Certification: The Impact of Prospection in Increasing A Firm's Customer Base: Case of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl

The Impact of Prospection in Increasing a Firm's Customer Base: Case of
Africa Multitech and Design Sarl
CERTIFICATION
Written and Presented by: i

DEDICATION
MY FAMILY
Written and Presented by: ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Written and Presented by: iii

PREFACE
Written and Presented by: iv

ABSTRACT
Today’s customers are significant factors in the company management with the
power to change cooperate short term and long-term strategies. Conquering markets
and achieving market leadership was no longer a company`s primary concern.
Instead, activities within the organization had to be coordinated to ensure that they
contributed to the development of mutually profitable relationships with the right
customers. The objective of the current study is to investigate the factors that could
potentially increase the understanding of service providing companies and customers
in order to improve customer retention. During the internship, we realized that, Africa
Multitech and Design Sarl was facing some problems like; inadequate prospecting
materials, and unplanned prospection, Cognizant of these facts, we noted this
problem statement that is; the extent to which a poor and inadequate prospection and
ineffective retention strategies affects the customer base of Africa Multitech and
Design Sarl from reaching it’s the required number. All of the above mentioned
problems enables us to come out with a research topic “the impact of prospection in
increasing a firm’s customer base: case of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl”. The
objective of the current thesis study is to investigate the factors that could potentially
increase the understanding of service providing companies and customers in order to
improve customer retention. How the company benefits from using a retention
strategy and how the company apply customer retention strategy as the key to their
business performance.
Written and Presented by: v

RESUME
Les clients d'aujourd'hui sont des facteurs importants dans la gestion de l'entreprise
avec le pouvoir de changer coopérer des stratégies à court terme et à long terme. La
conquête des marchés et le leadership sur le marché n'étaient plus la principale
préoccupation d'une entreprise. Au lieu de cela, les activités au sein de l'organisation
devaient être coordonnées pour s'assurer qu'elles contribuaient au développement de
relations mutuellement profitables avec les bons clients. L'objectif de la présente
étude est d'étudier les facteurs qui pourraient potentiellement accroître la
compréhension des entreprises fournissant des services et des clients afin d'améliorer
la fidélisation des clients. Pendant le stage, nous nous sommes rendu compte que
Africa Multitech and Design Sarl faisait face à des problèmes comme; des matériaux
de prospection inadéquats, et la prospection imprévue, Conscients de ces faits, nous
avons noté cette déclaration de problème qui est; la mesure dans laquelle une
stratégie de prospection médiocre et inadéquate et des stratégies de rétention
inefficaces affectent la clientèle de Africa Multitech and Design Sarl pour atteindre le
nombre requis. Tous les problèmes mentionnés ci-dessus nous permettent de sortir un
sujet de recherche "l'impact de la prospection et de la rétention des clients dans une
entreprise: cas de Africa Multitech and Design Sarl". L'objectif de l'étude de thèse
actuelle est d'étudier les facteurs qui pourraient potentiellement accroître la
compréhension des entreprises fournissant des services et des clients afin d'améliorer
la fidélisation des clients. Comment l'entreprise tire avantage d'une stratégie de
rétention et comment l'entreprise applique la stratégie de fidélisation des clients
comme clé de la performance de son entreprise.
Written and Presented by: vi

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: First purchase made from Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon....23
Table 2: Reason for first purchase from Africa Multitech and Design Sarl..............23
Table 3: Loyalty to Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon.............................24
Table 4: Loyalty to bands considering there provide you with high quality
good/services...........................................................................................................24
Table 5: Convenient is the service/product..............................................................24
Table 6: Quality of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl services/products..................25
Table 7: Recommendation to friends.......................................................................25
Table 8: Regards for our brand................................................................................25
Table 9: Degree of satisfaction with overall products/services of Africa Multitech
and Design Sarl........................................................................................................26
Written and Presented by: vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
MARCOMS Marketing Communications

CRM Customer Relationship Management
SR Sales Representative
B2B Business to Business
B2C Business to Customers
MGR. Manager
Written and Presented by: viii

SYNOPTIC VIEW OF AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL
Name
General Manager
Social Capital
Judicial Status
location/ siege
Address
RCCM: N°
Tax payers N°:
Number of employees
Website
SOURCE:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATION............................................................................................................................................i
DEDICATION.................................................................................................................................................ii
Written and Presented by: ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................................iii
PREFACE......................................................................................................................................................iv
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................................v
RESUME........................................................................................................................................................vi
LIST OF TABLES.........................................................................................................................................vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................................................................................viii
SYNOPTIC VIEW OF AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL.......................................................ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................................................x
GENERAL INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................1
PART ONE: INTERNSHIP FRAMEWORK................................................................................................4
CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE ENTERPRISE...............................................5
SECTION ONE: HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE ENTERPRISE................................................5
1.1: THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL..................5
1.1.1: MISSION..............................................................................................................................................6
1.1.2: OBJECTIVES OF Africa Multitech and Design Sarl.......................................................................6
1.1.3: LEGAL STATUS.................................................................................................................................6
1.2: THE STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION...............................................................................................6
1.2.1: THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT......................................................................................................6
1.2.2: ADMINISTATIVE AFFAIRS:..............................................................................................................7
1.2.3: FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING........................................................................................................8
1.2.4: MARKETTING, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND RESEARCH.............................................................9
SECTION TWO: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT........................................................................................10
2.1: THE INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT.....................................................................................................10
2.2: THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT....................................................................................................12
2.2.1: THE EXTERNAL-MICRO ENVIRONMENT..................................................................................12
CHAPTER TWO: INTERNSHIP ACTIVITIES..........................................................................................14
SECTION ONE: PRESENTATION AT THE ENTERPRISE..................................................................14
SECTION TWO: SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES.....................................................................................15
2.1: CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF ACTIVITIES.................................................................................15
2.2: JUSTIFICATION OF THEME.............................................................................................................17
PART TWO: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK...........................................................................................18
CHAPTER THREE: PRACTICAL ANALYSIS..........................................................................................19
SECTION ONE: CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES.....................................................................................19
1.1: INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................19
Written and Presented by: x

1.2: PROSPECTING...................................................................................................................................19
1.2.1: STEPS IN PROSPECTING.............................................................................................................20
1.2.2: FORMULATING PROSPECT DEFINITIONS...............................................................................20
1.2.3: SEARCHING OUT POTENTIAL ACCOUNTS..............................................................................21
1.4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................21
1.4.1: RESEARCH DESIGN.......................................................................................................................21
1.4.2: DATA COLLECTION........................................................................................................................22
1.4.3: SAMPLE UNIVERSE.......................................................................................................................22
1.4.4: DATA QUALITY................................................................................................................................22
SECTION TWO: MEANS AND RESULTS...............................................................................................23
2.1: ANALYSES OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE..........................................................................................23
CHAPTER FOUR: CRITICAL ANALYSES...............................................................................................27
SECTION ONE: PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED AT AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL...........27
1.1: STRENGHTS OF AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL.....................................................27
1.2: PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED AT AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL.................................27
SECTION TWO: RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED AT AFRICA
MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL............................................................................................................29
GENERAL CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................31
BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................................33
APPENDICES..............................................................................................................................................34
Written and Presented by: xi

The Impact of Prospection in Increasing a Firm's Customer Base: Case
of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
In today’s competitive world, Success in business is dependent on clear thinking

on the fundamental conceptual issues. If customer retention is a major focus,
then a key question is what exactly the organisation is trying to retain.
It is already more than two decades since customer relationship management
began to attract attention in developing relations between customers and
organisations. Today’s customers are significant factors in the company
management with the power to change cooperate short term and long-term
strategies. Conquering markets and achieving market leadership was no longer a
company`s primary concern. Instead, activities within the organization had to be
coordinated to ensure that they contributed to the development of mutually
profitable relationships with the right customers.
During the 1990s, people became more aware of the development of buyer-
seller relations and realized that the relations had consequences for the entire
organisations (Peelen 2005).
Many companies are increasingly adopting customer relationship management
as means to take their competitive advantages. The firms are under a tremendous
pressure to adjust quickly to rapid changes in a marketplace with re-goods to
customer, technology and market function. Customers are not only becoming
more value conscious but also less loyal and less service level oriented and less
tolerant. Consequently, markets are becoming more fragmented, making
differentiation more difficult and completion instant.
Research Objective
The objective of the current study is to investigate the factors that could
potentially increase the understanding of service providing companies on how to
carry out prospection on customers in order to improve customer retention.
Written and presented by: 1

How prospection is instrumental in the in building loyalty, trust and later

retention. With the greatest impact of retention been loyalty and
recommendations to friends and or families.
Research Questions
The main research questions are as follows:
 What are the advantages of customer prospection to an enterprise?
 How can the company get advantage from using various prospection
strategies?
 How can a company apply customer prospection strategy as the key to their
business performance?
Hypothesis
 Customer prospection impact on the customer base of an enterprise.
Problem Statement
During the internship, we realized that, Africa Multitech and Design Sarl was
facing some problems like; inadequate prospecting materials, unplanned
prospection, inadequate branding and communications of products and services.
The information flow was not perfectly carried out and considering the fact that
prospection was not coordinated. Cognizant of these facts, we noted this
problem statement that is; the extent to which a poor and inadequate prospection
and retention strategies affects the customer base of Africa Multitech and
Design Sarl from reaching it’s the required number. All of the above mentioned
problems enables us to come out with a research topic “the impact of
prospection in increasing a firm’s customer base: case of Africa Multitech and
Design Sarl”
The Objectives of this Study

The objective of the current thesis study is to investigate the factors that could
potentially increase the understanding of service providing companies and
customers in order to improve customer retention
 How the company benefits from using a retention strategy.
 How the company apply customer retention strategy as the key to their
business performance.
 To analyze the impact of customer prospection and retention to an
organization.
Methodology
The methodology used to carry out this research was by the quantitative research
method. Quantitative data is raw information that occurs in the form of figures
that can be calculated; analysed and described. Firstly, a literature assessment
was conducted to help in identifying established theories, reports and basic
organisational standpoints about retention[CITATION For13 \l 1036 ] and how
prospection can be planned and realised. Such data can be collected through the
administration of a questionnaire.
Secondary data’s was obtained from textbooks, the company’s magazines,
internet and classroom lectures.
Structure in Parts
My work is divided into two parts and four chapters. Part one is made of the first
chapter which deals with the history and evolution of Africa Multitech and
Design Sarl Cameroon. The second chapter will be based on my internship
activities at Africa Multitech and Design Sarl. Part two is made of the third
chapter which is the practical analysis and lastly chapter four which includes
critical analyses, strengths, weaknesses and recommendations purposed by us to
be adopted in order to enhance effective customer prospection and the staff so as
to realize predetermine goal and enjoy a competitive advantage over others.

PART ONE: INTERNSHIP FRAMEWORK

CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE ENTERPRISE
SECTION ONE: HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE ENTERPRISE
This section gives a general overview of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl that
is; its creation, evolution, mission legal status and the business environment
1.1: THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF AFRICA MULTITECH AND

DESIGN SARL
Africa Multitech and Design Sarl is a German based company founded in
Cameroon in 2012 specialize in software development and consulting, Africa
Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon originate from Africa Multitech and
Design Sarl Germany. Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Germany was founded
in 2008 and launched in Africa in 2010, started in Cameroon in 2012 but when
operational in 2014.
Africa Multitech and Design Sarl offers financial and payment valued added
services targeting public customers and professional institution using its
proprietary digital finance transaction platform: Smobilpay
Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon was created in 2012 but when
operational in 2014. Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon offers various
products.
Faced with intensive growing competition, for over 4 years of existence today,
Africa Multitech and Design Sarl has been able to make a name and a place as a
software developer. It is in this competitive spirit that she progressively opened
her branched in Douala to satisfy her growing network of more than 200 agents.
She has not seized to multiply efforts to impose herself as a software developer.
Presently, there is one branch of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl in Cameroon

with the head office in Bamenda, having five products (Smobilpay, mobile agent
banking system, mavimeter, sale, and insurance) with Smobilpay as the major
product, with a strong rural network in all the 10 region of Cameroon, more than
200 financial institution offering Smobilpay services to customers, more than 6
banks using Smobilpay as switch and one universal interface
1.1.1: MISSION
A mission statement declares an organization's purpose, or why it exists. That
often includes a general description of the organization, its function, and its
objectives. Africa Multitech and Design Sarl’s mission is to enable Sustainable
solutions for your needs.
1.1.2: OBJECTIVES OF Africa Multitech and Design Sarl

 To create job opportunities.
 To ease the payment of bill
 To build commercial applications to ease management of data of both
private and public enterprises
 To provide universal access to the financial underserved customers
 To provide simple, accessible and secure transfer of value irrespective to
channels
 To expand her products world wide
1.1.3: LEGAL STATUS

Legal status is the status defined by law. It is the standing of an entity. Africa
Multitech and Design Sarl is registered as a Private Limited Company (Plc).
1.2: THE STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION
1.2.1: THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT

This is headed by the general manager. It is compose basically of branch
managers as well as other staff in position of responsibility. Its main functions is
to execute the directive of the board of directors and the general assembling.

However, she and her team designs management strategies and propose to the
head of directors.
The main functions of department are that of designing strategies and policies
for respective areas.
1.2.2: ADMINISTATIVE AFFAIRS:

This department has the duty of designing all human resource policies like
recruiting, motivation and so on which includes.
Record Keeping
The Administrative department is in charge of record keeping for the business.

This department keep records regarding income, expenses, purchases and a
summary of business transactions. The Administrative affairs department should
also, of course, maintain employees’ records including their individual tax
forms. The company’s business license, inventory statistics, insurance records
and all other pertinent business information should also be on file.
Payroll and Benefits
The dispensation of payroll comes under the responsibilities of the

Administrative affairs department. While payroll often exists as a separate
division in large companies, in small businesses, it is generally handled by a
small Administrative affairs staff. Health care benefits are also handled by the
human resource department.
Employee Relations
Another key function of the Administrative affairs department is the managing
of employee relations. When there is a dispute or misunderstanding between
employees or between employees and a manager, it is the human resource
officers who mediate the situation. Employees are encouraged to bring relational
problems to the attention of the Administrative affairs staff for resolution.
Employee Performance Improvement Plans

The Administrative affairs department is often instrumental in setting up

performance improvement plans commonly called PIPs. In general, these are
written proposals designed to help struggling employees improve their work to
raise it to a certain expectation level of the company. The PIP may include a
description of the behavior or performance that needs attention, objectives to be
met within a certain time period, a plan for accomplishing the improvement
along with support resources and detailed consequences if the improvement does
not occur.
1.2.3: FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING

This department is aim at designing operational procedures and in the following
up of their applications as well as other financial or accounting operations.
Payroll:
The total wages and salaries earned by every employee every pay period, which
are called gross wages or gross earnings, have to be calculated. Based on
detailed private information in personnel files and earnings-to-date information,
the correct amounts of income tax, social security tax, and other deductions from
gross wages have to be determined.
Cash collections:
All cash received from sales and from all other sources has to be carefully
identified and recorded, not only in the cash account but also in the appropriate
account for the source of the cash received. The accounting department makes
sure that the cash is deposited in the appropriate checking accounts of the
business and that an adequate amount of coin and currency is kept on hand for
making change for customers.
Cash payments (disbursements):
In addition to payroll checks, a business writes many other checks during the
course of a year, to pay for a wide variety of purchases, to pay property taxes, to
pay on loans, and to distribute some of its profit to the owners of the business.

Property accounting:
A typical business owns many substantial long-term assets called property,
plant, and equipment; including office furniture and equipment, retail display
cabinets, computers, machinery and tools, vehicles (autos and trucks), buildings,
and land.
1.2.4: MARKETTING, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND RESEARCH

This is also known as the business department whose main duty is aim at
designing marketing and communication strategies for the awareness and sales
of the various products and facilities available at Africa Multitech and Design
Sarl.
Strategy
The senior member of the marketing department takes responsibility for setting
marketing strategy in line with overall company strategy and objectives. The
strategy may be to increase share in a specific market sector, for example, to
enter a new sector, or to open a new channel of distribution, such as the Internet.
Market Research
Market research is a key responsibility for the marketing department. Research
helps the company identify market opportunities and gain a better understanding
of customer needs. It also helps them understand competitors’ strengths and
weaknesses so they can take action to protect business with existing customers
or win business from weaker competitors
Product Development
The marketing department works with Internal or external product development
teams to develop new products or improve existing ones. The department
analyzes sales of existing products and identifies gaps in the product range
where there may be opportunities for the company.
Communications
Marketing departments plan campaigns and develop communications material to
promote products and services to customers and prospects. Depending on their

available budgets, they may plan advertising campaigns, develop e-mail

marketing programs, create promotional content for the company website, and
write press releases or product publications
Sales Support
Cooperation between the sales and marketing departments can improve sales
performance and speed up business growth. The marketing department can
provide sales teams with high-quality leads by running advertisements that
include a reply mechanism, such as a coupon or telephone number, or by
encouraging visitors to the company website to register their details in return for
a free newsletter or special report.
Events
In some companies, marketing departments are responsible for organizing
events, such as exhibitions, seminars, sales conferences or customer hospitality
events. They plan the logistics of the event, booking exhibition booths or
meeting facilities, for example, and provide event material, such as displays,
presentations or handouts.
Here, were are going to examine the tasks carried out by us in details during our
stay at Africa Multitech and Design Sarl.
SECTION TWO: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
The marketing environment represents a complex array of threats and

opportunities for the organisation, and can sometimes seem difficult to
categorise. Generally speaking, the marketing environment can be divided into
two areas: the external environment and the internal environment.[ CITATION
Des07 \l 1036 ]
2.1: THE INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

The internal environment comprises of controllable variables that affect the
smooth functioning of the business activities from within the company.

Organizational objectives
An objective is a desired outcome that is what an organization interns to
achieve. An organization’s objective is the major influence on its marketing plan
and decisions. It is for this reason that one organization may want to grow as
quickly as possible (marketing penetration) which other may not want to grow at
all (market concentration)
Stake holders
A company’s stakeholders are group of individual who are directly or indirectly

affected by the performance of AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL.
A company operates within the context of a new work or interest group, each of
which has a particular relationship with the organizations and often conflicting
interest and motivations. The direct stake holder includes shareholders,
employees, and director’s employers union. They may have stakeholder such as
suppliers, competitor’s intermediaries, customers etc.
Organizational resources
The resources that a company has at its disposal are important influences on the
marketing decisions; example, personnel, material and financial resources which
comes from home and abroad example computers, networking system. Africa
Multitech and Design Sarl has personnel, material, and financial resources.
Organizational culture and structure
An organization is a social unit of people that is structured and managed to meet

a need or to pursue collective goals. All organizations have a management
structure that determines relationships between the different activities and the
members, and subdivides and assigns roles, responsibilities, and authority to
carry out different tasks. The organization culture consists of its underlying
values, altitudes, beliefs, norms and assumptions and its structure describes the
way a company is organized in terms of job position and assigned

responsibilities. The organizational structure on the other hand describes the

Organigram of a company.[ CITATION Bly051 \l 1036 ]
2.2: THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

The external environment consists of two further divisions: factors close to the
organisation (the micro-environment), and those factors common to society as a
whole (the macro-environment)The Micro external environment are all forces
out of the firm which affects decision making like customers, suppliers,
competitors and marketing intermediaries. The Macro environments are forces
in the external environment which have a more general impact on the
organization. They consist of large societal forces that influence the whole
microenvironment. This is summarized by acronym “PESTEL” which includes:
socio-cultural, technological, economic, political and legal factors. [CITATION
Bly05 \l 1036 ].
2.2.1: THE EXTERNAL-MICRO ENVIRONMENT

A company’s micro environment consist of actors or factors found in the
external environment but closer to the organization which are capable of
affecting marketing management in its effort to provide value and satisfaction to
its customers (Adams, 2013).
 CUSTOMERS
Customers are all those individuals or groups who actually form a target market
of a firm's product. In other words, they are those who actually buy a firm's
product. Customers are at the centre of production. Customers are those who
actually buy the firm’s product. Marketers need to study its customer’s market
so closely so as to be informed of any changes taking place which may affect
sales. [CITATION Bly05 \l 1036 ]
 COMPETITORS
Company competitors are those firms which offer similar and substitute product
to the market for consumption. Competitors make up the most threatening

component of marketing environment because with them, companies fight for or

share the same customers.
 SUPPLIERS
Suppliers are other businesses (firms or individuals) who provide the company
with the required resources notably raw materials, equipment or machines and
other maintenance services. To attain its role in satisfying customer relationship,
the company must partner with suppliers so as to optimize its performance.
 INTERMEDIARIES
Organizations do not always deal directly with the customers of their product or
service instead they deal with intermediaries. Marketing intermediaries are all
firms that help the company to promote, sell and distribute its goods to final
buyers. These middlemen may include agents, whole sellers and retailers.

CHAPTER TWO
INTERNSHIP ACTIVITIES
SECTION ONE: PRESENTATION AT THE ENTERPRISE
On the first day of our internship, we were received by some of Africa Multitech
and Design Sarl staff Douala branch. After a brief introduction with the staff, the
Marketing Manager arrived and immediate send us to his office. The manager
gave us brief information about the company. We were told that Africa
Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon is a private limited company with its
headquarters in Germany and branches in other countries like Nigeria, Malawi
and also Cameroon. In Cameroon, Africa Multitech and Design Sarl
headquarters is in Bamenda but it runs all its activities in Douala. He further
explained to us that the company`s main activities are software developing,
information technology consulting.
Later in the afternoon, after break, the marketing manager introduced us to the
rest of the Africa Multitech and Design Sarl staff present. They all extended
words of welcome to us and we were oriented about the company`s policies. we
were informed that the company`s working days run from Monday to Fridays
and the working period runs from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and every Friday, we
dress in the company`s T-Shirt and just an hour break that is from 12:00 noon to
1:00 pm. We were also warned about the late coming and disrespect in the
company. When I started, we were just two but two other interns joined us
making four.

SECTION TWO: SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES
2.1: CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF ACTIVITIES
WEEK ONE AND TWO: LEARNING DETAILY ABOUT AFRICA

MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL AND PRESENTATION OF THE
COMPANY
During the first two weeks of our internship, we were taught in detail about the
company and the various products/services they offer. We were taken round the
various department to have some knowledge about what other departments are
doing. After learning in details about the company and its products, we were
asked to do a presentation of what we have learned so far to the staff.
We faced a lot of difficulties during presenting and learning since it was our first
time and it was still the beginning and we could not really understand how
things were been done. But before the first two weeks ended, we had learned
many things about the product being offered.
WEEK THREE AND FOUR: PRESENTATION AND SALES
During this week, we went out for marketing. We went to areas were taxis
usually stand or stop. Our main mission there was to place the smobilpay
stickers on taxis and to carry out prospect to new customers. Our main aim there
was to convince and persuade people to consume Africa Multitech and Design
Sarl product which is Smobilpay and also take the numbers of the prospects who
are interested to consume our product. In the act of trying to convince the
customer, we faced some problems.
Firstly, trying to convince the customers was very stressful because most of
them where purely francophone who didn’t even have English as their second
language. Also, it was very difficult to talk to the prospects since most of them
were in the taxi going and some people were just passing. Also, going to shops
to prospect was not easy because most of the shop owners were busy selling and

gave us little or no attention. Though stressful, we realized some

professionalism in our presentation in regards to our induction to be professional
marketers.
WEEK FIVE AND SIX: FOLLOW-UP
This two weeks, we did follow-up of the prospects we took their numbers on the
field when prospecting. We all the prospects and tried as much hard to convince
them to be partners with us. If they accept of being partner with us, we follow
them up by giving them our document called `Bon de command` to fill and then
we take their own documents. After the transaction is done, we give them our
product by installing our application to their mobile phone and try to see that
they are working. With this follow-up stage, we faced many problems
Some prospects were very busy when we call and when we kept persisting, we
became a boredom to them and some of them did not even want to talk to us that
we are disturbing. But never the less we always look for a more mature way to
talk to them, for them to become our partners.
WEEK SEVEN AND EIGHT: CHECKING OF ACCOUNT BALANCES
These two weeks, we checked smobilpay pay current account balances of micro
finance, cyber café, shops and many other establishment to see the once that are
active and the once that are not active. By checking their balances, the ones that
are not active, we call or send them mails reminding them that their accounts
needs to be refilled so as to continue benefiting from our platform. And for the
establishments that are working, we continue to encourage them to work harder
to get surplus bonuses. During this period, we faced many problems. This was
due to the fact that some of our partners had already switch from consuming our
goods and instead the goods of our competitors. Also, the continuous sending of
mails to our partners became a burden to them. Some of the partner’s even stop

receiving our calls or replying to our mails. With this, we had to come up with
many strategies on how to maintain our existing customers.
WEEK NINE AND TEN. MARKETING AND SALES
During these weeks, we were out on the field for prospection, branding of our
sales points and attended to our customers that had problems using our service
Smobilpay. However, prospection was not that easy because of customers
complains. Both the new prospects and actual customers. And also concerning
the branding of our sales points, it was not easy because some people never
wanted our branding materials that it is going to dirty their sales points.
Without withstanding, we succeeded to convince prospects to be partners with

us. Though the operations were difficult, it was also a success. Since we use our
professional skills to market the product.
2.2: JUSTIFICATION OF THEME

During the two months period spent at Africa Multitech and Design Sarl, we
were so committed in performing our duties and give in the necessary support at
all levels which include but wasn’t limited to prospections, filling, presentations
and assisting administratively. But as time pass by, we realize that though Africa
Multitech and Design Sarl does a lot in acquiring customers, little or nothing is
been made by the organisation as a whole to keep those customers.
This was not the best approach as, scholars and some marketing gurus have
argued and proved that; “the cost of acquiring a new customer is more expensive
than the cost of maintaining an existing customer”.
Taking all of these into consideration with the analysis obtained from our
questionnaire, my supervisor and I decided to carry out this research work on the
“the impact of prospection in increasing a firm’s customer base: case of Africa
Multitech and Design Sarl”

PART TWO: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

CHAPTER THREE
PRACTICAL ANALYSIS
SECTION ONE: CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES

In this section, we are going to carry out a theoretical analysis of concepts.
1.1: INTRODUCTION
Retaining good customers (or those that may become good) is one of the most
important topics in customer relationship marketing (CRM). Its importance is
not confined to CRM customer retention has a pedigree that goes back to the era
of classic direct marketing and branding. But how professionally do companies
approach this topic. Success in business is dependent on clear thinking on the
fundamental conceptual issues. If customer retention is a major focus, then a key
question is what exactly an organisation is trying to retain.
A sales person constantly looks for new prospects for two reasons. One is to
increase sales. The other is to replace the customers who will be lost over time
1.2: PROSPECTING
Efficient organization of time and thorough planning of work are earmarks of
above-average salespersons. They look for ways to “stretch” productive selling
time. They arrange travel and call schedules to economize on time spent en route
and distance traveled. They make appointments to avoid prolonged waiting for
callbacks. They do not waste time trying to sell to people who cannot buy or are
not likely to do so. The planning work, which is essential in eliminating calls on
non-buyers, is called “prospecting.” Improvement in prospecting is one way to
stretch productive selling time. Many sales personnel devote too little time to
prospecting and, as a consequence, too much to calling on non-prospects.
Salespersons who are proficient in prospecting apply their selling efforts

productively; they do not call on non-prospects and can devote their full
attention to those likely to buy.
Some companies use specialized personnel for prospecting, but most regard it as
one of the salesperson’s responsibilities. Even though salespersons may not to
“all” the prospecting, they often have access to information on likely prospects
that is not available to central office personnel.
1.2.1: STEPS IN PROSPECTING

The steps in prospecting are
1. Formulating prospect definitions,

2. Searching out potential accounts,
3. Qualifying prospects and determining probable requirements, and
4. Relating company products to each prospect’s requirements.
1.2.2: FORMULATING PROSPECT DEFINITIONS

Prospective customers must have the willingness, the financial capacity, and the
authority to buy, and they must be available to the salesperson. Salespersons
waste time when they attempt to sell individuals who have neither need for the
product or money to pay for it. Salespersons waste time if they try to sell to the
wrong persons; so it is important to ascertain which persons in each firm have
the authority to buy.
Although individuals may qualify as prospects in other respects, they may be
inaccessible to the salesperson. The president of a large corporation, for
example, may need insurance and be willing and able to pay for it, but a
particular salesperson may have no way to make the contact.
In addition to meeting the stated requirements, there are other requirements

unique to each company’s customers. Starting the data on the profitability of
present accounts, any characteristics typical of profitable accounts but not
shared by unprofitable accounts should be detected. These identifying
characteristics ideally should be ones recognizable from information appearing

in directories or lists. Prospects in many businesses and professions, for

instance, are readily identified from classified listing in telephone and city
directories. Key characteristics that identify profitable accounts are assembled
into descriptions of the various classes of customers, and these are the prospect
definitions.
1.2.3: SEARCHING OUT POTENTIAL ACCOUNTS

Using the prospect definitions, the salesperson combs different sources for the
names of probable prospects, or “suspects,” as they are called. Sources of
prospect information include:
 Directories of all kind

 News and notes in trade papers and business magazines
 Credit reports, membership lists of chambers of commerce and trade and
 Manufacturers’ associations
 Records of service requests.
Other sources are
 Responses to company advertising
 Sales personnel of non-competing firms calling on the same general classes
of trade
 Conventions and meetings bankers and other “centers of influence,” and the
salesperson’s own observations.
Salespeople selling services, insurance, for example, uncover prospects among
their acquaintances; members of their professional, religious and social
organizations; and the referrals of friends. Another source of prospects is the
“endless chain” satisfied customers suggest, voluntarily or on request, other
leads to the salesperson who served them.

1.4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1.4.1: RESEARCH DESIGN
The research was mainly, focused on how service companies like Africa
Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon can improve their customer retention by
constantly developing their business strategy. This includes the assessment of
certain variables such as customer prospection, relationship marketing and
influence on an enterprise. Exploratory research was used, in order to gain a
better understating of the research area. Hence, the research purpose is
explanatory by drawing conclusions that answer the research questions.
1.4.2: DATA COLLECTION

Secondary data: Company’s database, and an assessment of individual sales
reports from the company.
Primary data: Primary data was obtained from the administering of a well-
structured questionnaire to the respondents within the town of Douala and also
from our keen observations.
1.4.3: SAMPLE UNIVERSE

Basis of administration:
The respondent should be able to read and understand either English or French
and should be able to contextualize the questions.
150 questionnaires in all
Sampling Technique:
Random Non Probability sampling can be used to select the individual from the
neighbourhood of Akwa, Bonaberi, Bonapriso, Makepe and Bonamoussadi for
better productivity of the survey. A well educated person may be able to reason
out the questions in the better way.
1.4.4: DATA QUALITY

Quality of the quantitative data is only then reliable and valid when it is
collected from the relevant sources using relevant methods (Denscombe, 2010).

Validity concerns the accuracy of the data or in other words the precision of the
measurements. Reliability concerns consistency of the results or in other words
the research should produce the same results in different occasions (Denscombe,
2010). We ensure the reliability and validity of the research by numerous ways.
First, by defining appropriate case study, population and sample suitable for the
study purpose which ensures reliability.
We are going to carry out a detailed analysis of how the problem was being
identified (through primary and secondary sources); the strengths of the
enterprise, its weaknesses in section one and also the recommendations
proposed by us in section two.
SECTION TWO: MEANS AND RESULTS
In this section, we are going to practically analyse the questionnaire.

2.1: ANALYSES OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Considering that the research work is to determine the impact of customer

prospection and retention in an enterprise, we sought to ascertain information on
the satisfaction of respondents involved and how convenient they were with our
services. Analogy of the 150 respondents as per our questionnaire could be seen
below.
Table 1: First purchase made from Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon
Response No of respondents Percentage
Less than 1 month 30 20
1-3 months ago 20 13.3333333
4-6 months ago 13 8.66666667
6-12 months ago 14 9.33333333
1-2 years ago 23 15.3333333
More than 2 years ago 50 33.3333333
Total 150 100
Source: Questionnaire
From the table above, 50 of the 150 respondents made their first purchase more
than two years ago; 23 of the 150 respondents made theirs between 1-2 years

ago; 14 of the 150 respondents between 6-12 months ago and just 63 of the 150
respondents made their first purchase less than 6 months ago.
Table 2: Reason for first purchase from Africa Multitech and Design Sarl
Advertisement 25 16.6666667
Online researched 30 20
First vendor 20 13.3333333
Recommendation 35 23.3333333
No particular 40 26.6666667
Total 150 100
As seen above, 40 of the 150 respondents said nothing in particular prompted to
carry out their first purchase from Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon,
while 35 of the 150 respondents came from recommendation, 30 from online
research, 25 from first vendor and 25 from advertisement.
Table 3: Loyalty to Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon
Yes 38 25.3333333
No 112 74.6666667
Total 150 100
The table above tells us that most of the respondents didn’t considered
themselves as loyal customers to Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon as
112 of the 150 respondents answered No and just 38 answered Yes.
Table 4: Loyalty to bands considering there provide you with high quality good/services.
Yes 93 62
Somewhat 24 16
No 33 22
Total 150 100
If been offered high quality goods/services, 93 of the 150 respondents answered
yes to been loyal to those brands; 24 were in a confused state and just 33 of the
150 respondents answered no.

Table 5: Convenient is the service/product

Response No respondents Percentage
Not at all 33 22
Slightly 60 40
Moderately 42 28
Extremely 15 10
Total 150 100
As shown above, 60 of the 150 respondents were slightly convenient with the
products/services of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon, meaning they
had some doubts; 40 were moderately convenient, 33 were not convenient at all
and just 15 were extremely convenient.
Table 6: Quality of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl services/products
Not at all 35 23.6486486
Slightly 58 39.1891892
Moderately 46 31.0810811
Extremely 10 6.08108108
Total 150 100
From the table above, just 9 of the 150 respondents were extremely satisfied
with the products/services of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon; 46
were moderately satisfied, 58 and 35 were slightly satisfied or not even satisfied
respectively.
Table 7: Recommendation to friends
Not at all 40 26.6666667
Slightly 58 38.6666667
Extremely 8 5.33333333
Total 150 100
From the table, 40 of the 150 respondents answered no to recommending Africa
Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon to their friends or family, 58 were in a
dilemma; 44 moderately and just 8 could extremely recommend Africa
Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon to family and friends.

Table 8: Regards for our brand

Not at all 30 20
Slightly 50 33.3333333
Extremely 15 10
Total 150 100
Just 15 of the 150 respondents regarded our brand with high esteemed; 50
slightly; 55 moderately and 30 of the 150 respondents didn’t even regard our
brand at all.
Table 9: Degree of satisfaction with overall products/services of Africa Multitech and Design
Sarl
Very dissatisfied 50 33.3333333
Dissatisfied 30 20
Neutral 30 20
Satisfied 30 20
Very satisfied 10 6.66666667
Total 150 100
As seen above, 50 of the 150 respondents were very unsatisfied with the overall
services of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon; 30 were dissatisfied; 30
were neutral and 30 were satisfied and just 10 were very satisfied.
In a summary note, this chapter talks on the theoretical analysis of customer
prospection and retention in section one. While in section two, we critically analysed
the questionnaire to obtain valuable statistical data for our research work.

CHAPTER FOUR
CRITICAL ANALYSES
SECTION ONE: PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED AT AFRICA MULTITECH

AND DESIGN SARL
In this section, we are discussing about the strengths and problems identified at
Africa Multitech and Design Sarl.
1.1: STRENGHTS OF AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL

To operate successfully in a changing market, companies should plan their
objectives and strategies around their strengths and downplay their weaknesses.
Before evaluating your company against the market, you need to conduct
qualitative and quantitative research and analyze your competitors. A company’s
strength refers to the internal advantages that it has and that are goal-driven.
Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon’s strengths are;
Constant Innovation
Innovation is one of the most driving force for the survival of most firms in the
world today. Considering how sophisticated the market place has become, a
company that doesn’t innovate has high chances of going out of the market.
Africa Multitech and Design Sarl Cameroon is led by an innovative team, which
sees innovation as a must do thing.
1.2: PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED AT AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL
Weaknesses are the qualities that prevent us from accomplishing our mission
and achieving our full potential. These weaknesses deteriorate influences on the
organizational success and growth. Weaknesses are the factors which do not
meet the standards we feel they should meet. We noticed the following
weaknesses at Africa Multitech and Design Sarl:

Unplanned Prospection
Prospecting is the first step in the sales process, which consists of identifying
potential customers, and prospects. The goal of prospecting is to develop a
database of likely customers and then systematically communicate with them in
the hopes of converting them from potential customer to current customer. Sales
representatives should planned and rehashed on the characteristics, positive
attributes and possibly objections.
Insufficient Materials for Prospecting
Prospecting requires a lot of materials so as, to facilitate the flow of information
from the sales representative to the potential customer. Materials like; brochures,
leaflets, laptops notepads and other technological gadgets were in short supply.
As a result there were so many delays in the whole process.
Keeping Customers Unsatisfied
Satisfaction is the act of providing what is needed or desired: the act of
satisfying a need or desire. A result that deals with a problem or complaint in an
acceptable way. Africa Multitech and Design Sarl from our observation left
most of its customers unhappy, which was very detrimental to retention and
loyalty as well.
Inadequate Branding and Communication of Products/Services
Marketing communication (MarCom) is a fundamental and complex part of a
company's marketing efforts. Successful branding involves targeting audiences
who appreciate the organization's marketing program. Advertising is a small but
important part of marketing communications; the marketing communications
mix is a set of tools that can be used to deliver a clear and consistent message to
target audiences. Africa Multitech and Design Sarl lacks the technical know how
to put up an excellent message that greatly influence the choices to be made by
potential and actual customers.
Inadequate training of the sales team

The sales team is not well embedded in sophisticated training that would build
their morals before, during and after they have met a prospect.
SECTION TWO: RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE PROBLEMS

IDENTIFIED AT AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL
Recommendations are suggestions or proposals as to the best course of action or

a suggestion about what should be done. The following were recommended by
us to help shed more lights:
Good Orchestration of Prospecting Plans

Before a salesperson can even begin to think about prospecting and lead
generation, they must have a complete understanding of what a qualified
prospect looks like, what would he/she would possibly be thinking and a whole
lot of things so as to be able to demonstrate a degree of confidence from the
customer view point.
Adequate Materials should be made available.
There has been a drastic growth in the advancement of science and technology
which has greatly affected the way people think and behaved in more advanced
state. The sales team should be armed the most sophisticated equipment so as to
facilitate the manner and way in which the quest for new customers is been
done.
Ensuring customer satisfaction
A customer who is satisfied with a particular product or service would speak
positive about the company. It is a measure of how products and services
supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation, which is left for
the company to take the satisfaction of its customers as a must do thing.
Effective Communication
A marketing communication tool can be anything from: advertising, personal
selling, direct marketing, sponsorship, communication, promotion and public

relations. All these tools put together makes up the communications mix, a well-
blended communication mix will create a more triple and yielding effect.
Adequate Training of the sales team
The main idea behind training is to extract the best out of a candidate in terms of
performance on the job. Of course, experience is still the best teacher, but it runs
a very costly and time-consuming school. Training cuts short the time required
to learn on the basis of experience.

GENERAL CONCLUSION
The aim of the thesis was to elaborate on the impact of customer prospection
and retention by investigating a service company, which can improve their
customer retention through customer relationship management. Companies may
choose to apply different parts of customer relationship management to their
businesses through technology and other means of communication with their
customers, various training programs and other resources devoted towards the
employees of the company. Evaluating the past and present behaviour makes it
possible for the company to adopt the most effective business strategy.
Customer retention strategy helps a company to gain profit because only five
percent of the existing customers can lead the company towards 85 percent of
the gross profit. Customer retention is the mirror image of customer defection
rate. A proper process for customer feedback, complaint management, front staff
training, special bonus and offers to customers will increase the business
performance, which is an improvement to the employee-working environment.
The more satisfied the customers, are the better public image will be presented
to them and more value will be created for the business.
Although individuals may qualify as prospects in other respects, they may be
inaccessible to the salesperson. The president of a large corporation, for
example, may need insurance and be willing and able to pay for it, but a
particular salesperson may have no way to make the contact.

In addition to meeting the stated requirements, there are other requirements

unique to each company’s customers. Starting the data on the profitability of
present accounts, any characteristics typical of profitable accounts but not
shared by unprofitable accounts should be detected. These identifying
characteristics ideally should be ones recognizable from information appearing
in directories or lists. Prospects in many businesses and professions, for
instance, are readily identified from classified listing in telephone and city
directories. Key characteristics that identify profitable accounts are assembled
into descriptions of the various classes of customers, and these are the prospect
definitions.
Documentation was the most important measure of reliability. To ensure the
highest reliability of the research, the proper questions in the questionnaire were
created so that the respondents would not misunderstand or be misled by the
questions. Uncertainty in the vocabulary and sentence structures was eliminated
by a serious consideration to make sure that the respondents were put in the
appropriate context of the questions
The conclusions are that Africa Multitech and Design Sarl have to realize that
they have to do things right by listening to their customers and adopting a
strategy based on mutual understanding with customers. And should constantly
carry out research in order to constantly know the worries of customers. The
company has a better chance to overcome their competitors and be more
efficient in building relationships with their customers by promoting customer
retention.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Baran, R. J., & Galka, &. R. 2013. CRM “The Foundation of Contemporary
Marketing Strategy”. 711 Third Avenue, New York: Routledge.
2. Beltman, E. P. 2013, Customer Relationship Management. Edinburg Gate:
Pearson Education limited.
3. Bliemel, F 1998. Customer Relationship-The new target strategy. Marketing
for Research and practice, 37-44.
4. Brennen. 2013. Qualitative research methods for media studies. New York
and London: Routledge.
5. Brown, S. 2000. “From Customer Loyalty to Customer Dependency.”
Customer Relationship Management, New York: John Wiley & Sons
Canada, Plc.
6. Bruhn, M. 2003. Relationship Marketing Management of Customer
relationship. England: Pearson Education Limited.
7. Buttle, F. 2004. Customer Relationship Management 1st ed. 30 Corporate
Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA: Elsever Plc.
8. Chase, S. D. 2013, Customer service solution. United States: McGraw-Hill.
9. Christianus, D. 2002, Management of customer satisfaction and customer
loyalty: How to profit and value of enterprise. Expert Renningenmalmsheim.
10.Christoper Lovelock, J. W. 2002, Service Marketing in Asia. First Lok Yang
Road, Jurong: Prentice hall.

11.Customer Relationship Management, 2005. Bradford, GBR: Emerald Group

Publishing Plc. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com
12.Freeland J. G. 2003.The ultimate customer relationship management
handbook, new work, McGraw-Hill.
APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Questionnaire
Appendix 2:
Appendix 3:


Certification: The Impact of Prospection in Increasing A Firm's Customer Base: Case of Africa Multitech and Design Sarl

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The Impact of Prospection in Increasing a Firm's Customer Base: Case of

Africa Multitech and Design Sarl

Written and Presented by: i

Written and Presented by: ii

Written and Presented by: iii

Written and Presented by: iv

Written and Presented by: v

Written and Presented by: vi

Written and Presented by: vii

MARCOMS Marketing Communications

Written and Presented by: viii

SYNOPTIC VIEW OF AFRICA MULTITECH AND DESIGN SARL

Written and Presented by: ix

Written and Presented by: x

Written and Presented by: xi

In today’s competitive world, Success in business is dependent on clear thinking

Written and presented by: 1

How prospection is instrumental in the in building loyalty, trust and later

 Customer prospection impact on the customer base of an enterprise.

The Objectives of this Study

Written and presented by: 2

Written and presented by: 3

PART ONE: INTERNSHIP FRAMEWORK

Written and presented by: 4

SECTION ONE: HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE ENTERPRISE

1.1: THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF AFRICA MULTITECH AND

Written and presented by: 5

1.1.2: OBJECTIVES OF Africa Multitech and Design Sarl

1.1.3: LEGAL STATUS

1.2: THE STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION

1.2.1: THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT

Written and presented by: 6

1.2.2: ADMINISTATIVE AFFAIRS:

The Administrative department is in charge of record keeping for the business.

The dispensation of payroll comes under the responsibilities of the

Employee Performance Improvement Plans

Written and presented by: 7

The Administrative affairs department is often instrumental in setting up

1.2.3: FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING

Written and presented by: 8

1.2.4: MARKETTING, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND RESEARCH

Written and presented by: 9

available budgets, they may plan advertising campaigns, develop e-mail

SECTION TWO: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

The marketing environment represents a complex array of threats and

2.1: THE INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

Written and presented by: 10

A company’s stakeholders are group of individual who are directly or indirectly

Organizational culture and structure

An organization is a social unit of people that is structured and managed to meet

Written and presented by: 11

responsibilities. The organizational structure on the other hand describes the

2.2: THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

2.2.1: THE EXTERNAL-MICRO ENVIRONMENT

Written and presented by: 12

component of marketing environment because with them, companies fight for or

Written and presented by: 13

SECTION ONE: PRESENTATION AT THE ENTERPRISE

Written and presented by: 14

SECTION TWO: SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES

2.1: CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF ACTIVITIES

WEEK ONE AND TWO: LEARNING DETAILY ABOUT AFRICA

WEEK THREE AND FOUR: PRESENTATION AND SALES