Improving the factors to enhance sales activities at the website www.khoadaotao.vn

complete this report. The company gave me an opportunity to participate and learn about the operation of the company, and provided me valuable information as the guidance of my report. Finally, an honorable mention goes to our families and friends for their understandings and supports on me in completing this report. Without helps of the particular that mentioned above, I would face many difficulties while doing this project. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Sales activities play an important role in enhancing the business and the development of the company. In order to carry out long term and short term targets, nowadays, businesses all care much about the training the sales force and completing the factors affecting sales activities. After three-month period of internship as a salesperson at the website www.khoadaotao.vn, belonging to AMICA Corp, I found that the sales activities have shortcomings, which need improving. Therefore, in the range of my intern report, I chose the topic for study: “Improving the factors to enhance sales activities at the website www.khoadaotao.vn” Study targets: Examine the fact of sales activities at the website www.khoadaotao.vn Find out the reason for the shortcomings that effect on the sales activities Point out some recommendations to improve these shortcomings and develop sales activities. This report studied the sales activities at the company AMICA Corp, especially the website www.khoadaotao.vn in the field of providing the service of online advertising. In the range of the report, the author uses the study methods such as comprehensive analysis, comparison, observation. In addition, the questions are also prepared to interview the employees, especially salespeople to get more information about the fact of sales activities. About the structure of the report, in addition to the Introduction, Conclusion, Appendix and References, the report includes four main chapters: Chapter I – Introduction of AMICA Corp Chapter II – The theoretical framework used to the website www.khoadaotao.vn Chapter III – The weakness of factors affecting sales activities at the website www.khoadaotao.vn Chapter III – The weakness of factors affecting sales activities at the website www.khoadaotao.vn Chapter I – Introduction of AMICA Corp Overview of AMICA Corp History and development of AMICA Corp AMICA Corp is a corporation providing solutions to develop businesses. The phrase AMICA is the abbreviation of Accomplishment of Management by Intelligence, Creation, and Aspiration. The corporation was established on the first, July 2007, managed by the people who were managers and administrators of multinational companies, researchers in Vietnam who studied management and business development in developed countries. In fact, almost Vietnamese businesses are small and middle ones, who have to face problems related to changing business strategies, developing trademark, training and supplementing human, applying new technology in management and business... The businesses often look for solutions from the companies, who provide individual services of each major field. Thus, this activity takes them much of time and cost much of fee. Moreover, the solutions from different sources can be easily lack of internal synchronism while the businesses need an entire solution to balance human resources and to build key competitive ability. Being aware of that fact, AMICA Corp provides solutions to develop business basing on researches and a deep knowledge of businesses’ fields and characteristics. AMICA Corp researches businesses in totality range from general strategies to detail activities. According to the result of researches, AMCIA Corp suggests suitable solutions within general strategies, ensuring the ability of putting into execution and synchronism of solutions, and bringing the most effect to businesses. Organization of AMCIA Corp The head office of AMICA Corp is at 41A, Tran Quang Dieu Street, Dong Da District, Hanoi with three telephone lines for three business fields, each of which has its own website. They are www.amica.vn for the field of providing solutions to develop business in forms of training courses, www.nguonvieclam.vn for the field of providing recruitment information to job seekers and providing human resources to businesses, and www.khoadaotao.vn for the field of providing training and learning courses for learners. Since AMICA Corp has just been established for three years, the organization structure is not full worked and does not reach a necessary standard. One person must deal with not only his/her duty, but also others’ work. One general director is responsible for all the activities of three websites and the whole company. He himself is a professor in the training courses of AMCIA Corp. One human resources director is responsible for managing human resources such as recruiting, managing database of employees. He is also the customer service director, generally responsible for caring customers of two websites www.nguonvieclam.vn and www.khoadaotao.vn. In addition, he is the major administrator of the website www.nguonvieclam.vn, which provides businesses’ recruitment information to job seekers and provides service of seeking the most suitable candidates to businesses, and www.khoadaotao.vn, which plays a bridge connecting trainers and learners, who have needs of study. One accountant does accounting to keep and develop capital and asset of the company, paying taxes, calculating salary for the whole employees, and many other duties related to accounting. In addition, this accountant also works as other positions, such as administrator of website www.amica.vn, salesperson, customer care staff, and switchboard staff for all three fields of the company. Information Technology (IT) person must ensure the fluency of the internal and external network system. It means that all the tasks of installing software and hardware; ensuring security for three websites against hackers; finding solutions for the spring problems related to technology must be done to make sure the best IT condition for the whole company’s activities. 1.3. Business field and business activities 1.3.1. Service of providing solutions to develop business in form of training courses AMICA Corp owns three different websites for three business fields. The website www.amica.vn is the official one for the first field: providing solutions to develop business. All the activities of the website are presented in the following chart: AMICA Corporation Training management Consulting, organizing and developing human resources Building trademark Specialty training Marketing Finance Human resources Supermarket management Skill training Leadership skill Sales skill Supervision skill Project management skill Job-seeking skill Consulting strategies Business strategies Financing - Accounting Marketing strategies Human management Distribution channel Developing human resources Consulting human Providing human Leasing human Outsourcing Trademark building Identification system Market positioning Intelligence owning Media & Promotion PR, events Media Advertsing film Exhibition & fair Managing informatics & E-commerce E-commerce Website designing E-advertising E-advertising agent Managing informatics Consulting informatics solutions Management softwares Trade representative Activities of the website www.amica.vn 1.3.2. Service of providing information about recruitment The official website for this field is www.nguonvieclam.vn, consultants of which are holding key positions in International Corporations. The website provides online recruitment services for candidates who are seeking for a job. Besides, the website provides service of senior human recruitment according to business’ needs by looking for profile, interviewing preliminarily, assessing the qualifications, experience, characters of candidates in order to save time and cost for business. The website specially focuses on the fields: Sales and fast moving consumer goods marketing Finance and Banking Foreign trade Information Technology Telecommunication Auditing/ Accounting Tourism and Hotel Inland and foreign big corporations who used and high appreciated this service are Pepsi, Trung Nguyen Corporation, ITL, VOBECO, HBC, HG Travel… Moreover, the website includes many articles of career orientation, necessary skills for jobs and major courses. Thus, more and more people visit the website to seek opportunities of job, promotion for them. The guidelines for activities is “www.nguonvieclam.vn – where talents radiant”. 1.3.3. Service of providing information about training to the learners Nowadays, there is a big shortage of personnel who are basically trained and have skills suitable with their job. Therefore, the website www.khoadaotao.vn is established as an information channel to develop ability of community, a bridge connecting the people need to study and trainers. This helps enhance Vietnamese people’s ability, develop knowledge and our economy to compete with other countries. The major services of the website www.khoadaotao.vn for users: To learners and the people who care about training: Finding quickly the suitable course such as developing aptitude, practicing working skill, adding knowledge, enhance working level. The courses are classified scientifically with searching engine, which is easy to use. Getting enough information about the course such as teaching content, pictures, tuition, and online registration with the trainer… Choosing the most suitable trainer in the database, which includes hundreds of inland and foreign trainers and educators. Downloading the e-lecture, documentary information on every field for study from “Electronic library”. Sharing learning and career experience with other people. Getting favours or scholarships from inland and foreign programs. To the trainners and educators: Broadcasting quickly the training courses with full of information, pictures of courses and trainers to the right objectives. Sending quickly information to tens thousand learners via “Courses news”. Getting feedback about the course via email. Advertising courses attached pictures, teaching document. Spreading trademarks and training programs via trainer’s special introduction section, outstanding courses on the homepage, and logo/banner at the attractive positions. Uploading “Lecturer library” to share knowledge and broadcast trademark. Uploading “Favoured courses” to attract learners and agglomerate spreading, approaching learners with www.khoadaotao.vn. The website is administered by the Board of Administration including consultants, trainers, and experts in many fields. The fact of sales activities at the website www.khoadaotao.vn Product and business field According to these characters above, readers can see that product of the website www.khoadaotao.vn is services rather than objects on display. The duty of salespeople is to buy advertising services on website to trainers, who provide training courses. The services include: Advertising training courses with no pay within 30 days Advertising training courses with special regulations Broadcasting trademark on the homepage with banner/logo Broadcasting trademark on the inside page with banner/logo Sales force management AMICA Corp is a small company with limited human resources of four members while there are three business fields, so each employee must take other duties beside his/her major job. For example, the director himself is a salesperson as well; the accountant herself is a salesperson and switchboard staff, too. In fact, every one in the company is salespeople and there is no real sales force for the website www.khoadaotao.vn. That one person must take many duties will result in overloading for them; therefore the working result is not as good as expected, especially sales activities are not invested and moderately cared. Moreover, the sales force is not methodically trained from the time they are recruited. All the knowledge and information about types of customers, competitors, strategies, or products must be methodically taught before the sales force enter the battle. However, all the information is just retransmitted from the old salespeople to the new ones. Therefore, the salespeople cannot get enough information and knowledge for their job. This influences badly on their strategic planning to compete with other websites, presenting and demonstrating to the customers, etc. On the other hand, the motivation for sales force is not strong enough to encourage them loving their work. Many salespeople came and went only because the salary and good-treatment policies of the company, which until now have not been improved yet, were not good. The sales force is considered as making money engines of the company, and squeezed their labour to fetch money to energize the website and the company. On their return, they just get dissatisfaction with the company’s policies. Process of selling of the website www.khoadaotao.vn The website www.khoadaotao.vn provides online broadcasting services to trainers, and they use online advertisement form, which includes both traditional advertisement and direct marketing to bring their service to their customers. The e-marketing strategies have been used rather effectively in their business via the performance and the facility of the website, which is easy for user to use. However, sales force does not know how to apply sensibly e-marketing to their work. Sometimes they abuse it while they do not take advantage of it in the process of selling at times. That affects a lot their sales activities. Chapter II – Theoretical framework used for the website www.khoadaotao.vn Sales force management In this report, the theory used and applied to the situation of the website www.khoadaotao.vn is section of Sales force management from The principle of Marketing textbook by Philip Kotler and Gary Amstrong. It includes the activities of training, compensating, supervising, and evaluating the sales force. . Training salespeople Many companies used to send their new salespeople into the field almost immediately after hiring them. They would be given samples, order books, and general instructions. Training programs were luxuries. To many companies, at raining program translated into much expense for instructors, materials, space, and salary for a person who was not yet selling, and a loss of sales opportunities because the person was not in the field. Today’s new salespeople, however, may spend anywhere form a few weeks or months to a year or more in training. The average training period is four months. Training programs have several goals. Salespeople need to know and identify with the company, so most training programs begin by describing the company’s history and objectives, its organization, its financial structure and facilities, and its chief products and markets. Sales people also need to know the company products, so sales trainees are shown how products are produced and how they work. They also need to know customers’ and competitors’ characteristics, so the training program teaches them about competitors’ strategies and about different types of customers and their needs, buying motives, and buying habits. Because sales people must know how to make effective presentations, they are trained in the principles of selling. They learn how to divide time between active and potential accounts and how to use an expense account, prepare reports, and route communications effectively. Compensating sales people To attract salespeople, a company must have an appealing compensation plan. These plans vary greatly both by industry and by companies within the same industry. The level of compensation must be close to the “going rate” for the type of sales job and needed skills. Compensation is made up of several elements – a mixed amount, a variable amount, expense, and fringe benefits. The fixed amount, usually a salary, gives the salesperson some stable income. The variable amount, which might be commissions or bonuses based on sales performance, rewards the salesperson for greater effort. Expense allowances, which repay salespeople for job-related expenses, let salespeople undertake needed and desirable selling efforts. Fringe benefits, such as paid vacations, sickness or accident benefits, pensions, and life insurance, provide job security and satisfaction. Management must decide what mix of these compensation elements makes the most sense for each sales job. Different combination of fixed and variable compensation give rise to four basic types of compensation plans – straight salary, straight commission, salary plus bonus, and salary plus commissions. A study of sales force compensation plans showed that about 14% of companies paid straight salary, 19% paid straight commission, 26% paid salary plus bonus, 37% paid salary plus commission, and 10% paid salary plus commission plus bonus. The compensation plan for sales force can be designed both to motive salespeople and to direct their activities. For example, if sales management wants salespeople to emphasize new account development, it might pay a bonus for opening new accounts. Thus, the compensation plan should direct the sales force toward activities that are consistent with overall marketing objectives. If the overall strategy is to grow rapidly and gain market share, the compensation plan should reward high sales performance and encourage salespeople to capture new accounts. This might suggest a larger commission component coupled with new account bonuses. By contrast, if the marketing goal is to maximize profitability of current accounts, the compensation plan might contain a larger base salary component, with additional incentives based on current account sales or customer satisfaction. Supervising sales people New salespeople need more than a territory, compensation, and training – they need supervision. Through supervision, the company directs and motivates the sales force to do a better job. Salespeople need to know how to use their time effectively. One tool is the annual call plan that shows which customers and prospects to call on in which months and which activities to carry out. Activities include taking part in trade shows, attending sales meetings, and carrying out marketing research. Another tool is time-and-duty analysis. In addition to time spent selling, the salesperson spends time travelling, waiting, eating, taking breaks, and doing administrative chores. On average, actual face-to-face selling time accounts for only 30% of total working time. If selling time could be raised from 30% to 40%, this would be a 33% increase in the time spent selling. Companies always are trying to find ways to save time – using phones instead of travelling, simplifying record-keeping form finding better call and routing plans, and supplying more and better customer information. Salespeople often work alone, and they must sometime travel away form home. They may face aggressive, competing salespeople and difficult customers. They sometimes lack the authority to do what is needed to win a sale and may thus lose large orders they have worked hard to obtain. Therefore, salespeople often need special encouragement to do their best. Management can boost sales force morale and performance through its organizational climate, sales quotas, and positive incentives. Organizational climate: Organization climate describes the feeling that salespeople have about their opportunities, value, and rewards for a good performance within the company. Treatment from the salesperson’s immediate superior is especially important. A good sales manager keeps in touch with the sales force through letters and phone calls, visits in the field, and evaluation sessions in the home office. At different times, the sales manager acts as the salesperson’s boss, companion, coach, and confessor. Sale quotas: Sales quotas are standards set for salespeople, starting the amount they should sell and how sales should be divided among the company’s products. Sales quotas are set at the time the annual marketing plan is developed. The company first decides on a sales forecast that is reasonable achievable. Based on this forecast, management plans production, work-force size, and financial needs. Generally, sales quotas are set higher than the sales forecast to encourage sales managers and salespeople to give their best effort. If they fail to make their quotas, the company may still make its sales forecast. Positive incentives: Sales meetings provide social occasions, break from with a larger from routines, chances to meet and talk with “company brass”, and opportunities to air feelings and to identify with a larger group. Companies also sponsor sales contests to spur the sales force to make a selling effort above what would normally be expected. Other incentives include honors, merchandise and cash awards, trips, and profit-sharing plans. Evaluating salespeople Using sales force reports and other information, sales management formally evaluates members of the sales force. Formal evaluation products four benefits. First, management must develop and communicate clear standards for judging performance. Second, management must gather well-rounded information about each salesperson. Third, salespeople receive constructive feedback that helps them to improve future performance. Finally, salespeople are motivated to perform well because they know they will have to sit down with the sales manager and explain their performance. Comparing salespeople’s performance: One type evaluation compares and ranks the sales performance of different salespeople. Such comparisons can be misleading, however. Salespeople may perform differently because of differences in territory potential workload, level of competition, company promotion effort, and other factors. Furthermore, sales are not usually the best indicator of achievement. Management should be more interested in how much each salesperson contributes to net profits, a concern that requires looking at each salesperson’s sales mix and expenses. Comparing current sales with past sales: Such a comparison should directly indicate the person’s progress. Qualitative evaluation of sales people: A qualitative evaluation usually looks at a salesperson’s knowledge of the company, products, customers, competitors, territory, and tasks. Personal traits – manner, appearance, speech, and temperament – can be rated. The sales manager also can review any problems in motivation or compliance. Each company must decide what would be most useful to know. It should communicate these criteria to salespeople so that they understand how their performance is evaluated and can make an effort to improve it. Steps in the selling process In addition to the theory of Sales force management, the report also uses the standard steps in the selling process in the Principles of Marketing textook written by Philip Kotler and Gary Amstrong. Prospecting and qualifying The first step in selling process is prospecting – identifying qualified potential customers. Although the company supplies some leads, salespeople need skill in finding their own. They can ask current customers for the names of prospects. They can build referral sources, such as suppliers, dealers, noncompeting salespeople, and bankers. They can join organizations to which prospects belong or can engage in speaking and writing activities that will draw attention. They can search for names in newspapers or directories and use the telephone and mail to track down leads. Or they can drop in unannounced on various offices. The salesperson often must approach many prospects to get just a few sales. Salespeople need to know how to qualify leads – that is, how to identify the good ones and screen out the poor ones. Prospects can be qualified by looking at their financial ability, volume of business, special needs, location, and possibilities for growth. Pre-approach Before calling on a prospect, the salesperson should learn as much as possible about the organization (what it needs, who is involved in the buying) and its buyers (their characteristics and buying styles). This step is known as the pre-approach. The salesperson can consult standard sources, acquaintances, and others to learn about the company. The salesperson should set call objectives, which may be to qualify the prospect, to gather information, or to make an immediate sale. Another task is to decide on the approach, which might be a personal visit, a phone call, or a letter. The best timing should be considered carefully because many prospects are busiest at certain times. Finally, the salesperson should give thought to an overall sales strategy for the account. Approach During the approach the step, the salesperson should know how to meet and greet the buyer and to get the relationship off to a good start. This step involves the salesperson’s appearance, opening lines, and the follow-up remarks. The opening lines should be positive and might be followed by some key questions to learn more about the customer’s needs or the showing of a display or sample to attract the buyer’s attention and curiosity. Presentation and Demonstration During the presentation step of the selling process, the salesperson tells the product “story” to the buyer, showing hoe the product will make or save money. The salesperson describes the product features but concentrates on presenting customer benefits. Using a need-satisfaction approach, the salesperson starts with a search for the customer’s needs by getting the customer to do most of the talking. This approach calls for good listening and problem-solving skills. Sales presentations can be improved with demonstration aids, such as booklets, flip charts, slides, videotapes or videodisc, and product samples. If buyers can see or handle the product, they will better remember its features and benefits. Handling objects Customers almost always have objections during the presentation or when asked to place an order. The problem can be either logical or psychological, and objections are often unspoken. In handling objections, the salesperson should use a positive approach, seek out hidden objections, ask the buyer to clarify any objections, take objections as opportunities to provide more information, and turn the objections into reasons for buying. Every salesperson needs training in the skills of handling objections. Closing After handling the prospect’s objections, the salesperson now tries to close the sale. Some salespeople do not get around to closing or do not handle it well. They may lack confidence, feel guilty about asking for the order, or fail to recognize the right moment to close the sale. Salespeople should know how to recognize the closing signals from the buyer, including physical actions, comments, and questions. For example, the customer might sit forward and nod approvingly or ask about prices and credit terms. Salespeople can use one of several closing techniques. They can ask for the order, review points of agreement, offer to help write up the order, ask whether the buyer wants this model or that one, or note that the buyer will lose out if the order is not placed now. The salesperson may offer the buyer special reasons to close, such as a lower price or an extra quantity at no exchange. Follow up The last step in selling process – follow up – is necessary if the salesperson wants to ensure customer satisfaction and repeat business. Right after closing, the salesperson should complete any detail on delivery time, purchase terms, and other matters. The salesperson should schedule a follow-up call when the initial order is received to make sure there are proper installation, instruction, and servicing. This visit would reveal any problem, assure the buyer of the salesperson’s interest, and reduce any buyer concerns that might have arisen since the sale. Selling online advertising The website www.khoadaotao.vn provides the services of online advertising to the customers – trainers. Therefore, it is impossible to ignore the theory of selling online advertising. This theory is extracted from the textbook of E-commerce published by National Economics University Publisher. According to this book, selling online advertising is a kind of special online service business, including particular content and requires. Online advertising business is not a mere click, but requires much of patience, hardness, sensitiveness with the variation of the Internet. It requires the advertisers to offer attractive advertisements, which satisfy needs and hobbies of customers, make relationships in long run with advertisers, keep flexibilities in pricing, and make creation. Buying goods in the market is not easy, and buying online advertising is much more difficult. Therefore, businesses should do these following contents as good as possible: Pointing out and classifying what they buy The first step in setting up an advertising program is to point out and classifying what can be sold. When we sell advertisements on the Internet, advertising program is our products, which need classifying and inventorying. It is essential to consider the ability of accepting advertising samples, placing the advertisements in order to define technical details of the site, including: advertising samples, arranging positions for advertising, types of advertising, types of static, dynamic or multimedia advertisements, the selective purposes, particular benefits such as monopoly compromise, and other opportunities. Preparing the essential base for their website When the business accepts advertising,._.