Executive Summary

The internship report is a basic course requirement of the BBA Program. The proposed topic is “Corporate Selling Strategy of Robi-Based on a Survey”.

With a population of 147 million but only 2.3million working phones, the upside for telecommunications is huge. Mobile has topped1.3 million subscribers since introduction in 1996, where business clients occupy a significant place & this market is growing rigorously. Despite clear market demand and “Greenfield” potential, growth has been hampered by the historical absence of a clear sector roadmap. Here, I tried to identify hoe Robi can be more customer oriented in terms of product offering, value delivery, & sales servicing. The report was attempted to measure the effectiveness of corporate selling strategies & the gap between the offered service & expected service.

 Methodology

After collecting data an interpretation has been done where SPSS statistical software has been used to find out the frequencies of response towards different attributes and cross tabulation has been done to find out the relationship between different independent and dependent variable.

Scope of this report:

This report deals with the exclusive business service rendered by Robi. The area of study was on the Corporate Selling Strategies of Robi.

The report scopes to find way how these services are rendered to different categories of customers. And find how to remove the problems and difficulties related to service. Moreover, have to find out what extent prospects differ from the marketer’s perspective.

 Limitation of this report:

There are some limitations are available in terms making report on CORPORATE SELLING STRATEGIES OF ROBI. These limitations are given below:

• Time was the most crucial limitation in the preparation of this report. Because the   duration of internship is assigned for the weeks of twelve weeks for the entire study, which disabled me from many opportunities for a comprehensive study.
• Collection of data from the customer was time consuming; the term sometimes became new from them, which required an explanation.
• There were very few books, journals and reports on Corporate Selling Strategies or Business Selling Strategies. That is why data collection was not so easy. Since it is a new concept that is why in our country this concept is not built up properly.

taying behind in terms of keeping pace with the rhythmic movement of this age of information. Among the key players who are having a significant role to hasten the growth of telecommunication in Bangladesh, Robi is the third market leader in the telecommunication sector in Bangladesh. The company achieved remarkable success during this period. It is now able to say that it has the third biggest subscriber base and more value added services than any other mobile phone operators in Bangladesh. Robi has a very strong competitive position in the telephone industry in the country.

Robi is the dynamic and leading end-to-end countrywide GSM mobile communication solutions of Axiata (Bangladesh).The ministry of post and telecommunication of the government of Bangladesh offered Axiata Bangladesh a nationwide digital cellular license in 1996. Axiata Bangladesh Limited launched its services in Bangladesh in 2008, prior it was under Telecom Malaysia Bangladesh Limited, which started business on November 15, 1997 under the brand name of AKTEL. In 2010, the rebranding of AKTEL took place & it revealed itself as Robi with a slogan “Jole Uthon Apon Shoktite”.

Since the commencement of its operation, Robi has been a force to be reckoned with in the telecommunication industry of Bangladesh, being one of the fastest growing mobile communication companies offering comprehensive GSM mobile solutions to more than two million subscribers. Today, Robi boasts the widest international Roaming service in the market connecting 315 operators across 170 countries. With a network covering all the 61 (allowable) districts of Bangladesh, coupled with the first Intelligent Network (IN) prepaid platform in the country, Robi is geared to provide a wide range of products and services to customers all over Bangladesh. At the heart of all of the success of Robi today, is a young dynamic workforce comprising of about 1350 highly motivated and skilled professionals.

Today, Robi is recognized as a leading brand in Bangladesh and this is driven by its persistent pursuit of quality and technology, putting it clearly ahead of the rest. The future with Robi promises to be exciting as it strives to employ the best resources and latest technology in offering many more innovative and exciting products and services.

Through aggressive investment to extend network coverage and improving call quality, Robi has been in constant motion to maintain its commitment to provide subscribers the best possible cellular service. The momentum enveloped all (allowed) upazilas by the end of 2008. Robi invested to target 8 million subscribers by end of 2008, facilitated by more than doubling the number of the base stations. That is, the objective for Robi’s communication seems to be to generate sales and to approach building a strong and consistent brand image in the mind of the consumers to provide them a reason to select Robi over others.

Long-Term Vision of the Company:

Robi strongly believes that subscribers are their most valuable assets. They have a strong CustomerServiceCenter. To always be with their customers the Robi “Help Line” is available. Robi has successfully migrated to a new switch with higher capacities in terms of accommodating higher customer base and as well as to let them use all the basic supplementary services under GSM technology. That is why the expertise and experience of Axiata Bangladesh are acknowledged throughout the industry. Demand is growing all the time, not simply for the services it already provides, but for greater and more diversified services and even higher quality performance. The company introduced the both-way national roaming all through their network coverage. The Pre-paid services with enhanced features have been commercially commenced successfully and now they are taking some projects to accumulate more advanced technological features in their network. In terms of Network Quality, the company ensures, not only that the equipment are of world class standards, but more importantly, that its size or capacity is catered to the right dimensioning of customer base, in order not to face the problems of drop calls or congestion. All these are done through proper planning, control and schedule maintenance program. They maintain the benchmark for providing the quality services. They monitor these through generating regular reports and on-site survey. The customers have appreciated the launched ‘Loyalty & Retention Program’ to a large extent as they are getting the opportunity to share their opinions and objections regarding the service with the Robi staffs. Based on the customer complaints, if there are any weak signals or a call drops, the skilled engineers are providing services round the clock to resolve the problem instantly. The most important key resource factor in Axiata Bangladesh is its efficient human resource. Moreover, its decisions are based on facts from market research and coverage survey. And it is a clear-cut fact that all the above objectives can only be achieved through the right people and eventually Robi is ensuring quality services by quality people. Axiata Bangladesh has the plan to give opportunity to every household in using cellular service in the country at the competitive price providing unparalleled quality service and customer care. In achieving this goal, they can’t wait for more interconnection facilities with the fixed network. Therefore, Axiata Bangladesh is planning to enforce their strong efforts to create their own independent network. They have already started the Dhaka-Chittagong Robi backbone. The future plan is to vigorously expand the network, which was called cell-to-cell expansion covering almost all the regions of Bangladesh, and to set building blocks to become the market leader by 2015.

Mission

To provide total customer satisfaction the company strives to become the most preferred GSM cellular service provider in Bangladesh. Axiata Bangladesh will achieve this through developing people, products, and services of the highest quality and meeting the needs of its customers, employees, shareholders, and the nation.

Objective

  Total commitment to the needs of customers

  To follow the highest ethical standards

  Continuous improvement of all work processes

  Permanent improvement of all the employees’ knowledge and skills

  Securing the quality of the service to match the quality of service offered by the world’s most successful companies in the field

  Preserving the company’s leading position in the national market of mobile telecommunications.

Global Mission of the Company

Robi wants to provide its customers the best quality service in terms of: –

  Trusted technology around the world

  Wide coverage with digital clarity

  Digital security with peace of mind

 Various choices of value-added features

  Better customer service-not just promised, but delivered

  Competitive rate and better billing

People

The most important key resource factor in Axiata Bagladesh is its efficient human resource. Not only this, its decisions are based on facts from market research and coverage survey. Also, the above can only be achieved through the right people. Robi has put keen eyes in developing its employees though proper training, as they believe that the most important asset for Axiata Bagladesh is its staff, because they are the internal customers. When the internal customers are well trained, motivated and confident about their performance, only then they will deliver the most to satisfy the external customers.

Technology

The Global System for mobile or GSM technology of Robi is the most widely accepted digital system in the world, currently used by over 400 million people in 150 countries. In Bangladesh, Robi use the 900 GSM technology because Robi is committed to give the customer the very best. Presently, Axiata Bangladesh offers GSM digital cellular services in all divisional Headquarters and all major big districts.

Organizational Structure of Robi

Robi places a high value on human resource development and the contributions made by its employees. They persevere to maintain a productive and harmonious working environment in the whole organization. Robi always continues with its efforts to improve the efficiency of its employees and align them to the right positions with well-defined responsibilities.

Because of the rapid expansions of its networks and enormous growth of its subscriber base, the company has increased its workforce Robi has successfully hired some key senior managers who were recruited on the basis of their professional expertise and experience. In order to cope up with the dynamic nature of the company’s business, initiatives are always taken to restructure and recognize the company’s existing set up. It always evolves standardized management systems and procedures across functional divisions, focusing in particular, on the effective integration and assimilation of all the organizational units.

Marketing Division

Marketing division constitutes seven units. A brief description of each unit is given below:

 Brand and A&P

Brand and A&P denotes Brand and Advertising & Promotion. This unit deals with the overall brand management and promotion activities of the company. The unit covers both outdoor (billboards, road-overhead etc) media and indoor (print & electronic) media. This unit is also responsible for communicating with the advertising agencies, since Robi does not have any in-house agency. Each unit has a unit-head who reports to the AGM of Marketing.

 Product Development

Product development unit is like the R&D unit of a company, which is responsible for developing new products and services. This unit is closely related to the marketing research unit and together the units come up with new service concepts and ideas. Product development unit is also responsible for monitoring the core services (Pre-Paid and Post-Paid). Like other units, this unit also has a head reporting to the AGM.

 Marketing Research and MIS

Robi has one unit covering both marketing research and marketing information system (MIS). This unit conducts quarterly research through ^research firms and in-house interns. The unit is also responsible to keep track on the latest innovations and new offers of other operators. In Axiata Bangladesh, this unit is not a full-fledged unit yet.

 International Roaming

International roaming (IR) unit is basically responsible for ISD, international SMS etc services. The core task of this unit is to negotiate with foreign telecommunication companies and to expand the international coverage by making deals with them. There is a head of IR who reports to the AGM.

  Marketing division

Marketing division unit deals with the sales of products and services to other companies. The unit makes agreements with different companies to be the corporate clients of Robi and only handle the corporate level sales.

 Direct Sales

Direct sales unit is responsible for the sales of products and services to the mass customers through the customer service centers. Robi has eleven customer service centers around the country and these centers sell the services to the customers directly.

   Dealer Management

Dealer management unit oversees the dealers of the company around the country. Robi has four dealers and one agent and they need to be monitored and supervised constantly. The head of this unit reports to the AGM of Marketing.

Information Technology Division

IT division constitutes seven units and they closely work together.

 Value added Services (VAS)

Value added service is a unit that implements the developed concepts and ideas of the marketing division. The unit is responsible for the development of the software, which will be used for the application of the new services developed by the product development unit. Simultaneously, this unit handles the VAS content providers who are the third party to the company.

 Billing

The billing unit is responsible for processing and monitoring the billing systems for the Post-Paid users. The unit has a manager who reports to the AGM of IT.

Rating (Post-Paid)

This unit is responsible for charging the rates of Post-Paid service. Hey fix the unit price per-minute and pulse rates and also fixes the pulse durations. It also changes the rates on demand basis.

 Pre-Paid

This unit only deals with the Pre-Paid service. It administers the e-fill and scratch card systems. At the same time, it fixes per-minute and pulse rates and fixes the pulse durations for pre paid customers.

 Product Configuration

This unit is responsible for designing and developing products and services. It develops the blueprint of the product-design.

 Billing Operation Team

Billing operation team is responsible for administering the entire billing process and developing required software for collecting bills from Post-Paid users.

Customer Relations Management (CRM)

This unit supplies required software to the customer care centers and works with these centers side by side. The centers usually inform CRM concerning their necessaries and the unit prepares suitable software for them.

Finance Division

Financial division has eight units dealing with financial matters of the company.

 Treasury Management

Corporate finance unit consists of treasury management and L/C. Treasury management deals with the inflow and outflow of the company, whereas L/C (Letter of credits) deals with the L/C opening banks and other foreign banks.

Accounts Payable

This unit keeps track on the accounts payable of the company.

 Accounts Receivable

This unit keeps track on the accounts receivables of the company while preparing the balance sheet. As Axiata Bangladesh is a large company with thousands of financial transactions everyday, a unit to keep track on the accounts is necessary.

 Core: Account

Core account is an important unit of the finance division dealing with the budget and fixed assets. The annual budget of various departments is prepared under the close observation of this unit.

 Revenue Assurance

Revenue assurance unit consists of revenue assurance and fraud management. Revenue assurance monitors the transactions and assures full protection of the finances. On the other hand, fraud management protects the fraudulences take place in the daily transactions.

 Taxation

Taxation unit takes care of the tax, VAT and tariffs of the company.

  Reporting Unit

The reporting unit reports the entire financial transactions of Axiata Bangladesh to the parent company.

 Costing

This unit forecasts the costing of different departments and reports the expected expenditure of any alteration.

Technical Division

The technical division consists of three major units – planning, infrastructure and property management.

 Planning

The planning unit makes plans regarding the technical matters such as the RF, SWITCH etc. They assure the proper placement of technical devices and equipments.

 Infrastructure

The infrastructure unit selects the locations and builds the base transceiver station (BTS) towers. They are also responsible for the maintenance of the towers.

Property Management

The property management unit manages the technical equipments and assets.

Human Resource Division

Human resource department is responsible for the recruitment and training of the employees of the company. They also monitor the performance and handle the promotion and salary related matters. Along with the HR department, there is an Administration. The administration is responsible for supplying furnishings and equipments to all the divisions and departments. They also administer the regulations of the company.

Corporate Strategy Department

The corporate strategy department determines the long-term strategies and the short-term plans. All the corporate level policies come from them and they are also responsible for the implementation.

Corporate Affairs Department

The corporate affairs department is responsible for maintaining a liaison with other major companies. Through this department, Axiata Bangladesh makes business deals with other corporations and assists each other.

Coordination Department

The coordination department is responsible for the internal and external synchronization. At one hand, they coordinate with outside companies. Along with that, they harmonize among the divisions and departments inside the company.

Relationship among different Divisions & Departments

An organization is like complex machinery consisting of different parts. Different functional divisions and departments are the different parts of this organizational machinery. Therefore, to make an organization a success, the divisions and departments must work accordingly. In Robi all the divisions and departments are closely tied with one another.

Sales unit makes sales forecast, identifies market’s potential opportunity and sends it to the technical division for doing the plan for new coverage area. These two divisions jointly plan for increasing the coverage area. If there is any complaint regarding the networks Customer Relation Management unit informs it to technical division for solving it. Again Customer Relation Management Unit informs marketing division about the problems and suggestions regarding the products and their selling procedure. Finance division is related with all the divisions for fund allocation and fund management of all sorts and giving salary to all the Robi employees. Human Resource Department meets the employee need of other divisions by conducting total recruitment process.

Future Targets of Robi

Robi is a company with increasing growth trend from the very inception phase. At present, in the 13th year of its operations Robi has achieved a subscriber base of approximately 7.85 million. The company has a number of plans for the forthcoming future years.

Within 2015, Robi has the target to reach a subscriber base of 15,000,000 and high revenue generating customer base of 500, 000. Within this year the company is intending to cover all the districts of the country. Taking all the probable threats in the industry under consideration, including the introduction of WARID telecom, Robi is intended to set its building blocks to become a market leader by 2015.

Marketing Strategies of Robi

Axiata Bangladesh always wants to achieve the desired sales growth and customer base. It wants to encourage the existing customers to use more of their services. They launched a campaign called “Golden Call”, which was one of their successful initiatives for obtaining potential customers. As an expression of gratitude to their customers,
and also to strengthen the partnership with them, Robi
has launched a mega campaign – “ THE GOLDEN CALL” – a first of
its kind in the country in rewarding their loyal customers.

Product Positioning

Initially the target for Robi was to reach the top, but other mobile operators are also targeting to the grass roots level and thus increasing their customer base. Axiata Bangladesh wants to be the leader with good quality and designing products for the middle and lower middle class range too.

Marketing Mix:

Product

  Continuous improvement of quality

 Repositioning of slow moving products to different target markets

 Always branding Robi with all packages with a GSM service

Price

 Necessary changes in tariff structure, and changes and terms and conditions.

 Penetration pricing in the face of competition

Skimming policy possible

Promotion

Brochures with all necessary info

Press ads

  TV commercials (in future)

 Billboards

Place/Distribution

Make effective use of distribution

Make product service delivery system more effective and less time consuming

Wider distribution network to make service more accessible.

Business-to-business

Business-to-business (B2B) describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. “B2B” is contemporary shorthand for a longtime sales practice called business-to-business. B2B transactions primarily target companies and other wholesale buyers, while transactions targeting individuals are called B2C, or business-to-customer. Many organizations have both B2B and B2C components, but it’s not unusual for a company to specialize in B2B services or sales. In fact, the vast majority of products and services sold are considered to be B2B in nature.

One major reason for the popularity of B2B sales and services are sheer volume. An individual customer may visit a clothing manufacturer’s website catalog and order two pairs of shoes or a sweater. The buyer for a national chain of clothing stores, however, may order 5,000 pairs of shoes and 2,000 sweaters. Without a B2B component, the manufacturer would have lost out on a very lucrative sale. This is why many companies provide B2B options alongside the B2C offerings at their websites and other outlets.

The volume of B2B (Business-to-Business) transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The primary reason for this is that in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions involving sub component or raw materials, and only one B2C transaction, specifically sale of the finished product to the end customer. For example, an automobile manufacturer makes several B2B transactions such as buying tires, glass for windscreens, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to the consumer, is a single transaction.

B2B is also used in the context of communication and collaboration. Many businesses are now using social media to connect with their consumers; however, they are now using similar tools within the business so employees can connect with one another. When communication is taking place amongst employees, this can be referred to as “B2B” communication.

B2B sales are also generated by providing a specialized product line or service not available to the general public. This form of B2B transaction is very common in the manufacturing world. A company which produces shaving cream in cans, for example, may need a specific plastic nozzle. Several plastic injection molding companies would send sales representatives to pitch their particular designs. These nozzles would be useless for individual customers, but a manufacturer may order thousands of them.

With the growth in electronic communications, B2B has taken on even more importance. Instead of simply focusing on business-to-business sales, modern corporations are conducting other financial transactions online. B2B communications are now being used to promote investment, trade stocks and form financial alliances. Because the price of these transactions is far beyond the reach of most individuals, there is no equivalent business-to-customer option available. Some B2B transactions handled electronically can literally run into the billions of dollars.

B2b Marketing:

• Database marketing is used by businesses that market to consumers, known as business-to-consumer or B2C marketing, and by business that market to other businesses, known as business-to-business or B2B marketing. Because information about business is often more readily available than information about consumers, those companies that engage in B2B marketing will often have larger data warehouses than B2C companies.
• Business-to-business Internet marketing is similar to traditional business-to-business (B2B) marketing practices. The exception is that the Internet becomes the primary medium for connecting with potential business clients via e-mail or other Web-based tools.

 B2b Advertising:

• Also known as business to business or b2b advertising, industrial advertising is the strategy of attracting the attention of another business and convincing that company to purchase the goods and services offered by another business.
• Nor is it likely that they can afford to rely on word of mouth or reputation to be the catalysts in getting other businesses to approach. Traditional marketing techniques like media advertising campaigns often work with consumers, but they might not be suited to draw other businesses.

B2b Manufacturing:

• B2B sales are also generated by providing a specialized product line or service not available to the general public. This form of B2B transaction is very common in the manufacturing world. A company which produces shaving cream in cans, for example, may need a specific plastic nozzle.
• Within the food industry, supermarket chains rely on purchasing goods from manufacturers at competitive pricing that allows them to resell food items to consumers. Auto repair firms use volume purchasing with manufactures to secure tires, batteries and various engine components at lower prices than individual consumers could manage, making it possible to charge prices that consumers consider fair and still turn a profit.

 Etymology

The term “business-to-business” was originally coined to describe the electronic communications between businesses or enterprises in order to distinguish it from the communications between businesses and consumers . It eventually came to be used in marketing as well, initially describing only industrial or capital goods marketing. Today it is widely used to describe all products and services used by enterprises. Many professional institutions and the trade publications focus much more on B2C than B2B, although most sales and marketing personnel are in the B2B sector.

Origins of business marketing

In the broadest sense, the practice of one purveyor of goods doing trade with another is as old as commerce itself. As a niche in the field of marketing as we know it today, however, its history is more recent. In his introduction to Fundamental of Business Marketing Research., J. David Lichtenthal, professor of marketing at the City University of New York’s Zicklin School of Business, notes that industrial marketing has been around since the mid-19th century, although the bulk of research on the discipline of business marketing has come about in the last 25 years.

Morris, Pitt and Honeycutt, 2001, point out that for many years business marketing took a back seat to consumer marketing, which entailed providers of goods or services selling directly to households through mass media and retail channels. This began to change in middle to late 1970s. A variety of academic periodicals, such as the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing and the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, now publish studies on the subject regularly, and professional conferences on business-to-business marketing are held every year. What’s more, business marketing courses are commonplace at many universities today. In fact, Dwyer and Tanner (2006) point out that more marketing major begin their careers in business marketing today than in consumer marketing.

 How Marketing assumes a different aspect in B2B?

Marketing aspects are different in B2B than in other forms of trade like Business to Consumer transactions. In Business to consumer trade, for example, the consumers and the advertising media are more easily identifiable. A cosmetics manufacturer can promote business by splash the attractive advertisement across the print, electronics and online media. Lots of research has also been done in the B2C domain so as to help the companies in formulating the marketing strategy. However B2B does not have the advantage of such insight. Marketing the B2B products assumes different aspects. Other factors setting the B2B business apart are as follows:

In B2B business there are “Fewer Buyers”. Though market may actually depend on the type of product but in general terms it can be said that there are fewer buyers for such specific B2B product. Owing to this and other reasons like competition, a B2B marketer has to be on look out for other Geographic markets for his products. This may not be as easy in case of SMEs.

For a B2B Customer the “Buy decision” assumes much more importance than that for a B2C customer. This is because of various reasons like high product costs, volume of purchase, reliability of the product or service or technical products e.g. heavy machinery. All these reasons make the B2B buyers to adopt a more stringent purchasing process. Most B2B companies have a dedicated team of specialized / technical personnel handling the purchase department. The decision of such teams is not affected by the same factors affecting B2C buyer. For example factors like “Impulse”, “Packaging” may not have a role to play in a B2B transaction. In B2B transaction factors like technical specifications, quality, and service assume a more important role. All these factors make B2B transactions more particular.
B2B sellers also don’t operate in the same way as B2C sellers. The pricing assumes different role. The prices may vary for differentB2B buyers. The degree of sscustomization is also higher. In addition to these B2B sellers have to make different strategies depending on different type of customers. The B2B customers can be other SMEs, Wholesale distributors, Dealers and other partners in the supply chain.

These are just a few ways in which B2B marketing may differ from the conventional B2C marketing. Further we will be discussing about the various ways and new ideas to market B2B businesses specifically SMEs.

Business marketing vs. consumer marketing

The terms B2B and B2C are short forms for Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C). Both describe the nature and selling process of goods and services. While B2B products and services are sold from one company to another, B2C products are sold from a company to the end user.

While almost any B2C product or service could also be a B2B product, very few B2B products or services will be used by consumers. For example, toilet paper, a typical B2C product, can be seen as a B2B product if it is bought in larger quantities by a hotel for their restrooms and guestrooms. However, few people will buy an excavator for their private use.

Most B2B products are purchased by companies to be used in their own manufacturing, producing goods and services to be sold on. The value added product can then be either sold to yet another company; or to the consumer.

Any consumer product would have gone through numerous values-add processes before it is being purchased by the final user. Numerous suppliers from various industries would have contributed to the finished product. For instance, a can of soft drink will require different companies to provide the can, water, sugar, other ingredients, label-printing, packaging, transportation and paint for the printing. The can itself is made from aluminum that needs to be processed and extracted. Only the very last transaction in the sales/ purchase chain is a true B2C relationship.

In terms of perceived risks, a b2b product is commonly viewed to possess higher perceived risks compared to b2c products due to the value of each transaction: e.g. buying machinery can cost $2Million compared to a tube of toothpaste which would cost just $2. However in reality, risks levels in terms of duty-of-care can be fairly similar depending on the nature of the product. A faulty machine similar to a contaminated tube of toothpaste can bring grave harm to its respective users. However, because of the quantum of purchase, buyers of b2b products tend to place more focus on the evaluation and selection process.

Although on the surface the differences between business and consumer marketing may seem obvious, there are more subtle distinctions between the two with substantial ramifications. Dwyer and Tanner (2006) note that business marketing generally entails shorter and more direct channels of distribution.

While consumer marketing is aimed at large groups through mass media and retailers, the negotiation process between the buyer and seller is more personal in business marketing. According to Hutt and Speh (2004), most business marketers commit only a small part of their promotional budgets to advertising, and that is usually through direct mail efforts and trade journals. While that advertising is limited, it often helps the business marketer set up successful sales calls.

Marketing to a business trying to make a profit (Business-to-Business marketing) as opposed to an individual for personal use (Business-to-Consumer, or B2C marketing) is similar in terms of the fundamental principals of marketing. In B2C, B2B and B2G marketing situations, the marketer must always:

• successfully match the product/service strengths with the needs of a definable target market;
• position and price to align the product/service with its market, often an intricate balance; and
• Communicate and sell it in the fashion that demonstrates its value effectively to the target market.

These are the fundamental principals of the 4 Ps of marketing (the marketing mix) first documented by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960.

 Customer in a B2B Sale:

While “other businesses” might seem like the simple answer, Dwyer and Tanner (2006) say business customers fall into four broad categories: companies that consume products or services, government agencies, institutions and resellers.

 The first category includes original equipment manufacturers,such as automakers, who buy gauges to put in their cars, and users, which are companies that purchase products for their own consumption. The second category, government agencies, is the biggest. In fact, the U.S. government is the biggest single purchaser of products and services in the country, spending more than $300 billion annually. But this category also includes state and local governments. The third category, institutions, includes schools, hospitals and nursing homes, churches and charities. Finally, resellers consist of wholesalers, brokers and industrial distributors.

So what are the meaningful differences between B2B and B2C marketing?

 A B2C sale is to an individual. That individual may be influenced by other factors such as family members or friends, but ultimately it’s a single person that pulls out their wallet. A B2B sale is to an organization. And in that simple distinction lies a web of complications that differ because of the organizational structure. The marketing mix is affected by the B2B uniqueness which includes complexity of business products and services, diversity of demand and the differing nature of the sales itself (including fewer customers buying larger volumes). Because there are some important subtleties to the B2B sale, the issues are broken down beyond just the original 4 Ps developed by McCarthy.

 B2B Marketing Strategies

 B2B Branding

B2B Branding is different from B2C in some crucial ways, including the need to closely align corporate brands, divisional brands and product/service brands and to apply your brand standards to material often considered “informal” such as email and other electronic correspondence.

 B2B brands need to be differentiated

One of the characteristics of a B2B product is that in many cases it is bought by a committee of buyers. It is important to understand what a brand means to these buyers. (Note: Temporal) Buyers are usually well-versed with costing levels and specifications. Also, due to constant monitoring of the market, these buyers would have excellent knowledge of the products too. In many cases the purchases are specification driven. As a result of this, it is vital that brands are clearly defined and target the appropriate segment.

As explained above, every one product can only be associated with one brand. Because of this, it is vital that companies find a white space for their brand, an uncontested category to occupy space in the minds of the buyer.

Differentiating one’s brand, companies can use various strategies, leveraging on the origin of the goods or the processes to manufacturing them. Some have identified up to 13 such strategies. Depending on the company’s history, the competitive landscape, occupied spaces and white spaces, there could be one or many strategies any one company could use.

Ultimately, a strong B2B brand will reduce the perceived risk for the buyer and help sell the brand.

 B2B brand promotion

B2B brand promotion works in different formats as compared to B2C brand promotion. B2B brands avoid mass market broadcasts and generally use media that can be targeted at a specific business audience, such as direct marketing both on and offline. B2B companies are present where their potential customers are: Trade Shows, Exhibitions, and Industry Forum and increasingly so in online communities.

 Product (or Service)

Because business customers are focused on creating shareholder value for themselves, the cost-saving or revenue-producing benefits of products and services are important to factor in throughout the product development and marketing cycles.

Many organizations have both B2B and B2C components, but it’s not unusual for a company to specialize in B2B services or sales. In fact, the vast majority of products and services sold are considered to be B2B in nature. One major reason for the popularity of B2B sales and services are sheer volume.

This is in contrast to transactions that involve the sale of goods or services to a private consumer or to a government agency. With this particular application, one company purchases the products of a different company, with the recipient functioning as a retailer or a wholesaler.

 People (Target Market)

Quite often, the target market for a business product or service is smaller and has more specialized needs reflective of a specific industry or niche. A B2B niche, a segment of the market, can be described in terms of firmographics which requires marketers to have good business intelligence in order to increase response rates. Regardless of the size of the target market, the business customer is making an organizational purchase decision and the dynamics of this, both procedurally and in terms of how they value what they are buying from you; differ dramatically from the consumer market. There may be multiple influencers on the purchase decision, which may also have to be marketed to, though they may not be members of the decision making unit.

Pricing

The business market can be convinced to pay premium prices more often than the consumer market if you know how to structure your pricing and payment terms well. This price premium is particularly achievable if you support it with a strong brand.

 Common Pricing Myths and Misunderstandings in B2B

The world of pricing is filled with myths and misunderstandings. Some of these misunderstandings are simply the result of old rules from a different time being applied to the here-and-now. Other myths got their start as opinions, but have since blossomed into full-fledged beliefs.

 Margin-Killing Myth: The Market Controls the Price

This myth alone has done more damage and cratered more markets than all of the other margin-killing myths combined. When executives and managers hold this belief, their margins are virtually guaranteed to suffer. For many executives and managers, this mistaken belief is playing a role in their decisions and preventing them from fully-utilizing the most powerful profit-lever available.

 Exploring the Myth That “Pricing Needs to Be Simple” in Order to Be Effective

Regardless of how it happens, the reality is that companies too often connect the dots between their underlying pricing model and ease-of-execution in the field. The result is fairly predictable: These companies adopt extremely rudimentary pricing models that are easy to understand and execute, but that ultimately allow millions of margin-dollars to just slip through their fingers.

The Myth about Inefficient Pricing Processes Being the Biggest Problem

It’s easy to understand why many manufacturers and distributors default to process improvement when attempting to capture their pricing opportunity. What no one likes to talk about, however, is the fact that process improvement is only really powerful when the object of the process in question is fundamentally sound to begin with.

How the Revenue/Volume Myth Can Hurt Your Margins in a Downturn

In a market condition like this, it’s not uncommon to find sales teams falling prey to the myth that just securing more revenue-dollars or unit-volumes will solve the company’s problems. As a result, the team’s entire definition of “going too far” is altered — kicking off an unnecessary margin-meltdown that can cost manufacturers and distributors millions.

 Over-Discounting IS Optimal—Just Not for Your Company

Executives of all stripes, but especially finance executives have strong beliefs that sales reps over-discount. Recent research shows why not only is that expected, but why the conventional remedy, compensating sales on margin instead of volume, is not enough.

Promotion

Promotion planning is relatively easy when you know the media, information seeking and decision making habits of your customer base, not to mention the vocabulary unique to their segment. Specific trade shows, analysts, publications, blogs and retail/wholesale outlets tend to be fairly common to each industry/product area. What this means is that once you figure it out for your industry/product, the promotion plan almost writes itself (depending on your budget) but figuring it out can be a special skill and it takes time to build up experience in your specific field. Promotion techniques rely heavily on marketing communications strategies.

 Place (Sales and Distribution)

The importance of a knowledgeable, experienced and effective direct (inside or outside) sales force is often critical in the business market. If you sell through distribution channels also, the number and type of sales forces can vary tremendously and your success as a marketer is highly dependent on their success.

 B2B Marketing Communications Methodologies

The purpose of B2B marketing communications is to support the organizations’ sales effort and improve company profitability. B2B marketing communications tactics generally include advertising,  public relations, direct mail, trade show support, sales collateral, branding, and interactive services such as website design and search engine optimization. The Business Marketing Association is the trade organization that serves B2B marketing professionals. It was founded in 1922 and offers certification programs, research services, conferences, industry awards and training programs.

Positioning Statement

An important first step in business to business marketing is the development of your positioning statement. This is a statement of what you do and how you do it differently and better and more efficiently than your competitors.

 Developing the mesages

The next step is to develop your messages. There is usually a primary message that conveys more strongly to your customers what you do and the benefit it offers to them, supported by a number of secondary messages, each of which may have a number of supporting arguments, facts and figures.

 Building a campaign plan

Whatever form your B2B marketing campaign will take, build a comprehensive plan up front to target resources where you believe they will deliver the best return on investment, and make sure you have all the infrastructure in place to support each stage of the marketing process – and that doesn’t just include developing the lead – make sure the entire organization is geared up to handle the inquiries appropriately.

 Briefing an agency

A standard briefing document is usually a good idea for briefing an agency. As well as focusing the agency on what’s important to you and your campaign, it serves as a checklist of all the important things to consider as part of your brief. Typical elements to an agency brief are: Your objectives, target market, target audience, product, campaign description, your product positioning, graphical considerations, corporate guidelines, and any other supporting material and distribution.

 Measuring results

The real value in results measurement is in tying the marketing campaign back to business results. After all, you’re not in the business of developing marketing campaigns for marketing sake. So always put metrics in place to measure your campaigns, and if at all possible, measure your impact upon your desired objectives, be it Cost per Acquisition, Cost per Lead or tangible changes in customer perception.

 How big is business marketing?

Hutt and Speh (2001) note that “business marketers serve the largest market of all; the dollar volume of transactions in the industrial or business market significantly exceeds that of the ultimate consumer market.” For example, they note that companies such as GE, DuPontand IBM spend more than $60 million a day on purchases to support their operations.

Dwyer and Tanner (2006) say the purchases made by companies, government agencies and institutions “account for more than half of the economic activity in industrialized countries such as the United States, Canada and France.”

A 2003 study sponsored by the Business Marketing Association estimated that business-to-business marketers in the United States spend about $85 billion a year to promote their goods and services. The BMA study breaks that spending out as follows (figures are in billions of dollars):

• Trade Shows/Events — $17.3
• Internet/Electronic Media — $12.5
• Promotion/Market Support — $10.9
• Magazine Advertising — $10.8
• Publicity/Public Relations — $10.5
• Direct Mail — $9.4
• Dealer/Distributor Materials — $5.2
• Market Research — $3.8
• Telemarketing — $2.4
• Directories — $1.4
• Other — $5.1

 The fact that there is such a thing as the Business Marketing Association speaks to the size and credibility of the industry. BMA traces its origins to 1922 with the formation of the National Industrial Advertising Association. Today, BMA, headquartered in Chicago, has more than 2,000 members in 19 chapters across the country. Among its members are marketing communications agencies that are largely or exclusively business-to-business-oriented

 What’s driving growth in B2B marketing?

The tremendous growth and change that business marketing is experiencing is due in large part to three “revolutions” occurring around the world today, according to Morris, Pitt and Honeycutt (2001).

 First is the technological revolution. Technology is changing at an unprecedented pace, and these changes are speeding up the pace of new product and service development. A large part of that has to do with the Internet, which is discussed in more detail below.

Technology and business strategy go hand in hand. Both are correlated .While technology supports forming organization strategy, the business strategy is also helpful in technology development. Both play a great role in business marketing.

 Second is the entrepreneurial revolution. To stay competitive, many companies have downsized and reinvented themselves. Adaptability, flexibility, speed, aggressiveness and innovativeness are the keys to remaining competitive today. Marketing is taking the entrepreneurial lead by finding market segments, untapped needs and new uses for existing products, and by creating new processes for sales, distribution and customer service.

 The third revolution is one occurring within marketing itself. Companies are looking beyond traditional assumptions and adopting new frameworks, theories, models and concepts. They’re also moving away from the mass market and the preoccupation with the transaction. Relationships, partnerships and alliances are what define marketing today. The cookie-cutter approach is out. Companies are customizing marketing programs to individual accounts.

 Buying behavior in a B2B environment

Some characteristics of organizational buying / selling behavior in detail:

• For consumer brands the buyer is an individual. In B2B there are usually committees of people in an organization and each of the members may have different attitudes towards any brand. In addition, each party involved may have different reasons for buying or not buying a particular brand.
• Since there are more people involved in the decision making process and technical details may have to be discussed in length, the decision-making process for B2B products is usually much longer than in B2C.
• Companies seek long term relationships as any experiment with a different brand will have impacts on the entire business. Brand loyalty is therefore much higher than in consumer goods markets.
• While consumer goods usually cost little in comparison to B2B goods, the selling process involves high costs. Not only is it required to meet the buyer numerous times, but the buyer may ask for prototypes, samples and mock ups. Such detailed assessment serves the purpose of eliminating the risk of buying the wrong product or service.

 The main features of the B2B selling process are…

• Marketing is one-to-one in nature. It is relatively easy for the seller to identify a prospective customer and to build a face-to-face relationship.
• Highly professional and trained people in buying processes are involved. In many cases two or three decision makers have to be considered in purchasing industrial products.
• High value considered purchase.
• Purchase decision is typically made by a group of people (“buying team”) not one person.
• Often the buying/selling process is complex and includes many stages (for sexample; request for expression of interest, request for tender, selection process, awarding of tender, contract negotiations, and signing of final contract).
• Selling activities involve long processes of prospecting, qualifying, wooing, making representations, preparing tenders, developing strategies and contract negotiations.

 Typical examples of a B2B selling process are…

• An organization is seeking to build a new warehouse building. After carefully documenting their requirements, it obtains three proposals from suitable construction firms and after a long process of evaluation and negotiation it places an order with the organization that it believes has offered the best value for money.
• An organization has significant need for legal services and obtains submissions from two law firms. Analysis of the proposals and subsequent discussions determines that there is no price advantage to placing all of the work with one firm and the decision is made to split the work between the two firms based on an evaluation of each firm’s capabilities.
• A sales representative makes an appointment with a small organization that employs 22 people. He demonstrates a photocopier/fax/printer to the office administrator. After discussing the proposal with the business owner it is decided to sign a contract to obtain the machine on a fully maintained rental and consumables basis with an upgrade after 2 years.

 Developing a sales strategy/solution selling/technical selling

The “art” of technical selling (solution selling) follows a three stage process…

• Stage 1: Sell the appointment: Never sell over the telephone. The aim of the first contact with a prospective purchaser is to sell the appointment. The reason is simple; industrial sales are complex, any attempt to sell over the phone will trivialize your product or service and run the risk of not fully understanding the customer’s need.
• Stage 2: Understand their needs: The best method of selling is to minimize the information about your goods or services until you have fully understood your customer’s requirements.
• Stage 3: Develop and propose a solution. The solution is (of course) developed from your (or the firm that you represents) product or service offerings.

The important point about solution selling is that it is essential not to sell the solution before you understand the customer’s requirements; otherwise you are highly likely to unwittingly sell them on how ill-suited your solution is to meeting their requirements. To illustrate; imagine a couple seeking the services of an architect start their first meeting with the inevitable “we want to build a house.” If the architect leapt in at that point and proceeded to show them his favorite design influence “the Mediterranean look” only to discover that they hate “Mediterranean” and wanted something “a bit more Frank Lloyd Wright” he will have gone most of the way toward alienating the sale. You can see that if he had “kept his powder dry” for a bit longer and first discovered what they were looking for, he could have better understood which way to skew his pitch. He was equally capable of designing in a Frank Lloyd Wright style.

The marketing function is able to support this solution sell through tactics like account-based marketing – understanding the requirements of a specific target organization and building a marketing program around these. As research shows, sales success is heavily weighted towards suppliers who can understand their audience before selling to them (in UK research, 77 per cent of senior decision-makers believe that the marketing approaches made by new suppliers are poorly targeted and make it easy to justify staying with their current supplier)^.

Sales force management has a critical function in industrial selling, where it assumes a greater role than other parts of the marketing mix. Typical industrial organizations are highly dependent on the ability of its sales people to build relationships with customers. During periods of high demand (economic boom) the sales force often become mere order takers and struggle to respond to customer requests for quotations and information. However, when economic downturn hits it becomes critical to direct the sales force out selling.

 The key features of successful Business sales

In industrial marketing the personal selling is still very effective because many products must be customized to suit the requirements of the individual customer. Indicators such as the sales tunnel give information on the expected sales in the near future, the hit rate indicates whether the sales organization is busy with promising sales leads or it is spending too much effort on projects that are eventually lost to the competition or that are abandoned by the prospect.

 Marketing Automation System in B2B:

Currently it is considering or actively evaluating, a marketing automation system to improve the B2B lead generation and lead nurturing process. It requires a better  understanding of  solution providers’ customer service orientation, online training/help resources, process for rolling out new features/versions / bug fixes, and whether or not one has been impressed with their ability to develop him or her as a prospective customer through automated means, both obvious and less obvious. Multiple Marketing Automation vendors provide the key features customers need but, after the contract is signed, customer satisfaction with the vendor and business results will largely be determined by the four factors above.

• Defining and implementing a core CRM for both Sales and Marketing use.
• Evaluating email service providers as part of a cost/benefit analysis for continued investment in an in-house system vs. outsourcing some or all functionality to a 3rd party vendor.
• Adding a marketing demand generation system, and integrating with Sales force, to improve lead scoring, automate core lead nurture campaigns and improve information sales representatives have about prospect interest
• Selecting a learning management system for internal sales training (initially), customer training and prospect education/lead nurture.

Much has been mentioned about the core best practices for selecting a marketing automation system, particular the importance of matching business needs to system features and committing the resources necessary to see success. As customers dig into system requirements and vendor capabilities, however, they likely to find that the key features customers truly need are common across systems from multiple vendors. In fact, any “we’re the only system that does X” claims by a given vendor are likely to be short-lived – there’s such an arms race among leading CRM, email marketing, demand generation, etc. vendors that any meaningful feature advantage is likely to be temporary at best.

So, what customers look for in a marketing automation vendor that can help narrow their choice between several viable options. Here are several key features that found to have a major impact on both usability and business results.

 Customer Supports

Automating marketing programs in b2b is an ongoing process of testing and refinement, which never ends. Customers will need help from the vendor along the way. Even with a support contract that looks the same on paper, two different vendors may deliver entirely different customer support experiences. For example,

1. Vendor 1′s personnel are able to quickly understand customer’s need and either identify a workable solution or honestly confirm that what they want to do is not possible or will be enabled in a future version of the product.
2. Vendor 2′s personnel seemingly look to provide a response, any response, as quickly as possible so they can close out the support request.

Customers want the marketing automation solution provider to respond to support requests like Vendor 1. To justify they, find and talk with other clients of the solution provider, and not necessarily those given as references. Does the company respond to support requests in a timely manner with useful information that solves the issue? Are their support staff well-trained, understanding system functionality and limitations as well as the results we trying to achieve?

 Online Help & Marketing Automation Training

Clients don’t want to have to contact Customer Support for every little question. A good marketing automation vendor doesn’t want you to do that either, so they invest in both a useful online help system and online training materials covering different aspects of system set-up/usage and more general marketing automation best practices. Before deciding on a vendor, make sure the people on the team who will be responsible for using the system to deliver the intended business results have an opportunity to run through several online training modules, use the internal help system, etc. Also ask existing customers about how useful they’ve found the online help system and available online training. If no endorsements from both the team and existing customers came along, one should keep looking.

 Process for Rolling-Out New Features & Bug Fixes

This is a critical area few marketing automation system users think about up front, particularly if they’ve either had no experience with these types of systems and just expect things to “work”, or they’ve only had experience with industry leaders where new feature/functionality roll-outs are typically very smooth. However, all it takes is one botched new feature roll-out resulting in a corrupted database, broken lead scoring, failed automated processes or other nasty issue to drive this one home. When the solution provider updates the core system, adds new features, implements bug fixes, etc., the process should be smooth and transparent for customers. Does the solution provider do a good job communicating about upcoming changes, and quickly address any unintended problems that arise from these roll-outs? Have customers ever found that a key feature/function of their automated programs “breaks” due to a system change they were never made aware of and, if so, how did the solution provider respond?  This is obviously another great area to discuss with the vendors’ existing customers but, in today’s social media age, you’ll get a great perspective on how different vendors handle these issues by taking a look at customer support forums and searching for vendor mentions on Twitter. No company handles every roll-out perfectly, but customers want to see a history of clear communication and fast action when problems arise.

 Developing the Prospect:

Every marketing automation vendor is watching, recording and tying-together every move as potential clients or customers visit their web site, download their content, and receive automated or personalized emails from them and more. Once any company start using these systems, it realizes just how much information is available to marketers using these systems as they craft automated programs to develop prospects. It’s a lot. All this technology and information should deliver a near seamless experience to the company, as the prospective buyer that leaves the feeling “Wow, they really get it. They’re persistent in a helpful way – I always feel like I’m learning something new and valuable from each interaction – and definitely not just pushing a product/solution I don’t really need.”

 Results:

In this survey all the respondents were eligible to be corporate connections 20% were female & 80% were male among them. They were asked to response to the statement formed to reveal the general expectations from a corporate connection. 40% of the respondents belong to Bank & financial institutions, 20% from software & Electronics industry, 20% from newspaper & Media & rest of the 20% from others like trading. In age group 40% belong to 26-31, 20% from 32-37, 20% from 38-43 & 20% from 44-49.

In case of, versatility 60% respondents agreed to the statement & 40% strongly agreed, that was “Robi should be more versatile in designing new package for corporate purpose only.” While most of the respondents didn’t like the minimum purchase rate, & Robi says it falls within our terms & conditions. 40% strongly agreed that there should be no minimum purchase rate & 60% agreed on that note. The most disappointing result came out in case of VAS & GPRS. 80% respondent agreed in both the cases that it should offer more benefit & customized options effectively & the rest of 20% were neutral.

Figure : Pie chart showing percentage of respondents expects some customized call charges for non corporate contacts.

40% respondents disagreed that, Robi should start online trading & 20% were neutral. In case of, helpline 40% were neutral, but 40% agreed & 20% strongly agreed that corporate clients deserve a dedicated helpline. In case of roaming facility 20% agreed that roaming facilities of Robi should be more enhanced. Where 20% of the respondents seek reward strongly & 60% also agreed with them & rest of the 20% disagreed that Robi should offer reward/ bonus in different issues like purchase usage, loyalty & the like.

Decision:

Here the null hypothesis is accepted that means is case of population reward or bonus works effectively for both the parties.

Now, it is to be verified that call charge for corporate clients & for others, VAS & GPRS all four are equally significant for a corporate user. The observations are as followed:

Call charge for corporate clients 1 Í 5 = 0.5

Call charge for others                .3Í5 = 1.5

VAS                                            .3Í5 = 1.5

GPRS                                         .3Í5 = 1.5

The confidence level is 95% here.

Solution:  

Call charges for corporate clients & for others, VAS & GPRS all are equally significant for a corporate client.

Call charges for corporate clients & for others, VAS & GPRS all are not equally significant for a corporate client.

= -0.75

= 0.45Call charge for others1.5.251.25(1.5-1.25)

= 0.25

= 0.05VAS1.5.251.25(1.5-1.25)

= 0.25

= 0.05GPRS1.5.251.25(1.5-1.25)

= 0.25

= 0.05

5

1

0

 Degrees of freedom, 1 is deducted from the sample (4-1)=3, for 95% confidence level, critical value will be 7.815.

Decision:

That means, will hypothesis is not rejected my expectation is little bit similar to the real life picture.

Calculation (3):

In this entire survey process It  was expected  that the importance of GPRS will be the same in all professions or business type lets see what the observation says,

Garments                                 (0Í5) = 0

Food & Beverage                      (0Í5) =0

Bank & Financial Institution   (.1Í5) = 0.5

Newspaper & Media                 (.2Í5) =1

Pharmaceuticals                      (.5Í5)=2.5

Software & Electronics             (.2Í5)=1

Toiletries & Cosmetics             (0Í5) = 0

Others                                     (0Í5) = 0

Solution:   

H_o: The importance of GPRS will be the same in all professions.

H₁: The importance of GPRS will not be the same in all professions

 Degrees of freedom 1 is deducted from the sample (8-1) = 7, for 95% confidence level critical value is 14.067.

 Decision:

Here, the alternative hypothesis got rejected, which refers that the importance of GPRS is all business type is somewhat similar.

 Calculation (4):

Now, I am going to test my expectation about VAS of Robi that is the importance of VAS is equal or same in all age group & the observations are,

20-25                                                 ( .5Í5) = 2.5

26-31                             (.2Í5) = 1

32-37                             (.2Í5) = 1

38-43                             (.1Í5) = 0.5

44-49                             (0Í5) = 0

50-55                             (0Í5) =0

Solution:

H_o: The importance of VAS is equal or same in all age group.

H₁: The importance of VAS is not equal or same in all age group.

= 1.67

=3.33626-31116.660.83(1-0.83)

= 0.17

=0.034832-37116.660.83(1-0.83)

=0.17

=0.034838-430.516.660.83(0.5-0.83)

= – 0.33

=0.131244-49016.660.83(0-0.83)

= – 0.83

=0.8350-55016.660.83(0-0.83)

= – 0.83

=0.83     x²=5.1968

 Degrees of freedom 1 is deducted from the sample (6-1) =5, for 95% confidence level critical value is 11.070

 Decision: Here, the alternative hypothesis got rejected, which refers that the importance of VAS in all age group is the same.

 Identifying the gap:

Now its time to verify how effectively & efficiently Robi can meet these expectations. For doing so a questionnaire got including the same variables from a Marketer’s perspective.

 In case of versatility of a package Robi is offering three different ways to make a suitable package to the client’s business- developing a new one, blending new & old together & adding favorable features to a standardized package in accordance to client. In spite of that 100% respondent in the focus group said that it should show more versatility for corporate clients. The most disappointing result is found in both VAS & GPRS issue. Potential clients are expecting more value in these areas, where Robi is saying that it offers discount in purchase of more than 15 GPRS connectivity, clients don’t want discount in it rather they want smaller packages, which they get in lower price like 20 MG & the like. For VAS Robi charges the same rate as for the general clients & clients expect a discounted rate.  In case of online trading most of the respondents seem reluctant, may for the infrastructural issue of the country, & Robi says it verifies the legitimacy of the clients business & credit capacity that’s why it doesn’t trade online. Business purchase has some rules & regulations & like all Robi has some. Where 60% respondents strongly agreed that it should not have a minimum purchase rate & 40% agreed on that note, Robi clarifies it by saying that every business purchase has some terms & conditions. Robi avails it business users both the SMS & MMS Marketing but potential clients want some more innovative ways. The  80% respondents want Robi to offer same charges for non-corporate contacts like the corporate contacts where it is offering differently- corporate-corporate, corporate-others & on the basis of time also. It can provide the helpline only as per client’s demand. Robi offers bonus on activation, monthly usage & reactivation also, but no extra value for loyal clients rather it arranges events for these clients. In case of roaming facility Robi charges no deposit for business users while clients prefer lower call charge. Now its time to verify how effectively & efficiently Robi can meet these expectations. For doing so a questionnaire was prepared including the same variables from a Marketer’s perspective.   In case of versatility of a package Robi is offering three different ways to make a suitable package to the client’s business- developing a new one, blending new & old together & adding favorable features to a standardized package in accordance to client. In spite of that 100% respondent in our focus group said that it should show more versatility for corporate clients. The most disappointing result we got in both VAS & GPRS issue. Potential clients are expecting more value in these areas, where Robi is saying that it offers discount in purchase of more than 15 GPRS connectivity, clients don’t want discount in it rather they want smaller packages, which they get in lower price like 20 MG & the like. For VAS Robi charges the same rate as for the general clients & clients expect a discounted rate.

VAS:

In case of online trading most of the respondents seem reluctant, may for the infrastructural issue of our country, & Robi says it verifies the legitimacy of the clients business & credit capacity that’s why it doesn’t trade online. As we all know business purchase has some rules & regulations & like all Robi has some. Where 60% respondents strongly agreed that it should not have a minimum purchase rate & 40% agreed on that note, Robi clarifies it by saying that every business purchase has some terms & conditions. Robi avails it business users both the SMS & MMS Marketing but potential clients want some more innovative ways. Our 80% respondents want Robi to offer same charges for non-corporate contacts like the corporate contacts where it is offering differently- corporate-corporate, corporate-others & on the basis of time also. It can provide the helpline only as per client’s demand. Robi offers bonus on activation, monthly usage reactivation also but no extra value for loyal clients rather it arranges events for these clients. In case of roaming facility Robi charges no deposit for business users while clients prefer lower call charge.

Recommendations:

Robi possess the third position in telecom industry. To hold this position or to uplift the ranking it must concentrate equally for both the market- consumer market & corporate market. It should offer more value to its business clients. Robi should build a point of difference for its corporate SIM. In case of, sales dropping or for a corporate client, who intends to switch to another company, it should identify the problem & try to upgrade itself as per the competitors. By text messaging or some other way it should update corporate clients about new promotional offerings or new tariff plan about the corporate SIM, as Robi doesn’t practice advertising. It is observed that it continues a tariff plan for a long term period, which is not expected by the users. It should maintain a tariff plan for a specific period of time or it can offer discount after an interval in a long term period as cash discounts always encourage the repeat usage. For older & newer VAS it should charge differently. It should upgrade the quality of its GPRS or Robi Internet. Robi should minimize the problem solving time, for the internet issues as it hampers the image greatly.

In the first calculation it is shown that the importance of reward is same for male & female both. Currently, Robi offer only free talktime & SMS on net for a new connection. Inspite of free SMS it can offer a trial package of it’s new VASs on a two-three month basis. It can also offer free internet browsing to a limited volume. Rabi can make it more attractive. It can show the world be client the entire line of reward or bonus, among which client will choose the favorable two or three as he or she prefers.

For instance, a client who is not comfortable with SMS, he or she prefers free talk time along with any another offer like a trial package of VAS Namaz aleart or corporate theme song. Another way is that, he or she may take the free talk time twice, which will increase both the time limit & amount of free talk time.

For the second calculation, the hypothesis was, call charge for corporate users within the organization & for others VAS & GPRS al four are equally important, which got accepted. Robi should price all the four services smartly & competitively. Right now it is very much focused on the call charge within the group. But is should take the also other in consideration. It can offer discount for off net frequently in a given time or it can fix a period like 12.00 Pm-3.00 PM within this time limit the off net callers will get discount for a daily basis otherwise, it can offer a lower charge or introduce the cashback offer. For corporate users all the VAS doesn’t hold the same significance. Robi should track out the mostly used VASs by corporate clients & those also which are feasible for business purpose. Then it can price them competitively or somewhat lower than the competitors. In case of GPRS, Robi offers pay per use & a monthly package. These two are the solutions for the extremely low & high users. But most of the people fall somewhere in between. It can offer small to medium packages like 20MB in Tk 20 or 200 MB in Tk 200 or it can offer a whole day package in a fixed rate like a client can enjoy unlimited Robi GPRS from 9:00 am to 9:00pm for Tk 25.

In the third calculation, it is shown that, the importance of GPRS is the same in all professions or business types. In this issue Rabi can be benefited from the previously suggested solution small to medium packages. Clients can choose a package as per his or her business demands. For IT software & Pharmaceutical firms for whom GPRS is the second most important service, Robi should structure a tariff plan for them differently which will add more value for clients. For these bulk users of GPRS. Robi can arrange something better & extra-ordinary. For instance in pharmaceutical companies like BEXIMCO, INCEPTA where 300-400 workers use the company software to do their routine tasks. Rabi can arrange a work shop for them in which the basic use age of internet or GPRS will be taught. By doing that Robi can make them a better user & also a heavy user of GPRS in the near future.

For the fourth calculation, the hypothesis was, the importance of VAS is the same in all age group, which got accepted. Robi should identify the popularity of a particular VAS in a certain age group & in accordance with that it should match them with customer needs. Robi provides lots of information to it’s clients through VAS. Some need updates of share market & may other need breaking news. Business users who travel a lot may need the information about hotels or motels of a particular place or a GPS system. By understanding effectively the type of business the potential client has or the type of user he on she is Robi can promote or introduce a new VAS in that group or segment. For instance a client shows interest or has queries about the VAS which provides updates of share market. That means either he or she is an active investor of share market or willing to invest somewhere. Now, Robi has another VAS which give update about all important business events going to take place like trade fairs in different hotels, exhibitions, REHAB fair & the like. It can offer this VAS to him or her an trial basis.

In case of interactive media, Robi offers the Corporate Messaging Platform (CMP) Corporate theme. It should offer more of it, like blue tooth marketing, MMS Marketing & so on. It can establish an information booth for its business users whether it can be online or corporate care, where Robi can inform the target audience the initial requirements to get a minimum purchase rate, billing & payment issues, minimum & maximum credit limits & the like. It should excel the quality of corporate helpline & structure a well defined way of channeling the information or queries raised by both the current & potential clients. Robi has separate arrangements for the clients who are corporate & vastly users of international roaming, but it fails to inform the target audience effectively. In such circumstances, information booth can guide the information seeker properly. In case of bonus offering, Robi practices three types – purchase bonus, usage bonus & repurchase bonus, which is free SMS & free talk time on net only. It can make it more interesting by offering off net with a discount or fully free. Robi concentrates only on the tariff plan for the corporate users within the group. It should also concentrate on the client’s communication rate & expenditure outside the group or organization. Whether it can increase the number of Friends & family (FNF) numbers or it can offer a lower tariff for other numbers.

Conclusions:

In this entire process, very interesting things related to corporate selling got to be known. Indeed, it is a challenging issue to pursue business clients in some limited option & by handling the other hardles in business selling.  Few mathematical problems are solved which made this report both verbally & mathematically, presentable & communicative. It is tried to achieve the objective & purpose for, which this report is undertaken.

There are some strong & weak points of Robi corporate selling division. Here, the strong points are appreciated & weak points are identified for proper rectification. Currently Robi is combating with Banglalink for the second position or challenger slip in the telecom industry. Thus establishing a good image for corporate clients would be a very good starting for the goal, it wants to achieve. Bangladesh is growing in a rapid pace & every day a new corporation gets its birth. In this situation, it is a big challenge for Robi to meet up with this everyday growing market. As we know, business differs vastly from each other. Some are purely corporate like banks & companies & some are for away from these criteria now many people are investing in their local areas & utilizing the available opportunities. Some are near the Dhaka & some in remote areas. Robi should be very careful in treating them & satisfying them, by maintaining the standardization. It should offer adapted versions of packages to these groups.

This report contains the past history & some future planning of Robi. The planning portion shows where it wants to see it, which is really commendable. And for the execution of planning focus, steadiness & specification are the main things for achievement.

 Under the title “An Analysis of Corporate selling strategy”, it is tried to innovate more things for Robi Corporate SIM, which can embellish it for potential clients in a good way. Business selling or corporate selling requires more time in comparison to consumer selling. Thus, it should keep in mind that in this process, customers must not lose the intention or attraction for it & to achieve so Robi should establish its offerings in an innovative manner.