From the editors
Dear friends, We are glad to meet you at the pages of our corporate issue «Gals Inform». It is known that the richness of human life is measured by positive emotions and new experience. In this issue, we tried to highlight all the events held in the group of our companies, those are: holidays, victories, new achievements, first sale of Toyota Prius, table tennis tournament and, of course the Toyota National Skill Contest held by CFI “Toyota Ukraine”. We hope you will enjoy this issue. We look forward to your ideas, comments and suggestions at: galsinform@avtogals.ua
Please note the change of our e-mail address.
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Events
Happy birthday, dear colleagues! 23rd of August is a special day for Toyota Center Simferopol “Delta Motors”. On this day 4 years ago Delta Motors joined the official Toyota network in Ukraine. We all know that development and prosperity of the company depends on people who represent it. Their achievements, big and small victories Toyota Center Simferopol celebrated in one of the most beautiful and mysterious places of Crimea — Balaclava.
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Holiday program began with a tour about the complex of “Object 825”, established on the basis of the former top secret anti-nuclear facility constructed as the shelter and maintenance of submarines of the Soviet Union. In wartime about 3,000 people could hide in the object. The complex was able to withstand a direct hit by a nuclear missile with the capacity of 5–7 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. After the informative tour there was a
boat trip along the Bay of Balaclava, and then to the open sea, where the travelers could enjoy the view of the cliffs, wild scenery and amazing, crystal-clear sea surface. Birthday trip ended at Cape Aya, the name of the beach speaks for itself — “The Lost World.” Lots of positive emotions and unforgettable impressions this day gave to Toyota Center Simferopol employees. Dear friends, we congratulate you! We wish you successful sales and a constant desire to conquer new heights!
29-30 May Toyota Center Donetsk Avtogals took part in a charitable football match. The funds from the match were sent to local boarding school.
Among the teams we can name Uz Motors, Danko, Niko Donetsk and Premium Auto Group. The match was interesting and tense. Even drizzling weather did not spoil the enthusiasm of teams and fans. Sales consultant Oleg Zvyagintsev was noted as the most active player.
Among other events in a group of our companies we can mention the performance of May sales plan by Azovmotor, which was celebrated with visit of Berdyansk Aquapark. Keep it up!
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Актуальный взгляд
Toyota Prius – the car of the future August 2010 in the group of «Gals Motors” companies was highlighted with the sale of the first hybrid car Toyota Prius. On 17th August, 2010 at Toyota Center Lugansk «Autowind» there was a ceremonial passing of a new Toyota Prius, which is rightly called the car of the future, to its owner. Nikolay Bulkin, sales consultant of “Autowind”, shared with us his experience of selling this wonderful car. GI: Nickolay, please, tell us a little about yourself, how long have you been working in Toyota Center Lugansk «Avtovind»? N.B.: I have been working here since the opening, so it is 3 years already, in the position of senior sales consultant.
The emphasis should be placed on the fact that Toyota Prius — is a car of the future. And as it is positioned by Toyota — environmentally friendly and economical car. GI: Toyota Prius is an unusual car for the Ukrainian market. How was the car accepted with people of the region? N.B.: Toyota Prius is really an unusual car for
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Ukraine, people here hardly know about hybrids. These are the first official hybrid cars that come into our country. In general, our people accepted the car as something new and interesting, but expensive. Our mentality is different from the mentality of Europeans, so the buyer is not so much interested in environmentally friendly cars as in possibility to reduce fuel costs and the opportunity to enjoy the car of the future. Therefore, the only factor in repelling Toyota Prius for our region is its price. GI: Professional sellers have a delicate sense of the client’s needs. How did you feel that exactly this customer wants to be the owner of Toyota Prius? N.B.: It is difficult to give a definite answer. Each sales consultant has his own approaches and principles of work. Of course,
the experience played its role and the knowledge gained in trainings to identify customer needs helped a lot. Firstly, the first client for the Prius was a woman who at the time of contract was just getting her driving license. Her expectations from the car were quite simple — a smooth drive and simplicity of control. And, as you know, Toyota Prius in its full package “feels» its owner, and also «helps» in the parking, for example. Secondly, this purchase was not the first one. The second car in the family was
planned (first — Camry) and it had to be Toyota brand as well. And in such a pleasant communication with the customer we identified her needs with the car and draw a portrait of Toyota Prius. GI: What other expectations for the car did the customer have? N.B.: Of course, fuel economy, which is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Toyota Prius. Plus, the novelty of the car, interesting design and its capacity played a positive role.
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Current opinion
GI: What aspects would you recommend other consultants to focus on while presenting Toyota Prius to customers?
Toyota Prius in its full package “feels» its owner, and also «helps» in the parking, for example. N.B.: The emphasis should be placed on the fact that Toyota Prius — is a car of the future. And as it is positioned by Toyota — environmentally friendly and economical car.
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GI: Do you have a personal secret of success, or special methods for working with clients? What would you advise to other consultants to achieve effective sales? N.B.: The secret is very simple, it is necessary not just to listen to the customer but be able to hear and understand him. And to all my colleagues I wish good sales and excellent mood. Thanks to Nickolay for the interview, and Lugansk dealer for a good start.
As it turned out, Toyota Prius — is the phenomenally popular model worldwide. Toyota leads the sales of hybrid cars, and European and American customers have chosen hybrids for quality, reliability, and high level of environmental protection. Toyota Prius — a progressive and comfortable car that does not require compromises. We hope that soon Ukrainian consumers will appreciate all the advantages of Toyota Prius. And our service stations are ready to provide professional and quality service maintenance for these vehicles.
Prius
(Latin: «going ahead»)
Interesting facts: 1. According to the Forbes magazine, Prius is one of ten cars that changed the world as the best-selling hybrid car in the world; 2. The American magazine Time included Prius in an annual rating of the most influential people of the world with a note “magazine does not care that Prius is not a human”; 3. Prius is an object of worship of many influential people in the world of art, politics and business. Famous owners of the car are: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Steven Wozniak, Tom Hanks, Harrisson Ford, British Queen Elizabeth II, Prince of Wales, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cameron Diaz, Emma Watson. Well, who would not want to have a car like Brad Pitt or the British Queen Elizabeth?
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Main feature
The Cup of Table Tennis — is it an obsession of being the first or just corporate sport competition? Why table tennis? — you ask — Everything is quite simple, it is our first sports project aimed to strengthen friendly relations, enhance corporate culture among the employees of our companies, representing official dealers of Toyota brand, in different regions of Ukraine. Having thought for a while, we decided that each of us is familiar with this game and at least once everyone was holding a tennis racket. That is why we chose this kind of sport as corporate competition. When our companies have accepted the offer to join the spirit of competitiveness not only in sales, customer service, but also in sports, in particular to compete in table tennis tournament, still we did not believe that people would play.
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But, the equipment was purchased and at lunch time there were talks about table tennis. As it turned out, there are fans of this sport, and there are those who are ready to defend the honor of the company and
show themselves in table tennis tournament. The place for the tournament was a sports complex Nord, a member of the International Table Tennis Federation, which kindly offered us a professionally equipped gym, where teams could play with confidence and fans support their teams. We were helped to hold the tournament by vice-president of East-European League Table Tennis Petryshyn Victor D. and chief secretary of the national category Romanova Wanga. 6 teams represented their Toyota centers in the tournament: “Autowind” Lugansk, “Azov Motor” Mariupol, “Delta Motors Crimea”, “Omega Motors” Sevastopol, “Avtogals” Donetsk and the team of “Gals Motors”. After general meeting and the tournament draw, the first participants came up to the tennis tables. Each team had three players with one spare. Competing in round system all teams had to play with each team and the winner was the team with the most points. The beginning of tournament was rather shy, sets ended quickly with no score. We have even suggested that the tournament could end up ahead of time. But, a little warmed up, the players
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Main feature
came to life and real tournament started. The main prize of the tournament was a challenge cup “Avtogals”. It means that each dealership center will be able to fight for the first place in the next set of tournaments and for the right to have this cup. We were pleasantly surprised with group of fans from “Avtogals” which was very active and supported each player in the team. “Gals Motors” fans kept pace with their colleagues from “Avtogals”, competing in chants and originality. Watching the game, it was clear that the teams were really prepared for the tournament, played recklessly, giving each other just a few points. Participants from LLC “Autowind” and “Delta Motors” looked especially bright in their green and dark blue shirts. After a short break, all teams were back in the game, and the audience still could not figure out who was leading.
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But, nevertheless, in sport the first one is the strongest one. “Avtogals” team showed high class and won the first place with confidence, earning 15 points. ”Autowind” team played no less seriously; led by Goncharov Dmitry they scored 13 points. “Delta Motors Crimea” fighting till the end for the prizes, took the third place with 11 points. The teams were awarded with diplomas, medals, and sweet prizes from Donetsk confectionery production. “Omega Motors”, “Gals Motors” and “Azovmotor” teams received incentive certificates “for the striving for victory”. Well, we wish those teams to train harder and be more active at the next set of tournaments. And also we hope that our ladies will participate next time too. Next tournament will be held in spring 2011. The winner of the cup will host the
competition. So, we are looking forward for the new meetings in Donetsk. So what does a cup of table tennis “Avtogals” mean? Is it an obsession of being the first or corporate sport competition? Each of us has his own answer. But this tournament gave us an opportunity to gather all our companies together and communicate in informal atmosphere. It was a chance to meet Nickolay Bulkin, who was the first in the group of our companies to sell famous
Toyota Prius, or compete in table tennis with Director of “Omega Motors” Vadim Ignatenko or service manager of “Avtogals” Sergei Degurko. In short, this day everyone was all equal, except for the table tennis skills. After such team meetings, we feel we have energy to do more, so each person in the company would realize his important role in company’s life!
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Toyota in Ukraine
Toyota National Skill Contest September 25, 2010 official dealership center «Toyota City Plaza» for the first time hosted Toyota National Skill Contest, organized by CFI “Toyota-Ukraine”. Best mechanics and customer relations specialists from official Toyota network in Ukraine were competing. The winners of the competition were awarded with prizes. Toyota National Skill Contest — one of the key events of the year for CFI “Toyota-Ukraine” and the official dealer network. There were 32 mechanics and 11 customer relations specialists. Those were the participants who showed the best results during preliminary testing. The Contest for mechanics had four steps. The first step was meant to check theoretical knowledge of participants. The second one - diagnostic tasks, to check the knowledge of main principles of control systems in the cars. The third step was devoted to work with highly-precise measuring instruments. The fourth and the last step was focused on the assessment of the level of practical skills for periodic maintenance of vehicles in accordance with the manufacturer requirements. The Contest for customer relations specialists had two stages. The first stage was a tele-
phone interview — Customer consultation. The second stage was an individual work with the Customer - working with wishes and complaints. Service managers of dealership centers were judges of the Contest for mechanics. And in that case the location of the participants was in such a way that mechanics and judges from the same dealership could not intercross. The directors of dealerships were judges of customer relations specialists’ contest, as in the daily work they are the heads of customer relations department. In the course of Toyota National Skill Contest there were chosen top 5 mechanics and top 3 customer relations specialists from Toyota dealer network of CFI “Toyota-Ukraine”. Denis Akimenko (Toyota Centre Kharkov «Avtoart») was the winner of the Contest among mechanics and Anna Cheverda (Toyota Centre Dnepropetrovsk “Almaz Motor”) was the winner among customer relations specialists. All the winners were awarded with prizes. The winner of the Contest among the mechanics was also awarded with a unique prize - a trip to Japan with an opportunity to visit museums and factories of “Toyota Motor Corporation”. From the group of our companies the following professionals took part in the Contest: AG Alexander Marchenko, MA Roman Zalata,
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AW Alexander Tolstoshein, DM Sergei Ponomarenko, OM Andrei Taranov. According to the results of the Contest there are no winners from our dealership centers, but we are happy to mention that Andrey Taranov, mechanic from Toyota Center Omega Motors was noted by the judges from CFI “Toyota Ukraine” as the best diagnostician. In the stage of the Contest devoted to the diagnostics of car defects Andrey completed the task absolutely correct in 5 and a half minutes. In the general score Andrey took the 6th place, he just missed one point, but from the mechanics of our dealership centers Andrey showed the best result. Julia Yemelianenko from Toyota Service Mariupol according to the preliminary testing got the required number of points to take part in the next tour of the Contest and be among other 12 customer relations specialists. Toyota National Skill Contest allowed all the participants to deepen in Toyota Philosophy, in fact best of the best were competing in one place, where everyone had a terrific opportunity to get into the spirit of Toyota family, and identify for themselves the vector for further development. Such skill contests are held in Europe since 1991. During that time 1362 participants from 59 countries took part in the Contest. 400 winners got the opportunity to visit museums and factories of Toyota Corporation in Japan. CFI “Toyota-Ukraine” plans to hold similar events on a regular basis for professionals of Toyota dealerships in Ukraine in all directions. After all, these activities help to draw public attention to the importance of each of the departments of dealerships, as well as demonstrate a high level of knowledge and skills of Toyota specialists.
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Out of Office
Windsurfing as a sport and a September 23–25, were the dates when windsurfers and fans of this sport had the opportunity to gather for annual and already traditional Toyota “Avtogals” formula windsurfing. The idea of organizing windsurfing competitions in Donetsk region occurred in 2008, when two years before Toyota Center «Avtogals» founded Children’s School of windsurfing in Kurakhovo. Thus, there was a need to conduct own windsurfing competitions. And it is the third year when sportsmen, fans of windsurfing gather on the territory of Kurakhovo lake to enjoy spectacular windsurfing races, support sportsmen and just relax in the fresh air.
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This year, participants arrived from far parts of Ukraine. Their age was absolutely different. There were very young sportsmen, just making their first efforts in the sport, and already professional windsurfers for who sails and a board are essential things in life. The competitions were held in the categories: men, women, boys, girls and children’s class. The main disciplines of the competitions were «Formula» - where one needs to go up against the wind and go down the wind, using speed and tactical skills; «Marathon» a long distance, implying the achievement of the maximum speed on the course, and «Slalom» - descending to the wind, where it is very important to make a quick turn and after rounding the indicating mark go with good acceleration. The races began with the start, and then racers had to go two rounds with a maximum speed upwind and downwind, rounding the indicating marks and go to finish. The points were scored according to the racer’s position at the finish line. The final result was counted with the total number of points for a few races. As the racers say, windsurfing in Ukraine in recent years, became rather mature, the rac-
state of mind
Who was to sail once never leave it.
ers can afford to buy expensive equipment and take part in competitions all around the world. And, according to their opinion, - who was to sail once, never leave it. At the moment, children’s centers of windsurfing, which are well equipped, are only in Kurakhovo and Alchevsk. But we hope that soon, and with the support of those who are not indifferent to the sailing sport in the region, windsurfing becomes more popular and attracts attention of the masses.
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Wise men stories
To save one star Epigraph People say, one swallow does not make a spring; but if it is so, should another swallow who feels the spring wait? So then every bud and every grass should wait, and we would have no spring then. (Leo Tolstoy) A man walked along the shore and suddenly he saw a boy picking something up from the sand and throwing it to the sea. A man came up to the boy and he saw that the boy was picking up the sea stars. They were all around him. It seemed there were millions of sea stars all over the shore. — Why are you throwing them into the sea? — asked the man coming closer. — If they stay on the shore till the next morning, when the fall of tide starts, they will die, — answered the boy without stopping of doing what he did. — But it is silly! — cried the man. — Look around! There are millions of sea stars; the shore is full of them. Your efforts can change nothing. The boy picked up the next sea star, thought for a moment, threw it to the sea and said: — No, my efforts will change a lot….. for this star. Epilogue The one, who waits to do many good things at once, will never do it. Our life consists from small things. It is very rare that we have a possibility to do many important things at once. The genuine greatness is to be great in trifles. (Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English writer and philosopher)
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Corporate issue of “Gals Motors” Ave Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 55, 2nd Floor Donetsk Т: (062) 311-83-38 F: (062) 311-86-46 galsinform@avtogals.ua