From the first day he joined NIO, Meng Zhe was accompanied by anxiety and frustration. The former BBA gold medalist never thought he would have to make 60 phone calls one day. This is Meng Zhe’s KPI in his first month at NIO: at least 60 calls a day, and the total number of effective calls that month was no less than 700. "The system will allocate phone calls to us, and all we have to do is make crazy calls." When he was at BBA, he made less than 100 calls per month.

Meng Zhe felt that this was a drain on himself. "Maybe if I make 100 calls, 90 people will reject me. When someone is finally willing to chat with you for 30 seconds, I find that I can no longer speak."

This kind of work intensity that is unbelievable to the outside world is becoming the norm in the eyes of new energy vehicle sales. Although the hottest industry topics on social media are that the monthly salary of top salesmen of new energy vehicle companies exceeds 100,000 yuan and that flight attendants have switched to selling cars, only practitioners know the cruel side behind the trend.

If the new energy industry is a battlefield where many parties are fighting, then sales are the frontline of the war.

Li Auto salesperson Juan told NoNoise that at Li Auto, the KPI in the month he joined was to sell 7 cars. After three months, the requirement is 10 units per month. If 10 units are not sold in the third month, it means being eliminated. "NoNoise" confirmed this with many relevant people close to the ideal, saying that this is indeed the case.

At Tesla, this requirement is even more stringent. "Tesla's sales requirement is two cars per day. The standards set by the company are very high and basically cannot be met." Xu Meng, a former Tesla employee, complained.

Such intensity is also reflected in the flow of people. The store where Xu Meng worked once had a sales team of ten people. Four months later, all the store staff had changed.


Source: Maimai High Talent Talent Think Tank Report

The car companies that are ready and a group of crazy new energy sales are pushing China's new energy vehicle sales to new highs. According to the latest official data from the China Automobile Association, new energy vehicle sales will once again hit a record high in 2023. As of November this year, my country's new energy vehicle sales reached 8.304 million units, a year-on-year increase of 83.5%, and the market share reached 30.8%.

And the extreme involution and high internal friction are consuming everyone. On November 3, NIO CEO Li Bin issued a letter to all employees stating that the company will reduce about 10% of its positions as planned. The nine-year-old car company is still teetering on the edge of losses and layoffs.

This is not just a story of speed, development and conflict. Survive or out? At this moment, it has become a choice that car companies and practitioners have to face.

01

Crazy sales system

“Extraordinary means” with car companies

In September 2021, Juan joined Jikrypton Automobile as a fresh graduate. At that time, it coincided with the bonus period for Ji Krypton's new car release. In the month after joining the company, Juan sold 10 cars. He was a little arrogant for a time, thinking that he was born to be a salesperson and had a bright future.

But when the product bonus period is over, sales pressure is increasing. Juan recalled that Ji Krypton’s basic assessment of sales became stricter. Due to the recruitment of many new people from Tesla, the entire internal sales system is almost copying Tesla's model and process.

"The problem is that Jikrypton doesn't have the sales volume of Tesla, but it gives us Tesla's indicators. Every day after get off work, we won't let you go, so we just stay there and make phone calls." After suffering, Juan chose to leave.


Source: Screenshot from the Japanese drama "I'll get off work on time"

In July this year, Juan joined Li Auto. His biggest feeling is that thanks to the ideal sales volume, it is not as difficult to get customers as before, and the transaction cycle has also been shortened. Offline transactions generally only take about a week, while in Ji Krypton it may take several months or even half a year.

After joining Ideal, he also received the highest salary ever. Juan revealed that the average commission for selling a car in Ideal is about 800 yuan, and the performance will double after more than 11 units are sold. "When the sales are the best, the income is almost 13,000 yuan. In Ideal, as long as the situation is normal, you can also make 20,000 yuan."

This is not surprising. Money will always flow to prosperous industries and companies, accelerating the wealth accumulation of individuals within them. For example, the Internet in the past few years and new energy in the past two years.

A Xiaopeng employee once revealed to the media that during store sales in 2021, the highest monthly income was 50,000 yuan. "If you do well, you can earn an average of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan per month. It was really profitable at that time." In 2021, Xiaopeng's delivery volume reached 98,200 vehicles, and he was the most handsome boy among Wei Xiaoli.

NIO has also recently been reported to have a monthly salary of more than 100,000 yuan for front-line sales. The background is that the brand's sales have declined severely in April and May this year, so sales assessment pressure has increased since July. The sales commission is said to have been increased from 800 yuan per vehicle to 2,000 yuan, with higher commissions for stock cars and exhibition cars.

However, behind the high motivation and fast pace, there are also some "extraordinary means". For example, a store sales manager will report in the group hourly the number of customers received, phone calls made, and test drive orders placed by salespeople.

"Those who fail to catch up will be @, and everything is transparent." Stacy, a candidate who once received an ideal offer, told "NoNoise" that the reason she ultimately rejected the offer was because the above requirements made her "offensive" and "completely disrespected my privacy." She also discovered that the entire process of ideal sales work is monitored by cameras. Whether it is a test drive or communicating with customers, it is a high-pressure state that can be monitored.

The process of interviewing Tesla also made her uncomfortable. “I had heard that Tesla was very busy, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad.” Stacy recalled that before she received the offer, the store manager had already asked her to do a lot of preliminary work, including visiting competing stores to see their service and professionalism, and then compare them with her own.

Not only that, car companies including NIO and Ideal conduct written exams for sales staff every month. Taking Weilai as an example, basic knowledge assessments will be conducted monthly in the first three months, and Fellow certification will be conducted after three months. The exam is very strict. You cannot memorize every word about the corporate vision incorrectly, otherwise you will get 0 points.

Within the ideal, there is also a set of unwritten rules - "two yellows and one red, two reds and one black". An ideal salesperson revealed to "NoNoise" that the company also conducts exams for sales staff every month, just like the high school monthly exam. Once is just a yellow line, and twice is just a red line. The red line means that the performance of the month is zero, and they can only get a basic salary. A black line after two red lines means leaving directly.

What makes people feel even more oppressive is the "secret visit" - whenever a new version or model is launched, the company will hire people to go to the store to conduct "secret visits" to assess the proficiency of the sales staff. If you cannot answer the question correctly, you will be marked with a yellow line.

Behind all high-pressure rules is fierce competitive pressure. Practitioners all know very well: Although this industry is full of troubles, only by being at the front can we define the rules of the industry and get the most dividends.

In the face of huge performance pressure and attractive performance rewards, workplace chaos such as "grabbing customers" naturally appears. A potential customer of a new power brand told "NoNoise" that after he registered the car company's App account, he received continuous calls from the brand's salesmen for more than a month, sometimes from the Beijing store, sometimes from the store in his city. "Everyone's attitude was so good that it was hard to bear to interrupt. However, after I clearly informed that other salesmen had already made an appointment with me, almost everyone refused to give up their efforts to continue marketing to me."

He could feel the other party's anxiety in order to complete the order.

02

Act as a "car selling machine"

Under the brutal competition, conflicts between salespeople and car companies have gradually become apparent.

Each car company has its own sales process. For example, BBA mainly revolves around the "six aspects" of products, while NIO is about "5W". What makes it difficult for Meng Zhe to adapt is that new energy car companies, including NIO, generally force sales staff to follow the company's words and procedures to connect with users. "For example, when I talk to the user for the first time, I have to talk about where his hometown is, so that I can show from the App how many battery swap stations there are along the way back to your hometown."


Picture source: @伟来

The strict application of templates in the sales process makes Meng Zhe very uncomfortable. He is more focused on answering from the perspective of user needs. "For example, some female drivers only want to drive small cars. NIO is larger, so I would really recommend her to test drive other brands."

Past experience has made him care more about emotional communication with users, rather than forcing him to explore user needs according to the company's wishes and just being a "car selling machine." However, the advantages of new energy vehicle companies are also very clear. "The core of a new energy brand is the implementation of a value system, but BBA will not listen to user opinions."

Xu Meng believes that the reason why new energy vehicle companies, including Ideal, NIO, and Tesla, insist on their own logic system is that through this system, they can find the customers closest to the order the fastest and most directly.

Take Weilai as an example. If store sales are based on door-to-door sales by users, then special events and community marketing encourage sales to proactively find accurate users. For example, test drive activities are conducted for Huawei and Tencent employees in Guangdong. Due to the high stickiness of Weilai's user groups, they will become an important part of word-of-mouth marketing and act as "non-staff sales."

The bottom-level sales logic of new energy car companies is the same: the first level is large-channel customers, and car companies use various channels to let potential customers leave their contact information. The second level is to invite these people for a test drive. The third layer addresses customer concerns, such as loans, charging, etc. The fourth level is to negotiate the order and see when is the best time for the customer to buy.

Xu Meng discovered that this system is like a funnel. “If you filter it down layer by layer, you will find the most valuable customers.”

Of course, even if the sales logic is the same, the different styles of car companies will make the sales experience very different. For example, although Tesla is cold and high-pressure internally, its processes are clear and goal-oriented, and colleagues are very efficient when dealing with problems. "All business is progressed on a daily basis. If you do not complete the set goals today, the store manager may still press your quota at 12 o'clock in the evening." Xu Meng said frankly that although the stipulated working hours are five days and two days off, few people can meet the standards. 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. is the norm.

The advantage is that Tesla's experience can "gold-plated" people. After many colleagues left Tesla, they were able to go to major Internet companies such as ByteDance. Many of the sales flowing into Tesla are from non-car company backgrounds, including Internet professionals and flight attendants.

The extreme involution of new energy sales has made car owners the biggest beneficiaries.

Wang Ning, the owner of a mid-range SUV, is in Lijiang, Yunnan. At first, he was interested in another new energy brand, but during the test drive appointment, he was told by the sales representative that because Lijiang is relatively remote, he would have to gather enough people to test drive it. Wang Ning changed the appointment for a test drive of this mid-range brand with the mentality of giving it a try. Unexpectedly, the salesperson showed up in Lijiang the next day with the model Wang Ning wanted.

"Just for me, I drove directly from Kunming to Lijiang. They provided whatever model I wanted to test drive. I thought the response speed was so good that I made the decision without hesitation." Wang Ning said.

During the car purchase process, Jihu Car owner Zhang Yang also clearly felt the changes in service sentiment of various brands. From the beginning of last year to the end of the year, after test driving almost all pure electric vehicles on the market, he chose Jihu.

Initially his target was BYD. At the end of 2020, he went to learn about BYD. At that time, sales were relatively active and there were many discounts on new cars. But when I asked again in the second half of last year, the sales attitude changed. "Their sales have soared in the past two years. You have to wait in line for two months to pick up a car. Because the order volume is too large, sales don't need to be aggressive, and there are no discounts."

Zhang Yang said that at that time, almost all brands could arrange door-to-door test drive services. Only BYD was difficult to make an appointment. His final order of Unipole Fox had a lot to do with the test drive experience.

Xu Meng admitted that when she was selling Tesla, she did not have that much time to serve car owners due to the large sales volume of the brand. She could not provide door-to-door service immediately when needed like NIO sales did to car owners.

03

Unstable glory

Behind the booming industry, no one is worried.

From a consumer perspective, Zhang Yang told NoNoise that during the car buying process that lasted for nearly a year, his biggest confusion was that the information on new energy vehicles was not transparent. At this stage, car buyers do not know enough about electric vehicles, and the current publicity of each company is dazzling. "Every company is boasting that its technology is far ahead, but how many of them are very core technologies? I feel that sales people don't really understand them. They will only introduce this switch and that button to you."

Zhang Yang believes that it may take a long time for these new domestic car-making forces to build public awareness of car companies such as BBA and Toyota. In Meng Zhe's words, he had never had to talk about cars in BBA before. "To be honest, the sign is there, and everyone knows what it is when they come in."

For young practitioners who are making fortunes in the industry, it seems difficult for new energy to become their long-term destination.

Juan told "NoNoise" that he never thought that he would always work in new energy sales, nor that he would be promoted to supervisor or store manager. The only value this job gives him is to make money. If he makes enough money, he can do what he wants to do.

"I want to do self-media, or go home to do business." So even if he is a little tired now, he is willing to do so. He even rents a house next to the company, and goes to the company to work overtime when he has nothing to do, "to harass his colleagues."


Source: Screenshot from the Japanese drama "The Woman Who Buys a House"

Xu Meng chose to join NIO after leaving Tesla.

She recalled that the most important reason for leaving Tesla was that she did not have a life of her own. Xu Meng likes to cook for herself, but during her time at Tesla, this wish was almost impossible to realize.

After joining NIO, Xu Meng's biggest feeling was that her intensity had dropped, as if she had gone from preparing for the college entrance examination to after the college entrance examination. She recalled that the atmosphere at Tesla was like an efficiency machine; at NIO, the company focused on people. She felt humanistic care and could often chat with her colleagues in the office. She found that NIO’s user base is also very sticky.

But what makes people faintly anxious is that NIO itself is still facing a battle for survival. Since sales have not yet exploded, founder Li Bin's insistence on the "difficult but correct" path has been met with many challenges. Some colleagues even stepped forward and wanted to teach Li Bin how to be a qualified CEO.

This is not the situation of Weilai, a car company. Due to the failure of the G9 model in Maicheng, Xpeng entered its darkest moment in the first quarter of this year, followed by constant turmoil. Although Ideal may be very successful this year, whether its pure electric products can compete next year will also determine this car company's position in the next stage of competition.

The new energy industry is reshuffling too fast, and product iteration is also very fast. Once a brand falls behind in sales or its product planning is unsuccessful, it is easy to be shuffled out of the game. When the time comes, if the skin is gone, how will the hair be attached?

There is no doubt that these young people who are digging in new energy will flow and disperse with the direction of the tide.

Of course, this does not affect people's confidence in the entire industry. After experiencing three car companies, Stacy has a more positive attitude. She believes that although each car company has different customers and different strategies, everyone is accelerating the development of electric vehicles in China. "This is a very good thing, and everyone is moving forward."