Developing Asia-Pacific (APAC) Sales Excellence Engineering Plastics Business for Internal Strategy

Abstract

This paper examines sales excellence development in the APAC engineering plastics business, where it is necessary to fortify the internal strategy with regard to understanding customer, market study, marketing alignment, relationship management and identifying opportunity. A mixed-method research design was used where 30 professionals in various APAC markets were selected to participate in the research based on a structured 5 in-depth question survey and qualitative discussions. The results show that the sales in organizations have an excellent customer knowledge and relationship management skills, but its business processes are still disjointed and more experience oriented. Qualitative insights are an essential part of market analysis and market segmentation, and there is little use of analytical tools and analytical framework based on internal data. Moreover, the alignment in sales and marketing is not uniform, which means that it should be better connected between strategic and implementation goals and company values. Another area that was not developed fully was cross-regional collaboration and intelligence sharing which restricted proactive market sensitizing and opportunity appraisal. The results of the study suggest the use of standardized analysis tools, strengthening cross-functional coordination, and institutionalizing customer intelligence training, strategic planning, and training in digital market sensing. All in all, the study will contribute to the picture of how APAC-based engineering of plastics organizations can go beyond relationship-based to insight-based, sales systems of strategic alignment that will help to sustain growth and regional competitiveness.