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Earlier this month, members of the PTW Division visited several dealerships in the Netherlands and Belgium to exchange ideas, strengthen relationships, and gain a fresh perspective on how our products, services, and initiatives are experienced in the day-to-day dealership environment.

While dealer visits are a regular part of life for the PTW Sales Team, this was the first time the initiative was carried out at divisional level. Colleagues from the PSI team, the Business Management team, and PTW Division management joined the visits, creating a unique opportunity to view dealership operations from different business perspectives.

Our role usually requires us to spend most of our time behind the desk, communicating with dealers virtually. Thanks to this visit, we were able to learn on-ground practicalities of the dealerships we support.

Dealers are at the heart of the Yamaha customer experience. They are the ones welcoming customers into their showrooms, sharing their passion for our products, and bringing the Yamaha brand to life every day. While Yamaha Europe stays closely connected to the market through our distributors, and performance insights through reports, there is always value in spending time on the ground and seeing things first-hand.

Beyond the Numbers

The dealerships visited were selected based on distributor suggestions; prioritising diverse challenges, passion and level of organisation. We were also able to demonstrate our commitment to enriching the lives of others as established in our Employer Value Proposition (EVP).

Lessons and reflections
For our team, three major reasons for visiting our dealers stand out:

1. Boosts internal understanding of on-ground business The observations from this visit will help to improve the daily operations of the division. Seeing our workflow from the dealer perspectives gives us a deeper understanding of their challenges and opportunities
2. A valuable experience that is relatively simple to arrange- Dealer visits require relatively little effort when coordinated in advance with the dealer and distributor. In return, they offer a valuable opportunity to strengthen relationships and gain insights that are difficult to capture through reports, meetings, or performance data alone.
3. The dealers are happy to see you- The dealers appreciated the direct attention from the European headquarters. They felt that their business and day-to-day challenges were being acknowledged, and they valued the opportunity to share their experiences firsthand

“My advice to colleagues outside the PTW division is to take similar opportunities whenever possible. One of the best ways to understand the market is to experience it directly through the dealer network. Dealers are where our products meet customers, allowing us to see the market reality firsthand, understand concerns and challenges, and feel the passion and energy behind the business.” Ridho Aditya, Coordinator of the initiative.

See all our lessons and reflections

Ridho Aditya and Shun Miyazawa, Yamaha Motor Europe (YME)