“I need to give more time to my family and decided that it made sense to call it a day now,” he told ETAuto. Soni took over the reins at Lexus India in January 2022 from his previous role as Senior Vice-President, Sales & Service, at Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM).
He spent over two years at Lexus before moving to another division within TKM to focus on HR-related issues. Lexus is the luxury arm of Toyota worldwide and Soni’s mandate was to grow the clientele for this business which essentially meant tapping high to net worth individuals.
As part of the effort to grow the brand, Lexus India launched ‘Lexus Life’, an exclusive ownership programme for its niche buyers. The idea was to strengthen the brand’s footprint and offer a bouquet of benefits.
This initiative was very close to Soni’s heart since it was an experiential marketing effort to create more value and enhance the Lexus brand experience. As he put it, the results were “overwhelming”.
Memorable innings
“It has been a great innings and I have enjoyed every minute of my stay at TKM. I learnt a lot about on processes and this has been a great takeaway for me,” said Soni. All in all, he spent over two decades at TKM where he worked in a variety of roles. Prior to TKM, he was with Mahindra & Mahindra for nearly a decade.
Soni did not rule out taking up any new assignment in the future but reiterated that spending time with his family was top priority right now. “I have been working for 32 years now and it is time that I take a break,” he said.
As Senior VP of TKM, Soni had created a young task force for functions like sales, spares and logistics. “These people come out with ideas or activities that need to be implemented We listen to them carefully since they know a lot more when it comes to buyer needs in the B segment,” he had told this writer in an earlier interview.
Soni was of the view that these young employees better understood the mindset of the customer that TKM was seeking to attract. “We respect their thinking and know that these employees have a special bond with Toyota. They are enthusiastic and appreciate the fact that the company is seeking their views,” he had said.
Youth power
This change in strategy was a result of new customers coming into showrooms thanks to the Glanza and Urban Cruiser (originally Maruti Suzuki’s Baleno and Vitara Brezza which were then reengineered by Toyota as part of a product swap pact). They had to be handled differently by younger people and not by the same personnel retailing the Innova.
In the case of Urban Cruiser, the learning had taken a big step forward from the time of the Glanza which was an all-new experience for the TKM team. Soni said the company had better marketing tools to woo new buyers for the Urban Cruiser.
“We have named this customer Karan and the objective of the sales team is to ‘Find Karan’ online,” he told this writer then. The idea was to take care of this customer and interact with him/her in a manner that was not intrusive. “Karan is 30-35, someone who has made the right choices and decisions in life, made a mark and earned respect,” said Soni.
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