Improving personal selling activities a case of nordic car company in ho chi minh city vietnam

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business - Trinh Duy Bang IMPROVING PERSONAL SELLING ACTIVITIES: A CASE OF NORDIC CAR COMPANY IN HO CHI MINH CITY – VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018 UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business - Trinh Duy Bang IMPROVING PERSONAL SELLING ACTIVITIES: A CASE OF NORDIC CAR COMPANY IN HO CHI MINH CITY - VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY When global automobile market gets a remarkable resilience, especially concentrating in emerging nations, and Vietnamese economy started to integrate deeper into global trade, there were many luxury brands distributed mainly in Ho Chi Minh city and Ha Noi capital Coming along with this trend, premium cars such as Roll-Royce, Porsche, Maseratti, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Audi, BMW and so forth were retailed in Vietnam with higher numbers recent years Although luxury car segment is always a potential market for car-retailing investors, there are only few brands which have performed well for years and become top of mind when customers decide to buy a premium car Their success could be easily explained by having effective ways in operating sales force This fenced off the penetration of other famous luxury brands which tried to attack this lucrative market In August 2016, Nordic Car Joint Stock Company (in short, it would be called Nordic Car in this thesis) decided to distribute Volvo cars as a dealer with two branches in Ho Chi Minh city and Ha Noi capital However, sales results have been too low since Nordic Car in Ho Chi Minh city was established This research will explore the causes of low sales results of Volvo in Ho Chi Minh branch The findings of the study revealed that ineffective personal selling activities played the most important role in low sales results comparing to other factors from August 2016 to Dec 2017 Moreover, some reasonable solutions would be suggested in order to improve personal selling activities of Nordic Car company in Ho Chi Minh branch ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Without the encouragement, guidance and support of Prof Nguyen Thi Mai Trang and other teachers, the entire master-level project would not be possible I would like to send my appreciation to my advisors It has been a pleasure working with you on this project I would like to thank my friends and family for greatly supporting me while I was working on my research Your patience, understanding and respect were greatly appreciated TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES INTRODUCTION 1.1 1.2 PROBLEM CONTEXT 2.1 2.2 2.3 Potential Problems 20 Unsuitable products for Vietnamese 20 Inconvenient business place 21 Inefficient advertisements and PR activities 23 Unattractive direct sales promotion 24 Ineffective personal selling activities .25 Uncompetitive price .28 Problem Validation 29 Eliminating product, place, promotion and price as the main problem 30 Illuminating ineffective personal selling as the main problem 34 POTENTIAL CAUSES 35 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Global automobile market Vietnamese automobile market 11 Volvo global business results and Nordic Car company situation in Vietnam 13 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION 17 3.1 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3 3.1.4 3.1.5 3.1.6 3.2 3.2.1 3.2.2 Saigon General Service Corporation Nordic Car Joint Stock Company Lack of professional customer relationship management system 36 Disregard of technical guide on Volvo functions 38 Weak team selling accessory, insurance, finance and service 39 Cause validation .40 Cause - and - effect tree 43 ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS 44 5.1 5.2 The first alternative solution: Using a basic customer relationship management software 47 The second alternative solution: Using a modular customer relationship management software 49 ORGANIZATION OF ACTIONS 56 CONCLUSION 58 SUPPORTING INFORMATION 59 APPENDIX 80 REFERENCES 82 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Top 10 best-selling car brands in 2017 Table 2: Volvo retail sales on over the world in 2016 and 2017 Table 3: Top 07 luxury car brands have positive change from 2016 to 2017 Table 4: Sales volume of luxury dealers around Volvo Ho Chi Minh in 2016 and 2017 Table 5: Statistics of prospects, buyers and closing ratio between Volvo Ho Chi Minh and Volvo Ha Noi in 2017 Table Evolved selling process Table 7: Estimating cost of using CRM Viet software in a year Table 8: Estimating cost of using Azsoft software in a year Table 9: Action plan LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Savico investment structure Figure 2: Global cars and light-commercial vehicles sales between 2016 and 2017 Figure 3: Global cars market share by segments between 2016 and 2017 Figure 4: The number of sold cars in Vietnam from 2014 to 2017 Figure 5: Volvo global retail sales from 2013 to 2017 Figure 6: The number of sold luxury automobile in Vietnam from 2014 to 2016 Figure 7: Reason why prospects refuse to buy Volvo cars Figure 8: Selling funnel Figure 9: Cause - and - effect tre INTRODUCTION 1.1 Saigon General Service Corporation Figure Savico investment structure (Source: Savico website) Saigon General Service Corporation (Savico) was established in September 1982 with the initial idea is focus on services activities The company was formally converted into a joint stock company on January 2005 Savico was listed on the Hanoi Stock Trading Center (HNX) on 21 December 2006 and transfered listing status to Hochiminh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) on 1st June 2009 Over 30 years of experience in business operations, Savico’s strategy for 2015-2020 and the vision to 2030 is to continue to develop under the form of investment corporation focusing on three areas: Trading and Services, Property Services and Financial Services Savico has been setting up and developing the car dealership and motorbike dealership network of prestigious manufacturers such as Toyota, Ford, GM Daewoo through the system of 13 subsidiaries and associates across Vietnam Savico now is the leading car distributor of Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA), the market share of Savico system achieved 8.5% of VAMA in 2016 1.2 Nordic Car Joint Stock Company Nordic Car Joint Stock Company is a member of Savico’s automobile dealer network Nordic Car is the unique representative for import and retail of Volvo Cars Corporation in Vietnam Its operations are import, retail, marketing, supplying aftersales services for luxury cars branded Volvo in Vietnam Besides, it has authority to appoint agency and service center on nationwide In August 2016, Nordic Car opened two branches, Volvo Phu My Hung in District 7, Ho Chi Minh city and Volvo Long Vien in Long Bien District, Hanoi capital, and all facilities were invested according to the newest standard of Volvo Cars Corporation Service system was fully equipped with machines, modern technology equipments, and technical teams were trained methodically and intensively by Volvo Cars Corporation With more than 60 billion Vietnam Dong of investment, Nordic Car Joint Stock Company is expected to become one of the strongest premium car retailers in Vietnam which brings the unique and attractively Scandinavian values to Vietnamese customers Both two branches have a similar structure as follow: a managing director, a sales and marketing department with about 35 salesman divided into teams, a human resources department, a finance department and a workshop PROBLEM CONTEXT 2.1 Global automobile market Figure Global cars and light-commercial vehicles sales between 2016 and 2017 (Source: JATO global car and LCV sales press release in 2017) According to JATO – a prestigious company of car comparison and automotive market research, global car sales had a resilience with 86.05 million units selling out in 2017 and up 2.4 % comparing to 2016 Global car and light commercial vehicle (LCV) sales from 2016 to 2017 witnessed a decrease of traditional market like Korea and South America, but a remarkable increase in Asia Pacific and South America In the early months of 2017, Chinese government implemented a policy of limit car purchase, but from the second quarter, giant demand for the whole population revived then it boosted the growth rate at 2.3% to the end of the year Despite crisis of diesel fuel, South America showed the strongest development of automobile demand Brazil, Argentina and Chile contributed mostly in this region’s growth South East Asia region witnessed a powerful growth of Thailand due to tax policies in Asean Free Trade Area agreement Table Top 10 best-selling car brands in 2017 Cars and Pick-up TOYOTA VOLKSWAGEN FORD HONDA NISSAN HYUNDAI 2017 7,843,423 6,639,250 5,953,122 4,967,689 4,834,694 3,951,176 Growth Rate +5% +3% -2% +7% +5% -9% Ranking CHEVROLET SUZUKI MERCEDES 3,857,388 2,891,415 2,534,181 0% KIA +11% +13% -10% 10 2,511,293 (Source: JATO global car and LCV sales press release in 2017) JATO pointed out that Toyota continued to maintain its position as the most popular global brand with many top-selling models The presence of Japanese brands was shrinking in the United States and China, but that was offset by increased purchasing power in potential markets such as Thailand and Argentina Toyota sales are up 5% in 2017 Volkswagen, a direct competitor to Toyota, had a successful year of business beyond expectations Despite fraudulent gas fraud scandal with billions of US dollars in fines, especially in the United States, German car sales unexpectedly surpassed the Japanese automaker to take the number one position But if not counting the sub brands, a single Volkswagen cannot beat Toyota Nevertheless, the popular German car – Mercedes Benz brand still finds its light in trouble thanks to good buying power in the world's most populous market - China Volkswagen also represented the strength as the highest market share in Europe Total sales in 2017, Volkswagen grew 3% Mercedes, Suzuki and Honda were top three best performers of growth rate from 2016 to 2017 Figure Global cars market share by segments between 2016 and 2017 (Source: JATO global car and LCV sales press release in 2017) Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) was the largest drivers of growth which reached 27.85 million sold units, and 3.14 million units more than 2016 Nissan X-Trail/Rogue was the best-selling SUV with 814,000 units in 2017 and raised 6.5% volume on over the world SUV divided into some subtypes like C-SUV (built from C car’s chassis), BSUV (built from B car’s chassis and smaller than C), and so forth Obviously, SUV have continued to take 34% market share away from traditional segments, and this trend was not restricted to particular markets – it’s a trend that we’ve seen on a global (retail price minus whole sales price), and the remained profit was at about 50% after paying all incentives for sales team and managers Thus, when we divide 1.2 billion 76 VND fixed cost of this company to 60 million VND remaining profit, we have 20 cars per month at the breakeven point The sales results of Ho Chi Minh branch in 2017 might be lower than breakeven point about 15 cars per month that could cause an accumulated loss about 10 billion VND in this year Ha Noi branch is also at risk of loss nearly 7.2 billion VND to the end of 2017 Trinh Duy Bang: In your own opinion, which reasons were standing behind the unexpected sales results? Nguyen Anh Linh: To tell the truth, there are many reasons leading to this failure, you know, we have just opened since August 2016 It takes time to reach high peaks like Mercedes or BMW or Lexus with decades of business in Vietnam I myself saw many gaps between gears of operation Online advertisements were spent much money, but digital performance was not measured carefully Sales consultants only look at tangible gifts, but lack of analyses promotion policies with intangible value such as five-years warranty plus one-year maintenance and free rescue every time in five-years warranty for each sold car Some kinds of imported Volvo cars we were not able to lower the retail price For example, Volvo S90 with 5% incentive, we are not allowed to set the price out of the range between 2.7 billion VND and 2.665 billion VND Volvo corporation also not allow us to lower the value of their symbolic car S90 which is used for Swedish Royal family without their permission Moreover, personal selling activities in our company have many shortcomings Sales consultants seemed ignore using Excel files as the regulation, and separated reports did not give managers enough information to make decision on how to help our employees Sales consultants concentrated too much on price when they present products to customers, and they haven’t understood the importance of practical-using experience of new Volvo features Weak collaboration from sales and supportive teams could not make our showrooms become one-stop shopping stores which can satisfy immediately customer’s needs Trinh Duy Bang: In your own opinion, what should be prioritized to conduct immediately? Nguyen Anh Linh: It is definitely a modern integrated system for the whole company to use It is able to help sales consultants keep in touch all the time with prospects, managers receive reports precisely, and provide directors current status of business 77 operation Building professional system is the backbone of Volvo Ho Chi Minh and even Ha Noi right now if we want to develop better competitive value In-depth interview 7: Interviewee: Mr Nguyen Thanh Tam Title: Prospect who refused to buy a Volvo car Age: 43 Occupation: Construction engineer Trinh Duy Bang: Nice to meet you! Thank you for being here and participate the interview Please introduce yourself, sir! Nguyen Thanh Tam: Hello! I’m Nguyen Thanh Tam I’m 43 years old and working for a construction company in district as an engineer Trinh Duy Bang: Mr Tam, tell me your judgement Is Volvo business in luxury segment of Vietnamese automobile market potential or not? Nguyen Thanh Tam: I have to say that it is really difficult for them to become one of market leaders in luxury segment Their opponents like Mercedes or BMW or Lexus are elite players Trinh Duy Bang: Could you share the reason why you refuse to buy or decide to buy a Volvo car in Nordic Car showroom? Nguyen Thanh Tam: After considering Volvo and many different luxury cars, I decided to buy another brand instead of Volvo because I think that I really need a famous luxury sedan in most of people eyes to show my financial ability in business, not only for driving I chose Mercedes E250 at 2.45 billion Vietnam Dong lower than Volvo S90 about 200 million Vietnam Dong, but I think that it’s more luxury because Mercedes has been famous for luxury cars in Vietnam for many years when I was a teenager Regarding to location, I think that a luxury car showroom need to locate in district where luxury users usually live and work, so they can see Volvo cars every working day This Volvo showroom located in district is too far from central area, and Nguyen Van Linh is the connecting road between western area and Ho Chi Minh city with many truck carrying goods, so many luxury guests won’t visit the showroom 78 because they are afraid of truck accidents I knew Volvo because I usually see Volvo advertisements on display screen at the ground floor of my working building I went 79 to Volvo showroom, but since I walked out, no one call me again to remind me to consider about Volvo While Volvo salesman ignored me, Mercedes sales man regularly call me and send me invitation with attractive sales promotion in the letter content which professional offered me by his director’s signature And you know what? the Mercedes guy always call me on Friday evening when I have the most free time in a busy week Trinh Duy Bang: Are there any other reason made you choose Mercedes instead of Volvo? Nguyen Thanh Tam: When I compare to buy a luxury car among many brands, I think Mercedes and Lexus would have the lowest cost of repairing services Mercedes has a big plant in Vietnam, and Lexus are imported from Indonesia Many people told me that all Volvo cars and spare parts were imported from Sweden where there was not reduced imported taxes like South East Asian countries Trinh Duy Bang: Could you share me the feeling of your visit Volvo Ho Chi Minh dealer, and does it affect your refusal decision? Nguyen Thanh Tam: I feel quite disappointed about the way that salespeople in Volvo Ho Chi Minh dealer treated me after my first visit last two weeks I carefully sent text message to the salesman that I would come to his showroom to see S90 Volvo car at 10 A.M Saturday He confirmed our meeting, but when I came, he wasn’t there, and the receptionist brought me to another one After a long waiting-time with many inaccurate answers about car functions, suitable accessories, quality insurance and after-sales service, he informed me that the newest version of S90 is not already to deliver to me until 26th day of next month with only car in white colour Finally, I accepted to deposit 10 million Dong for a reservation of the S90 car, then came home with discomfort The week after, I called the salesman whom I met in Volvo showroom to ask when they have the car He appologized and told me that he just helped his colleague to welcome me but my information was belonged to the first salesman, so it was not save in his own system, and maybe his colleague forgot to remind me that the delivery could be in the next two month I was so angry at that time, then I decide to bought a Mercerdes E250 and now I come here to take my deposit money back In-depth interview 8: Interviewee: Ms Ngo Kieu Trinh Title: Prospect who refused to buy a Volvo car Age: 37 Occupation: Owner of import and export company in Long An province Trinh Duy Bang: Nice to meet you, madam! Thank you for coming here and participate the interview Please introduce something about yourself Ngo Kieu Trinh: Hi! I’m Ngo Kieu Trinh I lived in Long An province, I and my husband have opened a import and export company since 2009 Trinh Duy Bang: Ms Trinh! Can you please share with me about your thought of Nordic Car business in the next time Is Volvo business in luxury segment of Vietnamese automobile market potential or not? Ngo Kieu Trinh: I think that Nordic Car company is bringing a new breeze for luxury car segment in Vietnam Business people like us are familiar with Mercedes We really want something premium and traditional and different from the other luxury things Although I am not completely satisfied with what Volvo Ho Chi Minh offer, I really like Volvo cars from interior design to outside appearance Trinh Duy Bang: Why you decide to buy a Volvo car in Volvo Ho Chi Minh showroom? Ngo Kieu Trinh: My home town is in Long An province On my way to work, I saw Volvo cars which were carried from Hiep Phuoc – Nha Be seaport to district I and my husband had to take many off-working days and went to district to visit Volvo showroom many times to buy a XC90 Volvo car It took a lot of time and effort for us to buy this car because Nordic Car company does not have a second-level agency in Long An If we did not love this car too much, we would buy another brand I decided to buy a Volvo car because I really love the car To tell the truth, before paying money for Volvo, I and my husband investigated promotion and price of many car brands Most of luxury car brands have more gifts for the buyer than Volvo Their better offers make me visit Volvo showroom four times to deal with the sales consultants We nearly bought another car, but finally the sales consultant accepted to give us two more years warranty and one-year free maintenance Trinh Duy Bang: Could you share about your experience in the first time visit Volvo Ho Chi Minh showroom? Does it help you better to make buying decision? Ngo Kieu Trinh: To tell the truth, my husband was not very happy because he used to explain to a salesman about how to use Volvo new Vietnamese voice navigation system, while the salesman tried to argue with him many times I had to stop the argument, and I require another real test on a new car in the display area with a completely new accessory of navigation system However, we had to wait for 40 minuites before the female representative of accessory department ending her busy work and provide us the device to the test And you know, she even wasn’t there with us and the salesman need to look for her everywhere in the showroom to guide us how to use the new version of the navigation device We felt uncomfortable at that time and it was poor for the new salesman without much experience on using Volvo cars to handle every thing QUALITATIVE RESEARCH FINDINGS Interviewer: Trinh Duy Bang Interviewees: people from different groups as below Group 1: Sales consultants working for Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch (1A) - Mr Nguyen Quang Huy (1B) – Ms Le Thi Phuong Group 2: Sales and Marketing managers of Nordic Car company (2A) - Mr Nguyen Quang Phong (2B) – Ms Luu Bao Huong Group 3: Managing Directors of Volvo Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi dealers (3A) - Mr Bui Cao Sinh (3B) – Mr Nguyen Anh Linh Group 4: Volvo Ho Chi Minh prospects who refuse to buy and decide to buy Volvo cars (4A) - Mr Nguyen Thanh Tam (4B) – Ms Ngo Kieu Trinh Data collected after the interview: # Question Reasons why Volvo Ho Chi Minh cannot sell many Volvo cars The reasons refuse to buy or bargain to buy Volvo cars Findings 1A Product is not differentiated, weak technical consulting, lack of teamwork 1B Expensive rental price, struggling sales tool for saving data, ineffective PR activities, expensive spare parts, lack of teamwork 2A Small financial support for advertisements, Weak team collaboraion 2B 3A 3B Unsuitable products, small advertising budget, lack of maintaining relationship with customers, weak teamwork Few distribution channels, few tangible gifts, ineffective personal selling activities Ineffective online advertisement s, few tangible gifts, expensive price, ineffective personal selling activities 4A 4B Nondifferenti ated products, Expensiv e price of imported spare parts, far location, lack of regular care from Nordic Car sales people Excellent products but no showroom in provinces, few gifts, sales people lack of practical knowledge of using a Volvo car The main problem Ineffectiveness of selling activities The key cause that leads to prolem Disregard of technical consulting practical use Volvo cars from both fresh and old salespeople The solutions that the company has currently taken Hire Swedish trainers to train sales consultants A poor selling tool for sales consultants Week team selling activities Ineffective personal selling activities with low ratio of closing deal Ineffective personal selling activities Not enough internal resource to build a professiona l sellig tool Overload sudden tasks from sales department Lack of maintaining customer relationship s due to messy sales system Lack of automatic system help connect and process all sales activities Upgrade Excel files to Google online spreadsheet Increase commission for supporting employees Upgrade Excel files into Google Spreadshee -t, and share access for sales team Upgrade Excel files to Google online spreadsheet, hire Swedish trainers, increase commission Lack of communicati on channel for work requirement and information Increase commission for teamselling deals Other solutions are suggested A tool with discipline to change sales people behaviour Increase reward for sales consultants What is the best solution? A tool with discipline and reward to change sales people behaviour Sales consultants don’t use Excel files as regulation, concentrate much on theoretical consulting, weak teamwork A new mordern software to keep in touch with customers Common communica tion channel help connect all employees A comprehensive system to follow customers Increase commission for supporting employees An online automatic sales system for all employees with different positions A modern technical tool to process data into useful information and save to data bank Building professional sales system is the backbone of Volvo Ho Chi Minh and even Ha Noi Ineffectiv eness of selling activities Ineffectiven ess of selling activities Lack of maintaini -ng customer relationship Disregard of technical consulting practical use Volvo cars Overload work of supporting employees APPENDIX Volvo Cars Corporation Volvo Cars is a Swedish luxury vehicle manufacturer established in 1927 and headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden The name Volvo is Latin for “I Roll” and it symbolizes the strength of iron used in the car as Sweden is known for its quality iron Volvo has been well-known for safety technology, because opening the patent of threepoint seat belt since 1959 for all other car manufacturers has helped saving over one million worldwide lives Volvo has been considered as one of pioneers in advance of safety In 1991, Volvo introduced the Side Impact Protection System, and the inflatable curtain on cars was also invented by Volvo Volvo made a heavy commitment in their sustainability report in 2015 that no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car by 2020.1 Volvo Cars was founded as a subsidiary of the ball bearing manufacturer SKF When Volvo Cars was introduced on the Stockholm stock exchange in 1935, SKF sold most of the shares in the company Volvo Cars was owned by AB Volvo company until 1999, when it was sold to the Ford Motor Company as part of its Premier Automotive Group In 2010, the Geely Holding Group then acquired Volvo Cars from Ford Volvo Cars manufactures sport utility vehicles, station wagons, sedans, compact executive sedans, coupes and many other kinds of cars With approximately 2,300 local dealers from around 100 national sales companies worldwide, Volvo Cars' largest markets are China, the United States, Sweden, and the other countries in the European Union In the end of 2015, Western Europe accounted for 40% total retail sales of Volvo Cars, 28% for Sweden and US, China 16% and other markets 16% There were six important Volvo plants on over the world which located in Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, USA, China and Malaysia Total numbers of employees are 28,485 people including 17,806 from Sweden, 4,284 from Belgium, 3,896 from China and 2,499 from other places Volvo Cars Corporation mission is to make the lives of people easier, safer and better Today, Volvo is still as focused as ever on three core values safety, quality and environmental care.2 To strengthen 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OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business - Trinh Duy Bang IMPROVING PERSONAL SELLING ACTIVITIES: A CASE OF NORDIC CAR COMPANY IN HO CHI MINH CITY - VIETNAM. .. brands Mr Nguyen Quang Phong and Ms Luu Bao Huong – Sales and Marketing managers of Nordic Car company in Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh both said that maintaining Volvo image on multi-media channels in. .. two Sales and Marketing managers in Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi branches - The third group are two Showroom Managing Directors in Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi branches and they are also members of Board of