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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

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
2

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.
3

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.
4

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................... 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................... 4
LIST OF TABLES....................................................................................................... 6
LIST OF FIGURES..................................................................................................... 6
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 7
1.1. Saigon General Service Corporation ......................................................................... 7
1.2. Nordic Car Joint Stock Company .............................................................................. 8
2. PROBLEM CONTEXT ....................................................................................... 8
2.1. Global automobile market .......................................................................................... 8
2.2. Vietnamese automobile market ................................................................................ 11
2.3. Volvo global business results and Nordic Car company situation in Vietnam ........ 13
3. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION....................................................................... 17
3.1. Potential Problems ................................................................................................... 20
3.1.1 Unsuitable products for Vietnamese ........................................................................ 20
3.1.2 Inconvenient business place ..................................................................................... 21
3.1.3 Inefficient advertisements and PR activities ............................................................ 23
3.1.4 Unattractive direct sales promotion ......................................................................... 24
3.1.5 Ineffective personal selling activities ....................................................................... 25
3.1.6 Uncompetitive price ................................................................................................. 28
3.2. Problem Validation .................................................................................................. 29
3.2.1 Eliminating product, place, promotion and price as the main problem ................... 30
3.2.2 Illuminating ineffective personal selling as the main problem ................................ 34
4. POTENTIAL CAUSES...................................................................................... 35
4.1. Lack of professional customer relationship management system ............................ 36
4.2. Disregard of technical guide on Volvo functions .................................................... 38
4.3. Weak team selling accessory, insurance, finance and service ................................. 39
4.4. Cause validation ....................................................................................................... 40
4.5. Cause - and - effect tree ........................................................................................... 43
5. ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS ........................................................................ 44
5.1. The first alternative solution: Using a basic customer relationship management
software ................................................................................................................................ 47
5.2. The second alternative solution: Using a modular customer relationship
management software .......................................................................................................... 49
6. ORGANIZATION OF ACTIONS .................................................................... 56
7. CONCLUSION................................................................................................... 58
8. SUPPORTING INFORMATION ..................................................................... 59
APPENDIX................................................................................................................. 80
REFERENCES........................................................................................................... 82
5

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 6. 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
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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Saigon General Service Corporation
Figure 1. 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 4 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 5 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.
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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 after-
sales 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 2 teams, a human resources department, a finance
department and a workshop.
2. PROBLEM CONTEXT
2.1. Global automobile market
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Figure 2. Global cars and light-commercial vehicles sales between 2016 and 2017
(Source: JATO global car and LCV sales press release in 2017)
According to JATO3
– 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 1. Top 10 best-selling car brands in 2017
Cars and Pick-up 2017 Growth Rate Ranking
TOYOTA 7,843,423 +5% 1
VOLKSWAGEN 6,639,250 +3% 2
FORD 5,953,122 -2% 3
HONDA 4,967,689 +7% 4
NISSAN 4,834,694 +5% 5
HYUNDAI 3,951,176 -9% 6
CHEVROLET 3,857,388 0% 7
SUZUKI 2,891,415 +11% 8
MERCEDES 2,534,181 +13% 9
KIA 2,511,293 -10% 10
(Source: JATO global car and LCV sales press release in 2017)
JATO3
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
9

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 3. 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), B-
SUV (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
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scale and expect to continue in some next years. Compact cars, midsize sedan, wagon
and MPVs were impacted the most.
2.2. Vietnamese automobile market
Figure 4. The number of sold cars in Vietnam from 2014 to 2017
(Source: VAMA reports in 2014 to 2017)
The number of automotive vehicles selling out in Vietnam in 2014 was 133,588 units
and it was doubled in 2016 with 271.833 sold vehicles.4
VAMA divided automobile
in Vietnam into three types namely passenger cars (PC), commercial vehicle (CV) and
special-purpose vehicle (SPV). Total volume of sold passenger cars in 2014 was
79,813 units, and only after 12 months it passed over 117,000 units. In 2016, if only
counting PC, the sold-out vehicles increased 36% to reach 159,501 units. Vietnam
became one of the most attractive environment of automotive investment and the
second fastest growth of automobile countries among South East Asia region. In 2017,
the whole market decreased about 7.8% because 0% imported tax from South East
Asean countries created waiting psychology for entire Vietnamese buyers. However,
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when all automobile taxes could be completely clear in middle of 2018, the powerful
resilience definitely comes back.
In the report to Vietnamese government in November 2016 about the strategy for
automobile development of Ministry of Industry and Trade of The Socialist Republic
of Vietnam,5
by 2015, the automobile industry has more than 400 enterprises, mainly
in the South East and the Red River Delta. However, most businesses are small and
medium size. Total assembled capacity is just about 460,000 units per year, of which
47% is from foreign invested sector and 53% is from domestic. In the period 2001-
2014, the average growth rate of automobile assembly is only 17% per year. Each
year, taxes alone, the automobile industry contributes over one billion US dollars to
the state budget. In addition, the industry has created jobs for about 100,000 direct
employees. Many types of trucks, passenger cars of 10 seats or more, specialized
vehicles manufactured in Vietnam have achieved high localization rates, basically
meeting the domestic market (07 tons truck meets about 70 % demand, with an
average localization rate of 55%, 10 seats passenger cars and specialized vehicles
meeting about 90% demand, with localization rates from 45% to 55%). Some kinds of
trucks have been exported to Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Central America. Otherwise,
the localization rate of vehicles less than 9 seats is still very low. Although
government understood that automobile assembly industry is important to Vietnam
economy, there is not enough good strategy to attract big corporations to invest
assembly plants in Vietnam. Economic fluctuations and policy changes, especially tax
and fee policies, are major factors affecting production and consumption of cars.
Vietnam has been recognized as the second-prioritized choice of big corporations in
Asean region producing and assembling passenger cars up to 9 seats (which help bring
higher value comparing to truck assembly). Before investing in car assembly plants in
Vietnam, big car corporations as Toyota or Ford have invested in large-scale car
production projects in other regions of South East Asia such as Thailand or Indonesia.
Furthermore, basic materials such as steel, rubber, and plastics of automotive
supporting industry depend on imported materials. All this makes the business
investment in the production of auto parts and components less competitive because
of the high production cost. Beside the subjective reasons, the level of Vietnamese
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enterprises is still limited, the assemblers are not interested in supporting industry, and
do not create conditions for domestic enterprises to participate in the supply chain of
production. To meet the significant demand in Vietnam, most of the investors chose
decreasing assembly and increasing import vehicles, especially focusing on luxury
segment.
2.3. Volvo global business results and Nordic Car company situation in
Vietnam
Figure 5. Volvo global retail sales from 2013 to 2017
(Source: Volvo Car Group annual report from 2014 to 2017)
Volvo Car Group annual reports respectively in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017
showed that6
the development with nearly 36,000 units every year from 2013 to 2017
has confirmed a strong development of Volvo with many new and wide-ranging
products. A robust 27.3% rise of operating profit from 11 billion SEK (Swedish
Krona) in 2016 to 14 billion SEK in 2017 was the new record that Volvo board of
directors responded to their stakeholders. Moreover, 2017 net revenue for the period
increased 16.5% to 210,9 million SEK compared to 180,9 million SEK in 2016 while
the operating profit margin improved from 6.1% in 2016 to 6.7% in 2017. These
significant figures were mainly underpinned by a strong increase in China and a
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substantial rise in the US, Volvo’s two largest individual sales markets. Mr. Håkan
Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Car Group stated in annual report
that Volvo is going from strength to strength. The new models are successful, sales
are at record levels and profits are up substantially reflecting the contribution of all
our employees. On the back of these achievements, he foresees that 2018 will also be
a record year in terms of sales.
Table 2. Volvo retail sales on over the world in 2016 and 2017
Volvo retail sales, number of cars sold 2016 2017 Change %
Western Europe 290,925 298,948 2.8%
China 90,930 114,410 25.8%
Other markets 69,751 76,715 10.0%
US 82,726 81,504 -1.5%
Total 534,332 571,577 7.0%
(Source: Volvo Car Group annual report in
2017) For the full year 2017, Western Europe gave just 2.8% increase in sales and
reported retail sales of 298,948 units. Important markets, including Germany, UK and
Belgium, all delivered slight growth, while sales in Sweden and Norway reached
nearly 7,000 units. The XC60 SUV model was the best-selling model with retail sales
of 61,148 units, while the XC90 SUV model strongly supported the overall solid sales
performance with 29,086 units sold. If counting each single nation, China became the
biggest consuming market of Volvo from 2013. Enjoying benefits from the tax cut of
small engine, Volvo Cars in China reached 25.8 % growth rate and 114,410 sold units.
In the USA, one of the most competitive market on over the world, Volvo keep selling
81,504 cars and received small decrease at -1.5%. Clearly, Volvo catched up with
SUV trend of global market and Volvo are on the way to increase their presence at
fast-developing areas.
Table 3. Top 07 luxury car brands have positive change from 2016 to 2017
Luxury Car Brands Have Positive Change 2016 2017 Change %
GEELY (INCLUDING VOLVO) 773,326 1,245,055 61%
MERCEDES 2,242,638 2,534,181 13%
RENAULT 2,126,380 2,275,227 7%
BMW 1,933,649 2,030,331 5%
SUBARU 1,000,371 1,050,390 5%
AUDI 1,829,320 1,847,613 1%
PEUGEOT 1,590,300 1,590,300 0%
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(Source: JATO global car and LCV sales press release in
2017) According to JATO3
analysis of global top 25 brands, Geely stood at 1st
position among seven luxury car brands having positive change from 2016 to 2017.
Actually, when Volvo became member of Geely automobile corporation, Geely has
continuously remained success for 7 years, and in 2017 Geely remarkably achieved
61% growth rate with 1,245,055 units including Volvo. On global scale, Volvo has
been growing unstopably, and the number of sold Volvo cars in 2017 is equal to
22.5% Mercedes – the luxury market leader, 28.2% BMW, 30.9% Audi.
In contrast, Volvo business activities in Vietnam did not bring successful results as
they achieved on world-wide scale or China in particular. VAMA statistics within
three nearest years indicated4
that Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, Audi and Peugeot have
been five most popular brands in the segment of luxury cars in Vietnam. Mercedes has
become the first choice when people buy a luxury car with over 50% market share in
luxury segment every year.4
Nordic Car company was received 60 billion Vietnam
Dong to develop Volvo in Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi, but 95 sold out units in 2016 and
160 sold out units in 2017 were big failures of the company after 17 months doing
business. The situation of Volvo in Ho Chi Minh branch has been worse since the
showroom was established in August 2016 in central area of luxury car dealers – Phu
My Hung town of District 7 of Ho Chi Minh city. Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch only
contributed 40 cars for 8 months of 2016 and 60 cars for entire 2017. The highest
monthly sales volume was just 8 cars still under the minimun sales target - 20 units
given by the branch managing director.
Table 4. Sales volume of luxury dealers around Volvo Ho Chi Minh in 2016 and 2017
Dealers Y16 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Y17
Mercedes 930 102 54 92 94 106 121 118 93 89 82 71 64 1,086
BMW 279 45 26 37 32 36 31 12 0 0 0 0 0 219
Peugeot 78 5 1 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 5 4 5 69
Lexus 706 42 16 43 45 48 51 53 47 45 36 38 32 496
Audi 298 26 7 23 24 28 33 35 32 33 26 18 13 298
Volvo 40 4 0 3 5 7 8 7 7 7 5 4 3 60
(Source: Volvo Ho Chi Minh Branch Sales Department)
There are 5 nearest luxury car showrooms around Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch namely:
Mercedes Phu My Hung, BMW Phu My Hung, Peugeot Phu My Hung, Lexus Ho Chi
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Minh and Audi Ho Chi Minh. All of these competitors are located in District 7 and
District 1, and their monthly sales volumes are always impressive which make them
among the best luxury car dealers in the city. According to data from Volvo Ho Chi
Minh sales department, Mercedes Phu My Hung sold out over 90 units per month in
2017, Lexus Ho Chi Minh got over 40 units, BMW Ho Chi Minh and Audi Ho Chi
Minh had 18 and 24 units, Peugeot Phu My Hung also achieved 6 units per month
even though Peugeot Phu My Hung are only permitted to sell for customers living in
small areas around central districts of the city by Thaco corporation – mother
company. For entire 12 months of 2017, Volvo Ho Chi Minh only sold out 60 cars
that was equal to 87% sales volume of Peugeot and approximately equal to 66.7%
sales volume of Mercedes Phu My Hung in only one average month. This low sales
result are unacceptable for 30 billion Vietnam Dong investment to Volvo Ho Chi
Minh branch. Although both general market demands for automobile industry and
luxury segment in 2017 were lower than the previous year due to government decree
number 116/2017/ND-CP on requirement for manufacturing, assembly and import of
motor vehicle and trade in motor vehicle warranty and mantenance service, Volvo Ho
Chi Minh sales volume was still extremely low comparing to other dealers in the same
location after two years operation.
Table 5. Statistics of prospects, buyers and closing ratio between Volvo Ho Chi Minh
and Volvo Ha Noi in 2017
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Y17
Ho Prospect
62 16 66 65 72 81 82 72 71 58 52 51 748
Chi
Minh Buyer 4 0 3 5 7 8 7 7 7 5 4 3 60
Closing
6.5 0.0 4.5 7.7 9.7 9.9 8.5 9.7 9.9 8.6 7.7 5.9 8.0
Ratio (%)
Ha Prospect 61 18 68 65 71 85 81 39 86 62 61 61 758
Noi Buyer 7 2 9 9 10 9 11 4 15 9 8 7 100
Closing
11.5 11.1 13.2 13.8 14.1 10.6 13.6 10.3 17.4 14.5 13.1 11.5 13.2
Ratio (%)
(Source: Volvo Ho Chi Minh Branch Sales Department)
Statistical numbers of prospects, buyers from those prospects, and closing ratio between
Volvo Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi showed that with similar numbers of prospects, Volvo
Ho Chi Minh generated only 60% buyers comparing to Volvo Ha
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Noi. Obviously, Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch has low sales results not only in
comparison with other luxury dealers around Volvo Ho Chi Minh area, but also in
comparison with Volvo Ha Noi branch.
In the meeting of board of directors of Nordic Car company in December 2017, Mr.
Mai Viet Ha – chairman of Nordic Car concluded that
We need to accept that our sales results were too low comparing to other luxury
automobile distributors. Volvo has been stronger than ever before on over the world.
Volvo changed and succeeded with three famous commitments safety, technology and
environment. However, Nordic Car could not follow what Volvo did to succeed on global
scale. We need to review each aspect that influence our low sales: product, price, place,
or promotion, in order to find out the most effective solutions.
With the limit of time and cost of the solving problem project, this study will find the
main reason of Volvo Ho Chi Minh low sales results and suggest solutions and prove
them efficient in applying into company’s problem.
This study approach is based on qualitative method including secondary data from
JATO, VAMA, Ministry of Industry and Trade of The Socialist Republic of Vietnam
reports, data of Nordic Car sales and marketing departments, and in-depth interviews
from different groups of respondents such as: Volvo Ho Chi Minh salespeople, sales
and marketing managers in Volvo Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi branches, showroom
managing directors, and customers who bought Volvo cars and another refused to
buy.
3. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Based on the survey that Dealer Customer Relation Center (DCRC) of Volvo Ho Chi
Minh Marketing department conducted by calling and sending emails to Volvo
prospects, the results obviously showed reasons why Volvo prospects refuse to buy
Volvo cars. DCRC received prospects data from Sales and Marketing department.
Every month, both offline and online campaigns brought to Volvo Ho Chi Minh about
60 people who reached 4 criterion for Volvo prospect: having enough money to buy a
Volvo car with minimum price at 2.7 billion Vietnam Dong, having legal rights to buy
a Volvo car, intending to buy a Volvo car within one month, and providing clearly
enough contacting information such as emails, phone numbers, home addresses. In the
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end of each month, DCRC employees would interview these Volvo prospects in order
to understand why or why not those prospects chose Volvo cars. There were 427
people among total 748 prospects gave their opinions about why they refuse to buy
Volvo cars in Nordic Car Ho Chi Minh branch in 2017.
Reasons Why Prospects Refuse To Buy Volvo Cars In 2017
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Less luxury than other cars (PRODUCT)
Few differentiated features (PRODUCT)
No assembly plant in Vietnam (PRODUCT)
Inconvenient to visit showrooms (PLACE)
No second-level agencies in provinces (PLACE)
Few ads appears online (PROMOTION)
Few ads appears offline (PROMOTION)
Boring public relations activities (PROMOTION)
Unattractive cash discount offers (PROMOTION)
Few gifts and tangible value (PROMOTION)
Poor product practical guide (PERSONAL SELLING)
Lack of customer regular care (PERSONAL SELLING)
Weak team selling added value (PERSONAL SELLING)
Extravagant price of sedan models (PRICE)
Expensive price for imported spare parts (PRICE)
33%
28%
24%
17%
26%
18%
23%
16%
26%
32%
47%
74%
68%
35%
29%
Figure 7. Reason why prospects refuse to buy Volvo cars In 2017
(Source: Dealer Customer Relation Center of Volvo Ho Chi Minh Marketing
department) By looking at the statistical numbers of DCRC interview, it showed many
reasons affecting low sales results of Volvo Ho Chi Minh: products less luxury than other
cars, product not having many differentiated features, product not having assembly plant in
Vietnam, inconvenient to visit showrooms, lack of second-level agents in other provinces,
few advertisements appearing online, few advertisements appearing offline, boring public
relations activities, unattractive cash discount offers, few gifts and additional value,
salespeople lack of product practical guide, salespeople lack of clients regular care, weak
team selling of accessory or finance or insurance or service,
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extravagant price of sedan models, expensive imported spare parts. Actually, there
were other reasons also affecting low sales results of the company, but the ratio was
lower than 10% (it meant lower than 42 people raising those opinions in an entire
2017 year) slightly impacted on the issue. Therefore, they will not be mentioned in
this thesis, and 15 negative reasons above from actual customer’s view will be real
foundation for the research to find out the main problem and the crucial cause which
led to low sales results suympton of Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch.
In 1953, American Marketing Association addressed the term “marketing mix” as the
most fundamental concept of marketing which is a set of tools that companies use to
make desired response to in targeted markets.7(p1)
Shoham8
concluded that marketing
mix elements including product, price, place, promotion, personal selling are primary
have strong effects on business performance. Moreover, in order to make the study
more convinced and clearer, together with the supporting theories about 4P’s factors
in marketing mix and statistical results from DCRC surveys, 8 in-depth interview
were conducted with four main groups as below:
- The first group are two Volvo Ho Chi Minh sales consultants, one is
experienced and one is fresh.
- The second groups are 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
directors of Nordic Car company.
- The fourth group are two customers used to come to Volvo Ho Chi
Minh branch, one refused to buy cars and one one accepted to buy a
Volvo car.
Considering 15 negative reasons of Volvo buying refusal from actual customers in
2017 together with 4P’s theories and in-depth interviews, there are 6 potential
problems leading to low sales results of Nordic Car company in Ho Chi Minh branch
as follows: (1) Unsuitable products for Vietnamese, (2) Inconvenient business place,
(3) Inefficient advertising and PR activities, (4) Unattractive direct sales promotion,
(5) Ineffective personal selling activities and (6) Uncompetitive price.
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3.1. Potential Problems
3.1.1 Unsuitable products for Vietnamese
Riaz and Tanveer9
stated that “Product is something or anything that can be offered to
the customers for attention, acquisition, or consumption and satisfies some want or
need”. Product is the main part between selling and buying. Volvo car is the first thing
that a Volvo prospect considers. In 2004, Kotler10
suggested that a product should be
viewed in three level: core product, actual product and augmented product. Core
product means that the core benefit that the product could offer like purchasing a
camera is buying memories. Actual product means that product could bring
differential advantage from its competitors. Augmented product means that non-
tangible benefit of possessing product like after-sales service or free delivery and so
forth.
Firstly, Volvo seems to be less luxury than other brands in Vietnam because 2016 was
the first year when Volvo officially distributed cars in Vietnam, so Vietnamese
consumers are not familiar to Volvo products and they tend to choose other luxury car
brands which have been operating business in Vietnam for decades.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam – a prospect who used to come to Ho Chi Minh showroom
and decided not to buy Volvo stated that:
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.
Kotler and Armstrong11
told that consumers view a brand as an important part of the
product, and branding can add value to the product. Volvo starts to distribute in
Vietnam too late comparing to Mercedes or BMW or Audi, so people with little
understanding about luxury brands who buying luxury cars for show-off purpose tend
to be discreet to immediately choose Volvo.
Secondly, Not many people in Vietnam have much knowledge about luxury cars and
they are familiar to use cars which are specialized design for Vietnamese condition.
20

Thus, they criticized that Volvo in Vietnam does not have many differentiation
comparing to other luxury cars.
Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy – an experienced salesman in Volvo Ho Chi Minh stated that
Most of people who have enough money to buy a car with over 2 billion Vietnam Dong
but having little knowledge about luxury cars, it’s very hard to persuade them to buy
Volvo right after some meetings or discussions and it’s even harder when they finish their
testing drive. They always complain that they feel slightly different with other cars, while
with 2.7 billion Vietnam Dong they can buy a similar car plus a big set of gifts. Some
people immediately walk out the showroom when I refuse to give them better offers. It’s
so difficult to inspire Vietnamese customers by luxury Scandinavian values.
Lastly, Volvo features are assumed that they are unsuitable for Vietnamese users
demands because Volvo does not have an assembly plant in Vietnam to adjust these
features.
Mrs Luu Bao Huong – Marketing manager of Ho Chi Minh branch also gave her
comments on product that
All of Volvo models that we have right now in Vietnam are 100% imported from Sweden
and they are all designed for global use with international standards, not specialized for
Vietnamese. There are some people claimed that Volvo does not have assembly plant in
Vietnam, so Volvo cars has superfluous features which are unsuitable for Vietnamese
traffic situation such as automatic braking and vibrating the whole car when many
motorcycles ride across car’s head, or deeper tire groove for anti-slippery in snowy
weather.
3.1.2 Inconvenient business place
Kotler10
defined place “as a set of interdependent organizations that caters to the
process of making a product available to the consumers”. According to Goi12
and
Muala & Qurneh13
stated that distribution system is a key external resource. An
organization should pay attention to place decisions, because of the importance of the
product and consumption occurring at the same time and at the same place; a place
that provides all information of customer, competition, promotion action, and
marketing task. Normally it takes years to build, and it is not easily changed. It ranks
it importance with key internal resources such as manufacturing, research,
engineering, and field sales personnel and facilities. It represents, as well, a
21

commitment to a set of policies and practices that constitute the basic fabric on which
is woven an extensive set of long-term relationships. All car corporations are alike in
distribution by opening networks of showrooms. Nordic Car company is not an
exceptional case, and Volvo South East Asia decided to locate two showrooms, one in
district 7 - Ho Chi Minh city and one in Long Bien district - Ha Noi capital. In Ho Chi
Minh city, there are some complaints from both customers and salespeople about the
location.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam – a consumer used to visit showroom complained that Ho
Chi Minh branch is not a convenient place to visit
I think that a luxury car showroom need to locate in district 1 where luxury users usually
live and work, so they can see Volvo cars every working day. This Volvo showroom
located in district 7 which 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
heavy goods, so many luxury guests won’t visit the showroom because they are afraid of
truck accidents.
Ms. Le Thi Phuong – a fresh salesperson in Ho Chi Minh branch thought that the
location has high retal price and there is high competition among many old luxury
brands.
In my own opinion, Volvo Ho Chi Minh locating in Phu My Hung town in central of
district 7 is inconvenient for selling Volvo cars. The rental price is a burden for finance
and we have to fight in old castles of Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, and Peugeot. Although
the number of daily visitors are up to 6 or 7 people in a same period of time, I usually
struggle with gathering all customer data and taking care of them after their visits. Many
of them already bought other cars before I call them again after few days.
Riaz and Tanveer9
also stated that “a company can adopt multiple channels to get its
product to the customers, these channels can be direct and indirect, and choice of
channel has strong effect on sales.
Mrs. Ngo Kieu Trinh – a consumer who bought a Volvo XC90 in Ho Chi Minh
branch complained that
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 7. I and my husband had to
take many off-working days and went to district 7 to visit Volvo showroom many times
22

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.
3.1.3 Inefficient advertisements and PR activities
Based on statement of Bannett14
in Dictionary of Marketing Term book, modern
marketing is more than just developing a good product, attractive price and making
the product available to customers. Companies also have to communicate with their
customers, and the company communication program is called promotion mix.
Promotion mix consist of advertising, public relation (PR), sales promotion and
personal selling.
Mishra15
stated that promotion can be loosely classified as “above-the-line” and
“below-the-line” promotion. The promotional activities carried out through mass
media like television, radio, newspaper, search engines online, etc. is above-the-line
promotion. This kind of promotion is also devided into online and offline activities.
Firstly, Nordic Car Sales and Marketing department has conducted many programs for
offline advertising since establishment of the two showrooms, the consequence still
remains at lows sales numbers. Both two Sales and Marketing managers thought that
low supporting budget from Volvo South East Asia could not help them conduct
strong offline advertising activities enough to compete with other luxury 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 recent time costs much money and they tried many
times to argue with marketing managers in South East Asia headquarter of Volvo
corporation about increase budget of advertising support for Vietnam market, but
Nordic Car did not receive more money from Volvo corporation. Even though
marketing team of Volvo in South East Asia gave feedback that Volvo is already a big
and famous luxury car brand in Asia, and Vietnamese dealers should only carry out
their guidance in marketing campaigns without any more changes.
Secondly, Nordic Car Sales and Marketing department in Ho Chi Minh spent most of
budget to build Volvo brand online, while digital performance was not concentrated
on seriously.
23

Mr. Nguyen Anh Linh – Managing Director of Ha Noi showroom confirmed that
It seems like both Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi marketing teams worried too much about
Volvo visibility online instead of finding potential customers from developed online
foundation. Renting many banners of Volvo brands on online automobile forums costed
us billions Vietnam Dong, but it not yet helps bring more contracts to our company.
Many online channels today such as Facebook, Google, or Instagram becomes effective
tools to bring direct customers for luxury car dealers with precisely tracking index of
efficiency.
Moreover, sales consultant also blamed that PR activities of Ho Chi Minh branch are
not helpful in creating more deals for salespeople.
Mr. Le Thi Phuong – a Nordic Car fresh sales consultant in Ho Chi Minh said that
I think that Volvo PR activities are not effective and waste too much money. Nordic Car
directors appearing on national TV in order to give gifts for orphans would never
stimulate any person to call us to have a meeting. These wasting activities could not help
us have more deals. Instead of wasting money like this, why don’t they increase our
commission in order to give us more motivation or lower price for customers?
3.1.4 Unattractive direct sales promotion
Mishra15
also said that above-the-line promotion is not effective with limited and
specific target customers, but direct sales promotion is effective. Luxury car buyers
are really specific-targeted consumers, and they are easy to be defined by some
criterion that luxury car retailers usually called standards of a luxury prospect such as
having money, having legal right to possess a car, having demand of a luxury car, and
having clear information to contact.
Doyle and Stern16
stated that sales promotion is commonly used to have sales increase
in short term by using money off coupons or special offers or free goods, and it is
used because results are quickly.
When the advertising give customer a rational or emotional argument for buying
product, sales promotion gives an economical argument. However, this kind of
promotion was not used as strength of Nordic Car to improve their sales results.
Firstly, while other companies successfully exploit customers by professional direct
approach with price reducing contents in letters, Nordic Car company seems spend
24

much money on branding activities, but superficial in professional direct discount
offers.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam said that he knows Volvo brand because he used to watch
Volvo advertisements on TV last month and sees advertisements every morning on
advertising display screen at the ground floor of his working building. Nevertheless,
one of many reasons accelerated his decision to come to Mercedes showroom to buy a
car because he was obsessed by Mercedes test-drive invitation letters on his table
every month with professional design and attractive discount offer with Mercedes
director’s signature in the end of the letter. Volvo salesman only sent him a simple
quotation once without any attractive cash discount.
Secondly, Nordic Car hardness in gifts and additional value for customers is an
emerging topic that sales consultants and customers always talk about. Customers
compared that they suffered loss when they decide to buy Volvo cars, because other
brands like Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus promise to give them many gifts or other
additional value if they agree to deposit money and wait for their cars. Mrs. Ngo Kieu
Trinh said that
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.
Managers and directors of Nordic Car also admitted that giving little budget for cash
discount and tangible gifts may cause some difficulties for salespeople , but they
believe that this way could keep the premium value of Volvo products in the initial
time appearing in Vietnam and this is also their calculated strategy.
3.1.5 Ineffective personal selling activities
Khan7(p101)
called that personal selling is one kind of promotion that a representative
of a company meets customers personally to sell products. Personal selling can be
understood as a sub-function of promotion in marketing mix theory, but it plays a very
important role in the success of all companies. The task of advertising is to raise
25

awareness to the consumers, the task of PR is to create interest by spreading out
positive information, the task of sales promotion is to encourage and give possible
buyers additional benefits, whereas personal selling is to get the final goal of doing
business – achieveing closed contracts. However, the real survey results of buying
refusal from customers in 2017 indicated that Ineffective personal selling activities
had the highest ratio of blame why customer refuse to purchase Volvo car among
other 5 problems. Moreover, through depth interviews, both customers and company’s
members mentioned about the ineffectiveness of personal selling activities as one of
big problem of Volvo Ho Chi Minh city.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam said that
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 1 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.
Obviously, there are major mistakes in personal selling process of Volvo Ho Chi
Minh branch from saving customer information to handling data, and from processed
data to presentation and closing the deal. Customer data was saved uncarefully, and
the data system in sales team was not clear and optimized. Moreover, disregard of
practical guide on a real car for customer to experience Volvo functions then quickly
jumping into price and added value dealing is another failure. Presentation step is
26

important step in personal selling process, and the failure of this step would not help
sales consultants overcome customer objections.18
Ms. Ngo Kieu Trinh – the customer who already bought a Volvo Car of Ho Chi Minh
branch shared that
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
do 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.
Eventhough a customer who already bought Volvo car from Ho Chi Minh dealer also
complained about ineffective personal selling activities. Disregard of practical guide
on a new product like Volvo with Vietnamese customer is a crucial factor prevent
selling process moving to the closing stage. On the other hand, meesy and unarranged
work lead to weak team selling added value for customers. This weakness of the
whole team is also a barrier for the effectiveness of personal selling activities.
Moncrief WC, Marshall GW19
indicated that when the pressure of competitiveness,
difficult conditions of doing business are rising up, the old personal selling method
shift to the moderner, and individual selling is replaced by selling with a team or
business center to assure sales performance.
Mr. Nguyen Quang Phong – Sales and Marketing manager of Volvo Ha Noi affirmed
that
In Ha Noi we saw the main problem of our dealer comes from the selling activities.
Supporting employees are overload with sudden tasks from salespeople. In one moment,
there maybe 3 to 4 people need them to help or provide information. They can not
directly handle unarranged jobs within 8 hours per day. Besides, we figured out that the
sales team did not have a common communication channel to inform each other about
work requirements, support information.
27

Bubnjević17
stated that in the era of marketing orientation after Second World War,
personal selling had more significant role than the time of production orientation, and
personal selling consists of consultative selling, strategic sales, and period of building
partnerships. In order to successfully conduct all parts of personal selling, sales
consultants need to collect, save, process potential customer’s data, then use this giant
database to keep in touch with eligible buyers. However, it seems like Volvo Ho Chi
Minh sales consultants have failed conduct it. Ms. Le Thi Phuong complained that
I think that the biggest issue is the poor sales tool for taking care of potential customers. I
am really confused in following my prospects by messy Excel files on my computers. I
feel tired with sending many reports and bring my laptop along with me all the time. To
tell the truth, I think that our bosses don’t have enough internal resources to build a
professional tool like Mercedes or Audi or even Toyota. You know, we have just
established 17 months.
3.1.6 Uncompetitive price
Nordic Car company are distributing three models of Volvo cars in Vietnam namely
S90 sedan, XC60 SUV and XC90 SUV. Main competitors of Volvo S90 sedan are
Audi A6, Mercedes E250, BMW 528i. Comparing among 4 sedan cars, Volvo S90
has the highest selling price at 2.7 billion Vietnam Dong, while Audi A6 is 2.4 billion
Vietnam Dong, 2.5 billion Vietnam Dong for a Mercedes E250 and BMW 528i has
the second highest price right after Volvo S90 at 2.6 billion Vietnam Dong.
Consumers usually complain that Volvo S90 was priced far beyond it’s using value
and much higher than other famous competitors. Wiedmann KP, Hennigs N, Siebels
A26
concluded that it is vital to recognize that a product or service have to be
expensive to be judged as a luxury good or luxurious, and luxury consumers demand
more value than only extravagant price.
Vigneron F, Johnson LW27
defined that a product is called luxury when it has the
highest level of prestigious brand encompassing several physical and psychological
values. Mr Nguyen Thanh Tam used to say that he decided to choose Mercedes E250
instead of Volvo S90 sedan due to more prestigious brand and a cheaper price. In
addition, customers considered that Volvo spare parts could be more expensive than
28

other brands like Mercedes or Lexus because Mercedes and Lexus had their own
plants in Vietnam.
Mr Nguyen Thanh Tam blamed that
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.
Sales consultants were also stuck in many questions from customers like Mr Nguyen
Thanh Tam. They usually avoid answering those kinds of queries about high price of
Volvo spare parts due to imported taxes. Ms Le Thi Phuong shared that she used to
find service managers to ask for the solutions, but they were not affirmed how
imported taxes affect on Volvo spare parts, so she chose to accept what customers
told. She said that
Another reason is the price of spare parts which made repair cost of Volvo cars. I usually
get stuck and accept that customers were right about Volvo expensive spare parts because
of origin from Sweden. I used to find solutions from services managers, but they were not
sure that if imported taxes of Sweden spare parts affect Volvo spare parts price or not in
comparison with other luxury brands origin from South East Asia countries.
3.2. Problem Validation
Automobile industry in Asian-pacific area and particularly in Vietnam have strongly
developed recent years. Volvo is also on a strong growth path among many
prestigious luxury manufacturers. However, negative symptons of Volvo business in
Ho Chi Minh city with low sales results comparing to other luxury dealers and even
Volvo Ha Noi are really worrying for Nordic Car directors. Therefore, validation of
the main problem among six identified problems above is an important foundation to
have appropriate solutions for positive changes.
29

3.2.1 Eliminating product, place, promotion and price as the main problem
Regarding to unsuitable product for Vietnamese, this issue is not a major problem
leading to low sales results of Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch. In fact, Volvo is a brand of
quality and suitability for high class users in Vietnam. On the aspect of showing social
status of luxury users, Volvo is always ranked among top best luxury car brands on
over the worlds. US News agency ranked Volvo as one of best 14 luxury cars in
2016,28
or Forbes magazine chose Volvo as one of ten luxury car brands in China, or
Europe Business Review electronic magazine ranked Volvo at 7th
position in top ten
car brands in Europe. Moreover, Volvo has been continuously voted as the best car of
the year from 2015 to 2016 by many prestigious news agencies and automobile
magazines like Business Insider, Auto Express magazine, TU Automotive.29
In
Vietnam, Xe Hay magazine judged Volvo XC90 as the best luxury SUV car which
had the most advanced technology among many luxury car brands such as Mercedes
ML-Class, BMW X5, Audi Q7, Ranger Rover Discovery.30
Actually, less luxury than
other brands or few differentiated features are sophism of consumers using to deal
with sales consultants. Any customer who knew clearly about Volvo or not would try
to find some reasons to take advantage in dealing process. On the technical aspect of
car features, Volvo is far beyond Vietnamese expectation. IIHS (Insurance Institute
for Highway Safety organization of United State of America) voted Volvo S90 as one
of the safest car in large luxury segment in 2017.31
Volvo first priority is safety and
they are also famous for safety in many decades. Their philosophy of design is
“around people”, so besides bringing luxury level to buyers, Volvo provides most
advanced safety technologies including active and passive safety to Vietnamese
buyers when there are nearly 9000 people death by traffic accidents every year in
Vietnam.32
Many features which are alleged as superfluities such as 360o
collision
warning system or blind spots warning displaying on windshield of Volvo XC90 are
only equipped on Mercedes S class cars with price range from 5 billion to 12 billion
Vietnam Dong. On the other hand, sales consultant also admitted that it is difficult and
takes time for them to inspire consumer about Volvo value, and they choose the
easiest way to sell car by begging managers to lower the price. Furthermore, most of
luxury car brands in Vietnam had absolutely imported products, and they have no
30

assembly plant in Vietnam. Only one exceptional case is Mercedes, but Mercedes also
imported spare parts. Moreover, Mercedes Benz Vietnam assembled few kinds of
sedan cars with price range from 1 billion Vietnam Dong to nearly 2 billion Vietnam
Dong, while SUV or other kinds are absolutely imported from Germany. Mercedes
Benz Vietnam has just announced to assemble S class and Maybach since 2018.
Inconvenient business place is also not a main reason causing low sales results of
Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch. District 7 in Ho Chi Minh city is ideal locations for
building luxury car dealers with all of luxury brands in Vietnam. Some consumers
may blame that district 7 is far from district 1, but many years ago many luxury
brands like Mercedes or BMW decided to open more new dealers in district 7 because
they really need wide area enough for international standard of new modern dealers.
Concentrating in central area of the city was an old trend of developing luxury car
dealers because of extremely-high rental price and traffic jam. Therefore, locating
Volvo dealer in district 7 in Ho Chi Minh city is a reasonable choice. Even sales
people of Nordic Car company admitted that they lose many deals from other luxury
brands like Mercedes, BMW, Porsche because they are unable to arrange appropriate
time to follow all of the Volvo prospects. Sales consultants just tried to hide their
weakness in selling activities by aiming to the location competitiveness. Besides, the
decision of locating authorized dealers and opening second-level agencies is not
dependent only on Nordic Car board of directors. Location of dealers and second-level
agencies must be accepted by Volvo corporation in South East Asia area, so in the
scale of distributor and dealer Nordic Car company cannot choose the location of
dealers only by themselves. Moreover, Nordic Car directors determined that building
Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch as a professional dealer of luxury car is their first priority
in two years, not opening other branches in provinces.
Mr. Bui Cao Sinh – Managing director of Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch shared that
I knew that building a wide network of many showrooms could help us increase visibility
and open more opportunities to sell cars. However, in initial time we really want to stay
focus on building one standardized showroom. Optimizing 30 billion Vietnam Dong
investment for a professional dealer of luxury car is the first priority within two years
31

since establishment. I believe that we only compete directly with strong competitors by a
careful preparation and a stable determination.
Regarding to inefficient advertisements and PR activities, they are not key factors
leading to low sales results of Nordic Car company. According to statistics of Sales
and Marketing department in Table 5, above-the-line promotion activities in 2017
brought to Ho Chi Minh branch similar numbers of prospects as Ho Noi branch at
around 750 people, but the closing ratio in Ha Noi branch was much higher than Ho
Chi Minh branch. Average closing ratio of Ha Noi branch for entire 12 months of
2017 is 13.2%, while Ho Chi Minh branch got only about 8.0%. Over 60 potential
customers in a month were a certain success with many efforts from marketing team.
The mission of advertising and PR activities are to cause a change of mind leading
toward purchase, but not moving prospects from completely unawareness to buying
decision.23(p251)
Marketing team tried to use nearly all channels of mass media to
raise awareness for Volvo – a new luxury car brand comparing to Mercedes, BMW,
Audi in Vietnam with a limited budget from corporation. Obviously, the remarkably
low sales results of Volvo Ho Chi Minh do not derive mainly from advertisements and
PR activities.
For unattractive direct sales promotion, this topic is always a stable reason for
customers to argue with sales people, and sales consultants usually use it to discuss
with sales managers to avoid from fighting with wise customers. However, this issue
was thoroughly resolved in Volvo Ho Chi Minh policy itself. Volvo Ho Chi Minh
managers want to create differentiation among other dealers and keep long term
relationship with customers by transferring all tangible gifts into five-years warranty
together with one-year free maintenance and free rescue every time within five-years
warranty for each sold car. All of other luxury car brands only offer three-years
warranty. This intangible value was not explained in detail to right prospects who are
able to buy Volvo cars when they know this policy. Prospects in decisive stage who
will definitely buy Volvo or another luxury brand like Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam were
not followed and taken care of carefully with an appropriate schedule. Thus, sales
consultants always complain sales promotion policy, but they do not realize that their
biggest mistake was unsaving proper information to following-up right prospects.
32

For uncompetitive price, Volvo corporation position their products in luxury segment,
so they never choose medium pricing or cheap pricing strategy for any model on any
market around the world. Wiedmann et al33
stated that setting a high price or called
prestige pricing suggests high quality or status and make product more desirable. In
Vietnam, when Volvo are set in luxury segment with Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus,
Volvo cars definitely need to have similar high price. According to Mr. Nguyen Anh
Linh - Managing Director of Volvo Ha Noi Showroom, Nordic Car company depends
on wholesale price from Volvo corporation, and a dealer is not allowed to lower the
price lower than 5% without permission from Volvo South East Asia. Volvo S90 is
sold about 2.7 billion Vietnam Dong in 2017. Therefore, Nordic Car are not allowed
to sell S90 car under 2.565 billion Vietnam Dong even when sales bonus can
compensate the costs, while Mercedes E250 in the same segment is sold at 2.5 billion
Vietnam Dong. Moreover, Mr Nguyen Anh Linh also explained more detail that
Volvo S90 cars used by Sweden royal family only have symbolic meaning for luxury
Volvo brand in business. Volvo S90 cars are imported to Vietnam market with very
limited numbers about 6 to 10 cars per year, while Volvo SUV XC90 model
accounted for a large part of sales structure with a competitive price in luxury SUV
segment. XC90 cars were set at 3.399 billion Vietnam Dong comparing to 3.588
billion Vietnam Dong for a BMW X5 or 3.788 billion Vietnam Dong for a Audi Q7.
Obviously, setting high price for S90 sedan model is a reasonable decision due to
numbers and structure of cars in storage, and an appropriate branding strategy.
On the other hand, domestic automobile spare parts are simple, while all main spare
parts are completely imported with 90% origin from Thailand, Korea, Japan and
China.34
According to Decree No.153/2017/ND-CP35
most of spare parts original
from Asean countries and China was not allowed decrease tax rate from 10%-30% to
0% since 2017. Spare parts for automobile from tariff code 87.01 to 87.05 has been
imposed tax rate as normal way under Decree No.125/2017/ND-CP36
. Therefore,
spare parts from Sweden or Germany or even Japan are imposed similar tax rate.
Higher price of Volvo spare parts is actually a negative rumor that customers rely on
them to win sales consultants in negotiation. From those reasons above, uncompetitive
price of sedan type and spare parts are not the most important reason lead to low sales
33

results and these issues cannot be solved by only Nordic Car company without
agreement from Volvo corporation to adjust everything relavant to price.
3.2.2 Illuminating ineffective personal selling as the main problem
It can be seen among six factors that ineffective personal selling activities is the main
problem leading to low sales results of Nordic Car company because of three main
reasons as below.
Firstly, most of people who took part in the in-depth interview indicated that the key
problem leading to low sales results of Nordic Car company is related mainly to
personal selling activities. Customers said that they were not regularly taken care of
by Volvo Ho Chi Minh sales consultants comparing to other sales people in other
luxury car dealers. Customers even complained that they had to explain how to use
some modern features of Volvo cars to sales consultants, because they discovered
differences between theoretical presentation and practical-using skill of sales people.
Both prospects and people who may be ready to move to signing contracts felt
uncomfortable and tiring when they had to wait too long and sometimes received
inaccurate information of accessories, insurance, bank loans, or warranty policies
from sales team. Managers and directors also stated that they got stuck in solving
daily issues of their sales consultants with messy schedules and customer’s
complaints. Sales consultants also admitted that they missed many sales opportunities
because they used so much time for Excel reports, and they are not able to arranging
appropriate time to nurture potential relationships, and they do not know how to
improve current circumstance without help from colleague.
Secondly, product, place and above the line promotion (advertisements and PR) are
three important P’s of a general marketing strategy (4P’s) that Volvo Ho Chi Minh
branch has well done with limited resources they had after one and a half year
operation. In a short period of time, using limited resources for these 3 P’s also
brought to Volvo Ho Chi Minh about 60 prospects per month who were truly eligible
to buy Volvo cars. Certainly, in order to maintain high sales results like Mercedes,
BMW, Audi or Lexus, Volvo Ho Chi Minh have to be together with Nordic Car
company to prepare carefully for a long-term plan investing in these 3P’s fields with
better budgets. However, wasting 92% remaining eligible buyers is an indisputable
34

failure of the P: Personal selling. Furthermore, choosing which product should be
imported to sell in Vietnam, building up more agencies under Volvo Ho Chi Minh
branch in other provinces, or increasing double or triple budget for promotion are not
able to decide only by Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch director. Optimizing closing ratio
on 60 monthly prospects is the most neccesary duty in this period.
Thirdly, creating intangible value by lengthening warranty and maintenance and
setting high price of S90 sedan model are suitably calculated actions to make
differentiation for Volvo among many famous competitors in current time. After
analysing among many P’s factors which Volvo Ho Chi Minh managers should
concentrate changes to receive better sales results in a short term of time, only
personal selling activities need to improve as soon as possible.
4. POTENTIAL CAUSES
Dubinsky18
presented one of the oldest process through selling history since 1980 with 7
steps as following: (1) prospecting, (2) preapproach, (3) approach, (4) presentation,
(5) overcoming objections, (6) close, and (7) follow-up. Final outcome of personal
selling activities in every business organization was explained by how successfully
each step was conducted from the first to the seventh. However, today transformative
factors including booming technology, competitve environment, expanding
organization selling roles, team-based approaches to selling, increased knowledgeable
buyers, and others moved the traditional seven steps to a modern selling process.18
clearly described the evolution of the modern selling
process with important transformative factors applied in the vast majority of the
Fortune 500 firms. By looking closely at this new paradigm and analysing the actual
situation of Volvo Ho Chi Minh personal selling steps, potential causes of ineffective
personal selling activities would be obviously revealed.
Table 6. Evolved selling process
Traditional seven steps of selling Transformative factors Evolved selling process
(1) Prospecting Telemarketing ,Internet (1)Customer retention
selling, and deletion
Organizational prospecting
(2) Preapproach Laptop account data (2)Database and
Support staff knowledge management
(3) Approach Build a foundation (3)Nurturing the
35

relationship
(4) Presentation PowerPoint/ (4) Marketing product
multimedia
Listening
Team selling
Multiple calls
Value-added
Buying centers
(5) Overcoming Predetermining (5) Problem solving
objections needs
(6) Close Identifying mutual (6) Adding
goals value/satisfying
needs
(7) Follow-up Increased (7) Customer relationship
effectiveness of maintenance
communication
through technology
(Source: The evolution of the seven steps of selling19
)
4.1. Lack of professional customer relationship management system
In the first three stages of personal selling process, Volvo Ho Chi Minh sales
consultants lose a lot of potential customers because they are not able to make
appropriate appointments for all prospects due to unsuccessfully nurtured
relationships. To make a successful appointment for presentation, sales people need to
collect precise database and knowledge about the prospect and have a suitable
schedule to keep in touch and take care of them. Szymanski DM20
clearly stated that
the most important determinant of selling effectiveness is declarative knowledge and
it is the database used to interpret and identify customer’s needs. After 17 months,
Volvo Ho Chi Minh sales team still use Microsoft Excel software to store customer
data, send price quotation and car catalogue to customers, and send raw reports to
their managers, because the entire employees and managers underestimated the
importance of database and knowledge management with a modern managing sales
system from the initial time of operation. They did not recognize that managing
database and knowledge about prospects by technological supports is the extremely
important step in the evolved selling process. Moreover, sales consultants only input
information which they think that it really helpful for winning more contracts into
36

Excel files, and they always struggle with messy data and unscheduled activities from
customer’s requirements.
Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy admitted that
In the beginning time, notebooks and Excel files were enough for us to collect data from
customers and make our own schedules to work. However, only after three months,
everything was getting chaotic. Amount of information increased uncontrollably, so many
experienced sales consultants like me tried to assess customers by intuition and focused
on people who we thought that they could be potential to buy Volvo cars the nearest time.
To tell the truth, finding messy data and making Excel reports are terrible things that we
have to face day by day.
Obviously, Volvo Ho Chi Minh sales team underestimated the importance of a
professional system to store, categorize, track and manage customer information.
Therefore, they can not prospect right customers and defind right needs to enhance
their working results. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam said that he visited Volvo showroom
by himself without any calling of reminding from Volvo salespeople, while the
Mercedes sales consultant called him twice a week to pull him to Mercedes
showroom. Especially, the sales consultant of Mercedes always call him in the Friday
evening when he has the most free time in a busy week. He felt that Volvo does not
need him to purchase anything from them. In highly competitive market where
Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus are ruling the game with big shares, especially target
customers are rich people, losing one prospect means giving money and all prospect’s
relationships to competitors. Managers and directors of Volvo Ho Chi Minh admitted
that they are overwhelming with disjointed daily reports and chaotic phone call from
sales people, but they did not know how to build a effective system in order to replace
Excel files from internal resources.
Mr. Bui Cao Sinh – Managing director of Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch stated that
Volvo Ha Noi sales team communicate and support each other more effectively than
his branch because they use Google Spreadsheet in daily reports and storage
customers data. Google Spreadsheet is actually similar to an Excel file which is
provided by Google on internet and online stored data is able to approach by anyone
having right of access. However, Google Spreadsheet is not designed to specialise in
37

modern selling functions such as setting up sales meetings with customers, reminding
sales people to take care of prospects, automating quotation emails and car photos,
and so forth. Mr. Sinh and Volvo Ho Chi Minh managers really want to make an
advance, but they lack of resources to build anything better.
4.2. Disregard of technical guide on Volvo functions
Secondly, from the beginning time, board of directors strongly focus on recruiting
many experienced sales people from other luxury car companies like Mercedes, Audi,
BMW with at least 3 years working in luxury segment of car industry in order to
quickly generate sales results. However, this action brought a negative consequence
that almost all experienced sales people in Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch only
concentrate on price dealing but they disregard practial guide of using Volvo cars,
especially complex functions as XC90 model. On the other hand, many fresh sales
consultants could talk all day about the beauty, comfort and fashion among premium
cars, but when the customers took test-driving tours with them, they seemed to be
confused to proficiently use some modern functions such as voice guidance system
combining to Apple Car Play application on Volvo touching screen. Too much
confident on theoretical knowledge and disregarding practical guide from fresh
salespeople in consulting caused insecure feeling for customers to buy such an
expensive technical product as Volvo car. McMurry21
clarified sales task for technical
products that explaining the function of a product to a prospect as well as adapting it
to individual customer’s need, and such sales people who are called engineering sales
are required expert knowledge of product capabilities and designs. People who has
less understandings about Volvo cars would stop their buying process immediately,
then get back home to search more about Volvo information to guarantee their
decisions in the next time visiting a luxury car showroom, but people who understood
about Volvo would reject to believe in the unpractical counselling and argue
immediately with the sales consultants about how to use the function in a right
method. Mrs. Ngo Kieu Trinh bought a Volvo car, and she commented that her
husband showed the salesman how to use Vietnamese voice to control the navigation
system with an Android mobile phone, while the salesman affirmed that Volvo
navigation system could not work with Vietnamese language. Brooksbank22
indicated
38

that specification of products is one of 7 elements in selling mix which enable
salesperson to clinch the deal with prospects. In the presentation step of modern
selling process, Volvo Ho Chi Minh sales team continues failed to move prospects to
the next step to close the deal. Although sales people refused to accept that they
disregard practical guide of using modern technical products like Volvo XC90 version
2017, both customers and managers blamed that this is a major mistake of Volvo Ho
Chi Minh sales team in personal selling activities. Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy – said that
high scores in theoretical tests of entire sales team about Volvo products contrasted
with the results of practical test from Volvo South East Asia training program in 2017,
and most of sales people tried to deceived their managers by pretending to be properly
fluent Volvo users.
4.3. Weak team selling accessory, insurance, finance and service
Experienced sales people of Volvo Ho Chi Minh mainly focus on price dealing, but
could not satisfy sufficiently and quickly other questions such as how customer’s cars
will be delivered or if they can change a normal screen to touch screen or how long a
quick maintenance happen outside of garage. Thus, in this step, Volvo Ho Chi Minh
continued to loss a number of eligible buyers who would hesitate to sign contracts or
decide to leave their discussions without depositing money. Potential customers
complained that sometimes sales consultants provided them inexact information and
they had to wait for completed answers after many phone calls from salespeople to the
person in charge of the right answer. Weak collaboration or team work from other
departments such as accessory, insurance, finance and after-sales service cause
uncertainty and suspicion for customer to move to final buying decision. Lancaster
and Reynolds23
stated that personal selling had a new more professional task in the
world today with “Selling center or team selling”. It is a group of people who are
come not only from sales department, but who also represent entire business of the
firm like production, research and development, finance, and so forth in order to serve
customers better with different views rather than just individual view. Volvo Ho Chi
Minh sales people also complained that they wasted much time and efforts to find
answers about interest rate, credit capability, insurance fee, validated time of
insurance, fit accessories for new vehicles, after-sales service and so forth instead of
39

direct counselling of specialized employees. Although company regulation compels
consultants from supporting departments like accessory, insurance, finance and after-
sales service to collaborate with sales people to close every deal as a team, these
supporting employees still refuse to participate directly in any trade. Managers and
directors of Nordic Car company finally understood that in the initial time, employees
from supporting department tried to help consult clients together with sales people,
but after about three or four months with messy appointments from sales team they
could not directly complete many tasks in a same range of time. Hadyn Ingram24
found that throughputs are the greatest determinants lead to team effectiveness. Too
many tasks and sudden requirements from sales people make unbearable burden for
supporting employees, and they are overload to arrange time for team selling.
Therefore, they chose indirect help by providing information for sales people, and
sales consultants who are lack of preparation and care might transmit inaccurate or
inappropriate information to customers. This situation led to ineffectiveness of
personal selling activities in Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch. Beside overload of work,
weak team-selling is also explained by communication among team members.
Lawrence HJ, Moberg CR25
indicated in their research on team selling luxury suites
that team communication between members and departments is crucial for sales
success and it helps enhance capabilities of generating more revenue. Obviously,
many unpredictable phone calls from sales people and lack of a common
communication system are challenges for a strong team selling activities in Volvo Ho
Chi Minh branch.
4.4. Cause validation
Based on the cause and effect tree, in-depth interview from 8 respondents divided into
4 main groups, secondary data from DCRC survey, sales and marketing department
and theories of personal selling process and effectiveness, causes leading to
ineffective personal selling activities of Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch are Lack of
professional customer relationship management system, Disregard of practical guide
Volvo technical functions, and Weak team-selling accessory, insurance, finance and
service. Exploring which factors is the most crucial cause of ineffective personal
40

selling activities would help the branch implement appropriate solutions to improve
their situation.
First of all, when the traditional sales-oriented model shifted to customer-oriented
principle under the pressure of higher competitiveness, changes of customer
knowledge and behaviours, and strength of technology, the importance of each step in
selling process also changed as the trend. Brooksbank22
found that both old and new
selling process consist of three general steps namely interviewing, matching and
closing, but the importance level of interview and matching stages of modern process
accounts for 80% success instead of 20% as the old paradigm. It meant that winning
or loosing a selling battle in the present time depends 80% on how salespeople nurture
long-term relationship with valuable customers, and just 20% on closing skills.
stated that database and knowledge management – the
modern cyber version of preapproach step including a complete history of purchasing,
past and present needs, and even the anticipation of what would benefit customers
help many business organizations build a trong foundation for salespeople to
professionally nurture the long-term relationship with customers and generate lifetime
value. Therefore, in a competitive environment besieging by many famous luxury
dealers around, Volvo Ho Chi Minh made a major mistake when they undersestimate
the extreme importance of a professional customer relationship management system.
Secondly, in digital era, huge amount of money and resources have been spent into
firm’s database management system in order to facilitate salespeople and decision
makers to serve their customers better.19(p19)
The success of presentating and closing
stages of modern selling process strongly depends on salespeople’s understandings of
customer’s predetermined needs. Obviously, Volvo Ho Chi Minh sales consultants
used to admit that they failed to collect customer data and maintaining relationships
with prospects by discrete Excel files. They even recognized that struggling against
Excel reports wasted much precious time which should be spent for valuable
prospects. Lack of a prefessional customer relationship management system led to
messy schedules and unarranged works of entire company employees acrossing
departments, and this crucial cause is also origin of overload work of supporting
41

employees which was identified as a cause of weak team selling activity. Moreover,
quality and quantity of communication between team members could not have any
chance to improve without precise data.
Finally, Moncrief WC, Marshall GW19
also indicated that enforcement of strict order
through 7 steps in modern personal selling process may not create pratical success,
and basing on extensive knowledge from stable foundation of database, salespeople
now can choose different strategies to approach or present or close deals more
effectively. In case of Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch, most of salespeople are
experienced, and their disregard of practical guide on Volvo technical functions but
focus on few actual potential customers with price-testing techniques is a reasonable
tactic after already identifying customer’s predetermined requirements by facilitation
of digital advantages. Certainly, they already earned benefits from Facebook, Google,
Zalo and Twitter companies in the booming time of digital technology for better
understanding and concentration on few quality customers, but lack of a professional
customer relationship management tool is a rival who did steal from them a large
quantity of potential opportunities to increase closing deals. Therefore, lack of a
professional customer relationship management system is the most important factor
caused ineffective personal selling activities for Volvo Ho Chi Minh dealer, and it is
necessary to conduct an accurate solution basing on this main cause
42

4.5. Cause - and - effect tree
From the 15 reasons actual survey with eight respondents together with theories and literatures, the preliminary cause – and – effect
tree will be developed as follows:
43

Three factors caused Ineffective personal selling activities of Volvo cars including
Lack of professional customer relationship management system, Disregard of
practical guide Volvo technical functions, and Weak team-selling in consulting
accessory, insurance, finance and service. Ineffective personal selling activities lead to
negative impact on financial performance and turnover of sales people.
Cravens et al stated that ineffective selling lead to low sales results, increases costs
and reduces financial performance.37
Volvo Ha Noi director used to shared that
company fixed cost about 1.2 billion Vietnam Dong per month. A sold car could bring
120 million Vietnam Dong gross profit (retail price minus whole sales price), and the
contribution margin was at about 50% after paying all incentives for sales team and
managers. Inferentially, break-even quantity needed to be 20 units per month in 2017.
The actual average monthly sold out units in 2017 were at 5 units which was lower 15
cars than break-even quantity that caused an accumulated loss about over 10 billion
Vietnam Dong.
Futrell and Parasuraman38
demonstrated that there is a relationship between
ineffective selling activities and propensity to leave organization of employees. Low
performance affects sales satisfaction and satisfaction decides sales turnover. They
also stated that when salesperson performed poorly, sales managers would increase
pressure with negative feedbacks and disciplinary actions to enhance sales results.
Thus, salespeople would leave the company to find another job, unless they were
satisfied with their current job. According to a report of turnover from Volvo Ho Chi
Minh Sales and Marketing department only 30% total numbers of salespeople who
started to work at Nordic Car in the beginning time still remains up to the end of 2017.
5. ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
Volvo Ho Chi Minh decision makers also had their own solutions for ineffective
personal selling activities, but they seemed to be countermeasures and could not help
solve the problem thoroughly. Their countermeasures are listed out as below.
Firstly, Sales and Marketing managers transferred all excel reports into Google
Spreadsheet like Ha Noi branch. They said that this solution could help team leaders
and sales managers continuously track data of prospects input in online spreadsheet
without waiting for fixed daily reports. Although this action escaped from separated
44

Excel reports and helped update all data for managers, it created heavier burdens for
leaders and sales managers of Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch. They had to spend too
much time per a working day to read a bigger amount of updating information,
analyse data by themselves and remind employees to complete all daily tasks. After
only one month doing this way with a giant amount of workload on shoulders, they all
stopped reading input online data and waited for calls from their sales consultants
about daily issues. They were tired with tons of spreadsheets from many sales
consultants instead of spending time for other responsibilities like training new
products, practical coaching sales skills, bring new relationship with banks or
financial organizations, and so forth.
Secondly, Nordic Car board of directors invited Swedish Volvo trainers to come to
Vietnam in order to teach sales team about products and how to negotiate better to sell
more Volvo cars with a high training cost 2,000 USD/hour. However, practicing how
to master all funtions of Volvo cars everyday is far more necessary than short-time
training. Volvo selling process including total 7 steps from collecting information for
meetings, interviewing for demands, presenting products, driving demo cars,
discussing accessories and financial solutions, delivering cars, to following up after
sales. Hiring foreign trainers is only useful with fresh sales people who not yet deeply
understand meaning of Volvo sales process. Experienced sales consultants mainly
focus on discussing financial solutions and they tend to ignore other steps. Thus,
spending much money for foreign trainers without discipline and benefit would never
force salespeople to change from their consciousness.
Thirdly, Volvo Ho Chi Minh director decided to increase commission percentage of
selling accessories, insurance and after sales service for supporting employees to 50%
in order to make them collaborate better with sales consultants to exploit value from
customers. Nevertheless, money does not make supporting employees have more time
to help sales people. Ms. Le Thi Phuong stated that although she and Ms. Mai Thi
Cam Na working at accessory department are best friends, whenever she needs help,
Ms. Na gets stuck in many phone calls about installing accessories from other sales
people.
Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy also said that
45

My prospects used to argue strongly with me why he had to accept exemption level of
Liberty insurance, and he wanted to hear reasonable explanation from insurance expert of
Volvo. I used to ask our director to help call insurance representative from her desk to
answer my prospect directly. Although the commission were increased 50% with a
command giving from even our director, she did not arrange enough time to support me.
From above points of view, Volvo Ho Chi Minh managers need to offer different
solutions that thoroughly solve the problems basing on the validated cause: lack of a
professional customer relationship management system.
Sue and Morin39
defined that there is a technology-enabled tool called Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) software in business management for developing
and leveraging customer knowledge to nurture, maintain, strengthen profitable
relationships. Jomphe et al40
also gave comments that CRM software is more and
more considered as an important tool in high competitive business environment by
company owners, especially automobile dealers, and CRM software help automobile
dealers collect data of the customers, organize information, automate treatment to
synchronize business processes. Dotun Adebanjo41
classified four basic types of
customer relationship management system that business organizations should
implement in selling process as follows: fully-deployed Enterprise Resources
Planning application (Full ERP), Bespoke customer relationship management
application (Bespoke CRM), Modular application, and Basic application. Differences
between these applications could be viewed under 3 aspects: costs, complexity of
configuration, and timeframe of implementation. The research also described that on
cost aspect, fully-deployed ERP and bespoke applications have extremely high price
(maybe reaching millions pounds range), but basic and modular are much cheaper.41
On the time aspects, bespoke application has the longest time of implementation in
years, the second longest application with months of installing is modular, while basic
and fully-deployed have shortes time of establishment with maximum in 2 or 3 days.
On complexity, the clear order from difficulty to easiness is fully-deployed to
bespoke, then modular, and finally the basic.
Certainly, in case of Volvo Ho Chi Minh branch, fully-deployed and bespoke
applications will be eliminated out of selections because they are unaffordable with
46

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