Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Jerome reassigned to customer-satisfaction role

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Tesla Reassigns Sales Chief Amid Search for Regional Executives

Tesla Motors Inc. is looking to hire executives to run sales operations in Asia, North America and Europe as it seeks to rapidly increase deliveries. Jerome Guillen, vice president of global sales and service, will return to a customer-satisfaction role.

The 50% S demand increase in 2015 isn't that rosy, otherwise Jerome won't be moved from sales chief position. TM is taking steps to resolve issues.
 
Note that Elon is implicitly going to be the Chief Sales Officer now, with regional executives reporting directly to him rather than to a global sales executive. Whether this will work depends a lot on how much autonomy Elon is going to give each of the regional execs. But regardless, it's clear that Elon was not satisfied with the very uneven performance of his country-specific sales teams. This problem dates back to George B, who was great at the vision thing but let some important details slide, as I understand it. Elon has been embarrassed by first Germany and then China: he publicly proclaims each as a huge Tesla market, and then the sales are lukewarm at best in each. He's either delusional or getting bad guidance from his local sales teams about what they can realistically deliver. But I suppose that sales executives aren't wired to give their boss conservative sales forecasts.
 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015...D220150313?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

(Reuters) - Electric carmaker Tesla Motors has reassigned its global sales chief and is looking to hire executives to run sales operations in Asia, North America and Europe, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
Jerome Guillen, vice president of global sales and service, will return to a customer-satisfaction role, according to Bloomberg.
Tesla officials were not immediately available to comment, but the company told Bloomberg that Guillen was not demoted and remains part of the senior executive team reporting to Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk. The company also told Bloomberg it was interviewing candidates for the three regional sales positions.
“Once they are on board, Jerome’s focus will be on post-sales activity from delivery to long-term customer care, where he has done an incredible job,” Tesla said in a statement to Bloomberg. “He has taken Tesla to the highest service satisfaction of any company in the auto industry by far.”
 
Could it be that separation sales leadership from customer satisfaction not only simplies operations, but provides a quality check on sales? If customers are getting a bad experience from sales, perhaps Jerome's organization can pick up on that and escalate issues. And vice versa. Checks and balances are important to make sure a Veronica Wu kind of situation does not go unnoticed for a length of time.
 
Could it be that separation sales leadership from customer satisfaction not only simplies operations, but provides a quality check on sales? If customers are getting a bad experience from sales, perhaps Jerome's organization can pick up on that and escalate issues. And vice versa. Checks and balances are important to make sure a Veronica Wu kind of situation does not go unnoticed for a length of time.

Great point jhm!
Closed feedback loop.
I would call that a "lesson learned"!
Now this is a real structural improvement (Guillen still reporting directly to Musk), that bodes well for the future.
Amazing.

Same here: Credit to the author (Dana Hull) for this very accurately written report.
 
Last edited:
Note that Elon is implicitly going to be the Chief Sales Officer now, with regional executives reporting directly to him rather than to a global sales executive. Whether this will work depends a lot on how much autonomy Elon is going to give each of the regional execs. But regardless, it's clear that Elon was not satisfied with the very uneven performance of his country-specific sales teams. This problem dates back to George B, who was great at the vision thing but let some important details slide, as I understand it. Elon has been embarrassed by first Germany and then China: he publicly proclaims each as a huge Tesla market, and then the sales are lukewarm at best in each. He's either delusional or getting bad guidance from his local sales teams about what they can realistically deliver. But I suppose that sales executives aren't wired to give their boss conservative sales forecasts.

I recall Elon saying that Germany and China were very important markets for Tesla, but I don't recall him stating that they would be big markets for Tesla.
I apparently took away a different message from those statements. The message I got was that they were important, yet they may need special attention in order to gain acceptance. It seems like Tesla has gone the extra mile for those markets.

In any case, I think it is a good move. I always thought that it would be hard for Jerome to be in a dozen places at once. At least with 3 regional experts they don't have to fly half way around the world to observe things first hand.

- - - Updated - - -

Tesla Reassigns Sales Chief Amid Search for Regional Executives



The 50% S demand increase in 2015 isn't that rosy, otherwise Jerome won't be moved from sales chief position. TM is taking steps to resolve issues.

I'm not following you. I didn't get that out of anything I read.
 
I recall Elon saying that Germany and China were very important markets for Tesla, but I don't recall him stating that they would be big markets for Tesla.
...

Musk Says China Potential Top Market for Tesla - Bloomberg Business
January 2014:
...Musk Says China Potential Top Market for Tesla...
Tesla Motors Inc.’s Elon Musk said sales of electric Model S cars in China should match U.S. levels as early as next year...

Tesla Eyes China As Biggest Market, Not Just A Toy For Rich Kids - Forbes
Tesla Eyes China As Biggest Market...
...Shanghai-based Tesla executive Dan Hsu. The first cars were delivered in April, and Hsu says he hopes that Tesla sales will “be bigger” than in the U.S...

Musk: China Will Pass U.S. as Biggest Tesla Market - Bloomberg Business
...Musk: China Will Pass U.S. as Biggest Tesla Market...


( Note, although predictions are/were for a big China market, it was said that it could take a while to get there... )



http://www.gtai.de/GTAI/Navigation/EN/Invest/Service/Publications/markets-germany,did=990432.html
...From the end of 2014 on, Tesla expects to sell some ten thousand cars a year (in Germany), Musk told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. In addition, the company is looking to open 25 offices and expand the number of service centers throughout Germany by the end of the year. In the long term, Musk sees Germany as the company’s third-largest market behind the United States and China as well as the one with the highest per-capita sales...
 
Last edited:
So autopilot-gate, seat-gate, parkingsensor-gate, D-gate, etc... will these issues become a thing of the past now? And do the recent changes imply that these problems were Jerome's responsibility? I'm trying to wrap my head around what's going on and if this means we are going to see a more consistent experience.
 
Adding "-gate" to the end of a word does not turn it into a scandal. Those issues were minor, they have passed, and Tesla is still moving forward and doing well.
So autopilot-gate, seat-gate, parkingsensor-gate, D-gate, etc... will these issues become a thing of the past now? And do the recent changes imply that these problems were Jerome's responsibility? I'm trying to wrap my head around what's going on and if this means we are going to see a more consistent experience.
 
So autopilot-gate, seat-gate, parkingsensor-gate, D-gate, etc... will these issues become a thing of the past now? And do the recent changes imply that these problems were Jerome's responsibility? I'm trying to wrap my head around what's going on and if this means we are going to see a more consistent experience.

Orthogonal issues. Elon wants to put more focus on sales, especially after missteps in China and Germany. So he puts in regional sales VPs and will have them directly under his thumb.

As for Jerome, there seems to be a universal opinion that he is doing a great job, especially for the customers. Removing sales responsibility is not a punishment. As a wise person I worked for told me, when you are a VP in a high growth company you can't expect that everything will always continue to grow under you. The business needs change so the organization needs to change. You just do a great job at whatever your assignment is and you will continue to be valued by the organization and get many future opportunities.