Mercedes sales improved in first half

Moreover, last month, Daimler established a special sales unit in Stuttgart dedicated to growing vehicle sales in China led by Bernhard Auer, a sales specialist who most recently managed sales on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong for Mercedes' rival Audi AG.

"We now have one more gateway into the organization, carrying our China issues to the table directly," said Speeks.

"Then we need to always bring new products to our discerning Chinese customers." Speeks told China Daily that Mercedes will launch the new E-Class sedan at the end of August in Chengdu along with the C-Class Grand Edition. "We also have the new S-Class coming to China in September."

"So we will see growth in the second half of the year. But my job is to make sure this growth is sustainable. This can only be the case if we make sure we can be more oriented toward the demands of our existing customers," Speeks said.

"We can't hope to grow in China if we can't receive customer recognition."

Thus, "we want to have long-term partnership with dealers," Speeks said.

"In the interest of our customers, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to improve our dealerships.

"The idea that I am conducting a war with our dealer network is wrong.

"We cannot be successful without our dealer network. We want them to be profitable because we want them to invest in exceeding our customers' demands."

Network development

"Our previous network development was in accordance with our previous needs, but it should grow to meet our current needs. We have a lot of dealerships in big cities, but we still need to develop in smaller cities," said Henry Li, executive vice-president of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service who is responsible for network development.

Mercedes-Benz is opening 75 new dealerships this year in 36 new cities, 45 percent of which will be third-or fourth-tier cities. By the end of 2013, there will be 337 dealer outlets covering 151 cities. Meanwhile, "we need to improve the efficiency of our dealers.

"We are not forcing them to do anything. Rather, we are helping them create a good sales environment and helping them improve customer satisfaction so they can sell more cars," Li said.

Mercedes is investing 150 million yuan ($24.6 million) in dealership staff training.

"Our sixth training center in China opened in Chengdu in April. It is the largest outside Germany. A seventh will open in Shanghai at the end of 2013," Li said, adding that "our next goal is to improve efficiency to ensure that investors will continue to invest further."

To further bring value-added services to customers, Mercedes continues with its 125th Anniversary Service Program, which was started in November 2011 by offering three-year warranties to those who purchased cars. The carmaker launched the Service Contract to customers in China starting on June 1.