Lee Min-hyung joined The Korea Times in 2014 and has worked as a journalist mainly in Korea’s finance, tech and automotive industry. He specializes in content creation, breaking news and in-depth analysis currently on transportation and mobility. You can reach him via mhlee@koreatimes.co.kr.
Never lose contact with customers: Kia’s top salesman
Lee Sung-hum, a grand sales master at Kia, poses at a showroom in Seoul after receiving the title from the automaker for accumulating 4,000 vehicle sales, Aug. 25. Courtesy of Kia
By Lee Min-hyung
Lee Sung-hum, a salesman at Kia, has made it a rule never to lose contact with customers, even from his early years of sales career back in the late 1990s.
He achieved accumulated auto sales of 4,000 last month, earning the carmaker's title of "grand sales master." The title is awarded to salespeople whose total sales surpass this figure. This is Kia’s second-highest sales glory, just below the title of “great master” granted to those with accumulated sales of more than 5,000 cars.
Lee started his sales career at the carmaker in 1996 in Seongsu-dong in eastern Seoul. The region was once regarded as the industrial hub of Seoul, packed with factories. Most of his customers at the time were factory workers.
However, the area soon lost vibrancy, with factories relocating their facilities to the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province amid an economic downturn in the late 1990s.
Lee said many of his customers also moved to other cities in Gyeonggi Province, such as Goyang and Namyangju.
“I have kept in touch with them, even after they left Seongsu-dong, and provided all necessary services for them, such as vehicle repair and maintenance,” he said.
The attitude helped him earn trust from customers for decades and win the noteworthy sales outcome.
“Impressed by my sales attitude, they kept introducing me to their acquaintances and contacted me when they change their vehicles,” Lee said.
About 20 percent of his total sales have been commercial vehicles, such as trucks, with the remainder coming from passenger cars.
The sales master hopes to win Kia's top honor by selling over 5,000 cars. He sold 134 cars on average each year for three decades.
“I will keep sticking to my sales style, as it has been proven by the solid sales record,” he said. “It will take some three to four years for me to win the top glory by selling such a remarkable sales figure from the carmaker.”