Tata Motors: Achieving High Performance Through Sales Transformation

Tata Motors Limited is India's largest automobile company and a leading manufacturer of both commercial and passenger vehicles. It is the world’s fourth-largest truck and second-largest bus manufacturer, and has operations in the United Kingdom, South Korea, Thailand and Spain. For the 2009 fiscal year, Tata Motors reported consolidated revenues of US$19 billion.

With Accenture’s help, the company launched a comprehensive sales transformation effort to boost sales of its ACE vehicle in four Indian states. By focusing on customer segmentation, network optimization, pipeline management and sales operations, the project team helped Tata Motors generate approximately $45 million in additional revenue and significantly boost market share in all states—all in less than nine months. Most important, the company now has a strong foundation for expanded and sustainable growth.

The small commercial vehicle (SCV) segment in India was traditionally dominated by three-wheeler vehicles. In 2005, Tata Motors changed the market dynamics in this sub-one-ton segment by introducing a four-wheeler vehicle. This vehicle, the “ACE,” quickly became the SCV market leader and one of the most successful launches among Tata Motors’ commercial vehicles.

By 2008, however, sales of ACE had reached a plateau. The effects of the recession extended to the commercial vehicle market and contributed to sales declines across all segments by as much as 45 percent. Tata Motors believed that its SCV segment was best positioned to overcome the challenging environment. But it would need to act quickly. Competitors were preparing to launch products that threatened to erode ACE’s market share. To achieve ACE’s full market potential, Tata Motors embarked on a comprehensive sales transformation exercise and reached out to Accenture for help bringing this program to life.

Accenture deployed a team of professionals highly skilled in customer relationship management and analytics to help Tata Motors craft a Sales Transformation road map that would achieve quantum growth in a pilot market. The initiative—titled “Race with ACE”—was designed by a joint Accenture and Tata Motors team, piloted in Tamil Nadu and later extended to three other states in India.

With Accenture’s help, Tata Motors created a strong foundation that can be leveraged to achieve long-term sustainable growth and high performance. During the project period in the four states that implemented “Race with ACE,” Tata Motors:

• Added incremental revenues of Rs. 209 crores (approximately US$45 million) during the 6-9 months of the project duration

• Increased ACE market share in the pilot state of Tamil Nadu from 84 percent to 90 percent

• Increased ACE market share in Maharashtra from 43 percent to 65 percent, in Karnataka from 42 percent to 58 percent and in Gujarat from 44 percent to 52 percent

• Successfully identified and acted on growth levers that contributed to between 50 percent and 85 percent of sales growth volumes across the states

• Witnessed sales growth increases (compared to the same period one year prior) that were far higher than sales growth rates in the rest of India

• Improved relationships with the top five customer-financing organizations, which now provide more than 80 percent of finance business