Ineffective sales management of jupiter logistics vietnam joint stock company

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business --- Le Thi Hong Huy INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT OF JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY MASTER OF

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Le Thi Hong Huy

INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT

OF JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM

JOINT STOCK COMPANY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City - 2018

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Le Thi Hong Huy

INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT

OF JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM

JOINT STOCK COMPANY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: Dr Pham Phu Quoc

Ho Chi Minh City - 2018

SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE THESIS PROPOSAL SUBMITTED

FOR DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

The thesis proposal title: INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT OF JUPITER

LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY

Student Name: Le Thi Hong Huy

Supervisor: Dr Pham Phu Quoc

 Meet requirement for submitting

 Not meet requirement for submitting

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5

1 Background information 6

2 Symptoms of the problem 8

3 Situation Analysis 11

3.1 Problem identification 11

3.2 Problem Justification 18

3.3 Causes Validation 22

4 Proposed solution and plan 30

4.1 The 1st Aspect – Sales team 31

4.2 The 2nd Aspect – Sales support 34

4.3 The 3rd Aspect – Sales manager 36

4.4 The 4th Aspect – Sales Management 38

5 Conclusions 45

REFERENCES 46

APPENDIX 47

a very good growth especially in 2016

Further investigations reveal that the decrease in sales of forwarding services was the main reason for the problem in the net sales of Head Office In addition, with the loss of a longtime client and not having any new clients in the last three years, it has been

somewhat telling the story behind the company

Based on Problem Solving in Organization, the content of this thesis goes into the

underlying cause This thesis is based on the information collected through:

- intake process: in-depth interview with CFO - Mrs Le Thi Ha

- Financial statement of the stage 2014-2016

- in-depth interview with Sales and Marketing manager - Mr Yoichi Murata

- in-depth interview with Chairman - Mr Yutaka Kawasaki

- online research with company’s customers

After the investigation and analysis, Ineffective sales management was identified as a

central problem and the five causes were: Problem in company structure, Lack of sales force, Poor sales leadership, Conflict of interest and Limited sales strategy

After carefully reviewing and considering the elements as well as referencing the

research and practical examples, the solution for the company is based on four aspects: sales team, sales support, sales manager and sales management With each aspect,

action plans are launched with the expected time and cost and should be implemented individually to minimize costs as well as to facilitate timely intervention when results are

JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY

1 Background information

Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company was incorporated as a joint stock

company under the enterprise registration certificate No.0306355377 initial registration dated 17 November 2008

Actually, Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company was separated from Jupiter Pacific Forwarding Joint Stock Company which is a subsidiary of Japan Airline Figure 1.1 demonstrates differences of shareholders between Jupiter Logistics and Jupiter

Pacific Forwarding Joint Stock Company

Figure 1.1 Shareholders structure comparison

Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock

80%

20%

Shareholders

Japanese shareholdersVietnamese shareholders

The company have one head office and two branches as follows:

- Head office is located at No.112 Hong Ha Street, Ward 2, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

- The Hanoi branch is allocated at Group 8, Hau Duong Hamlet, Kim Chung

Commune, Dong Anh District, Hanoi City, Viet Nam

- The Hai Duong branch is located at Lot B7, Phuc Dien Industrial Park, Cam Giang District, Hai Duong Province, Vietnam This branch was set up to conduct

operating of business cooperation contract between 3 parties

The principal activities of the company are to provide three kinds of services which are: warehousing, trucking and cargo forwarding services About 90% customers are

Japanese Three direct competitors are SAGAWA, ALL NIPON and YUSEN

The members of the Board of Management and company structure are showed in the

table 1.1 and figure 1.2 below:

Table 1.1 The Board of Management

Position Name

Members

Mr Hoang Ngoc Oanh

Mr Nguyen Quoc Khanh

2 Symptoms of the problem

In general, among Head Office and two other branches, Hanoi branch often contributes

about 50% of total net sales of the whole company, Head Office takes the next rank with

18% and Hai Duong branch contributes about 11% However, this percentage in

contribution of each branch has changed considerably recently, especially Head Office in

Ho Chi Minh City The information of percentage of contribution can be found in table

17,836,232,814

(+/-)Compared to previous year net

80,751,904,700

(+/-)Compared to previous year net

16,195,330,701

(+/-)Compared to previous year net

112,100,488,863

Ha Noi and Hai Duong Branches continue to increase sales in the past three years In

particular, in 2016, the sales growth rate in Hanoi increased rapidly to 28.48% compared

to 2015 At the same time, the contribution accounted for 72.04% of the total net sales of

the company

Hai Duong Branch is the smallest of the three branches, but sales growth has not

declined In 2016, sales growth was about 16.48% last year and sales contribution

changed from 11.85% to 14.45%

Only net sales in Ho Chi Minh decreased suddenly in 2015 and 2016 and this led to the decrease in total net sales of Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company The

decrease in sales of Forwarding services was the main reason for the problem in net sales

of Head Office The information of sales in detail is showed in table 2.2 and figure 2.1 Forwarding services include air export, air import, sea export, sea import and domestics services

Table 2.2 Total sales of Ho Chi Minh Office (in VND) from 2014 to 2016

FORWARDING

AIR EXPORT 3,725,663,906 2,712,482,169 1,858,679,347 AIR IMPORT 10,639,572 11,042,155 14,330,475

SEA IMPORT 52,811,753 88,763,159 0 DOMESTICS

0 1,000,000,000

It is easy to see that in three types of services, logistics and warehousing have not

changed significantly in net sales for the three years since 2014 The only change with rapid sales decline is the forwarding service Net sales in 2016 for forwarding is only

about half that of net sales in 2014

In the three years since 2014, the company has made a significant change in sales

Trucking and Warehouse services accounted for more than two-third of sales Forwarding services accounted for about one-third of sales in 2014, but then it dropped dramatically and only fell to 17.86% in 2016

Figure 2.2 shows a visual representation of the change in the revenue contribution ratio of the three types of company services

Figure 2.2 The change in the revenue contribution ratio

Actual sales of trucking and warehousing in the period 2014-2016 were not large

fluctuations, so the contribution of these two objects increased was due to the decline in sales of the forwarding service This is not a good sign

3 Situation Analysis

In this section we will have three main analysis areas: problem identification, problem justification, and causes validation In this analysis, we will go deeper into the situation and analyze the information as well as the data collected through the interview process and the support from the company

However, this information can not avoid certain biases or subjective opinions of

individuals interviewed So the theories and literature review have been referenced and added to increase the objectivity and persuasiveness of the problem analyzed

The two cause-effect maps drawn in this section give you a more intuitive view of the problem being analyzed The initial cause-effect map is primarily based on information and data collected from the company The final cause-effect map is the completed version after performing the problem justification and cause validation

3.1 Problem identification

As we know net sales are calculated based on the following formula:

Net Sales = Gross Sales - Sales of Returns and Allowances

Thus the problem of net sales decreases primarily due to decrease in Gross sales (which

is calculated by the number of sales multiplied by the selling price) and increase in Sales

of Returns and Allowances

Firstly, income statements in the company's financial statements show that less

deductions including sales returns, allowances, and discounts are recorded as zero So the decline in net sales stemmed from the decline in gross sales, including total unit sold and sale price per unit

However, “There was no significant change in price of each service from 2014 to 2016 so

the reason of price could be eliminated from the list of causes of sales decrease.”, said

the CFO

So the price factor is eliminated so the problem is the number of order is reduced or in

other words in this case is the number of customers decreased

Up to now, the three types of services that the company provides have a distinct customer

Trucking service has constant number of customers over the years, the most fluctuating is the forwarding service Details of this change are illustrated in Figure 3.1.1 and Table 3.1.1 below

Figure 3.1.1 Changes in the number of customers in Head Office year-over-year

Table 3.1.1 The number of customers in Head Office over years

According to the CFO, “In 2014, there were total 3 fixed customers using forwarding

services In 2015, the Head Office lost 1 customer and from then the number of customers still has been stopped at 2”

The decline in the number of forwarding customers has marked a sharp decline in sales over the past three years However, the lack of growth in the number of customers in the two remaining services over the long term since 2011 is also an alarming sign

After approaching and gathering information through an interview with the CFO and sales and marketing manager, the Initial Cause-Effect Map is constructed in Figure 3.1.2

0 1 2 3 4 5

In essence, the cause of the decline in sales is twofold: internal causes and external causes Internal causes will be explored

in this proposal The Initial Cause-Effect Map below mainly mentions to internal causes

Figure 3.1.2 Initial Cause-Effect Map

Number of order decrease

Total units sold

decline

Competitors

No sales staff

Problem in company structure

Top manager’s decision Ineffective sales

management

The decline in the number of customers in this situation is measured by two factors: existing/loyal customers and new customers To get a better view we will go into each of the elements

3.1.1 Loyal customer leave

The CFO also mentioned that “Warehouse and Trucking services have quite stable net

sales each year because the number of customers is stable and fixed over years

Forwarding services have been similar like that since its inception but in 2015 the

company lost a loyal customer So until now, customers in the forwarding segment are left with only 2 customers.” This also means that there is no new customer while the

number of loyal one are decreasing

According to information obtained from three interviews with CFO, sales manager and CEO, the reason for losing a longtime customer is due to influence from competitors However, this factor is an external factor so we will not go into the analysis

3.1.2 No new customer

Firstly, the reason for not having any new customer is the support from the parent

company According to information CFO said: “In general, Japanese companies have a strong source of foreign support from the parent company, not only financially, but also the source of customers

Moreover, the personality of the Japanese is quite loyal, once successful cooperation with

a partner, they often stick with that brand, so it is quite difficult to attract customers from the opponent The parent company must be strong enough to support the new subsidiary

to develop

However, the parent company of our company in Japan is not as strong as other

companies, so the company in Vietnam does not have the source of customers designated

by the parent company as the competitors.”

Secondly, the question of whether the company's ability to supply qualified customers to serve new customers is also considered

The possibility of providing has been increased recently “In 2015 and 2016, Trucking

services used only 60% of capacity and Warehouse services used about 90% of capacity

In 2017, the company expand warehouse area from 1500m 2 to 4500m 2 at Binh Duong Province.” This means that the company is fully capable of supplying when customers

increase

Finally, the central problem here is the Ineffective sales management This problem is manifested by three factors: Problem in company structure, No sales staff and Manager’s decision

It does not only affect the development of new customers, but also the ineffectiveness of maintaining a partnership with existing customers in the long run At Head Office in Ho Chi Minh City, the company structure has the only difference which is the problem in Sales & Marketing Department

The CFO mentioned that: “Well, the structure of these two companies is similar but

varies in size More than half of Jupiter Logistics employees are borrowed from Jupiter Pacific Forwarding, with its own staff numbering only about 11 people.” Figure 3.1.2.1

shows the structure of Head Office in Ho Chi Minh City

Figure 3.1.2.1 Company Structure of Head Office in Ho Chi Minh City

Chairman Yutaka Kawasaki

4 employees

Warehouse Nguyen Thi Minh Tuyet

3 employees

Trucking team Nguyen Xuan Hoang

5 employees

Sales & Marketing Murata Yoichi

As it was separated from Jupiter Forwarding Company, there were many ties between the two companies

Firstly, the chairman, CFO, Sales manager and other important positions are both

executives of both Jupiter Forwarding and Jupiter Logistics At the head office, Yoichi

Murata, the Japanese sales manager, said that his job at Jupiter Forwarding was too busy and not enough manpower, so he focused mainly on Jupiter Forwarding For the cause

of sales decline, he said: “So as I told you, the first reason is we don’t have enough sales

staff in our company and the secondary is now Vietnam country is developing more and more and many Japanese companies, Logistics companies are coming so we have many competitors in the same market…and before the big Japanese Logistics companies

coming, the small and medium size companies also coming to Vietnam from country side

in Japan.”

According to the gathered information, about half of employees at Jupiter Logistics are

borrowed from Jupiter Forwarding “In fact, the chairman, sales manager and some

other positions working for Jupiter Forwarding also cover some of Jupiter Logistics's positions Because the initial departure is the forwarding company, almost all the key components are in the forwarding company Some Jupiter Forwarding employees also work part-time for Jupiter Logistics However, these two companies are completely

independent and do not share in profits.”, said the CFO

Furthermore, there has been no sales staff at Jupiter Logistics company, she said: “There

is no sales person except sales and marketing manager The initial customers of Jupiter Logistics were partly introduced by Jupiter Forwarding when it first established, and some of their customers were referred by their former sales manager.”, “Former sales manager who is overseas Vietnamese from the US, he also helped sales of the company increased quite well Two customers on the forwarding side were also found by him for the company After he left, the current sales manager was loaned from Jupiter

Forwarding to cover the job My boss is also thinking of hiring a sales manager, but he fears the cost increases A few months ago Mr Kawasaki intended to recruit a Japanese sales manager but ultimately failed to agree on salary.”

If not for stability from loyal customers from previous years, the company will really face

a lot of problems In other words, the Sales and Marketing department is almost in the name but not really in function

Secondly, the type of service of the two companies is just only the same in the

forwarding service segment Jupiter Logistics focuses mainly on logistics services

Forwarding services account for a smaller proportion, ranging from 27% to 30%, of the net sales in Ho Chi Minh City However, in 2015 this rate will drop to 25% In 2016, it remained around 16%

Although this service at Jupiter Logistics only accounts for about 2 to 3 customers But the problem is when new customers appear, Sales manager almost preferred to Jupiter Forwarding Company

Finally, the chairman of the company, Mr Yutaka Kawasaki, has received a lot of

suggestions from the CFO as well as the managers of some departments for investing in Sales and Marketing, in other words hiring sales staff However, after a while, in the past

two years, he started to recruit, he said: "I interviewed quite many candidates, about 100

people, but still have not found any candidate suitable for my requirements.”

Because of the three branches, Mr Kawasaki is extremely busy However, without the external factors, two northern branches with the help of a Vietnamese Sales Manager as well as the Sales and Marketing department invested so sales growth of Jupiter Logistics Company in the North in the recent years have grown quite well as you can see in table 2.1

3.2 Problem Justification

In spite of the information analyzed above, the central problem most pronounced here is inefficient sales management, along with three potential causes: Problem in company structure, No sales staff and Manager’s decision The problem here is whether these analyzes are subject to risks due to the reliability of the information So, to minimize this risk, in this section of thesis we will adopt an approach called "standing on the shoulders

of giants" through theories as well as the literature review

Sales management

First we will look at the concept of sales management as well as the related factors

Sales management is the function of the sales manager, including: Sales planning, Time management, Territorial planning, Sales forecasting, Recruiting, Building environment for motivation and Training, coaching and counseling.1

Besides, Mosca et al.also recognized that there are 8 key responsibilities that an effective manager needs to do:2(p115)

1 setting the sales force objectives

2 structuring the sales organization and territories

3 determining the size and type of resources needed

4 creating the proper compensation plan

5 selecting and training

6 developing, coaching and mentoring

7 supervising

8 evaluating their sales employees

Good sales managers promote and help improve sales, profitability, market share, return

on investment, and the ability to win competitors as well as recruit, train, motivate and evaluate and compensation for sales staff, forecasting, planning, budgeting, and good communication and control.3

In the case of the company we can clearly see the following issues:

Firstly, with the exception of the sales manager, there is no sales staff, so the concept of sales force here is completely nominal and has no basis for measurement So there is no sales force or sales force objectives, KPI or motivations

Secondly, this situation has lasted 10 years since the company was established This shows an anomaly in the company's strategy and vision In the first years of operation, no sales staff could be accepted, moreover, at that time the former sales manager undertook the task of finding clients so everything was well developed However, the actual 10-year period is too long, while the company wants to expand the market but does not build sales force, the shortage of personnel has become a serious issue to be considered

Thirdly, the CEO has repeatedly received recommendations from his subordinates but only acknowledged, not actually made a decision to act in reality Until the problem occurred and became more serious, he began to consider the issue of recruiting staff for sales and marketing This interference delay is also a cause of the company's personnel problem

The fourthly, according to the CEO, in the past two years, the company interviewed hundreds of people but did not recruit anyone There was only one Japanese candidate who qualified but the company did not recruit because of the wage agreement This

information is a bit unreasonable In fact, the labor market in Ho Chi Minh City is

plentiful, especially in the field of sales Vietnamese candidates who can speak English or Japanese are also quite large

To say that in 2 years but could not find employees work effectively or stick to the

company for a long time, this is not unusual But in the case of the company, there is absolutely no one recruited, even a probationary person

This suggests that the company's recruiting channel is not effective or that the company requires a slightly unreasonable request from the applicant when compared to other

companies Moreover, the salary factor is not the only reason to attract and retain talents,

so the company can think of other effective ways

Finally, the company does not set any criteria or target to force employees to complete their work and increase their productivity According to the information provided, the chief cause of this situation is that the CEO wants to create a comfortable, comfortable, unobtrusive working environment that aims to empower his or her employees to develop themselves self-consciously But the point here is that cultural differences have not been carefully considered The style of working in Japan but applying to Vietnamese staff without appropriate adjustment will bring trouble

What is sales force?

“Depending on the type of organization, a sales force may consist of a few salespeople

with infrequent contact with customers, or many salespeople operating in a highly

organized system with regular and frequent contact The latter would apply to companies selling consumer goods like confectionery where it is necessary to have a regular, day-to- day contact A company that constructs bridges needs fewer salespeople as there are fewer customers and it is more appropriate to have technical salespersons to negotiate contracts and resolve problems that customers may face during the construction process The sales force provides a flow of information to the company which needs to know what

is happening ‘in the field’ to keep up with changes in demand or fashion.” 4(p.273)

Can A Company Survive and Develop Without A Productive Sales Force?

The question here is whether a company like Jupiter Logistics can grow without sales staffs or not According to Howard Lewinter who is known as Business Advisor -

Business Consultant - Business Expert throughout the United States Howard's articles have been published in business journals throughout the United States and he has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal; he also guest posts on sites like Selling Fearlessly, he

said: “As a CEO, president or business owner, you can’t “hope” for business to just show

up “Hope” is not a smart strategy in business Waiting, watching and hoping for a sales turnaround can only put you out of business Instead you must find the business answers

and solutions that will bring sales to your company Your business will not survive

without your sales force being productive.”

Thanks to a steady stream of available customers since its founding, the company is still operating normally until the sales decline is noticeable from 2015 Because of the loss of

a customer, the sales person becomes more necessary than ever The CFO and Mr

Murata also said that this is an urgent matter that needs to be addressed as soon as

possible

In conclusion, the company has a lot of solid evidence that sales management is

completely ineffective This has seriously affected the retention of existing customers and the search for new customers for the company Sales management plays a very important role for a company that wants to expand and grow in the long run

3.3 Causes Validation

After combining all the information, data and theories, we create the figure 3.3.1 which shows the final cause-effect map

Figure 3.3.1 Final Cause-Effect Map

Decrease in

Gross sales

Weak support from parent company in Japan

Problem in company structure

Not exploit the market of Vietnamese customers

Poor sales leadership Ineffective sales

management

Limited sales strategy

No clear target and KPI Conflict of interest

3.3.1 Weak customer relationship management

A research has been conducted to find out more deeply about the assessment and

evaluation of customers who used to work and are working with the company

Due to confidentiality of customer information, the company's customer information will not be disclosed So the information from the research below is conducted under the support and supervision of the sales manager

Research focuses on customer reviews and find out why customers are not satisfied with the company

John A Goodman is a member of ASQ and is also chairman of TARP in Arlington, VA

He holds a master's degree in business administration from prestigious Harvard

University He outlines the typical causes of customer dissatisfaction consisting of five factors that you can see in box 3.3.1.1

Box 3.3.1.1 The typical causes of customer dissatisfaction 5(p1)

1 Defects caused by production or service failures and/or employee mistakes

2 Marketing overpromises

3 Misleading marketing

4 Customer error or unreasonable expectations

5 Customer is incorrect but makes a reasonable mistake

Market structure can affect customer satisfaction As customers begin to have more

choices, companies need to improve customer satisfaction through providing higher quality goods, better service and lower prices in order to maintain market share according

to Mazzeo6(p275–296). Because the cost of attracting new customers is higher in more

competitive markets as followed Estelami7(p 285-300)

“Several studies in the marketing literature have considered the relationship between customer satisfaction and performance at the firm level Not surprisingly, the results generally show that customer satisfaction provides economic benefits to the firm For example, customer satisfaction has been linked to increased revenues (Fornell, 1992; Gómez, McLaughlin & Wittink, 2004; Rust, Zahorik, & Keiningham, 1995), more

inelastic demand (Anderson, 1996), and reduced costs for attracting new customers and other costs associated with poor quality, defects and complaints (Anderson, Fornell, &

affect a firm’s profitability (Anderson, Fornell, & Lehmann, 1994; Aaker & Jacobson, 1994; Capon, Farley, & Hoeni, 1990), and its market value (Aaker & Jacobson, 1994; Ittner & Larcker, 1998).”8(p.9)

Six questionnaires ( find in appendices ) were selected and sent to the company's customers

and received about 7/7 feedback (there are 3 customers using both types of services at the same time) Chart 3.3.1.1 shows the reason that customers choose to partner with the company In addition, chart 3.3.1.2 will show the factors that customers are not happy about the quality of services of the company

Chart 3.3.1.1 The reason for customers to cooperate with the company

There are 5 factors to be taken into consideration:

• Good service quality

• The price is more favorable than other companies

• Meet the expectations of customers

• Good customer relationship management

• The two companies are used to working together

Factors are chosen by all customers because the two companies have long cooperated with each other over the years so they choose to become loyal customers Quality of service is quite good, accounting for about 86% Prices are good at about 57% The only factor that is not appreciated is customer relationship management

Chart 3.3.1.2 Factors that customers are not satisfied with the company

The following 6 factors are used to find out why customers are not satisfied:

• Service failures and/or employee mistakes

• High price

• Poor customer relationship management

• Marketing overpromises

• Unreasonable expectations

• Less attractive incentives than other companies

About 75% of customers are dissatisfied with the company's customer relationship

management

Because of specific characteristics of services, the quality of services provided by Jupiter Logistics has no significant difference from other competitors Of course, it is difficult to avoid the problem when providing services to customers, however, according to the

certification of the manager, this problem is not significant and the past few years have proven that

The next reason is chosen with 63% is Less attractive incentives than other companies

So the threats from rival companies also need to be considered

Chart 3.3.1.3 outlines the customer's assessment of what the company needs to improve

Chart 3.3.1.3 Customer's assessment of the factors that the company should

improve

Summarizing the reasons for the decline in customer numbers is a threat from competitor preferences and customer relationship management

Top manager support and leadership style

Sales managers play important roles in improving the skills of sales staffs and helping the organization achieve its goals Sales managers are the one to be responsible for ensuring that the sales force has the tools and training necessary to achieve the organization's

objectives related to maintaining customer relationships, increasing sales volumes and profit according to Cravens9(pp 47-59) and Deeter-Schmelz10(pp 617-26)

It can be said that this situation lasts while most departmental managers in the company recognize the urgency of the sales person problem, which in part speaks to the weakness

of sales management "Too busy so can not support timely" is not a good excuse of an excellent and professional manager Because if it was a reasonable excuse, it would be dubious compared to the status of the branch in Ha Noi and Hai Duong Of course, the two branches are similar in character to the company, the only difference being the sales manager and the sales department According to the CFO's comment on her boss:

“Hmm…my boss… He has been working for about 20 years His leadership style is to

give employees self-awareness of their responsibilities, not the control activity, not to tighten tasks for each department He says that they are head of the department, they know what to do When the problem occurs, the boss is also in the spirit of solving the

problem, not to blame or to anyone As long as customer satisfaction is okay On the inside, the boss is mainly gentle reminder, no strong action Working with a boss like that

is great, but the company's performance will not thrive.”

Sales Suport

It is necessary to use sales teams to effectively and efficiently meet the needs of

customers stated by Brown11(pp 155-167) Moncrief and Marshall12(p.16) explain that

salespeople are "very expensive assets" and that a salesperson's time is better spent

making calls on qualified prospects and building existing customer relationships than on less productive activities

Sales support is necessary, it can be provided within the sales force or by an external group Moon and Armstrong13(pp 17-30) explain that the selling center includes all of the

sales and non-sales employees who join in the selling process “Customer transactions

often require a variety of sales activities, such as customer contact/selling, manual labor, delivery, installation, technical consultation, data entry/reporting, coordination or

clearly a situation like this “Actually, these two companies have different owners Jupiter

Pacific Forwarding has 80% Japanese shareholders and 20% Vietnamese shareholders, while Jupiter Logistics has 51% Japanese shareholders and 49% Vietnamese

shareholders.”, said the CFO

At the other two branches, the sales manager is Vietnamese and they hold their majority stake in Jupiter Logistics While in Ho Chi Minh City, sales manager is Japanese and holds a majority stake in Jupiter Forwarding Therefore, their preference for new clients

in forwarding services will be affected largely depending on where they hold shares

Sales strategies involve a set of activities and sales manager's decisions to allocate sales resources such as sales staff, sales channels, sales models, capital, etc to meet the needs

of customers and satisfy customers related to behavioral engagement and develop close relationships with customers The successful implementation of sales strategies can be considered a source of competitive advantage in the business market.14(p46-57)

The best practices of sales strategy are included seven categories:15(p83-93)

• Establishing customer centric culture

• Market segmentation

• Market adaptability

• Information technology

• Sales, service and technical support system

• Customer feedback and satisfaction

• Selecting and developing sales forces

However, a brief look at the company situation will easily recognize the problem in the sales strategy of the company

First, customers are not highly rated for customer relationship management This is not difficult to explain when the company is facing a shortage of manpower

The second is when looking at the change in the number of customers over the years, the lack of growth in the number of customers over such length of time while this is not entirely the policy pursued by the company This has shown that the customer search strategy has problems

In addition, another point deduction for the company is the loss of potential customers in Vietnam-Vietnamese customers While the company policy is not limited to the customer source, but for the following two reasons the company does not exploit this customer

Mr Murata shared that the language barrier is one of the main reasons the company does not approach Vietnamese customers

Besides, the sales department of the current company only him, but the workload is quite large so the company is not capable of developing this market Therefore, the company

did not take advantage of the potential Vietnamese customers market while it is possible

to find a solution instead of worrying about the language barrier