Front line: Ian Moreillon has spent the past six years building up Nissan Australia’s customer experience and network development division but now refocuses as director of sales for the Japanese brand.

NISSAN has placed responsibility for the Japanese brand’s sales in Australia back in the hands of Ian Moreillon, who from June 1 will move from head of customer experience and network development to director of sales.

Replacing Edward Butler, who leaves the business after only about 15 months in the job, Mr Moreillon is a Nissan stalwart who has worked for the car-maker – both in Australia and abroad – for the past 23 years and, as the company describes it, “brings a wealth of sales, marketing, network development and customer experience knowledge and understanding to the role”.

Taking over Mr Moreillon’s position as director of customer experience and network development is Craig Clarke, who is returning to Australia after spending the past two years as vice-president of sales for Nissan Asia and Oceania, based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Mr Moreillon is no stranger to the top sales job at Nissan, having previously served as general manager of national sales and fleet, which he took up in 2011 after spending four years on assignment at Nissan Motor Co headquarters in Japan, where he was responsible for building a global sales and service quality team.

Speaking exclusively to GoAuto, Mr Moreillon said his previous experience in both sales and other areas of the business – including his focus on dealer development and customer service since 2013 – made him well placed to lead the company’s sales force and achieve its internal objectives for the current (Japanese) financial year, which started in April and projects growth over the next 12 months.

“We’ve had a very strong focus on quality of dealer partner – that is, of course, our customer experience and the most positive representation of the brand – and we’ve put a lot of work in that space,” he said.

Craig Clarke

“But now it’s time to get back to the ‘front line’, I suppose, and get my feet back under the sales desk again and bring a reinvigorated focus back into the sales team, which I’m looking forward to.”

For the calendar year to date, Nissan’s sales are down 15.6 per cent – at 15,866 units to the end of April – compared to the softening overall market which is 8.1 per cent in arrears. This positions Nissan in eighth place among the leading brands.

Asked to explain what he plans do differently, Mr Moreillon said he was not prepared to disclose any new sales strategies but conceded there was a need to “reset the bar a little” and achieve a better result this financial year.

“There’s no doubt that every car company you talk to would probably want to sell more cars, and we’re no different to that,” he said.

“At the same time, though, we have to realise that the environment that we’re in, we have a TIV (total industry volume) that has been in constant shrinkage over the past 12 months or so. That creates a challenge for everyone in the market, and we’re not immune to that.

“The thing about it is, I need to understand the current environment a little bit better – I’ve been a little bit isolated, to be honest, in my past role, you just can’t do everything – but I’ve been an observer, I have opinions, I’ll be resetting a strategy.

“Certainly, we do need to reset the bar a little and come out of the blocks in our fiscal year, which we’re already halfway through the second month of, and achieve a better result this financial year – and going forward.”

Mr Moreillon said not to expect “anything revolutionary” in his approach compared to his predecessors, “because in many respects, this industry, it doesn’t really encourage revolutionary actions across any brand”.

“It’s about doing the fundamentals well, it’s about having the best representation, it is about having a good, strong team, an engaged team – both within our organisation and, of course, the dealer network,” he said.

“I very much see one of my responsibilities is to fully engage with the dealer network and to make sure that we operate as one team. It is something that I have absolute confidence in. I have been with Nissan 23 years, I regard myself as having a good, positive relationship with the network, I know most of our dealers very well, and I think that’s a strong positive for me – and hopefully that also is for Nissan.”

Mr Moreillon said this provides a sound basis for Nissan Australia’s “well-structured, well-set regional teams” to work “hand-in-hand” with the dealers.

“I used the term ‘reset’ – we’ll reset those really strong (regional) teams, that’s the initial action, make sure that we’re focused on success and our objectives that we set ourselves, and then deliver outcomes that are consistent and allow our dealers to have the best chance possible to achieve success,” he said.

Mr Moreillon said this success was measured not only in sheer sales terms but in dealer profitability.

“We know there is a lot of pressure on profitability in the automotive industry and that’s being compounded by market pressures, government pressures, change in so many areas of our business as we know, and our dealer partners they’re feeling the brunt of it pretty heavily, so that’s why we have to go hand-in-hand together to create better business outcomes for our customers but also our dealer partners,” he said.

“Nothing is revolutionary in this game today, I don’t think. The difference is about doing the fundamentals well – and that’s where we can, I’ll admit, get a little bit better in that space.”

Mr Moreillon declined to specify what Nissan was doing previously that now required him to “refocus” and “reset” the sales strategy, saying that his focus was forward-looking.

“To be honest with you, I don’t think it really matters,” he said. “I don’t want to go back and talk about what my predecessors did or didn’t do. The fact is, I know what I want to do, and I know the way that I operate.

“Everyone has their different style, and so I’m not about to comment, criticise, whatever, any predecessor. It’s just about doing it in a manner that I think is right going forward for the environment in which we are now.”

By Terry Martin