GM leaders come to town to shore up dealerships, sales force

As General Motors Corp. continues to reorganize, the ailing carmaker aims to rejuvenate its network of dealerships, create a new car-loving culture and strongly target the youth, diversity and overseas markets.

Its streamlining also will continue and most likely will affect offices nationwide, including one in Naperville, as brands are eliminated and, as a result, sales forces are reduced. The company also will eliminate the GM logo in favor of promoting individual brands.

"This is all about building the brands," said Steve Hill, general manager of retail sales support. "Already a lot of layers have been reduced."

The Detroit team was in Rosemont on Tuesday to meet with area dealers during one of nine stops nationwide over the next four weeks. They said they needed to reconnect with their front-line sales forces, especially since it has been cut by one third. The executives also will roll out a new training program for the dealers, called Essential Brand Elements, to help put them all on a level playing field.

"We need to do a better job than we did in the past," said Hill.

GM said Tuesday its August sales showed 246,479 vehicles sold, its highest so far this year. But that August total, when compared with the same month a year ago, was down 20 percent. Retail sales were down 17 percent and fleet sales dropped 29 percent. Month-over-month sales showed a 30 percent increase thanks to Cash for Clunkers government program.

Besides its work in the United States, GM also intends to branch out farther worldwide, including China and India, said W.W. Brent Dewar, vice president of Chevrolet global.

"We participated in stimulus packages in 11 countries, and all of them worked," said Dewar.

Working on every level, GM intends to build a new culture that includes new media. Different age groups and social groups can more easily be reached this way. This is especially true as GM extended its promotion Tuesday to sell vehicles in California via eBay.

And just as GM gears for new products in a new age, it's saying goodbye to many longtime brands, such as Pontiac, which had been popular over the years. Since GM announced in April that it would eliminate the Pontiac line, it has sold more cars than in recent years. In June, 20,000 were sold, another 18,000 in July, and 18,000 in August. Before the announcement, about 50,000 Pontiacs were sold annually, said Susan E. Docherty, North American vice president of Buick GMC.

There are about 16,000 left, so the company expects to quickly close out the line, possibly in the next 60 to 90 days, she said.

The Buick GMC line also will be introducing a baby Enclave, mid-size and compact sedans in the next two years. A new car rollout is expected almost every eight months, Docherty said.

"There are about 2,000 dealerships now and they are the best of the best," she said.

The more profitable dealers also will be retrained on new products and new media.

"We all need to operate in a digital world today," Docherty said.