The attractive Vietnamese market offers great business opportunities in the medium to long term.
In fact, even in 2023, when the economy was slowing down, ALIVE Vietnam received many consultations on how to develop products and services in the Vietnamese market.
It is expected that such consultations will increase even more this year.
In this article, for companies that want to expand their products and services into the Vietnamese market, we will share the sales secrets that our company, ALIVE, has actually implemented to sell our services in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, due to limited human resources, sometimes it is difficult to implement all of the various ideas that you have.
However, by keeping the basics in mind and steadily implementing the key points, you will surely see the results.
We hope you will read this article to the end and try to incorporate it into your work.
Characteristics of the Vietnamese Market
We have often seen cases where some of Japanese-affiliated companies have struggled to enter the Vietnamese market, despite having newly established themselves there.
To understand the reasons for this, let’s first look at the market characteristics of Vietnam, which are different from those of Japan.
The key to success is to understand them and then develop appropriate strategies and tactics.
Vietnamese are casual about making enquiries, but there are high hurdles to closing the deal
Compared to Japan, Vietnamese consumers are more casual in making enquiries about products and services.
Japanese consumers often inquire after carefully examining the content of a website and with a high level of willingness to buy, whereas Vietnamese consumers tend to inquire even at the level of “just a little interested”.
For this reason, even when business negotiations are initiated, it is often the case that not much progress is made and the deal is not concluded.
Few human resources specialising in proposal-based sales
In most BtoB projects, after receiving an enquiry or request for information, sales staff visit the customer and conduct sales activities with the aim of closing the deal.
However, it seems that there are many people in Vietnam who are not good at customising requirements before introducing products and services, or proposing optimum solutions to customers’ problems.
They can sell a fixed product according to a manual, but when they have to listen to the issues and needs of the customer in detail and propose an optimum plan in line with those needs, they have difficulty in closing the deal.
Competing on ‘Japanese quality’ alone is difficult.
If you ask about the image of Japanese products in Vietnam, the answer is almost invariably ‘high quality.’
However, Vietnamese consumers may not be so easy, and it is not a market where goods and services can be simply sold on the strength of ‘Japanese quality’.
Although the recent depreciation of the yen has gradually narrowed the price gap between Japan and Vietnam, the reality is that there is still a big difference in the price range accepted between Japan and Vietnam.
In order to be able to sell at prices affordable to Vietnamese consumers, it is necessary to pursue a balance between quality and cost through corporate efforts such as reducing costs.
It is also important to provide not only Japanese quality, but also a clear brand concept and added value that is easy for Vietnamese consumers to understand.
Please read our other articles for a detailed explanation of the characteristics of the Vietnamese market and points to consider when entering the market.
【Related Articles】
>> The Danger of Japanese Companies Expanding Into Vietnam Falling into the Trap of Thinking That Their Strength Is Japanese Quality
>> 10 Points to Note on Marketing and Sales Promotion when Expanding into Vietnam
ALIVE’s Practices to Increase Sales in the Vietnamese Market
As mentioned above, the characteristics of the Vietnamese market differ greatly from those of Japan.
The following is an introduction to five initiatives that we at ALIVE Vietnam have actually implemented to increase sales in the Vietnamese market.
1. Understanding and providing feedback on sales methods in the field
ALIVE Vietnam holds weekly sales meetings where the content and progress of negotiations with frontline sales staff are checked and feedback is provided by supervisors.
At times, sales supervisors also participate in interviews and proposal meetings with prospective customers, check their interactions and provide feedback on issues they have noticed.
By actually entering the workplace and checking the quality of work of sales staff with our own eyes and guiding them in the right direction, we are working to raise the level of sales skills in the company as a whole.
2. Visualisation of sales progress
ALIVE Vietnam has introduced Sales Cloud (CRM tool) by Salesforce to record the progress of sales and past interactions, making them visible within the company.
This has made it possible for anyone to see who is in charge of which lead customers (client companies) and how far negotiations have progressed.
By managing the sales situation from a bird’s eye view, supervisors are now able to issue logical and appropriate instructions according to the negotiation phase and situation, thereby avoiding lost opportunities.
3. Keep the information you send out up-to-date
In Vietnam, it is common to see websites that are not updated and have outdated information on them, which lowers the level of trust from visitors to the website.
ALIVE Vietnam immediately applies any changes or additions to its project achievements and service content to its website and company brochures.
By always providing up-to-date information, we are able to show that our business is active and this leads to more enquiries from customers.
4. Thorough persona design for the website
ALIVE Vietnam’s website is designed with a thorough and in-depth persona identification process.
We precisely define the target company’s business phase and the challenges it faces, and design content and information thoroughly tailored to these.
As a result, the challenges faced by the target companies and the content of the proposals we send out match exactly, and we are now receiving many consultations as we had anticipated.
5. Personalising customer communication
We at ALIVE Vietnam change the content of what we say to prospective clients according to their business phase and the nature of the challenges they are facing.
For companies in the early stages of expansion and with smaller budgets, we propose promotional strategies with lower initial costs, while for companies in the expansion phase of their business, we offer marketing proposals that are more likely to raise awareness and expand the scale of their business.
In the previous chapter, we wrote that there are few people in Vietnam who are good at proposal-based sales, but ALIVE Vietnam has solved this problem by having supervisors support frontline salespeople by:
‘1. Strengthening internal communication’ and
‘2. Visualising sales progress.’
Conclusion
In this article, we have explained five things that ALIVE practices in order to sell products to the Vietnamese market.
The five things introduced above are basic and nothing special.
However, we believe that it is important to firmly “know the issues and needs of customers” and “understand the internal operations in detail and improve them.”
If you have found any parts of this article helpful, please try putting them into practice.
If you contact ALIVE Vietnam, we can provide you with advice based on these operational improvements as well as marketing and design.
If your company is facing challenges in attracting customers or sales, please feel free to contact ALIVE.
Our dedicated marketing and production staff will listen to your current situation in detail and make the most suitable proposals.
Thank you for reading to the end.
>> Consult ALIVE Vietnam for marketing and sales strategy
>> Download ALIVE Vietnam’s service introduction materials
