Guest Speaker Series

Guest Speaker: Mr. Michael Lee

5 highlighted points provided by the guest speaker during his course of sharing:

(1) Importance of Complaints

Singaporeans likes to complaint a lot on small things. In sales, complaints are very concerned of and worried about by the company. It is often the start of a problem. Complaints will affect a company on their sales and largely on their reputation which is very critical. When the reputation of the company goes down, it will in turn affect the sales and cause sales to drop as well. Citing an example shared by the guest speaker: the CEO of SMRT wasn't at fault for the major MRT train breakdowns. It is clearly known that her position does not cause the train to breakdown (i.e. even she is not the CEO of SMRT, MRT trains will still breakdown due to technical faults). However she still have to carry and bear the responsibilities to save the reputation of the company.

Direct complaints such as going directly to the retailer to express your unhappiness about their product or services is generally perceived to be better than indirect ones by the retailers. They are less harmful as only the company itself learns about the complaint. As compared to indirect ones, customers voiced out their complaints and unhappiness over social media such as Facebook and Twitter. This is serious, as more and more people get access to such platforms, complaints will be spread throughout the network within seconds. Making it worse, the power of social media does not permit company to do anything to stop the spread. Thus, more and more people will know about the complaints toward this company and reputation goes down instantly.

Therefore, complaints from the customers should be taken into consideration seriously and companies should never disregard customer's feedback.

(2) Issues associated with complaints

As mentioned by the guest speaker, complains are easier to resolve when it is valid, but not all complains can be resolved as it may not involve any reasoning and as for complains which involve ethical / legal issues, It usually means that the party is in for some big trouble if it is not handled well. Unethical practices needs to be address individually to resolve it. Personally I agree with the speaker as not all complains may be due to the companies fault, some customers just wants to find fault with us by pinpointing some minor errors out and making it a big issue.

He then gave us an example using a case study, in the case he mentioned that CPFDA is an act that protects the consumers against unfair practices which are unethical of illegal handled by consumer association. It is suppose to protect consumers from unethical and illegal issues. He also showed us statistics that during 2009, the consumer association of Singapore receive 21752 complains about not being treated fairly and only 1597 cases were answered.

But now consumers have a lot more protection under the consumer protection 10 acts. Time share is one of the important Acts which allows the employees to buy the use of a holiday home for the same weeks or weeks every year, at a fraction of the price of owning it all year round and without the exorbitant cost and worry of year round maintenance. In effect they are pre-buying holiday time, which they can use themselves, rent out, give away, sell or bequeath as they wish.

Timeshare has many different variations with the same basic concept. It is also called vacation ownership, holiday ownership and club time it is one of the fastest growing sectors of the holiday industry and with the arrival of large hotel groups that saw the benefits of Timeshare.

Personally we think that timeshare is a great concept as it actually allows one to have a vacation off from work or just a break and actually allows the consumer to pay the same price even if there will be rising price in the future. 

(2) Mis-selling

According to Mr. Lee mis-selling is an attempt by a salesperson to convince a customer to purchase a good or service that is not appropriate for the client. This is a very unethical practice, because the salesperson just wants to make the sale and does not care whether it is useful to the customer or not.

Most complaints from customers come from mis-selling. After they have bought a product or service they say, that the product/service does not meet their expectations.

Ms. Lee afterwards talked about an example, where the MES was not satisfied as with the record of its past performance in providing financial advices.

Ms. Lee strongly recommended that everybody who does sales as a profession should be very careful to not mis-sell. 

(3) Cheating

One of the points that Mr Lee pointed out was Cheating. It refers to the immoral way of achieving a goal. It is generally used for the breaking of rules to gain advantage in a competitive situation.

One example that Mr Lee gave was a staff name Hazel Thea Puyaoan Vicente who works in a telemarketing, Touch & Tech was imprisoned for two years three months due to cheating. In order to hit her sales target, she cheated and forged her applicants’ pay slips and inflating their salaries so that their annual pay would meet the minimum income. She also doctored their letters of extension for employment as the bank will only approve applicants who have a minimum of one year validity remaining on their employment passes.

This is a good example to show that Cheating will lead to regrettable consequences. Although people are pressured to do unlawful things at times, it is strongly encouraged to not cheat as it will not only destroy your reputation, it will also destroy your true self. Apart from that people view of you will change negatively thus it is advisable for us to not cheat.

(5) Misrepresentation

Misrepresentation is said to be the giving of false information by one party to the other before the contract is made, which means that what the person says is untrue, only wants to induce the other party to make the contract.

The following are example given by the guest speaker to illustrate the terms, misrepresentation:

1.    A salesperson sell  a customer a particular phone  and claim that the phone has got this feature, however, when the customer purchased it and went home to try out his phone, he couldn’t find the feature that the salesperson has provided him/her with during the selling process.

2.    An insurance company sell a policy to a customer and it has assure its customer that it will give him/her a certain amount of returns, but actually, the company are not guarantee.

A real case example given by him would be the DBS bank and the Lehman Brother incident where thousands of complaints were sent to the ten financial institutions that distributed the notes and one of which is the DBS Bank. Some who were dissatisfied with the response they got took their cases to the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre.

The first lawsuit arising from the minibond saga was by a group of 204 investors who sued DBS Bank in July 2009 for the S$17 million they lost from investing in High Notes 5, as they were unhappy with the bank’s low settlement offers.

This misrepresentation is unethical as what the DBS bank claim is untrue, thus when its consumers invest in the High Notes 5, they were unhappy with the bank’s low settlement offers and this is how it led to complaints and eventually started suing DBS bank for the S$17 million they have lost from investing in the bank bonds.

Additionlly, the guest speaker touched on the three types of misrepresentation that a business can have and the negative consequences as a result of misrepresentation.

Innocent Misrepresentation

A statement made honestly with reasonable grounds for believing in its truth.

Negligent Misrepresentation

A statement made honestly but without reasonable ground for believing in its truth.

Fraudulent Misrepresentation

This is when the representor makes a statement dishonestly, knowing it to be untrue or being reckless as to whether it was true or not.

Next, the guest speaker highlighted that a company’s unethical practices can have negative consequences for the company such as it will affect the reputation and tarnish the company branding and image due to the negative word of mouth and the fast spreading of the company’s unethical practices on the internet, newspaper and other media sources. This would lead to the harm of the sales of goods as customers may boycott goods produced by a company known for unethical behavior. Additionally, it may lead to a drop in stock price as investors will be unwilling to buy shares from companies known to transact business dishonestly as investing in dishonest firms will result in poor returns.

Therefore, it is important to adopt ethical practices when doing business with others so as to prevent any complaints and negative consequences which may cause harm to the company and by adopting ethical practices would eventually get higher revenues or the business as there is a demand from positive consumer support, improved brand and business awareness and recognition, better employee motivation and recruitment and lastly, new sources of finance such as from ethical investors.

                                          

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Why People Buy?

Introducing the......... Lexus LS 600 h L Hybrid Car!

Features:

1.   Full hybrid Technology

The world's first full V8 hybrid car, Lexus developed full hybrid technology, which combines both series and parallel configurations, for maximum performance with improved fuel economy and significantly reduced emissions.

Competitor manufacturers are just starting to introduce mild hybrid models, based on the parallel layout.

Series hybrid: An electric motor drives the wheels. The engine's only role is to generate electricity. This system is best suited to slow moving, stop-go, traffic as it is not capable of generating higher speeds.

Parallel hybrid: The engine always provides the drive power, with the electric motor only assisting with acceleration. The electric motor never powers the vehicle by itself in this configuration.

Compared with other competing hybrid systems, Lexus full hybrid technology enables the vehicle to run purely on electric power at lower speeds.

o   In Electric Vehicle mode, Lexus full hybrid models create zero emissions and no fuel is used.

o   Competitor systems do not offer this as they employ a far smaller electric motor which only supplements the combustion engine and never powers the vehicle alone.

Full hybrid technology also delivers breathtaking performance with improved fuel economy and significantly reduced emissions over the combined driving cycle. Lexus is the only premium manufacturer to offer full hybrid technology. Competitor brands are now just starting to introduce mild hybrids, which compared to full hybrids only provide limited performance and environmental benefits.

2.   Thin Film Translator (TFT)

Thin film (TFT) translator display provides the driver with a variety of information, from turn by turn directions and hybrid energy consumption to menu where you can personalize settings for your vehicle. 

• Turn by turn navigation instructions guides to driver`s to the destination to where they want to go  

• Real time display of the current electric power flow to and from the battery  

• Hybrid system indicator display current electric-power usage and indicates when you’re within a desirable range.  

• Driver attention monitor 

The available driver attention monitor is part of the available advanced pre-collision system (APCS) and uses infrared technology and a camera to continuously examine a driver’s facial position. If your face appears to be turned away from the road when the radar detects an object ahead, the system instantly alerts you.

• Dynamic radar cruise control  

The available Dynamic Radar Cruise control uses radar technology to help maintain a pre-set following distance from the vehicle traveling directly ahead. Should your vehicle get closer than you pre-set following distance, the throttle is automatically reduced and brakes are applied

• Lane keeps assist 

Designed to help drivers stay with their chosen lane, the available lane keep assist uses cameras to detect and monitor readable lane markers. When needed, it can alert the driver and counter steer the car back towards the center of the appropriate lane.

• Advanced Pre-Collision System (APCS) with Driver Attention Monitor

Uses infrared camera to monitor the direction of the driver's face while the vehicle is in motion. It will help to warn the driver and, if necessary, help apply the brakes to alert the driver if an object is detected ahead while the driver is facing away from the road. Once a collision is determined to be unavoidable, the system then preps the Brake Assist for increased braking effectiveness once the brakes are applied. It can also retract the front seatbelts as well as apply the brakes to help reduce collision damage.

The system features stereo cameras to help detect objects in the vehicle's path, plus infrared technology to enhance nighttime operation. An Active Pedestrian Detection System also uses these stereo cameras and is designed to detect pedestrians in the vehicle's path, and can apply the brakes to help reduce vehicle speed.

• Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning 

Applies steering torque to help the vehicle stay in the center of the lane (provided route with clearly marked lines).

Help keep you from drifting out of your lane when cruise control is in operation, an available Lane Departure Warning System gives an audible warning. After this warning, it takes corrective steering action to help keep you in your lane.  

Benefits of a Lexus LS600h L Hybrid Car

o   Low petrol consumption 

Most gasoline efficient car as compared to other normal cars as it runs on a hybrid system that will help drivers save on petrol. As it saves on petrol, it in turn contributes to offering many green advantages as well, such as lesser waste gas emission and environment-polluting byproducts

o   Customer safety oriented

As it has the TFT feature, it will help in drivers' navigation. Even the driver is a stranger to the roads, the system will help direct and lead driver to the accurate destination.

LEXUS LS600hL BROCHURE

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Personal Selling in Action

The 3 areas of value creation that the sales promoter offers to the customers are:

Enhancing the customer’s knowledge of ScoopZ ice cream
The sales promoter of ScoopZ will performance a live demonstration to her customers on the process of how ScoopZ's handmade ice cream is being made and to educate them in terms of the steps and techniques involved in making the ice cream. This allows customers to build interest for ScoopZ’s ice creams and to gain knowledge how ScoopZ’s ice cream is made.

The making of ScoopZ ice cream

Besides, customers are allowed to try on the spot the flavors of the various ice creams to aid in their purchasing decision as customers may want to try out the flavor that appeals to them first before buying. The sales promoter can introduce new flavors or recommend the customers the most popular flavor in the store (e.g. durian) to increase customers’ interest in ScoopZ product.

      

Asserts the advantages and benefits of the products to its customers

Other than the basic information regarding the ice creams, details such as the specifications and ingredients of the ice cream have to be made known to customers before they buy the ice cream. The ice creams in ScoopZ are handmade, making it of a higher density which makes them less likely to melt so fast as compared to other types of normal ice cream. As more and more consumers are health conscious, customers visiting ScoopZ might be interested to know about the health related issues. ScoopZ promoter can ensure customers the health benefits or advantages of consuming ScoopZ as compared to other brands of ice cream. For example, informing the customers that ScoopZ ice cream contain less fats or sugar than other brands, to assure health conscious customers to consume them without a burden.

By knowing the benefits of the ScoopZ ice cream, customer might actually be more convinced about trying ScoopZ.  Other than benefits and advantages, customers would also like to know about the downside of consuming ScoopZ ice cream. For example, to those customers who are allergy to milk or nut content might be keen to know the content and ingredients used inside the ice cream.The sales promoters are available to elaborate and describe the flavors available to the customers before the customer can decide which to buy.

Creates a memorable customer experience

ScoopZ makes their store more than just a place for customers to purchase ice cream but engaging them in social interaction in a pleasing store ambience. Moreover, by performing live demonstration to her customers on the process of how ScoopZ's handmade ice cream is being made, the sales promoter do offer  customers experience that is  new, fresh and exciting.

The sales promoter understands that doing business is much more than just selling things to customers. Thus, she understands that she is not just selling ice cream but are selling ‘happiness’ to her customers.

Moreover, the sales promoter engages her customer's by involving the customer to actively engage in the sampling of the different types of ice cream flavors offering in store.

Lastly, she provides good customer service to her customer and values her customer as an important asset of the company which in turn creates a memorable experience for her customer.

Salesperson of ScoopZ selling ice cream

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Sources of Prospects

ABOUT TRADESHOW:

Controls Instrumentation and Automation 2011 (CIA 2011) is a leading event in Asia for process control and automation, offering an extensive showcase of the latest technologies in the industries such as Chemical, Food, Petroleum/Energy, Waste and Water sector, relating to process engineering. CIA 2011 provides a platform and opportunity for exhibitors to showcase their latest process control and instrumentation technologies to engineers and buyers of oil and gas companies in the industry.

EXHIBITOR: BIOCON SOLUTIONS PTE LTD (BIOCON)

BIOCON is a leading distributor in the global life science, research and pharma industry with offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and India. BIOCON's business is highly diversified across products and services, geographic regions and customer segments. The company offers products from a wide range of manufacturers, to a large number of customers primarily in Asia Pacific locations.

BIOCON's principal customers are major pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical, technology, clinical, food processing companies, universities and research institutes, governmental agencies, environmental testing organizations and tertiary schools. BIOCON distributes a diversified products, includes Media, equipment and instruments, furniture, protective apparel, production and safety products and other life science and laboratory products and supplies.

BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATING CIA 2011 

Powerful marketing medium to generate potential sales leads

With more than 300 exhibitors within CIA 2011, and being one of the largest tradeshow showcasing process control and automation engineering technologies, it attracts a huge number of both exhibitors and visitors from all over the world to this event.

Statistics from CIA 2009 shows that exhibitors from over 28 countries from countries such as China, France, Germany, United Kingdom and visitors from different continents such as Europe and North Asia came to  participated in the event. This shows the power and potential of the event for an exhibitor to take part in.

With the great exposure of this event, participating company like BIOCON can reach out to a larger scale of clients at a time. It targets specifically at the potential audience as participants usually are interested in relating products/services for them to participate in the tradeshow. By showcasing at the CIA 2011, BIOCON will be able to acquire qualified leads, by directly interacting with potential clients who visits their booth during the event. They will be able to exchange information about the company and show them on the spot their products and services that BIOCON has.  Visitors at their booth will also be able to exchange thoughts and provide instant feedback for the company regarding their products/services. 

Gain experience and exposure

CIA 2011 being a dominant event in the process control and automation industry, it draws much attention of various large companies as well as small enterprises. It provides a great chance for BIOCON to share and review their ideas, at the same time get exposed and learn from other exhibitors’. At CIA 2011, BIOCON is among the presence of many local and overseas exhibitors. The opportunity to exchange and share experience with other global players is important for BIOCON to step up in their invention and relationship.

Also, by participating in the tradeshow, BIOCON will be able to demonstrate their presence in the market and to get a chance to meet the press. This serves as a form of publicity for the company, reaching beyond current region. It will also enhance the image and visibility of the company towards to market.

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SELLING SKILLS

3 selling activities we most like most to perform

SELLING

Selling function is the foundation of personal selling whereas all selling activities start with selling. In order to sell our products, we have to plan out all the selling activities like searching for potential customers and to call on potential accounts. We also need to take care of all the others operations such as promoting and advertising our products to encourage them in buying from us. Selling functions though is the hardest step to achieve perfect result throughout a sales job as it involves external customers who are sometimes hard to be pleased. It has a widescope covering from searching for customers till customer purchase. However we would like to perform it still, as it is the most direct way of encountering and communicating with the customers. This is also the fastest way of learning from our customers, so to improve in our business.

 

TRAINING AND RECRUITING

Training and recruiting is important to a company involving selling and sales. We need to recruit and select staffs that possess the right service attitude. The right staff will possses the skills and qualifications that can meet the standards or requirements of the organisation. The right manpower that the organisation will enhance and increase the brand reputation and image in customers mind. On top of that, staffs needs to attend proper training for them to aid customer enquiries.  Thus, being a customer, having staffs servicing them that have good product knowledge and service attitude, it will encourage them to return for re-purchase. We would like to perform this so as to achieve the above, getting the right people to work for our company to provide excellent service and attitude towards our customers.

SERVICING THE PRODUCT

Servicing of product is important to make the customers feel that are taken care of and can rely on us even after making a purchase. For example, if a product is faulty, customers would first come to mind that they can look for us for servicing and our staff are knowledgeble and most willing to help them with their problem, fixig it for them. By performing this function, we can show out customers that we are committed to providing the best for them, taking care of their concerns of after-purchases. Being able to solve their problem will then increase our customer’s trust and loyalty towards our brand, which can lead to return customers and customer retention.

3 selling activities that we are less like to perform

Managing Information  

Most people don’t expect to find happiness, working as a customer service job. The reasons for it would be we might encounter harsh customers’ complaints and this would affect the morale of the personnel due to negative remarks received from the customers. Hence our work performance will be influenced and as such our supervisor as well as our inner self would pressurize us to provide quality of customer services to customers to ensure that there is no complaint.  In the long run, we may even loss the passion and interest for the job and in turn lead to a change of job.  

Moreover, there is a high level of work difficulty in providing technical information such as Engineering, evaluation of information gathered, and research and development information associated with the design, production and operation of equipment and that we must be IT savvy and detailed in order for us to manage the above mention information and to analyze it correctly. If we give false or inaccurate information, the whole organization will be affected and be put into danger.

Servicing the account 

Servicing the account can be a tedious job as one could have a lot of duties to cover under his care. Moreover, we need to manage a wide variety of stocks and display and if we are not meticulous enough, there might be risks of injuring ourselves since we are required to set up the display. To cite an example: Requiring setting up a display by displaying merchandise at the top of the shelf, which may lead to us falling down and injuring ourselves. 

No matter how satisfy we are on the stocking up of shelves and the setting up of products displays, we still must seek approval from the headquarters, marketing department and etc. If they do not like and reject the displays, we have to redesign and to stock up the shelves all over again till they accept our displays and that once a month or so, we have to change the ways products are displayed according to seasons and theme requested by the headquarters and thus, it is a very tedious and laborious job to do as we have to put in 110% effort and to come up with unique and authentic designs every time when we are displaying our products.

Moreover, we must also take into considerations with what customers’ likes and dislikes are and to stock the shelves accordingly to their preferences. Next, one must be accountable for the stock by ensuring the correct stock that is to be given to clients. Not all the items on the shelves would be sold (i.e. only some types of items will be sold) and if the organization does not have an inventory system to keep control of the stock, it will be tiresome for us to pack or take goods off the shelves. 

Lastly, handling of advertising need to take into consideration of the signage, notice boards,
in store and online advertisement and need to seek approval from superiors. Today, numerous organizations do produce advertisements with great meaning and are impactful to promote their brands and products so we must ensure that our advertising is in line with our brand strategy and to come out with an enticing advertisement to capture customers’ attention to win customers over from our competition.

Travelling 

Travelling not only increases cost for the company but also decreases the relationships between colleagues and customers. There are times where more than one staff wants to travel to a particular country for outstations; it might create tension between the staff and even conflict, thus decreasing the relationship between colleagues. When on the sales floor, we might have regular customers who always want to be served by us in particular due to the excellent service provided. By appointing us to travel overseas, it decreases our relationship with our customers as customers might not be able to find the staff that they want to be served, thus affecting their moods and even its sales. In the long run, customer might lose their trust in the staff as well as the brand and might even switch to the brand’s competitors for the purchase of merchandise. On top of that, travelling will cost us to lose time. We could use that time to do more things such as attending to customers and even team bonding with the colleagues in the company.

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