In a country where auto sales have been growing at 20% to 30% annually, moving the metal should be a breeze, right? Before you answer, check in with Lin Baojia. The 41-year-old is among Toyota's top salesmen in China, unloading about 60 Camry sedans a month, but it's not exactly easy. "If there's anything wrong with the car, customers can call me on my cell phone at any time," says Lin, who sports a Toyota-issue uniform of a dark-brown suit with a yellow smiley-face button on the lapel. "When someone calls in the middle of the night, it's usually a big emergency, so I'll do everything I can to get out to be with him."
It's all part of Toyota's strategy of building sales in status-conscious China by coddling customers. Unlike in the U.S., where the Camry is as middle class as you can get, Toyota positions the car at China's high end. The sedans, cosmetically a bit different from the American Camry but essentially the same vehicle, range from $27,000 to $37,000—big money in a country where you can get a decent car for a bit over $4,000. That means buyers are mostly big shots used to getting what they want, when they want it.