“Is This The Sales Management Innovation in Mature Market?” -The Case of the Dealers of Toyota in Japan-

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This paper investigates the sales innovation of the automotive dealer, particularly Toyota in Japan. In the face of recent demographic conditions such as population decline and rapid aging, passenger car sales in Japan have been stagnant at 3.5 million per year. Despite these challenging conditions, one dealer in particular, Nets Toyota Nangoku, has doubled its sales/visitors and ranked number one in customer satisfaction among 300 Japanese Toyota dealers for the past 10 years. In order to learn more about its management innovation and business practices, Nets and 10 other Toyota dealers in Shikoku-prefecture were surveyed and interviewed. Results suggest that Nets’ performance may be explained by motivation theory, internal service quality, and organizational culture. Five hypotheses were tested using a questionnaire that provided 1343 responses. The following three hypotheses were statistically verified: (1) employee satisfaction at Nets Toyota Nangoku is higher than at the other Toyota dealers; (2) the motivational force of Nets Toyota Nangoku is also higher; (3) the dimensions of Nets’ organizational culture differ from the other Toyota dealers. Based on these results, it can be said that the management’s focus on employee satisfaction can establish sales innovation even in the mature market.