1. A PROJECT REPORT
ON
“How Free-Trial service effects
Marketing and Sales in Cypress
Money Investment Advisory”
Under the Guidance of:
Soumya Kala
(Managing partner and Marketing head, Dehradun, CypressMoney)
Submitted By:
Souradip Mondal
Roll no: 15202239
KIIT SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
KIIT UNIVERSITY, CAMPUS-7, BHUBANESWAR-24
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CERTIFICATE
This is certify that Souradip Mondal of KIIT School of Management
(KSOM),Bhubaneswar has successfully completed the project work titled “
Effect of free trial on Sales and Marketing in CypressMoney” of requirement
for the completion of PGP course as prescribed by the KIIT School of
Management (KSOM).
This project report is the record of authentic work carried out by him during the
period from 4nd
May 2016 to 8th
July 2016
He has work under my Guidance.
Signature
Name: Soumya Kala
Project Guide
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Declaration
I, Souradip Mondal, hereby declare that this project report entitled
“How Free-Trial service affects Sales and Marketing in Cypress
Money Investment Adviser” is an original piece of work and is the
result of my work on behalf of CypressMoney. Record of authentic
work carried out in Summer Internship Program of the MBA program
at School of Management, KIIT University by me during 5th
May
2016 to 8th
July 2016.
This project report has not been submitted to any other university or
institute for the award of any degree or diploma.
Name: Souradip Mondal
Roll no: 15202239
Dated: 08/July/2016
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Acknowledgement
I express my appreciation and thanks to all those with whom I have had the
opportunity to work and whose thoughts and insights have helped me in
furthering my knowledge and understanding of the subject.
Every page of this report reminds me about the moral support and guidance that
was bestowed upon me by esteemed Guide, professors, friends and family
members throughout the duration of the project.
My sincere gratitude goes to my project guide Ms. Soumya Kala; Managing
Partner and Marketing head, CypressMoney without her valued guidance,
encouragement and inspiration the completion of this report would have never
been possible. I am also indebted to all the Employees of CypressMoney
Dehradun Branch.
I would also like to express my thanks to my project guide Prof. Surya
Narayan Mishra of KIIT School of Management for guiding me throughout
the project.
I am thankful to all who directly or indirectly helped me and encouraged me in
completing the project.
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Table of Contents
Sl.No. Particulars Page No.
1 Executive summary 6
2 Introduction 7
3 Company profile 10
4 Objectives 19
5 Research methodology 21
6 Analysis 24
7 Conclusion 36
8 Suggestions 38
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The major objective of the study is to understand properly the Effect of Free-
Trial on Sales and how social media promotion affects the Sales of financial
assets of an advisory on stock market at Cypress Money. Social media is strong
medium of connecting people and promotions through it have a great effect on
sales, especially in awareness of a start-up company like Cypress Money. The
strengths and weaknesses of a firm, as well as its historical performance and
current financial condition can be determined through its counting of its
customer’s satisfaction. So, customer relationship management is the key to
measure the success factor of the company.
The project report entitled deals with in summer internship program at Cypress
Money investment advisory. Keeping this background in view an attempt is
made activities of promotion with reference to sale and the customer
relationship management. All this had been done to get a clear view of the
techniques promotions and sales technique in Cypress Money.
This project contains ratios of conversion for Free-Trial, making Lead from
Follow-ups, paid conversion and the increased in views of YouTube channel,
Likes in Facebook, followers in Tweeter which is according to my objectives.
Many financial data as well as statements have not been shown by the
organization because it is a start-up company and still not have all collected data
also some of data are meant for internal circulation in the organization and no
trainee or intern can examine the statements especially the financial year book.
This project deals with the effect in sales for promotional activity of Free-Trial
as well as comparative analysis.
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The biggest management challenge in the new millennium of liberalization and globalization
for a business is to serve and maintain good relationship with the king – the customer. In the
past producers took their customers for granted, because at that time the customers were not
demanding nor had alternative source of supply or suppliers. But today there is a radical
transformation. The changing business environment is characterized by economic
liberalization, increasing competition, high consumer choice, demanding customer, more
emphasis on quality and value of purchase etc.
All these changes have made today’s producer shift from traditional marketing to modern
marketing. Modern marketing calls for more than developing a product, pricing it, promoting
it and making it accessible to target customer. It demands building trust, a binding force and
value added relationship with the customers.
At the beginning of the internship I formulated several learning goals, which I wanted to
achieve:
To understand the functioning and working conditions of a non-governmental
organization;
To see what is like to work in a professional environment;
To see if this kind of work is a possibility for my future career;
To use my gained skills and knowledge;
To see what skills and knowledge I still need to work in a professional environment;
To learn about the organizing of a research project (planning, preparation,
permissions etc.)
To learn about research methodologies (field methods/methods to analyze data)
To get fieldwork experience/collect data in an environment unknown for me;
To get experience in working in another country/with persons from another culture;
To enhance my communication skills;
To build a network.
This internship report contains my activities that have contributed to achieve a number of my
stated goals. In the following chapter a description of the organization and the activities is
given. After this a reflection on my functioning, the unexpected circumstances and the
learning goals achieved during the internship are described. Finally I give a conclusion on the
internship experience according to my learning goals.
The process of developing a cooperative and collaborative relationship between the buyer and
seller is called customer relationship management shortly called CRM. According to Ashoka
dutt head of Citi Bank “the idea of CRM is to know the individual customer intimately, so
that the company has a customized product ready for him even before he asks for it.”
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About Stock Advisory:
This part of the project report describes about stock Advisory and how advisory deal
with customers and stock recommendation.
Advisory Industry is the segment where the service offered as the Investment or trading
advise for the targeted people (mainly Retail customers) who are either not deeply
accommodated with share market or need help with trading or may not get plenty time for
watching market properly so they need helper who can help in this work.
Many people didn’t know the fundamentals analysis of the stock market so understanding the
quality of financial situation of the market is not clear to them, there for they also need some
helper who can help them to get notifications for the market.
So, these are the same reasons advisory firm’s existence, as we know anything that can be
served and as goods or services can be a business. There for Stock advisories are there for
advising service.
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This part of the project report describes the company profile. This part recognizes the
achievements and rewards the company has achieved, it also gives little insights into what
company offers to the Corporate and the Consumers. This section also describes the kind of
technology used.
CypressMoney is India’s best stock advisory firm backed by Professional research team of
Chartered Market Technicians (CMT). It provides Investment advice in Indian equities &
derivatives to Individual investors, HNIs, brokers, corporate players. It performs research on
stocks from short term, midterm to long term investment horizon. Mission of the company to
help prestigious clients by maximizing their returns from trading and investing in Indian
stock market by offering outstanding research and advice.
CypressMoney is one of the few organizations providing research and information on Indian
Equity Market mainly based on Technical and Fundamental Analysis. This advisory firm
backed by Professional research team of Chartered Market Technicians (CMT).
MARKETING MIX:
The 7 Ps of service marketing are as follows:
i)PRODUCT, HERE,THE SERVICES: M/s Cypress Money Investment Advisers, provides
advisory to prospective investors & existing investors on their venture for either trading or
long term investments, through the stock markets, i.e Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) or
National Stock Exchange (NSE). Simply these are the advises for which stocks to buy, which
not to buy, at what price to buy, at what price to sell, etc. The industry is prospective as there
are countless number of individuals who looks on this sector as a lucrative mode of
multiplying liquid asset (i.e. money), but fears due to the volatility of the market indices and
moves away to the traditional methods of Fixed deposits, National Saving Certificates, PPFs
etc. To start with the initialization phase, Cypress Money has started the business by
providing services in only Equity (Cash) & Future (Derivatives) sectors. There are other
sectors also like Options & Commodities, in which they are not dealing at present. So, it is
primarily into information processing service & initially the service is standardized. They
may develop a customized service, if they break-even & reach the objectives in the financial
year 2015-2016. Following is a tabular form of the service schemes & their offer prices, with
details of calls (advises provided), holding period, target returns etc
Products Stock Rich Future Plus Trend Rider HNI Pack
Segments Cash Future Cash Cash + Future
Target Return
(Per Call)
5 - 8 % 2 - 5 % 15 - 20 % Research Report
No. of Calls 8 - 10
calls/month
8 - 10
calls/month
5 - 6
calls/quarter
Advice on
Personal
Portfolio
Holding period 1 - 10 Days 1 - 5 Days 1 - 3 months Expert Talk
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For clarification, Stock Rich is the scheme for advises on very short term trading purpose,
dealing in 1 to 10 days period in the cash/equity sector. A Trend Rider on the other hand is
meant for investment purpose. Those people who like to invest for long term period are
offered this scheme. It is also in the cash/equity sector. Future plus deals in the derivative
market & the HNI pack is a combo pack of either of the two Cash Sector Services & the
Future Services.
ii) PLACE: The unique feature of the firm is to provide in-situ service to the clients,
wherever they are in India, live, within a fraction of a second via s.m.s. The clients only need
to register their cell numbers. Further the firm is introducing their personalized apps, so that
the Android & Windows phone user can even get notification by pop ups or app notification.
iii) PRICE: The firm uses a bit of psychological pricing. Following is the tabular form of the
service schemes & their prices for various periods.
Time/Products Stock Rich
(INR)
Future Plus
(INR)
Trend Rider
(INR)
HNI Pack (INR)
3 Months 19900 19900 19900 49900
6 Months 29900 29900 29900 74900
12 Months 39900 39900 39900 99900
Further, the firm is currently running a rebate offer of up to 50% on the quoted price & is
expected to run the same for the next couple of months also, as the introductory offer. It even
approaches different customers with flexible pricing options. The firm has therefore,
designed the pricing so as to have a satisfactory profit for the initial period, thereby creating
demand & maximizing sales.
iv) PROMOTION: The firm is looking to stabilize itself in the competitive market of stock
market advisory. Since, the industry it relates to is almost pretty well volatile, so marketing &
reaching out to common masses (which include both prospective investors and investors),
who can be prospective customers, is really challenging. The larger part of this project deals,
how the psyche of people is affected & further convinced or not convinced to subscribe to
such services.
FREE TRIALS: The initial introduction of the services to the clients is being done, by
offering them a fully free advisory service for five trading sessions (or days). The dealings
are all done over phone. This however does not include any market
holidays/Saturdays/Sundays within it. This offer also comes with a genuine guarantee of
minimum 2-3% profit per advises. Further the clients are assured, that if due to volatility, the
market goes bullish & they face loss, during this period, their free trial period will be
extended for three to four trading days more, till they gain back.
FOLLOW UPS: The people who avail this service are also called over phone again to keep
reminding them & to ensure whether they are receiving the advises, at least twice during the
period.
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REBATES: After the completion of the free trial period, the subscribers are offered with a
negotiable discounted offer up to 50% of what quoted in the website.
E.M.I: If any client subscribes for more at least a half yearly service then he/she is offered
with an option of E.M.I
WEBSITE: The firm maintains a well-developed & vivid website.
FLYERS: Occasionally flyers are attached in the newspapers. But this mode has its
limitations, as it is being circulated only in Mumbai & its suburban areas. Due to high costs
involved, the firm is yet to advertise on broader scale in National or regional newspapers
directly.
SMS ALERTS: Mass SMS are being sent to prospective client lists, about the company
details & offer schemes, by websiteeonline.com
GREETING POST CARDS: The already paid subscribers are being sent post cards,
acknowledging their patronage. It’s also being requested in the post card, to spread the
existence of the firm by word of mouth, if they really liked the services, thereby pursuing a
scope for continuity from such clients.
MOBILE APPS: The firm is also working on its mobile app. It would help the customers
with a better service by keeping them in track with the live advises, by pop ups. It is going to
be launched soon.
v) PROCESS: M/s Cypress Money, for the time being processes its service through simple
text message over cell phone. However, on some very special request, they also provide the
advisory calls by calling up the clients or sending them e-mail. The firm is going to introduce
their personalized mobile app & dedicated agents to process & sale of scheme very shortly,
besides the existing system of tele calling & text message alerts.
vi) PEOPLE: The main USP of the firm is its founder & chief analyst Mr. Anubhav Kandpal,
who happens to be MBA [Financial Markets, BSE] & CMT [MT, USA]. He is ably helped
out in the stock analysis & proper channelling of the calls to the clients by Ms. Saumya Kala
also an MBA [Financial Markets, BSE]. They are also tying up with the broking firm
Testimony for client contact & sharing. Lastly the dedicated team of callers, ever disciplined
and patient to clients & their tantrums. The firm segments & targets any people having a
valid Demat A/c.
v) PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: The customers are instantly provided with an invoice, when
they subscribe to paid schemes over mail/text message. Further, the advisory calls (both free
& paid) comes with a clear title mentioning “C-Money”, i.e. Cypress Money and all the text
messages have the name of the website & contact number mentioned clearly.
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Different competitors in advisories:
This section gives the detail of the different competitors and different services provided by
them. Then we have compared there services with our services.
Features CapitalVia MarketMagnify SaiProficient RicoWealth CypressMoney
SEBI
registered
Yes No Yes Yes No
Customer
Education
Yes Yes No No No
Service
reliability
Better Irritating Moderate Not good Good
Accuracy High Moderate Low Low Moderate
Customize
service
Yes No No Yes
Follow-ups Proper for
Free &Paid
Not proper for
Free
Only Paid Only Paid Proper for
Free& Paid
Employee’s
knowledge
about Market
High Moderate Low Low Moderate
Employee
empowerment
Yes Yes No No Yes
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SWOT ANALYSIS:
S (Strength) –
Chartered CMT for technical analysis.
Advises on fundamentally strong sectors & companies.
W (Weakness) –
No advises on intra-day trading provided
No advises on commodity market & option sectors.
O (Opportunity) –
Large section of interested but novice population (only 2% of the Population are
currently into trading).
A continuous bull runs in the market for the last 2 years.
T (Threat) –
Large number of mushroomed fraud advisory firms.
Generating revenue for survival, in such hostile industry
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P.E.S.T.E.L analysis:
1. P [POLITICAL] – The stock market in India, is very much affected by the political
NEWS. If we see the near past, the reign of UPA-2 Government, several scams like 2G
spectrum, Coal gate etc. had a huge degrading effect on the market & it was trending bearish.
But, lately when Mr. Narendra Modi led BJP came to power with single majority & there-
after with his “Make in India” & several development policies, has led to the up-trend at the
market, both in BSE Sensex & NSE Nifty. Some political criteria which always affects the
market, either ways are: i) Tax Policies ii) Employment Laws iii) Trade Restrictions &
Tariffs iv) Stability of the Government
2. E [ECONOMIC] – The main motive of investing or trading in the stock market, is not
gambling, but rather, multiplying money. So, economic criteria & decisions taken by the
Government, both at the center & the provincial level, effects the decision to trade or invest.
The few major sub criteria are: i) Inflation rate ii) Exchange rate iii) Interest rate iv)
Economic rate
3. S- [SOCIAL]*** – India is a country with a varied distribution of culture, wealth
distribution & likeness. But, somewhere down we all feel the same for some basic
parameters, on which we don’t negotiate at all, like: i) Safety & Security ii) Health
Consciousness So, a NEWS owing to such cases, gives serious impact on the stock market,
either drastically (mostly negative) or over the years (mostly positive) An example, will make
it clear, further:- i) Just a couple of months back, India’s favorite brand “Maggi”, was banned
in Indian market. Immediately, the stock of its parent company Nestle were down, both at
BSE & NSE. But, in the last week of June’2015, the Bombay High Court cleared the brand,
to be exported (but not to be used internally). The share prices of Nestle have started reviving
slowly since, the verdict.
4. T-[TECHNOLOGICAL] – India, still being a technologically backward nation (mostly),
has still little effect on stock market. In the recent past, Bajaj got a patent on its DTS-I, &
launched its new bikes, but hardly had any impacts on the market. Similarly, SYMPHONY
coolers, were on the verge of bankruptcy & its share prices went down to as low as INR 0.80
paisa on September’ 13 2004. People lost faith, even after the firm divested all other allied
business, acquired the Mexican Cooling giants, IMPCO [the world leader in Cooling at that
point of time] & started reviving. For the information, of all, SYMPHONY now has stock
price of INR 2100 . The little junk of people who stayed with the firm since then, are today
billionaires, only in ten years.
5. E – [ENVIRONMENTAL] - Initially the environmental factors don’t play a vital role in
the stock market. But the time has changed and people are more eco-friendly. This is really
bothering them that if any firm or industry is environment friendly or not. The environmental
performance is even under-valued by the markets.
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6. L – [LEGAL] - Legal factors play an important role in the development and sustain the
stock market. Legal issues relating to any industry or firm decides the fate of the capital
market. If the Govt. of India introduces a new law that can affect the running of the industry
then the industry will be de-motivated and in turn demoralize the investors and will result in
the fall of the stock prices. Like after the Harshat Mehta scam, new rules and regulations
were introduced like PAN card was made necessary for trading, if any investor was investing
too much money in a small firm, then the investors were questioned etc. S.E.B.I came into
existence. These regulations were meant to maintain transparency in the equity market.
Proper Legal factors & their proper applications are necessary for the improvement and
stability of the stock market. These are the few “biases” & the further contemporary reasons
that control the psyche of the investors while trading or investment. At last, I should refer
that; the firm might face problems of “Gap 4” & “Gap 5”, of the service quality industry.
Therefore, once again, I propose that – patient & disciplined calls & follow ups, accompanied
by continuous public relationship, thereby making a presence felt, should be the motto for
success for M/s Cypress Money Investment Advisers.
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AIDA model:
1. A – ATTENTION: (*Hair) (*min) in our media-filled world, you need to be quick and
direct to grab people's attention. So, I as one of the tele-caller & presenter, used &
emphasized on the words “5 trading days free trial”, “This is a promotional offer” “Running
flat 40% discounts”, while speaking over phone.
2. I – INTEREST: This stage was much more challenging than drawing attention. Rigorous &
timely follow up calls & negotiating with the customers for reaching a win-win situation for
both the parties, was something I used as my role of calling & presenting the services.
3. D- DESIRE: The Interest & Desire stages go hand in hand. So, I, as a presenter had to
develop the urge & desire of availing the advisory service. I had to explain to them briefly the
pros & cons of availing/ not availing advises. The merits of proper planned trading or
investment, rather than speculating.
4. A- ACTION: Finally, dragging customers to a position, by which they would be allured
enough to ask for their service. This part was managed by showcasing the clients, each one
individually, that they are the most worthy customers & so we are providing them the
facilities like: few more number of free trials than as planned by the management or specially
providing some instalment facilities.
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I) Main Objective:
The main objective is Sales of the free and paid Account, Comparative price Analysis with
other companies and Brand Positioning of Cypress Money.
II) Specific Objectives:
• Creating Leads
• Relationship Building with customers to generate references from them
• Brand Promotion
• Motivating customer for trading
III) Personal Objective:
• To learn the corporate culture
• To learn and gain knowledge
• To know about the Stock Market Operation
• To analyze the self strengths and weakness
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A research design is simply a plan for study in collecting and analyzing the data. It helps the
researcher to conduct the study in an economical method and relevant to the problem.
Research methodology is a systematic way to solve a research problem. The methodology
should combine economy with efficiency.
Research Methodology: Exploratory in nature, cum descriptive.
Exploratory conducted to clarify ambiguous situations or discover ideas that may be potential
business opportunities. Initial research conducted to clarify and define the nature of a
problem. And describes characteristics of objects, people, groups, organizations, or
environments.
Research Design: Structured questionnaire by one to one conversation, over phone.
Data Sources: The data for calling were provided by the firm, who in turn buys them from
data vendors
Scope of the study
The scope of the study is confined to Company CypressMoney.
1. Geographically & demographically, the market is wide spread across the boundary of
India.
2. Time limited to 8th
of July’2016.
3. Covering the result of reaction of about two thousand plus people who were contacted over
phone directly by me & the actual responses of about two hundred & seventy five people who
actually availed the services (either free or paid)
4. Analyzing the psyche of the customers on the basis of their responses, & providing
solution to the firm to prudently tackle those negative responses, so as to sustain itself & full
fill the company’s objective
Collection of the data
There are two types of data.
Primary data – primary data is that data which is collected for the first time. These data are
basically observed and collected by the researcher for the first time. I have used primary data
for my project work like quantity of leads that we employees marked during the SIP period.
Secondary data – secondary data are those data which are primarily collected by the other
person for his own purpose and now we use these for our purpose secondly. Like oher
competitors data through their free trail service, Data about past experience of the employees
of the same company etc.
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Limitations:
The survey is based already register retail client only.
In this survey the majority of respondents belong to a particular age group from 30-
40.
The size of survey is 30 people only.
The survey is done on people residing in a different geographical area.
The duration of the project was eight & half weeks (approx. two months). I spoke &
presented the service to more than two thousand & five hundred people, of which
some odd three hundred availed the initial service of free trial & later formed a part of
my survey. The sample size could have been more for more accurate findings.
Though the entire project was spread over the demography & geography of India, yet
a conversation in person, is somewhat which I missed. A many instances did happen,
while I felt that a prospective client conversion was missed, only because a tele call
was not enough to imbibe the trust in the person.
Language was a constraint in few cases. Many investors in India are of Tamil &
Malayalam back ground. Unfortunately neither me, neither any one of my team were
conversant in these two, so we had to let go such opportunities, because the people
could only speak either of those two.
An untimely & sudden change of the office, lead to the loss of few scores of possible
leads, which could not be provided with the proper free trial service, in the initial
phases, consequently they moved away from availing the premium service or even
attending the calls for further discussion.
Lack of proper dedicated software, which would convey which customer to follow up,
when to do so & other minute but important details, to store. At least a well-
developed excel spread sheet by some professionals would have fruited better results.
We had to maintain all these details manually in the excel spread sheet, sometimes
which lead to loss of data.
The survey was limited to India, & global perspective was beyond the scope & reach
of this project.
So, the result may vary if the scope, size and demography of the study vary.
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Customers are encouraged to give suggestions and complaints so that the company can
improve its working and services. If the customer’s complaints are not resolved the customers
will be dissatisfied and the company may lose its customers.
Different customers have different requirements. So the company customize its product
accordingly to satisfy the customers. It also gives more choice to the customers.
To get the information about the customers and to measure the satisfaction the company
conducts surveys. The company gives credit facility to its customers to increase the sales
volume. If the company do not sell on credit the customers may switch over to other
companies.
The company maintains frequent communication with the customers. As soon as the product
is ready or a new product is launched the information is provided to the customers.
Communication is also necessary to maintain the interest of the customers in the company.
The company gives concession to its regular customers so as to retain it’s most valuable and
profitable customers.
The company regularly reviews the business process in order to eliminate non value-adding
activities, to reduce the cost and to make the whole work efficient and effective. If the
internal customers are not satisfied and there is lack of coordination among the departments
then it will affect the external customers also.
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Internship activities:
Internship started with class and education work because whenever you entering a new area
you have to know minimum basics’ of that area, otherwise it will be difficult to work and act
on that field. So for Share market very basics are like what the share is and why it comes,
what defines by the share of a company. Indian Equity market and how it work. Never or less
Lehman Brother down fall effect.
There after we engaged with training season for calling purpose. One of their employees
assists us with the default script training.
IF we categorise the activities it will be like this:
Calling for free trial:
From 16-may-16 I started calling for free trials. It is my main Work while doing my
Internship. Regularly approximately hundreds calls are done by me. At the beginning of the
activity faced very difficult, because communicating with customers without facing them is
different, because you cannot understand what the customer’s situation and also you cannot
observe their Gesture and Posture what they feel about your opinion.
Unlikely it also an advantage that you don’t have to face the customer just you have to tell
about your services on telephonic call.
This activity continues till the end of the Internship, but gradually the time over I started
learning how to convince the people and tell about our services and to give the free trial of
company. Because of Company’s main motivation relies on viewing customer value through
the free trial services, thereafter the paid services. So, free trial is one of the key activities of
value proposition.
155 free client conversion after 1293 calls, so conversion ratio is 11.9% for free conversion.
Follow-ups:
Next activity is giving follow-ups for converted client in free and paid. I find very
interesting because when you are giving follow-ups you are interacting with people in details
with given call and recommendation. So you have to know about the company and must clear
about the calls so that any kind of enquiries by the client you can handle.
I gave follow-ups to 130 clients.
In spite of these also I handled the Bengali customers. Because of my mother tongue is
Bengali; my guide gave me 20 Bengali customers to give follow-ups and also to talk for
services.
Follow-up is another key activity for the company, because through the follow-ups you can
create lead, this hot lead is the focus for company. Because when you are dealing with the
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retail customers only through follow-ups you can show your value propositions. Company
believe that only through this way can retail customer can be converted to paid client.
Therefore from concern follow-ups I found 24 HOT-Leads out of 130 follow-ups. That
means conversion ration to leads is 18.5%
Subscription:
It is the main target for company, and for this company also gives premium
customizes services. So the process is proposing the hot leads to take after the free trial,
obviously after showing them the profit that they can make if they invest or trade in our
recommendation in the period of free trial.
After so much of hard work and convincing client I converted 4 clients to subscribed client.
So therefore the conversion ratio is like 16.6% out of my hot leads.
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Promotional activity:
I started social media promotion for the company as a 3rd
person, personally from my
own account. Despite of heavy pressure in daily office work, it started when my guide told
me to write Subtitle of the YouTube channel videos of the company. So, I realize that the
Page of YouTube can be increase if the page can socially publish or promote. There after I
started The page Sharing That YouTube page In my Facebook Page, when I started receiving
good results I took the Social media as a promoter of the company’s page in YouTube,
Tweeter, LinkedIn and Facebook
After using this type of promotion for last one month I got around 40 customers that
registered their names through Company’s website. Which is a great achievement because;
from the month of January to May in five months there are only 40 customers which come
through the website. After my promotional activity registration through website increases to
40 customers within a month.
Activities done are like; YouTube Videos are share on Facebook pages, pages that are
connected to the Stock or equity market. Joined several pages and group for the same concern
popular pages, like as: stock market community page, Indian Share market, Indian stock
market tips, etc.
Joined Yahoo group like; India’s share market(public group), Sure group-stock market and
commodity market tips provider, stock genie group, etc.
Since starting the activities for a month, the increment in YouTube channel’s videos are like
named as:
10 things..: 350 increased to 530 views
Mistakes..: 220 increased to 323 views
Beginners’: 57 increased to 75 views
Lesson 1: 195 increased to 250 views
Lesson 2 (1): 105 increased to 192 views
Lesson 2(2): 61 increased to 110 views
Lesson 3: 54 increased to 99 views
Lesson 4: 32 increased to 144 views
Also Facebook page likes increased from 1300 to 1490, and also the Tweeter followers are
increased 99 to 189 in which big investment advisories are included e.g. Market Magnify
Nifty trade1 etc, due to hundreds of tweets giving awareness and tips for investment.
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Figure 1:no.of self-registered free trial through website
Figure 1 describe how many customer registered through website science January to June. It
is clear that there is an increase in registration for free trial. Data collected until the summer
internship is over, so there is a limitation of data.
Figure 2: no.of customer per month self-registered through for free trial
Rate of registration per month is described by this Figure 2. We can watch in February and
March very low density of customer, there may be reason for market downfall. But also we
can interpret that may be for low awareness of company website visit rate also low, therefore
self registration also low.
23-Oct-15
12-Dec-15
31-Jan-16
21-Mar-16
10-May-16
29-Jun-16
18-Aug-16
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67 70 73 76 79
Date
No of customers
Free trial through Website
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
February March April May June
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Figure 3: comparison of self-registration before & after Promotional activity
From the Figure 3 we can clearly visualize that there is a strong increase of self-registration
after doing promotional activity in social media (Facebook, Tweeter,LinkedIn,YouTube). If
we count after and before of doing activities there are 40 customer before Doing any
activity for three months February, March, April. But there is same amount of self-
registration in only last month in May and June after doing promotional activity. Therefore
we can conclude that there is a significant effect of promotional activity through social
media.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Feb+Mar+Apr May+June
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Reflection on the internship
In this chapter I reflect on the internship. Regarding my learning goals I shortly discuss my
experiences; if I have achieved my goal, whether I experienced difficulties and what I think I
have to improve. Learning goals
The functioning and working conditions of a Start-up
At the beginning I did not have any experience of working within any organization. Although
I have seen one, I understand better the functioning like the organization structure and setting
up projects. Trying to operate as a service provider, I saw the importance of financial support
and personal capacity. The dependence on extern institutions and people force you to have a
flexible attitude. During my stay I also experienced the dependence. In the first instance the
dependence and uncertainty was annoying, but it forced me to be flexible and to see what
other things I could do.
Enhancing communication skills
More than I had expected I experienced language difficulties. I thought that I could
communicate well in English and with my basic knowledge of Bengali and Hindi, however
the majority of persons I worked with talked in English and Bengali. Therefore I was
reserved in communication at the beginning, but in the course of months it went better. My
stay has contributed to my communication skills, but I would like to pay more attention to it
in the future. I can come across as reserved and uncertain. To contribute more to projects and
to progress faster, I want to learn to make a more confident impression and to express my
ideas and opinions more certain.
The use of skills and knowledge gained in the university
It is difficult to say what skills and knowledge gained in my study I could put in practise in
my internship. I can think of the use of the experience from my thesis (about the food ecology
of harbour porpoises) for the necropsies. In the ecology courses that I have taken I learned
about ecological concepts and doing ecological research in general; I was taught some basics
on data collection, data processing and setting-up research projects. This is reasonable and I
have seen that within research projects you acquire the skills and knowledge needed.
Skills and knowledge that might be improved to work in a professional environment
Although you learn and develop the necessary skills and knowledge while working in an
organization, there are several things that I could improve already. I did not have totally clear
what activities I could have done to reach my learning goals. Therefore during my stay I had
some difficulties to determine tasks that I could carry out. In advance of my internship I
talked with the organization about the project in which I could add value, however clear
agreements on my activities were not made. A more assertive attitude from my side could
have helped. To prevent uncertainties in future projects I will pay more attention to making
clear agreements and back-up plans. Other aspects to which I want to pay attention in general
are: defining a clear research question and determine what data collection and analysis is
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suitable. I often have the tendency to concentrate more on data collection activities. Also in
the internship I have seen that it is important to have your research clear, because it guides
you in the process. It was interesting to hear the ideas and discussions between the different
employees. These kinds of class work are of importance, because they contribute to a better
understanding among the different parties. It permits that information can be passed and
topics can be discussed in more depth. It is also a way to make each other enthusiastic and it
stimulates to put things into action. Through the class room works I learned about
conservation and management, but I want to learn more about it.
Organizing projects
Within the internship I did projects like the promotional activity of social media, I gained
knowledge about how to execute them, in alone position. Despite of that a lot of conversation
with retail customers (cold calling). Because of this I have seen of what aspects you have to
think while convincing a customer (selling, propose a recommendation, giving follow-ups,
and understand consumer behaviour). Furthermore I have learned how an educating customer
can be set up and what things have to be taken into account. It is important determine the
knowledge present and to adjust the program to each group. It is of importance to convey an
objective and supported message taking the viewpoints of people into account. I became also
aware that some people have a lot of knowledge that could help in research and conservation.
Before the internship I did not have any experience in educating customer and I had no idea if
it could work. In the future I would like to do some consumer behavioural education, because
I have seen now that people can be reached and that you can receive a lot of new insights.
Working in another country with persons from another culture
The internship was an opportunity to get immersed on a deeper level in another culture. It
was really experiencing to see how other people live. It also helped to look at things from a
different perspective. Beside language, I did not experience difficulties caused by different
cultural backgrounds. An interesting and open attitude of the people has helped. An
internship different state was also a good way for me to see whether I could work outside the
West Bengal. I hardly experienced problems and I got really fast used to the different way of
living. Also the office work came easy to me and I felt a full member of the project team.
The influence on future career plans
Before my internship in CypressMoney, I had some doubts about my future career. I was not
sure if I would like to continue in research after finishing my MBA. I also did not know what
type of job I would like to do. Through this internship, I have seen what elements of my
career I like and I got enthusiastic again to continue in marketing job. I have found out that
part of the research should contain office work as I did in the internship. I would like to
continue in the job on Marketing in any organization and start-ups. In this country, the SIP in
CypressMoney is little so there are many interesting aspects to study.
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Aims of CRM (as it is the core concept for the company);
The CRM is a new technique in marketing where the marketer tries to develop long term
relationship with the customers to develop them as life time customers. CRM aims to make
the customer climb up the ladder of loyalty.
The company first tries to determine who are likely prospects i.e. the people who have a
strong potential interest in the product and ability to pay for it. The company hopes to convert
retain) many of its qualified prospect into first time customers and then finally convert those
customers into actual clients – they are those people who buy only from the company in the
relevant product categories. The next challenge for the company is to convert these clients
into advocates. Advocates are those clients who praise the company and encourage
others(Friends, relatives, colleagues) to buy from it.
The ultimate challenge is to convert these advocates into partners where the customers and
the clients work actively together to discover ways of getting mutual benefit.
Thus in CRM the key performance figure is not just current market share but share of life
time value by converting customers into partners.
In CRM the company tries to identify that small percentage (20%) of key account holders
whose contribution to the company revenues is high (80%). So from this point of view, CRM
is also known as KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT.
Why – customer relationship management
Ø A satisfied customer in 10 years will bring 100 more customers to the company.
Ø It costs 7 time more to attract a new customer than to serve an old one.
Ø 20% of the company’s loyal customers account for 80% of its revenues. (Pareto’s
principle).
Ø The chances of selling to an existing customer are 1 in 2, the chances of selling to a new
customer are 1 in 16.
Eight ways to keep customers for life-
1. Every part of the company’s marketing effort should be geared towards building lifetime
relationships.
2. People want to do business with friendly people. To have effective relations a friendly
attitude must permeate in the organization.
3. Information technology developments should be positively used to serve the customers.
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4. The company should always be flexible to bend its rules and procedures in the client’s
favour.
5. The company should communicate with its customers even when it is not trying to sell
something.
6. The company can communicate and develop stronger customer bonding by providing
financial and social benefits.
7. The company should try to know all its customers including their lifestyles, hobbies, likes
and dislikes etc.
8. The company should make it a point to deliver more than what is promised.
How to introduce CRM in the company
There are four key steps for putting one to one marketing program to work –
Step 1: Identify your customers
To launch a one to one initiative the company must be able to locate and contact a fair
number of customers or at least a substantial portion of its valuable customers. It is crucial to
know the customer details as much as possible, not just their names or address, but their
habits, preferences and so forth.
Step 2: Differentiating your customers
Customers are different in two principal ways; they represent different levels of value and
have different needs. Once the company identifies its customers differentiating them will help
the company to focus its efforts to gain the most advantage with the most valuable customers.
Step 3: Interacting with the customer
Interaction is also a crucial component of a successful CRM initiative. It is important to
remember that interaction just not occur through marketing and sales channels, customer
interact in many different ways with many different areas of the organization so to foster
relationship all the areas of the organization must be accessible to the customer.
Step 4: Customize your enterprise’s behaviour
Ultimately to lock a customer into a relationship a company must adapt some aspect of its
behaviour to meet customer’s individually expressed needs this might mean mass
customizing a manufactured product or it might involve tailoring some aspect of the service
surrounding the product.
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Significance of the study
The CRM (customer relationship management) is an integrated effort to strengthen the
network of relationship for the mutual benefit of both the parties. The biggest management
challenge in the new millenium of liberalization and globalization for a business is to
maintain good relationship with the king – the customer. This study is of great significance
because
Ø A 5% increase in the customer retention will increase the profit up to 125%.
Ø It costs seven times more to attract a new customer than to serve an old one.
Ø 20% of the company’s loyal customers account for the 80% of its revenues.
Ø To study on customer relationship management would enable the researcher to know
about the CRM practices adopted in the textile industry.
With the available literature we can summarize CRM in the words of various authors as
follows-
According to Shani and Chalarani – Customer Relationship Management marketing can be
defined as “ an integrated effort to identify, maintain and build up a network with the
individual customers and to continuously strengthen the network for the mutual benefit of
both parties, through interactive, individualized and value added contracts over a long period
of time.
In the words of Lekha “ CRM aims at delivering better products and value to the customers
through better understanding of his needs.”
Objectives of Customer Relationship Management
1. To study the current practices of CRM.
2. To find out the impact of CRM on the profitability of the organization.
3. To study the factors affecting the CRM practices.
4. To study the role of information technology in CRM.
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From this study it can be concluded that the customer relationship management in
Company is satisfactory. The company is using various CRM practices like customization of
the product, maintaining interaction with the customers regularly and providing good quality
product etc. Customer relationship management has a certain impact on the profitability of
the company. Average sale per customer has increased 15% over the last two years. Customer
response rate towards marketing activities is also improving. There are various factors
affecting the customer relationship management like working environment of the company,
support from top management and coordination among the departments of the company.
Information technology is not used as much as it should be. The company is using traditional
tools of CRM like quantitative research, personal interviews. The company should modern
tools like data mining, contact centres, e-CRM and web based survey tools.
Also the self registration is a great achievement for the promotion project started by
me. Because it has a great effect on Free-Trial, which is the main attraction point for the
company. Graph shows that there is huge increment in self registration. And we can also
conclude that if someone is registering by self he is more interested than other. And therefore
he or she must get to know the offer through any of the promotion started by me.
I surveyed and taken Feed back over tele-phone for these self registered, and got 95%
get to know the offers and about the company through Face book, tweeter, and photos and
tips shared.
.
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Suggestions
• Company should use social media as promotional work.
• Customer loyalty program can increase the sale, so it could also be
implement for registered customers.
• There should be more use of information technology.
• The company should be flexible to bend its rules and procedures in the
clients favour.
• The company can communicate and develop stronger customer bonding by
providing social and financial benefits.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
www.cypressmoney.com. [Online] Cypress Money Investment Advisers, June 2015.
https://rpseawright.wordpress.com. [Online]
https://rpseawright.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/investors-10-most-common-behavioral-
biases/.
www.forbes.com. [Online] http://www.forbes.com/sites/cfainstitute/2011/12/21/three-
behavioral-biases-that-can-affect-your-investment-performance/2/.
[Online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases.
http://www.mbaknol.com. [Online] http://www.mbaknol.com/investment-management/pestel-
analysis-of-indian-capital-market/.
mindtools.com. [Online] http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/AIDA.htm.
[Online] http://www.sellingandpersuasiontechniques.com/SPIN-selling.html.
Hair, Lamb. MKTG.
Koetler, Philipp. Marketing Concepts
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Books and Newspapers:
Beginners Module :-- NCFM
The Economic Times, Business Standard, Business line
Securities Market (Basic) Module :--NCFM
Economic Times.
Indian financial system by M.Y KHAN
NSDL Depository operations module :--NCFM
Mutual Fund Distributors module :--NISM
URLs:
• www.indiainfoline.com
• www.economicstimes.com
• www.investopedia.com/articles
• www.nse-india.com
• www.bseindia.com
• www.moneycontrol.com
• www.cypressmoney.com
