Low level of salesperson competencies ai east saigon branch of vietinbank, ho chi minh city, viet nam

They contain collecting symptoms, analysing problem, identify potential causes which is training programme, organizational climate, product knowledge, etc.. In fact, results from the int

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business -

Cao My Anh

LOW LEVEL OF SALESPERSON COMPETENCIES AT EAST

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: PROBLEM IDENTICATION 1

1.1 Company background 1

1.2 Background of problem 2

1.2.1 Symptom of business problem 2

1.2.2 Possible problem 3

1.3 Problem justification 5

1.3.1 Problem definition 6

1.3.2 Justify the existence 6

1.3.3 Justify the importance 8

1.4 Potential causes 10

1.5 Causes validation 21

CHAPTER 2: ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS 24

2.1 Alternative solutions 24

2.1.1 Organizational policy 24

2.1.2 Reward system 25

2.1.3 Training program 26

Table 2.2: Comparison among possible solutions 27

2.2 Solution comparison 29

CHAPTER 3: ACTION PLAN 30

Table 2.3: Financial analysis among solutions 31

Table 3: Detailed implementation plan 32

Conclusion 35

CHAPTER 4: SUPPORTING INFORMATION 35

Table 1.1: Lending interest rate (%) in ASEAN 35

Table 1.2: Opening questions for management staff 36

Table 1.3: Problems were indicated in VES 38

Table 1.5: Sales Competencies Questionnaire in East Saigon Branch of VietinBank 39

Table 1.6: Standard scores ten 41

Table 1.8: Sale competencies questionnaires in Agribank 42

Table 1.9: Causes were reflected in VES 44

Table 1.10: Manager Interview transcript 46 Table 2.1: Comparison the number of agreements among solutions 49 References 51

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: Lending interest rate (%) in ASEAN 35

Table 1.2: Opening questions for management staff 36

Table 1.3: Problems were indicated in VES 38

Table 1.4: Initial cause and effect map 20

Table 1.5: Sales Competencies Questionnaire in East Saigon Branch of VietinBank 39

Table 1.6: Standard scores ten 41

Table 1.7: The final causes and effects map 24

Table 1.8: Sale competencies questionnaires in Agribank 42

Table 1.9: Causes were reflected in VES 44

Table 1.10: Manager Interview transcript 46

Table 2.1: Comparison the number of agreements among solutions 49

Table 2.2: Comparison among possible solutions 27

Table 2.3: Financial analysis among solutions 31

Table 3: Detailed implementation plan 32

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ARM……….Associate Relationship Manager

Executive summary

East Saigon Branch plays a significant role in sale performance and

development activity in VietinBank Nevertheless, the low level of salesperson

competences in Marketing Department is affecting to employees and operation in

branch Moreover, this issue will bring the potential sequences in VES as this problem

has existed for next years Especially, the company has faced to decreasing income

and high turnover rate

The main purpose of this thesis is to suggest the solutions to enhance the level

of salesperson skills in Marketing Department in VES In order that we could find out the best solution, we have to make step by step from the analysis to the illustration

They contain collecting symptoms, analysing problem, identify potential causes which

is training programme, organizational climate, product knowledge, etc They are

discovered from the textbook Additionally, depended on the root cause of the

problem, the probable strategies to improve the level of salesperson competencies in

the transactions also are found out From the possible strategies such as updating organizational procedures, adjusting reward system, and improving training program,

the efficient key to a difficulty will be built and recommend to VES Nonetheless, the

best answer is to be adjusting training program Because that solution is the most

economical and most profitable in the future Actually, the profit is VND 1,025

million while the expense is VND 200 million (Table 2.3) The cost of two remain

solutions is VND 800 million and VND 1000 million respectively Meanwhile, the

profit is merely VND 200 million and VND 20 million respectively In order to handle training course, the bank should carry out implementation plan in chapter 3 Because

this action plan use willing resources such as trainers who is the experience employees

in sale performance and study place where is the meeting room in the bank? It brings

benefit and convenience for both employees and company Furthermore, the

recommendations have to be tested for the purpose of ensuring the most suitable for

the branch and all the employees The thesis use the qualitative method which is face

to face the interview of 5 managers and 53 staffs in Marketing Department Besides

that, this thesis makes reference to the literature from the theory, textbook, and

previous academic papers in order to verify the main problem, as alternative solutions,

and as implementation plan

CHAPTER 1: PROBLEM IDENTICATION

1.1 Company background

Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade is abbreviated to

VietinBank VietinBank is one of the two banks in Vietnam to enter into the Global

500, recognizing the world’s most value banking brands in 2015 according to Brand

Finance – the world’s famous ratings agency and brand valuation consultancy firm

(Annual report 2014) For 10 consecutive years, VietinBank has been in the Top 10

National Brands and the holders of Vietnam Value Award for three straight years

That’s why the branches of VietinBank have the advantage of brand and prestige in

the financial market This thing is represented obviously in East Saigon branch of

VietinBank In 1991, East Saigon branch of VietinBank was established in Thu Duc

district The branch has 155 employees and 2 transaction offices It is focusing

business customers due to its location on industrial zone In addition, the scope of

operation include Fund Mobilization in the form of Term Deposits for Retail and

Corporate clients, Foreign Exchange, Guarantees, International Settlements, Letter of

Credit, Capital Markets, Money Markets, Bonds, Equity Investments, Correspondent

Banking, Internet Banking, and other innovative financial and investment services and

solutions licenced by the State Bank of Vietnam

The thesis concentrates on the Marketing Department, which consist of over 50

employees and is divided into 5 groups Each group has 8 members to 12 members

who is called Associate Relationship Manager Additionally, team head is called

Relationship Manager Associate Relationship Manager and Relationship Manager are

abbreviated to ARM and RM respectively Furthermore, each team is responsible for a

customer group permanently More specifically, each individual person is responsible

for his own customers At the same time, they have to seek potential customers for the

company

1.2 Background of problem

1.2.1 Symptom of business problem

For 3 consecutive years, the annual report between 2012 and 2014 of the firm

describes that the revenue decreased from 3,594 billion Vietnam Dong to 1,724 billion Vietnam Dong Moreover, during the period of 3 years from 2012, net income also

dropped significantly from 49.4 billion Vietnam Dong to 5.1 billion Vietnam Dong In

2014, the number of customers increased insignificantly around 320 customers While

planned figure was over 800 customers The table below will illustrate the details

According to interview results with 53 staffs in Marketing Department of bank, they

disclosed many problems which had an effect on turnover and income in the branch

Average score of listening skill and motivation merely reaches at 4.36 and 4.38

respectively (Table 1.3) They indicated that they are less developed competencies In

point of fact, Mr Ha, as a manager in Marketing Department, she believed that

motivation provides a stimulus to encourage employee’s performance and greater

involvement in business success Essentially, much motivation can come as employees are encouraged to grow in their competencies through education, training, and

experience It is an internal state that leads to the pursuit of objectives From the

standpoint of manager, motivation is an activity carried on to get them to achieve

results .Those problems is discussed more detailed in Section 1.2.2 Overall, the data

described ineffective performance in East Saigon branch of VietinBank Especially,

the number of customers reduced from 2012 to 2014 What is actual cause that it is

really affect a downward trend in revenue and profit in the bank? Which methods are

handled to seek root cause?

1.2.2 Possible problem

In the current context for the Vietnamese economic and the present situation of

banking sector, association with another elements, VES copes with a several

problems They are causes lead to decline of profitability in the bank Following a

financial crisis developed with remarkable speed starting in the late summer of 2008,

as mortgage-related securities that had spread through the US and global financial

system suddenly collapsed in value This crisis has undermined many of the largest

financial institutions in the US and elsewhere, as well as severely damaging a large

part of the world's financial system Recently the financial crisis has been joined by a

gathering recession in the non-financial sector in the US and global economies (Kotz, 2009) In Vietnam, the real estate and securities market are freezing Specially, the

banking industry has been influenced dramatically by the crisis According to the

information of Ms Nguyen Thi Ngoc Han, as a manager in branch, the credit growth decreased sharply in annual report from 2012 to 2014 By contrast, the bad debt ratio increased significantly between 2012 and 2014 (Annual report 2012, 2013, and 2014) Furthermore, the interest rate dropped from 17% to 8.7% between 2011 and 2014

(Table 1.1) It is meaning that there were fluctuations of bank rate That is why the

customers was not interested in borrowing in the bank As a result, there was a

downward trend in the number of the corporate customers Because the clients whose bank and Thu Duc District are business customers by concentration on industry zones there It generates that bank profit decline significantly In point of fact, there were 12 employees in 53 interviewees, they affirmed that this is the problem which decrease revenue (Table 1.3)

Next, the second aspect was mentioned that there was trade competition between

alternative banks in the same area According to Ms Vo Thi Hong Khanh, as a

manager in team 1, banking industry have occurred to merge the small banks into one

larger one Nonetheless, the financial market also appeared the strong banks such as

ACB and BIDV Their smooth operation and working capital provided customers with

various products and good service Besides that, the foreign banks with high

technology of system, strong capital, and flexible transactions are supplying many

choices for customers in the market In general, VES were facing the main challenges

from these business rivals Therefore, the necessary responsibility was set up to

improve the quality of bank service in order to rise the corporate customers In fact, 8

individuals of 53 interviewees asserted that this is the problem lead to reduce income

in VES (Table 1.3)

Last but not least, humancapital can embody intangibleassets such as unique

configurations of complementary skills, and tacit knowledge, painstakingly

accumulated, of customer wants and internal processes (Bontis, 1999) Especially, sale competencies are learned proficiency at performing tasks necessary for a sale job

They are among the most important predictors of sales performance (Rentz, Shepherd,

Tashchian, Dabholkar, & Ladd, 2002) In fact, results from the interviews with 53

staffs and 5 managers in VES, there were 33 staffs reflect that salesperson

competencies were low level (Table 1.3) That is an important problem generates to

decline revenue They supposed that there was not enough product knowledge and

presenting skill for consultancy with customers The customers usually wait a long

time when they asks questions about bank services When the salesperson

performance failure that it is difficult for the bank to maintenance the loyalty of

customers Consequently, the net income will decline in the following days

Overall, 33 employees of 53 interviewees can be concluded that the staffs have be low

sales competencies which is one of the big problem in VES (Table 1.3) The result

from questionnaire ‘‘which the main cause affects to decrease revenue?’’, there are 33

answers assert that there is an existing problem of VES in the recent years That is low

level of sales competencies

1.3 Problem justification

1.3.1 Problem definition

Sales competencies is a measurable characteristic of a person that is related to

success at work This includes behavioural skills, technical skills, attributes and

attitudes (Mitchelmore, & Rowley 2010)

Johlke (2006) suggested that the skills and efforts of salesman power their

individual outcomes as well as the effectiveness of their organizations As

acknowledged by Bashir et al (2010), sales competencies essentially contribute to

performance Although, competencies have been accepted as the predictors of

performance, very few empirical researches have been done to establish that these

distinct skills actually have considerable impact on performance Selling is a complete

process in itself and is comprised of many phases To perform well and to deal with

customers at different phases, salesman should be equipped with proficient skills and abilities

1.3.2 Justify the existence

The interviews and in-depth questions is used to measure the level of salesperson

competencies There are 5 managers and 53 staffs contributed in their judgment and

emotion about their current occupation through opening questions (Table 1.2)

Additionally, there were questions refers to the scale item in order that there were

evidences and detailed measurement to justify level of sales competencies from the

employees in Marketing Department The Sales Competencies Questionnaire (SCQ)

measures selling skills The instrument measures 13 competency dimensions which include communicating and presenting, listening skill, team working, self –

awareness, adapting and innovating, resilience and self – control, conscientiousness,

achievement motivation, prospecting, customer orientation, negotiating and

influencing, competitor awareness, and product expertise (Sale assessment, 2014)

More specifically, sale competencies questionnaires are made up 13 items All items

are scored on 10 point rating scale ranging from 1 to 10 According to the results from

sale competencies questionnaire to determine salesperson skills, the staffs of VES

were evaluated their selling skills approximately from 2 point to 4 points which equal

level 1 and level 2 respectively (Table 1.5) On the other hand, the total average rate at

4.98 describes that there is a low level of salesperson competencies in VES (Table

1.5) Especially, product expertise is one of the worst skill of the employees That

means that they infrequently update product knowledge Meanwhile, the data was

collected in Sale competencies of 53 staffs in Marketing Department of Agribank

better than Vietinbank employees in Thu Duc District (Table 1.8) The figures

demonstrated that the average score was between 6.53 and 7.40 (Table 1.8) On the

other side, the total average was 7.18 in Agribank better than Vietinbank (table 1.8)

Therefore, they could not provide bank service rapidly When the bank could not

satisfy the requirements of the customers That thing generate to reduce the number of

the customers At the same time, the profit will drop considerably

Beside the sale competencies questionnaires, the opening questions is also a useful

approach to seek important information for the purpose of the survey Mr Huu, as the

second team manager, he described that he always receive the phone calls from the

customers They have to spend much time in order that they wait to be provided

necessary information what they have doubts how transaction process in the bank He

is not satisfied about his junior staffs and expects to enhance cycle knowledge in the

branch for all employees Alternative ideas of Ms Ngoc, as an employee in Marketing

Department ‘‘Salesman who are more competent at giving effective sales

presentations are likely to perform at a higher level Effort towards improving sales presentation skills are not interest reasonably.’’

Generally, the results in the interviews indicated that there was a lack of sale

competencies It is one of the most important problem of the staffs and on the whole bank Moreover, which strategies will be proposed to solve this problem?

1.3.3 Justify the importance

As mentioned by Abdolvand et al (2013), salespeople are one of the major

contributors to a firm's survival because of their role as nexus between the firm and its

customers Clever and well-trained individuals proficient in various soft skills and

competencies are the need of hour From a salesman's perspective, being loaded with the requisite competencies, not only ensures the well-rewarded performance but also

safeguards the career growth With all the skills and proficiencies, salesman will

succeed in building better relationship with the consumers, which will ultimately lead

to the promising growth of both, the individual and the business The study conducted

focuses on sales competencies which are majorly required by the salesperson, which

he or she may fail to perform

An additional area of concern is the relationship between salesperson failure and

various outcomes The specific outcomes depend upon how failure is defined, what

determinants are attributed as the cause of the failure, and who is assigned

responsibility for these determinants (Dubinsky, 1999) For example, if managers

define failure as an irrevocable evaluation that the continuing poor performance

cannot be improved, then termination and replacement is the likely outcome

However, if failure is a matter of degree, then sales management attention may be

directed toward retraining, reassignment, or some other outcome that focuses on

performance improvement To the extent that sales managers are likely to attribute the determinants and responsibility for failure to the salesperson, then the outcomes sire

likely to focus on actions that directly affect the salesperson (e.g., punishment,

termination, etc.) This, unfortunately, will not lead to changes in sales management

practice (e.g., recruiting or selecting procedures, training programs, etc.) that might

limit future salesperson failure (Dubinsky, 1999) This type of situation is probably

prevalent and may be one of the causes for low productivity in many sales

organizations For example, the total quality management (TQM) literature (Deming, 1986) suggests that 85% of the firm's problems are directly due to the system that

management has established Thus, improvements require that management change

the system However, attribution theory predicts that sales managers will not make the

changes in sales management procedures needed to reduce failure in the future And

yet, failed salespeople who are subsequently terminated and replaced impose very

high costs on the sales organization Turnover costs have been estimated to range

between $75,000 and $200,000 per salesperson, depending on the industry, while

surveys have indicated annual salesforce turnover rates are as high as 27% in the U.S

(Gable, Hollon, and Dangelo 1992; Marketing Times 1990; Sales and Marketing

Management 1991)

1.4 Potential causes

It is extremely vital to find out the aftermath of low level of salesperson skills Which reasons lead to this problem? In those causes, which cause is a main cause what could conduct or be unsolved due to limited capability of the company On the one hand, we clarified that there are possible causes which effect on existing problem through the interview results in the branch On the other hand, there are also potential causes

which influence in sale competencies in theory by the researchers all over the world They are motivation, emotion, organizational culture, product knowledge, listening

skill, personal goals, organizational climate, sales experience, training and

development orientation, organizational policy, and reward system These findings are constructed on salesperson competencies models of Walker, Churchill, and Ford

(1979), Johnston, Hair, and Boles (1989), Ingram, Schwepker, and Hutson (1992)

Besides that, those findings are also reply on results of 53 interviewees in VES, with the questions ‘‘what are the causes of low sales competencies? Is low level of sales

competencies attributed to personal, company, or environmental factors?’’

Motivation

Motivation is one of the keys to sales performance There is an old saying you can

take a horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink; it will drink only if it is

thirsty They will do what they want to do or otherwise motivated to do According to Kleinginna and Kleinginna (1981), motivation is an internal state or condition

(sometimes described as a need, desire, or want) that serves to activate or energize

behaviour and give its direction

Emotion

Emotions, as they impact motivation, were of interest to Badovick (1990) as he

researched salespeople with inadequate sales performance Feelings of self-blame and performance satisfaction directly influenced motivation but in opposite directions

Self-blame resulted in increased effort intentions to make the quota next month The findings relating to performance satisfaction appeared counterintuitive Feelings of

performance satisfaction resulted in a decrease in future intentions to expend more

effort, even when the quota had not been met Badovick theorized that when

salespersons were generally satisfied with their performance they may have been

ahead of quota for the year-to-date, and not making quota for that month was

insignificant to their ultimate goal attainment

Organizational culture

Organisational culture is believed to impact motivation and ultimately performance For instance, Skinner (2000) reported that 44% of workers interviewed claimed that they did not put forth effort above what was required to keep their job He cited

examples of workers going above and beyond their duties to use discretionary effort to achieve peak performance He defined discretionary effort as being that portion of an employee’s performance over which he or she has the greatest control This effort is not necessarily controlled by incentives or bonuses The organisation can create an environment that unleashes discretionary effort The culture strives to create a climate where employees transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organisation

Product expertise

Product knowledge is an essential sales skill Understanding your products' features

allows you to present their benefits accurately and persuasively Customers respond to

enthusiastic sales staff who are passionate about their products and eager to share the

benefits with them Customers are more likely to trust sales people who show

confidence in themselves and what they are selling You can build this confidence by

increasing your knowledge of your products or services Moreover, successful

salespeople know all of their product of features and skillfully turn these features into

benefits for their customers Overall, product knowledge has been defined either in

terms what people perceive they allow them to relate extrinsic information to product

quality (Rao & Monroe, 1988)

Listening skill

Salesperson listening has been defined as the cognitive process of actively sensing,

interpreting, evaluating, and the responding to the verbal and nonverbal messages of

present or potential customers (Castleberry and Shepherd, 1993) Effective listening

goes beyond merely hearing what the other person is saying to actually getting the

meaning of what is being said As Digaetani (1980) indicates that it requires serious

attention and critical hearing, both concentration and penetration, both memory and

knowledge Listening acquires salespeople to fully attend to, comprehend, and

respond to each individual client

Personal goals

In human control systems, feedback involves much more than the mechanical sensing

of the environment, goals are not predetermined inflexible standards, and there are

several alternatives for reducing discrepancies (Lord & Hanges, 1987) As a result,

control theory can represent a very flexible, no mechanical view of behavior (Lord &

Hanges, 1987) Although human control systems are more complex, they do operate

in the same basic way—utilizing feedback to ensure the attainment of goals Consider, for example, a salesperson who has accepted a quarterly sales quota as a personal goal

(the standard) The input function would be information the salesperson perceives

about his or her current sales performance When this information is compared to the

standard, the salesperson forms a perception of how well he or she is meeting the

quota If this comparison reveals a discrepancy, the salesperson will take some

corrective action, possibly increasing the number of new contacts

Organizational climate

In organizations where the climate is considered highly competitive, salespeople’s

self-set goals are influenced A study by Brown et al (1998) examined the

goal-setting tendencies of salespeople with high competitiveness traits Where salespeople

perceived a competitive environment, those scoring a high competitiveness trait set

higher, more ambitious goals than those with low competitiveness More ambitious

goals equated with better performance They concluded that hiring more competitive

salespeople and fostering a more competitive environment would result in more

effective goal setting and better performance

Sale experience

Sales experience refers to a length of sale activity or work occupation in selling

(Matsuo and Kusami, 2009) As salespersons gain more and varied sales experiences, salesperson improves their skills and develops more complex knowledge of selling

situations, customer types, and selling strategies (Spiro and Weitz 1990) The study of Giacobbe et al (2006) asserts that selling experience affects sales adaptation

Following the prior research, Matsuo and Kusumi (2002) provide that experience of salesperson helps to increase knowledge and skills for behavior salesperson

effectiveness Likewise, sales experience enhances salesperson's knowledge and skills

in selling strategy that lead to a better ability to understand the customer's situation Furthermore, the role of sales experience enhances higher technical knowledge and

skills which is positive impact on sales effectiveness (Baldauf and Cravens, 2002)

The study of Johlke (2006) confirms that sales experience is seen as primary effective antecedents of adaptive selling and sales knowledge & skills

Training and development orientation

Training and development orientation refers to the intent to make changes or improve individuals' learning, behavior, work performance, attitudes and cognitive skills

(Haslinda and Hiok, 2009) Much of the literature appears to be hypothesized that

training and development will enhance learning and performance According to

Torraco and Swanson (1995) and Tseng and McLean (2008), human resource

development is vital for firm strategy that leads towards superior performance, higher creativity and innovation, retaining, staff, and better service Training involves the

development of learning and education activities designed to improve the overall

competence of an employee Therefore at its most basic, HRD increases workforce

competence, skills development and quality, motivation, commitment and

development of the organization (Omar et al., 2009) It seems that training and

development plays a very vital role in the employee as well as organizational

performance (Khan, et al., 2011) Previous studies describe that salesperson who

always train and develop sales practices can enhance salesperson capability such as consultative selling practices, ability to be an excellent negotiator, skill in probing and questioning customer needs, and possessing commendable communication skills

either verbal or nonverbal (Cron et al., 2005) Following the literature of Sujan et al (1994), learning orientation serve to develop knowledge of sale situation and utilize in effective selling behavior

Organizational policies

Organizational policies, procedure, structures, and systems decide the extent to which

employee is engaged in an organization (Anitha, 2014) More importantly,

organizationalprocedure is designed to control the activities of the organization

members (Ouchi, 1977)

Reward systems

Employee reward systems refer to programs set up by a company to reward

performance and motivate employees on individual and or group levels They are

normally considered separate from salary but may be monetary in nature or otherwise

have a cost to the company While previously considered the domain of large

companies, small businesses have also begun employing them as a tool to lure top

employees in a competitive job market as well as to increase employee performance

(Rauch, 2005) According to cognitive evaluation theory, the authors show how

commission compensation can be viewed as a sales performance contingent reward

and the extent of its use to reward performance, coupled with a sales control system,

impacts salesperson intrinsic motivation in a relationship selling environment In

essence, the sales control mechanisms modify the impact of the commission based on

whether it is perceived as controlling or informative (Mallin, & Pullins, 2009)

Possible reasons in low level of salesperson competencies could be recapitulated as

the table below:

Authors Antecedent Definition Correlation

Influen

ce

in VE

S (Ye

s or No)

Interviewees

Yes Managers

and employees

Company tradition

The culture strives to

create a climate where

Service knowledge

Successful salespeople

know all of their

product of features and

skillfully turn these

features into benefits

for their customers and

company

Yes Managers

and employees

competencies will take

some corrective action,

possibly increasing the

number of new contacts

Yes Managers

and employees

Brown et al

(1998)

Organizational climate

Company environment

Hiring more

competitive

salespeople and

fostering a more competitive

environment would

result in more effective

goal setting and better

performance

Yes Managers

and employees

(Baldauf

and

Cravens,

Sales experience

Selling proficiency

Sales experience enhances salesperson's knowledge and skills in

Yes Managers

and employees

2002) selling strategy that

lead to a better ability

to understand the customer's situation lead to increase the number of clients

(Cron et al.,

2005)

Training and development orientation

Training program

Studies describe that salesperson who always train and develop sales practices can enhance

salesperson capability

Yes Managers

and employees

(Ouchi,

1977)

Organizational policy

Company procedure

Conducting sales performance and staffs

Yes Managers

and employees (Rauch,

2005)

Reward system Compensati

on

Reward performance to motivate employees on individual and or group levels

Yes Managers

and employees

A cause and effect (C&E) diagram enables you to brainstorm and categorize the

variables that might be causing poor performance in your new process, product,

service, or solution (Silverstein, Samuel, & Decarlo, 2009) According to the

consequences and potential causes of low level of salesperson competencies, there is the initial cause and effect map below

Table 1.4: Initial cause and effect map

Low level of sale competencies

The revenue decreases (Annual report 2012, 2013,

2014)

1.5 Causes validation

The interview is chosen to justify the main cause in VES This thesis merely

concentrate on the root cause which generate to drop revenue and gross profit in the

bank The managers and employees were interviewed in the director of board and

Marketing department which manage bank operation and directly meet the customers

respectively From them, we will find out what the main cause that lead to decline the

revenue in the branch As a result, there were the following causes which most people were supposed that had an effect on profit dramatically in VES

Organizational policy

According to Lawrence and William (1995), they defined organizational performance

as the achievement of business and responsibilities from the perspective of the judging

parting Organizational performance can be looked from different areas such as

production quality, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, general reputation, financial strength, and profitability The policy of bank is judged as obvious and detail

of terms which always fix with State bank policy That is why it is difficult that the

policy and procedure change too much in VES Because the State bank policy is

updated that it lead to alter policy in VES Therefore, the customers also have many

complaints on that issue The employees explain the reason they have to approve

procedures of State bank In addition, they spent much time in order that they study

new terms After that, they implied in new rules with the customers That is reason

why the customers must wait a long time More specifically, there were 31 staffs in 53

person were asked to suppose that the complex procedure lead to decrease sales

(Table 1.9) It accounts for 58% in all interviewees (Table 1.9)

Reward system

Ugbaga (1996) states that policies will also be made on how salaries and fringe

benefits shall be taken on defaulting employees and how compensations or benefits

will be paid to retrieves More importantly, according to Sasser (1996) once the

performance standards established, they come the actual basic elevating individual

efforts and the performance of organizational units Managers must insist that

contributions and results documented and rigorously compared standards and

objectives They must be informed and ready to intervene when real performance falls

short of the performance target specified in the overall strategic plan Accordingly,

when the results and performance of a product or activity are unsatisfactory it should

be scrutinized for ways overhaul it or if circumstances demand, to phase it out or

abandon it at once It is such instances that timely opportunities may exist to shift

resources and energies into more productive endeavours Additionally, general

managers should use the time for evaluating actual performance also as a time for

regularly reviewing, and appraising whether the organization is doing well In fact,

according Ms Khanh, a management staff in Marketing Department, significant cause

that have an effect on her selling skills is the shortage of rewarding and recognition

Although, sale employees is considered as the main role for the success of a

transaction Furthermore, they work very hard but the recognition is not good as their

expectation There are 26 employees in 53 members is interviewed to think that VES

does not have enough compensation program for motivating employees in the bank (Table 1.9) It accounts for 49% of all interviewees in VES (Table 1.9)

Training and development orientation

Last but not least, training as an intended effort with proper planning to smooth the

process of the employee’s learning of competencies that are related to his her job such

as sales and trade performance (Raymond, 2010) Especially, product knowledge is a

part of sales competencies Waters S (2014) shares in his article that it becomes

challenging to effectually sell to a consumer if a salesman fails to show how a specific

product will address a consumer's needs Therefore, it plays extremely an important role in sales competencies In point of fact, there are not enough product knowledge to

consult with customers that is existing in VES According to Ms Thy, as a staff in

Marketing Department, she usually work at high pressure and overtime Nevertheless,

all the training classes are opened on weekend She and many interviewees shared that

they are not interesting to go to the class on this time They are tired and bored when

they have to study on Saturday or Sunday Though, we take part in training course but

we cannot acquire new product knowledge in our brain As a result, there are not

updating product knowledge insufficiently Especially, the interview results described

that there are 32 persons of 53 interviewees which the training program is the root

cause (Table 1.9) with the question ‘‘what is the main cause effects on low sales

competencies?’’ It leads to a shortage of product knowledge when the customers need

to be consult Overall, that is main cause which 32 employees are mentioned in the

survey It accounts for 60% of all interviewees in VES (Table 1.9) From that, they

cannot afford to get new knowledge in order to consult with customers It lead to

move customer’s transaction to another banks As a result, the profit drop in VES

Based on three causes above, the final causes and effects map appeared in the table

1.7

CHAPTER 2: ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

2.1 Alternative solutions

Depend on three causes above, the following strategies are proposed to enhance level

of sale competencies At the same time, to have an obvious attitude and objective

evaluation, we use model of Van Aken, (2007) This model includes four criteria such

as functional requirements, user requirements, boundary conditions, design

restrictions After that, we will choose the best answer for the bank

Table 1.7: The final causes and effects map

Low level of sale competencies

The revenue decreases (Annual report 2012, 2013,

2014)