Suppliers who participated in a free training workshop held last month in HCM City 's Investment and Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC) plan to app

The workshop, How to Win More Export Orders, was co-hosted by the Hong Kong-based Global Sources, a leading B2B media company, US-based non-profit organisation Kearny Alliance and the ITPC.

The training aimed to give local exporters practical skills and tools to apply to their trade shows and online marketing platforms to generate more sales and create more jobs.

The organisers scheduled the workshop before the Global Sources' China Sourcing Fair: Home Products to be held in Hong Kong from April 20 – 23 in order to better prepare suppliers to attract more buyers worldwide and generate more sales.

The workshop facilitators offered insight into key marketing issues, including understanding buyers' needs, suppliers' unique selling points, effective buyer communication, and effective trade-show participation.

Tran Xuan Trang, head of the ITPC training department, said that supplier training was always a focal point of the ITPC. The value can clearly be seen as the suppliers can apply them to export-marketing platforms supported by the Government.

According to a survey conducted by the ITPC after the workshop, 90 percent of attendees gave top marks to the intensive training.

"We believe that when our beneficiaries upgrade their export sales skills, they have what it takes to compete well with suppliers worldwide."

Do Phuong Thuy, sales manager of the HCM City-based Kim Ban company, said the training workshop was informative and interactive.

Global Sources Vietnam chief representative, Ong Din Han, said, "While training the participants who are all experienced exporters, we realised some did not fully grasp the importance of their unique selling points to attract the right buyers. We believe they can attract more of the right buyers with this new understanding.

"The workshop has offered valuable insight into what a professional supplier needs to do to win more orders. This is something Vietnamese suppliers need to sharpen to gain more competitiveness."

Global Sources and the ITPC are scheduling further training that focuses on better inquiry management in HCM City in the second half of this year. /.