Strange mobile phone customer notation …’trade secret’ of the first female sales king

Kwak Gyeong-rok (53), the sales manager of Hyundai Motor’s Suwon West Branch, sold 430 units last year, becoming the first woman to become the’sales king’. Even during an interview at the branch office on the evening of the 3rd, he said, “I’ll be signed for a short contract,” and finished one contract in 5 minutes.

Hyundai Motor Company has more than 6,000 sales staff at branches and agencies. Kwak has been ranked among the top 20 in the national ranking every year for the past 10 years. When asked the secret of maintaining the top ranking for a long time, he answered “sincerity, passion, and reward.” When I said that the answer was too good to be a schoolboy, I added this.
“Sincere, I really love Hyundai. Enthusiasm, enjoys work. I am satisfied and thankful for the reward, the small.”
Among them, I was most curious about’compensation’, but he said, “I seem to get more than a normal office worker. More than that is a trade secret.” Kwak is a Hyundai Motor Company employee, not a freelancer.

He said himself as “a normal office worker with an introverted personality.” So, there is nothing special about it. However, he said, “There is a detail.” There is a’my own notation’ when storing names on the phone. ‘Hong Gil-dong JoongAng Ilbo Award 10’ means “Hong Gil-dong, an office worker attending the JoongAng Ilbo, has a high possibility of purchasing a vehicle (top) and manners are the best (10). This way, along with the consumer tendencies, it is possible to respond quickly to a sudden call from a customer. About 3,000 potential customers were stored on his phone.

He said that insight is also necessary for customer response. In particular, it is basic to choose the most suitable title. Officers above the executive level are called by adding’Nim’ to the company’s title. If the first call comes from a customer without information, make a call for a while and choose an appropriate expression from the teacher, father, customer, and wife.

Even when sending a holiday present, we make use of the details. Last Chuseok, Gyeonggi Icheon rice was sent because of the fact that he eats a lot of home food due to the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). On the small card, he also put out’my hometown Icheon rice’. For this Lunar New Year holiday, I chose the red scent of Jeju Island. I expressed my wish to let the scent circulate in the cramped family life.

Daily life was dense. It is far from working five days a week and 40 hours. In order to meet the’customers’ spread across the country, he does not hesitate to work on weekends and answer the phone late at night.
“It’s the basics of business to listen to someone. People appreciate that someone listens to them, and when they don’t, they’re most upset.”

He said yes to the question,’Do you think you are a woman who is good at anything, that is, Alpha Girl?’ In addition to his work life, his wife and mother’s roles at home were also “good enough”. ‘Routine (repetitive daily life)’ is to go home from work at 9 PM, do housework until midnight, wake up at 5:30 a.m. and prepare breakfast.

Also, for health, I always eat breakfast and dinner, and I devote myself to exercise, such as golf and walking, on a weekend day. Some things don’t. I don’t do social network service (SNS) and I seldom drink less than once a week. Following this thorough routine is the secret to being able to live long in the sales field for 25 years, and to become the top seller. “If you follow the routine, you can spend the rest of your time working,” he said.

After graduating from the Department of Business Administration, he had a stable working life in Yeouido. But in 1996, he suddenly resigned and took a job at Hyundai Motor Company. At the time, there was a’confidence without evidence’ about car sales that I had never done before. I thought it was worth trying in that cars were not recommended to family or acquaintances, but to people who needed them.

In 1997, when I was a new employee, consumption froze due to the foreign exchange crisis, but it passed “without knowing that it came.” After working hard for 3 to 4 years, based on the personal connections I had accumulated, I sold about 100 units that year. It was a good grade for a freshman. Ten years later, the 2008 financial crisis hit almost all self-employed and office workers, but the annual performance rose to the 200 mark, saying, “It is the time when the sales network was established.” “The customer who sold the first car when he was a newcomer succeeded and has become the company’s representative. That’s the foundation of business.”

Last year, all the cycles fit together, and we were able to become a sales champion. As stock prices and real estate prices soared, the scale of customers’ assets increased, and Hyundai Motor Company poured out new cars. Consumers with thickened wallets showed interest in medium and large cars. Thanks to this, Gwak filled 3 out of 10 cars sold last year with Genesis. He also rides the Genesis G80.

As a freshman, he mainly sold Avante, Sonata, Porter, and Starex. These days, Genesis, Grandeur, electric car, and hybrid are the main focus. This is because consumers’ consciousness toward tea has also changed. He said, “The perception has shifted from a means of transportation for commuting and travel to a’digital home’.” “The goal is to sell more than 1,000 units a year until we quit,” said Kwak, who had seven years left until retirement. As it is a transition period from internal combustion engines to electric cars, he predicted that “one chance will come within 5 years.”

He drove the reporter on his G80 to a nearby subway station when the snow blew around 9 PM after the interview. The last greeting was “I contact you when you change the car.”

Reporter Kim Young-joo [email protected]