Volkswagen Honors Its Best Salespersons

WOLFSBURG, GERMANY – July 2, 2009: Volkswagen presented the Volkswagen Diploma to its best international salespersons yesterday. 110 graduates of the Volkswagen International Training Center received their certificates and trophies at a ceremony held in Wolfsburg. Awards were made to Volkswagen brand salespersons from Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and the Canary Islands.

"The diploma is the highest award for our salespersons. As brand ambassadors, they are the people whose professionalism and passion inspire our customers for our products," Thorsten Jaede, Head of Volkswagen Sales Strategy and Development Europe, commented. "The International Training Center offers an outstanding qualification program that guarantees uniformly high levels of customer support at all Volkswagen sales partners throughout the world," Tobias Reuß, who is responsible for International Training at Volkswagen, added. The program developed by Volkswagen is already being used successfully in over 60 countries. Throughout the world, more than 30,000 salespersons are active for the Volkswagen brand.

The route to a Volkswagen Diploma includes several stages of a training system. Initially, candidates must successfully complete an assessment center and demonstrate their sales talent. This is followed by 15 days of basic training mainly designed to develop sales competence and to provide in-depth knowledge of the model range. Further training then covers areas such as customer loyalty or acquisition. In addition, only sales personnel who have demonstrated above-average sales performance within two years can be considered for a Diploma.

The 110 salespersons who were awarded the Diploma this year were invited to Wolfsburg for several days. Following the award ceremony, the salespersons spend an exciting evening enjoying the phaeno science experience. The award-winners also took part in a drivers’ training organized by Volkswagen driving experience. A tour of the Autostadt and a factory visit rounded off the program.