Education is the best way to take a business forward. Once Atishay Jain, the current 32-year old owner of Zedex Nissan, Volkswagen Rajdhani and Volkswagen NCR East made his intentions of running a business clear, not many people may have understood why he went through the educational processes at IIT and IIM. Being from a family of merchants, his family wasn’t really surprised when he made this decision, as his father had already been dealing with an automobile construction equipment’s dealership and manufacturing units. Incidentally, he has been in this business for more than 40 years, after establishing the first dealership for Escorts in India in late 1960s, while being the manufacturer for Nippun cranes & forklifts in later years.
For a merchant, business is always in the blood. This is a natural reason for Atishay to land up in the business of dealerships. The passenger car vertical in the name of Zedex Nissan was started on 2nd March 2012.
Origin of the name Zedex
Philip Kotler always said that a name always has to be a brand in itself. Atishay followed the same strategy and came up with the name ‘Zedex’, which displayed an ‘X-factor’ and sounded zingy (zing sound).
2012-13 was when this dealership was started. In the second year itself, the dealership managed a huge achievement- becoming the highest sellers for Nissan in North India, a streak which continued for 3 consecutive years. Incidentally, this became possible despite the lack of prior passenger car selling experience. It was a combination of youth and experience that helped Zedex reach this level so soon in their journey.
In terms of after sales, Zedex Nissan has the largest setup in North India, with a total area of 1 lakh square feet, where Atishay has played an instrumental role in exponential growth. The premises has a total of 50 bays, with a capacity to service 125 cars on a daily basis. At its peak, 300 body repairs were being carried out every month. At present, the group is servicing close to 2000 cars & clocking INR 250 lacs+ in after-sales revenues month-on-month. In terms of future goal, Atishay has set a goal of reaching monthly 500 cars sales & 5000 cars service by 2023. Opening of a dealership of Kia Motors in Delhi in June-19 is another step towards reaching that goal.
Reasons for success
Atishay believes that youth, education and experience, along with an openness towards technologies play vital roles in attaining success across car dealerships.
In its early days in 2013, the company explored digital marketing by partnering with new-age auto tech companies such as Cardekho, Gaadi, Autoninja and others, at a time when they were not as well known as they are today for generating enquiries, follow-ups, email campaigns & setting-up digital showroom. Atishay felt the basic car sales process has not really changed in the last 25 years. Zedex thus pioneered the act of adopting digital technology, even before some manufacturers had tried. Recently, Zedex designed their own Virtual Reality environment to showcase the USPs of small car Datsun Redigo, which has helped them gain competitive edge in the segment.
Customer Satisfaction Index plays a very important role, which is incorporated into every staff member as they become part of the culture at Zedex. A sales consultant works at the front end and is closest to the customer, while the manufacturer is the farther in the communication flow chain after dealership managers, dealer owner, manufacturer field team and the management. While dealing with a customer, it is very important for the consultant to be sympathetic and drive the CS policies at the dealership, rather than only being guided by the manufacturer. In 2017, it was a proud achievement when Zedex Nissan received the award for highest SSI (Sales Satisfaction Index) pan-India.
For the above to take place regularly, employees need to be motivated adequately in order to be happy and perform, and one of the ways to motivate employees is to provide them incentives, since at the end of the day, money is one of the primary needs for employees. These incentives are released from time to time. Atishay states that the company follows a formal joining program, whereby an existing employee becomes part of a ‘Buddy program’ for a new employee. This program helps the new individual become comfortable with the dealership’s culture, and also match attitudes. It believes in inculcating a ‘customer-centric’ attitude in every employee.
The employee incentive program involves bringing families of employees together. The award ‘Employee of the month’ is directly sent to the parents of the deserving person. Atishay has seen and believes that this acts as the best motivator for Zedex’s employees. As an example, Zedex took care of the education of employee’s daughter, for which the person felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude.
Sympathizing with national causes
Zedex Nissan is always ready to support social & national causes, In the aftermath of the Pulwama attack, Atishay motivated employees of Zedex to generate INR 50,000 overnight. This amount was then doubled by the company and sent to the Pulwama relief fund.
Future plans
Atishay believes that just like Maruti Suzuki has come up with Nexa as a premium brand, Nissan also needs to position three different segments very clearly in the minds of customers- Datsun for entry level, Nissan for mid-level and Infiniti for luxury level customers. It is very important for Nissan to reproduce their global strength in SUV & electric cars in India to achieve a 5% share of the Indian auto market.
Being a tough market, India has been particularly different to crack, for most car manufacturers. Along with new models such as New Redigo, Datsun SUV & Nissan Leaf, Nissan also plan to come up with E-note-power, a series hybrid car which needs petrol to convert it into electrical energy and drive the vehicle with a mileage of 50+ kmpl, at the same time cuts away the need for any charging infrastructure. Of course, the EV policy of the Government of India will also play an important role in determining Nissan’s future.
