Steel sales are harder than marathons

Hello everyone, I'm Nguyen Xuan Ha, 43 years old, currently working at Hoa Phat Hung Yen Steel Company. I like to cook and enjoy sports especially jogging. Before and after running, I finished all the housework, but the most important thing is that I believe in using #HoaPhatsteel, my house's gantry rig is using #HoaPhatsteel, so I have never been shaken”. That is a very witty introduction about Mr. Xuan Ha, a "hard" employee specializing in Hoa Phat steel trading on his personal Facebook. Join HPG News to "chat" quickly with Mr. Ha about his work as well as his passion for sports!

Just saw you appear on VTV3 in Revive Marathon across Vietnam, readers curiously want to know when did you participate in running?

I have been running for a long time, 1-2km a day around the park but started running long distance from 2017.

There were a few people running in my bicycle club, at first I also followed because I thought I was relatively good, thought I could, but when I registered for the first long distance, I was the last person came to the end, at that time I began to engage in serious practice.

How much time do you spend every day practicing?

Every day I get up from 5am to jog, takes 1 hour, when there is a prize, I exercises more than about 1.5 hours

Mr. Ha at the Revive Marathon

Is running a marathon as difficult as steel sales?

Sale of steel is much harder than running a marathon, practicing running every day, it creates a habit, long time also achieved better results.

So what is the specific job of a steel sale?

The main job is to meet customers, interact with customers to collect information about competitors with our steel plants. See sales volume of customers sold daily to report to the boss

Contact customers, agents to introduce products, do you have any art or skills?

Hoa Phat steel product is the No. 1 brand, good quality, so the introduction of the product is also simple, when interacting with customers, there are many advantages of a strong brand. Brothers introduced products this time is easy. The most difficult is the first stage, there are times when they come to meet customers they do not want to continue because they are busy selling, not making tea, we just sit there to visit people, to create a friendly relationship initially.

As a salesman, each person has different skills, a unique way to get customer information or learn from seniors, learn from colleagues and sometimes from the customers.

What are your most impressive steel trading experiences?

Most impressive is that there are fastidious customers, sometimes they "threaten" before raising prices to let them take a lot of goods or they do not make steel anymore. But Hoa Phat always had a clear and fair policy, so at that time, they did not want to take over the daily ability and there was no case of bias. Now, sometimes people still repeat the story that thought she had broken up with Hoa Phat steel, but in the end, that agent had stuck with Hoa Phat until now.

Does steel business have to run KPI, every month how many tons do you sell?

There are a number of  criteria for evaluation, but the sales volume is based on both the capacity of the agent and not the same agents and the sales department members have achieved the set plans. One month, he sells an average of 30,000 tons of steel

Has the experience and theory of running KPIs applied to running a marathon or vice versa?

Actually the two also complement each other. I have a clear plan when I practice. Running a distance of 42km, I have to divide it into several stages, at this point I have to apply the calculation technique to see the end of the distance in how many hours. And when selling steel, the time 10-15 months I have to urge customers. Make a plan in advance for yourself to try to achieve in the month.

Besides running, what is your favorite sport for free time?

In my free time, I like to travel and enjoy street food, in many places at home and abroad. I still enjoy playing many sports but now playing tennis, swimming, jogging, cycling. Any dance music in general.

Not only running, cycling, Mr. Ha is also very good at swimming

A little introduction to your family and jogging team?

I am 43 years old living in Long Bien. Ijoined the "Very good fun" club starting in 2018 in Viet Hung near my home. The club has more than 100 people but everyone is very united to support each other in the exercises. I was a member of the club right from the beginning. When starting a long distance run, Ijoined the group to learn more about running, avoid injuries and speed up.

Does your wife support you to join the running club?

Currently, my wife is very supportive of my running team, because I run at a time that does not affect my household chores. But I still ran back to help her with housework, take my children to play shuttlecock, go swimming, have breakfast and then go to school. In the afternoon, when the meal is finished, it is convenient to go jogging or cycling. Sometimes, I still say that I run fast and come back home, there are many works at home.

The family cheered for Mr. Ha at Sunset Bay Triathlon

My wife also likes to run but only runs short and support me to join running tournaments. Most recently, last week I participated in the Sunset Bay Triathlon - organized by Race Vietnam and Tuan Chau Group with triathlon in Ha Long, the whole family went to support and cheer. This is the first time I participated in the Sunset Bay Triathlon, Olympic swim 1.5km, cycling 40km, jogging 10km.

What are your achievements when participating in these tournaments?

In this world of running, the fastest time to complete the movement achievement in 2019 in Vietnam, I ranked 111 in the rankings of runners of the Long Marathon of Full Marathon 42,195km of movements in Vietnam. (with runtime 3:39:39 VHM). When participating in jogging in the tournament, my achievement is shown in a statistical page ranking the achievement of runners of 42km movement. There are probably many good runners but they don't participate in movement jogging. But being in the rankings is also a great motivation for me.

And at Sunset Bay Triathlon, I ranked 68th out of more than 300 participants, including foreigners.

His goals in the near future?

Target 2020, I want to run the Tien Phong Marathon - The largest and oldest prize in Vietnam. This is the gathering of the most professional athletes. And in 3 triathlon next year, I want to conquer the distance of Iron Man 2020 in Da Nang swimming 1.9km - cycling 90km - running 21km.

In general, running is both strengthening the body, maintaining the health as well as the performance of selling steel, both are my passions.

And I also want to spread the spirit of jogging to everyone to stay healthy, jogging is a discipline that everyone regardless of men, women, young and old can participate easily.

Thank you and wish you conquer your goals !.

Hong Hanh