles a day. The service team at its workshops is known for its efficiency in service and focus on customer satisfaction.
Talwar Auto has been offering the best to its customers in terms of sales and service support throughout the year. As a value addition, it also conducts a ‘mega free service camp’ in December each year since last 11 years. It takes a caravan of tools to different locations, identifies customers, both existing and potential, and offers free service for all the vehicles in the region. During the camp, it offers special discount for its spare parts, and also presents gifts to its esteemed customers. The service camp is one scheme which has been very well received by customers and is keenly looked forward to as it is conducted at the customers’ locations.
Customer-focused
Though 2012 has proved an uneventful year for the country’s commercial vehicle industry, TAG has done quite well, in line with Eicher’s performance during the year. The Indian automotive industry has gone through rough patches, while the CV segment has been in the grip of uncertainties throughout the year. However, TAG has managed to outperform its previous year’s sales of 2,300 vehicles to a likely figure of around 3,000 trucks and buses in the current financial year. Again, not all CV dealerships across the country have been able to achieve an upswing this year, while TAG continues to ride on its core values such as staying customer-focused at all times and being highly efficient in service.
Talwar Auto’s main customers include market load operators and transport companies in the State, about 60 per cent of whom come from the capital region while the remaining 40 per cent are from neighboring districts. Most of its customers are involved in the transport of cotton, mango, paddy and other crops while companies like Coca-Cola have also been catered to by TAG. Under its range of passenger vehicles, TAG has delivered buses for schools in the region and also to meet the staff transportation requirements of institutions in the State.
TAG has been in the business for nearly three decades, and most members of its sales team have been with the outlet for over two decades. Its workforce has vast experience in handling customers, and at the same time it has seen how the market has matured over the years. In the light and medium-duty truck range, most customers prefer fully-build vehicles (FBV) which involve very little time delay from purchase to on-road use, whereas in the heavy-duty range, even today customers prefer the cowl version as it offers room for flexible design and body building.
Though sophisticated cabins are offered by most OEMs, many customers still prefer wooden cabs which help bring down repair costs. Other small but apparently significant features that some customers stick to include the two piece windshields, customized seats and storage spaces which are possible upon the purchase of a cowl version. Also, many customers have a notion that a cowl version with the cargo body attached to the wooden cab is more stable than a fully-built cab in which the cargo body is away from the cab.
Despite availability of modern cabs and fully-built vehicles in the Indian market, an enormous amount of effort is required from various fronts to improve awareness of the benefits of a fully-built, mainly in terms of reliability, safety and comfort, though the cost is higher than the cowl variants.
At the same time, with better quality vehicles hitting the Indian market, there are a good number of operators who have an expert understanding of the market dynamics and operate on the basis of total cost of operation (TCO). Such operators are keen on increasing uptime, reducing costs with efficient practices, and enhancing driver productivity by offering him better products to handle, all of which result in a significant improvement in the overall standard and efficiency of the entire fleet.
In the bus segment too, TAG caters to specific requirements of its customers through tie-ups with leading bus builders like MG Auto and JCBL. In fact, TAG has its own brands of buses at JCBL, namely, the Touch and Touch Eco. These buses are built as per customized requirements and are delivered after a thorough pre-delivery inspection (PDI) by the TAG service team. In the current year, TAG has managed a breakthrough into the tours and travels segment, with the Touch and Touch Eco models being very well received in terms of both quality and pricing. The two models have boosted Talwar Auto’s presence in the tours and travels segment.
TAG operations are executed after meticulous planning which involves the entire administration team and sales workforce. Every month, a review sales meeting is held in the presence of the top management, during which a comprehensive analysis of the monthly sales is done, in terms of products, sales person, region, etc. With Eicher being known for its performance in the market, financiers place immense confidence on its products which helps in boosting sales.
The resale value of Eicher vehicles is also quite high, an added advantage for its dealerships. In order to help customers with different financing options, TAG has channel partners who are to present at the outlet throughout the day, adds Mr. Reddy.
Talwar Auto, though extremely capable of selling its products to customers, does not prefer to just deliver what the customer demands. It makes sincere efforts to understand its customers’ requirements and offer them the best possible solutions by suggesting the most suitable vehicle or application to meet their precise needs.
Subsequent to the establishment of the Eicher dealership, the Talwars have also opened dealerships for Hyundai, Volvo cars and Bajaj two-wheelers. Very recently, the group was awarded its second Eicher dealership at Pune, named Talsons. With growing success, popularity and presence across the country, the Talwars, in whatever product they deal with, would always have their core focus on one aspect – customer-focus – and that has been the driving force and also the secret of the Talwar success story.