Sales force competency of passenger sales and promotion department at northern region branch

LIST OF TABLESTable 1.1 Collecting methods for Primary data...12 Table 3.1 Description of require competencies...31 Table 3.2: Required ‘Fundamental knowledge’ for salesmen...33 Table 3.

NEU BUSINESS SCHOOL

GIANG THI THANH XUAN

SALES FORCE COMPETENCY OF PASSENGER SALES AND PROMOTION DEPARTMENT AT

NORTHERN REGION BRANCH

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: ASSOCIATE PROF DR TRAN THI VAN HOA

HANOI - 2013

This thesis is completed in order to fulfill the requirement from Master of BusinessAdministration (MBA) program, Business School – The National EconomicsUniversity (NEU Business School)

First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of MBA professors ofNational Economics University, who have given me a lot of valuable knowledge aswell as skills for my study and my work I would like to send my sincere thanks to

my supervisor, Associate Professor, Dr Tran Thi Van Hoa who supported andguided me so enthusiastically to complete my thesis

And, I want to send my thanks to top managers of NRB for their advices anddirections to conduct the research I also thank to my colleagues and customer whosupport me for the job as well as for my thesis They have given the data, helped me

to answer my interview and shared their experience to compete the thesis

Last but not least, thank so much for my family and all my classmates who alwayshelp and encourage me to finish this thesis

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1

ABBREVIATIONS 5

LIST OF CHARTS 7

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 RATIONALE 9

1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 9

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 10

1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 10

1.4.1 Research process: 10

1.4.2 Collecting data 11

1.4.2.1 Secondary data: 11

1.4.2.2 Primary data 11

1.4.3 Analyzing data 12

1.5 RESEARCH SCOPE 12

1.6 RESEARCH STRUCTURE 13

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON SALES COMPETENCIES 14

2.1 COMPETENCY AND SALES COMPETENCY OVERVIEW 14

2.1.1 Definition, components and analysis process of competency 14

2.1.1.1 Definition of competency 14

2.1.1.2 Competency components 15

2.1.1.3 Factors affect competency: 16

2.1.1.4 Competency assessment 18

2.2 SALES COMPETENCIES 21

2.2.1 Sales function: 21

2.2.2 Competencies for sales force: 21

CHAPTER 3: REQUIRED COMPETENCIES FORSALES FORCE AT NRB 24

3.1 INTRODUTION OF NORTHERN REGION BRANCH (NRB) 24

3.1.1 Overview of VNA and NRB 24

3.1.2 NRB structure 28

3.2 REQUIRED COMPETENCIES FOR SALES FORCE AT NRB 29

3.2.1 Required Knowledge of Salesman 33

3.2.1.2 Required company strategy awareness 34

3.2.2 Required skills of Salesmen: 34

3.2.2.1.Communication skills: 34

3.2.2.2 Presentation skills: 35

3.2.2.3 Problem solving skills: 36

3.2.2.4 Required Time management skills 36

3.2.2.5 Required Customer care skills 37

3.2.3 Required Ability of Salesmen: 37

3.2.4 Conclusion of required competencies for Salesmen at NRB 38

CHAPTER 4: ANALYZE THE CURRENT COMPETENCIES OF SALES FORCES AT NRB 39

4.1 CURRENT COMPETENCIES OF SALESMEN AT NRB 40

4.1.1 Current Fundamental Knowledge 40

4.1.2 Current company strategy awareness 41

4.1.3 Current communication skills of Salesmen 42

4.1.4 Current Presentation skills of salesmen 43

4.1.5 Current problem solving skills of salesmen 45

4.1.6 Current time management skills of salesmen 46

4.1.7 Current customer care skills of salesmen 48

4.1.8 Current performance sales of salesmen 49

4.2 CONCLUSION OF THE CURRENT COMPETENCIES OF SALES FORCE AT NRB 50

4.3 REASONS FOR THE GAP BETWEEN THE REQUIRED AND CURRENT COMPETENCIES OF SALES FORCE AT NRB 52

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS TO COMPETENCIES OF SALES FORCE AT NRB 54

5.1 THE BASIC SOLUTIONS FOR THE HR 54

5.1.1 Develop human resource strategy 54

5.1.2 Improvements of assessment criterion for Salesmen 55

5.2 SPECIFIC TRAINING SOLUTIONS FOR SALESMEN TO MEET THE REQUIRED COMPETENCIES 56

5.2.1 Training courses for salesmen 56

5.2.2 On the Job Training (OJT) for salesmen 61

5.2.3 Timing and selection of training providers 61

5.2.4 Training evaluation 61

CONCLUSION 63

REFERENCES 64

APPENDIX 65

MBA Master of Business Administration

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Collecting methods for Primary data 12

Table 3.1 Description of require competencies 31

Table 3.2: Required ‘Fundamental knowledge’ for salesmen 33

Table 3.3: Required ‘Company strategy awareness’ for salesman 34

Table 3.4: Required ‘Communication skills’ for Salesmen 35

Table 3.5: Required ‘Presentation skills’ for Salesmen 35

Table 3.6: Required ‘Problem solving’ for Salesmen 36

Table 3.7: Required ‘Time management skills’ for Salesmen 36

Table 3.8: Required ‘Customer care skills’ for Salesmen 37

Table 3.9: Required ‘Performance Sales’ for Salesmen 37

Table 4.1: Respondents of the research 39

Table 4.2: Current knowledge of Salesmen 40

Table 4.3: Current strategy awareness of Salesmen 41

Table 4.4: Current communication skills of Salesmen 42

Table 4.5: Current presentation skills of Salesmen 44

Table 4.6: Current problem solving skills of salesmen 45

Table 4.7: Current time management skills of salesmen 47

Table 4.8: Current Customer care skills of salesmen 48

Table 4.9: Current performance sales of salesmen 49

Table 5.1: Recommended training courses for Salesmen 57

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1.1: Research process 10

Chart 2.1 Competency components 15

Chart 2.2: Sales competency assessment process 20

Chart 3.1 NRB structure 28

Chart 3.2: Required competencies for the salesmen at NRB 38

Chart 4.1: Gap between required and current fundamental knowledge 41

Chart 4.2: Gap between required and current strategy awareness 42

Chart 4.3: Gap between required and current communication skills 43

Chart 4.4: Gap between required and current presentation skills 44

Chart 4.5: Gap between required and current problem solving skills 46

Chart 4.6: Gap between required and current time management skills 47

Chart 4.7: Gap between required and current Customer care skills 48

Chart 4.8: Gap between required and current performance sales of salesmen 50

Chart 4.9: Current competencies of Salesmen at NRB 51

Chart 4.10: The gap between required and current competencies 51

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Northern Region Branch (NRB) was established in 1996 It is VietnamAirlines’ (VNA) representative and coordinator of sales activities in passenger,luggage, cargo and package transportation of VNA in the northern cities andprovinces (from Ha Tinh province northward) Its growth of revenue frompassenger and cargo services has reached over 15% annually, and kept increasingover years Now, the NRB has continuously grown both in scale and in quality,risen and maintained one of the leading units in domestic regional offices in VNAsales channels, taking account of 25% total revenues of VNA’ sales network Theytake in charge of controlling sales network as well as Carrying out researches,evaluate the effectiveness of sales policies and current service standards to promotesales, improve VNA' service quality So the sales force plays a key role in NRB.Consequently, sales force competences are required as perfect as possible

In order to help NRB find out the competency of Salesmen, my thesis focus onanalyzing the current competency and give the solutions for improvingcompetencies of Salesmen More specifically, my thesis is designed to answer fourquestions below:

 Which are the requirements of competencies for sale staffs at PassengerSales and Promotion department – VNA’s NRB

 What are the current competencies of sales force at Passenger Sales andPromotion department?

 What are the gap between current sales force’s competencies andrequirement need at Passenger Sales and Promotion department

 What are solutions to improving sales force competencies?

Basing on the Theoretical framework of competency, competency model,competency assessment process, I carried a research using in-depth interviews andquestionnaire surveys to study the competencies of Salesmen at NRB

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE

Nowadays, in both domestic and global economies, selling is increasingly becomingmore vital Personal selling involves direct interaction between salespeople andcustomers It requires good interpersonal skills and training because of its highlyprofessional nature Salespeople are pre-occupied with creating value for both theirfirms their customers Sales force can build long-term exchange relationships thatbenefit both their customers and the company it represents Sales force is critical tothe sale of many goods and services, especially major commercial and industrialproducts as well as consumer durables (Dalrymple, 2004) Therefore competencyfor salesman in the company is an important issue

In fact, although the salesmen were recruited with a good profile met with theNRB’s recruitment’s requirement, when doing the real job, some of them do notsatisfy the needs of work These staff could not have enough competence to satisfythe work or have less knowledge about the selling skill, inactive attitude Anotherside, the sales volume always increases per year and the competition is fiercer.Further more, the customer’s evaluation on NRB’s sales staff every year still low, it

is about 3.8/5

From these rationales, the writer has chosen the topic “Sales force competency of

Passenger Sales and Promotion department at Northern Region Branch (NRB) – Vietnam Airlines”

1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

To match and gain the above objectives, the writer sets out some questions that need

to find the answers to solve the problem:

 Which are the requirements of competencies for sale staffs at PassengerSales and Promotion department – VNA’s NRB

 What are the current competencies of sales force at Passenger Sales andPromotion department?

 What are the gap between current sales force’s competencies andrequirement need at Passenger Sales and Promotion department

 What are solutions to improving sales force competencies?

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This research will follow those main objectives:

 To clarify the competency requirements of sales force at Passenger Sales andPromotion department

 To analyze the current sales forces competencies and then find out the gapbetween required and current competencies of sales force

 To propose the solutions to close the gap between evaluated and requiredcompetencies of sales forces at Passenger Sales and Promotion department –VNA’s NRB

1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1.4.1 Research process:

Chart 1.1: Research process

Source: Author idea

In this thesis, both secondary data and primary data are used for identifying requiredmanagerial competencies and current competencies of Sales force at NRB

Sale staff’s job analysis

Required competence for sale staffs

Current competence of sale staffs

1.4.2 Collecting data

On purpose to guarantee the quality and quantity for the research, following is themethods shall be applied for collecting data

1.4.2.1 Secondary data:

- From the previous studies which the writer searched There are some

researches on competence They focus on definitions, how to analysis thecompetence and the requirement for competencies Thus, the information inthe previous studies will be a useful data source for our research

- From NRB’s documents, reports, policies, regulations, labor agreement:

show the performance of sales staff

- Other articles on newspapers, journals, books, magazines related to competency subject.

1.4.2.2 Primary data: In this research, primary data is very important source To

guarantee the quality and quantity for the research, two methods used to collectingprimary data are: interview and questionnaires survey

Table 1.1 Collecting methods for Primary data

Collectin

g

Methods Instruments Samplin g

Respondent /Interviewe e

Approach ways information Type of

In-dept

Interview Guidelines 3

- 01 Director of NRB

- 01 Generalmanager of Sales and Promotion Department

- 01 Sales Manager of Sales and Promotion Department

- Meeting directly key managers in NRB

- Giving questions based

on list of prepared questions

- Collecting opinions and comments

- Required competencies for salesmen

- Their evaluation ofsale staff

competency

Survey Questionnaires 130

30 current sales staffs

of Sales and Promotion Department

Questionnaires will be sent to each staff

- Their opinions about themselves as well as their

colleagues’

competencies

100 customers (60 agencies, 25corporate accounts and 15 tour operations)

Questionnaires will be sent to customers who are agencies, tour operations,corporate account

- Customers’

opinion about sales force competencies and their demand

1.4.3 Analyzing data

The thesis will use the following method: Summary, Graphs or Charts, excel andtextual write up

1.5 RESEARCH SCOPE

Object: The thesis focus on competency of sales force in NRB - VNA

Scale: in the Northern, in 2013

Time:

• Secondary data: 2 consecutive years 2011 – 2012

• Primary data: will be collected via questionnaires and face to faceinterview from April to June, 2013

Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework on competency

In this chapter, the reader can see briefly selected theories about competency whichare used as a background for the research and competency models for the research

Chapter 3: Analyze the required competencies of sales force at NRB

This chapter presents the general information about NRB and requirementscompetencies for sales force It also provides methodology to get the requirementfrom top managers, including job analysis, in-depth interview and questionnaires

Chapter 4: Analyze the current competencies of sales force at NRB

In this chapter, the result assessment on current competencies of the sales force isfound out The methodology is also described to help the reader understand moreclearly about the current competencies of sales force at NRB

Chapter 5: Recommended solutions to improve sales force’s competencies at NRB

This chapter gives author’s recommendations about how to bridge the gaps betweenrequired and current competencies of sales force at NRB

References: This part names books, magazines; articles…were referred for the

research

Appendix: This part presents questionnaires used in the research.

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON SALES COMPETENCIES

2.1 COMPETENCY AND SALES COMPETENCY OVERVIEW

2.1.1 Definition, components and analysis process of competency

And from there, there are many definitions were stated by famous authors andschool Each of definitions is general or rather specific meanings depend on thecontext and the objective of their research So, people might get confused with thesedifferent definitions And actually, people can recognize by themselves and statetheir own definition about competency

As time passed by it has arisen the necessary for the brief and clear definition ofcompetency, these days a definition that we usually use says:

“Competency is the standard requirement for an individual to properly perform aspecific job It encompasses a combination of knowledge, skills and behaviorsutilized to improve performance.”

Nowadays, the term “competency” is then used widely for organization, called

“organizational competency” It is not simply add single competency of all peopleinside the organization It is a result of interaction of all the single competenciesinside the organization, so it could be weaker or much stronger than the result ofsimply adding single competencies inside the organization

2.1.1.2 Competency components

To identify the competency components, I use the KSA model KSA (Knowledge,Skills and Attitude) is a competency model used to recruit and retain qualifiedindividuals for successful job performance

Chart 2.1 Competency components

Sources: Author’s consolidation

The components of KSA:

 Knowledge:

Knowledge is a body of information needed to perform a task relations andnegotiation, and personnel information systems Knowledge is gained throughlearning or experiencing Knowledge includes understanding about jobs It refers

to a context of information relevant to job performance such as beforeperforming a job we have to have knowledge of policies and procedures.(Source: www.businessdictionary.com)

Knowledge is also process of accumulation from learning, trainings, observing,working and studying forms others Knowledge is affected by some elementslike levels of studying, working experience and personal orientation Knowledgeacquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning,communication, association and reasoning

In an organizational context, knowledge is the sum of what is known and resides

in the intelligence and the competence of people In recent years, knowledge hascome to be recognized as a factor of production in its own right and distinctform labor

 Skills:

Skills are the learned ability to carry out pre-determined results often with theminimum outlay of time, energy, or both In other words, skill is the abilitiesthat one possesses Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills In the domain of work, some general skills would include timemanagement, teamwork and leadership, self motivation and others, whereasdomain-specific skills would be useful only for a certain job (Source:www.businessdictionary.com)

People need a broad range of skills in order to contribute to a modern economy

A joint ASTD and U.S Department of Labor study showed that throughtechnology, the workplace is changing, and identified 16 basic skills thatemployees must have to be able to change with it

 Attitude:

“Attitude” is a predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negativelytowards a certain idea, object, person, or situation Attitude influences anindividual's choice of action, and responses to challenges, incentives, andrewards (together called stimuli) Four major components of attitude are (1)Affective: emotions or feelings (2) Cognitive: belief or opinions heldconsciously (3) Cognitive: inclination for action (4) Evaluative: positive ornegative response to stimuli (Source: www.businessdictionary.com)

Attitudes are positive, negative or neutral views of an “attitude object” i.e aperson, behavior or event People can also be “ambivalent” towards a target,meaning that they simultaneously possess a positive and a negative bias towardsthe attitude in question

2.1.1.3 Factors affect competency:

Competencies of employees are not the same during the time There are somefactors which directly or indirectly influence the competency

 Accurate Performance Assessment:

The performance of a company depends not on the human asset but the rightmatch of competencies and their level for performance requirements Toimprove performance, companies must use reliable techniques and identify theright competencies and their levels Additional, employees need and should have

an accurate performance assessment to have enough motivation, to know howthey meet the position requirements, and help them figure out what they areneeded to perform better This can make employees learn, change, and makemore progress to work and that means their competencies are improved.Nevertheless, if an employee has an accurate performance review but have nomotivation it would become worse They would not make any efforts to workbetter even they would work worse due to their unsatisfactory

 Training strategy:

Training is the process of helping people learn the materials and skills thecompany thinks is important Through training, salespeople are introduced to theoverall goals of the organization, the procedures used to accomplish specifictasks, and the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in selling thecompany’s products For the veteran salespeople, through the training process

they can learn new information and can regenerate their selling skills for newproducts and changing environments (Sales and sales management, Ralph W.Jackson – Robert D.Hisrich) In general, training helps salespeople developspecific knowledge as well as skills that enable them to succeed in their currentjob and develop for the future

2.1.1.4 Competency assessment

 Competency model

Job – base Model find out needs competencies based on job descriptionavailable for every position, solution and strategy to develop competencies tosuitable with the job description The approach may seem to focus more on theactual job output In other words, this approach focuses on the job, no on theindividual in that job The standard approach focuses heavily on the outcome of

a work process Most of the necessary competency is identified through afunctional analysis Thi model has significantly contributed to develop and makeclearer about Competency

 Competencies assessment

There are four methods to evaluate the salespeople’s as follows:

- Self Competency Assessment:

This method allows salespeople to understand thoroughly about their strong orweak points The salespeople will evaluate themselves base on the commoncompetencies criteria By doing this, it can encourage the salespeople to takeresponsibilities for their own performance It is only used as an extra part ofcompetency assessment because the candidates tend to over-estimate theirstrengths and abilities and that sometimes does not make any sense to themanagers

- Supervisor’s or manager’s Competency Assessment:

This allows the supervisor or managers to give their comment and express theirsatisfactions about the jobs, the results and the interaction between them andsalespeople This method is save time and exact evaluation because themanagers deeply understand and experiences with their salesman Theircomments sometimes can be used as requirements for salesman However, there

are also some disadvantages of this method such as emotional factor influence,the misunderstanding between managers and salesman about the purpose,strategy or working process.

- Customer Competency Assessment:

Salesman have to perform and contact with their customer daily to make a deal,

to present their selling knowledge for any customer’s requirement So thecustomer will evaluate the competency of salesman by their feeling Theadvantages of this method are expressing the requirement of customer to thecompany as well as to the experience of the salesman The disadvantages of thismethod are that it need time to collect assessments’ from customer and thequality of the evaluation is influenced by customer’s feeling

- The 360 degree Competency Assessment:

The 360 Degree Feedback is a system or process in which employees receiveconfidential, anonymous feedback from the people who work around them Thistypically includes the employee's manager, peers, and direct reports A mixture

of about eight to twelve people fill out an anonymous online feedback form thatasks questions covering a broad range of workplace competencies The feedbackforms include questions that are measured on a rating scale and also ask raters toprovide written comments The person receiving feedback also fills out a self-rating survey that includes the same survey questions that others receive in theirforms

The advantage of this method is that peers and directly reports have moreregular contact than manager do, self-ratings force employees to focus on what

is requirement in the job Besides, each person has a unique perspective andgreater reliability in the feedback result because of the increased number ofratings However, the disadvantage of this method is time consuming and morecomplicate than other method

In my thesis, I will choose the 360 degree feedback method to evaluatecompetencies of salesmen in NRB

 Competency assessment process

The assessment process could be divided into 4 steps as below:

Step 1 Create a position profile: describe “Sales force” in term of attitudes,

knowledge and skills most successfully performance and the proficiency levelrequired This step will show the necessary competences for salesmen to completetheir works basing on job analysis and depth interview director of NRB andmanagers of Sales and Promotion Dept

Step 2 Create a person profile: rate current level of proficiency on competencies,

knowledge and skill to identify in the position profile The questionnaire will bedesigned to find out the current rate of competences of salesmen basing onrequirement of competences from Step 1 The sales force, managers and customersare chosen to investigate

Step 3: Identify distance: identify any current competencies, which component of

competency is lower than requirements Based on survey results of the second step,these results will processed by SPSS, Excel application to find rate of assessment ofeach object about sales force’s current competences At the same time, consideringdistance from current competency to required competency

Step 4: Develop a learning plan identify developmental activities to reduce the gap

between the required level and the current level of those competences How canimprove competencies to match with the requirements? Solutions will be suggested

in order to reduce the gap of competencies of salesmen It is important objective ofthis thesis

Chart 2.2: Sales competency assessment process

Source: Author’s idea illustration

Step 1: Create a

position profile

Step 2: Create

a person profile

Step 3:

Identify the distance

Step 4:

Develop a learning plan identifydevelopment

2.2 SALES COMPETENCIES

2.2.1 Sales function:

- Agrees with his or her field sales manager the individual customer and territoryobjectives, targets and programs, breaking down the larger territory target byproduct and customer, for each measured time period or journey cycle

- Agrees additional business development objectives for the territory or forindividual customers to encourage growth beyond the normal level expected

- Develops a professional rapport and business relationship with all buyers andinfluential contracts

- Develops his or her professional selling skills, not just relying on relationshipselling

- Maintains planned call coverage

(Sales management, Chris J Noonan)

2.2.2 Competencies for sales force:

The sales force plays an importance role to sales and profits of a company Thesalesperson’s actions and behavior can significantly enhance or detract from thecompany’s image There are some key characteristics should need to have withsuccessful sales people base on KSA model as bellows (Source: Sales and salesmanagement, Ralph W.Jackson – Robert D.Hisrich)

 Knowledge: the major types of know ledge most often mentioned as needed

by salespeople are:

- Product knowledge: pricing structure, history of the product, how touse the product, product distribution and delivery…

- Customer knowledge;

- Knowledge of the industry;

- Knowledge of the competition;

- Knowledge of the company

Of these, the first two are generally considered the most important

Training is the way to provide new hires the foundation of information onwhich they can build However, if the acquisition of knowledge stops there,

the salesperson will soon become outdated No one can expect to possess allthe knowledge of information necessary for all situations, so the salespeopleshould garner information when needed They need to know where to getthe necessary information Furthermore, they must be able to examineinformation sources critically, glean pertinent material form them, and then

be able to assimilate and organize that material

 Skills:

There are some most commonly skills are:

- Communication skills: Communication is a two-way street involvingboth listening and talking Communication allows the salesperson tounderstand the needs of the customer, to find out the problems, to helpthe customer develop the right solution for a problem, and to persuadethe customer that the solution will work Good communication canestablish the trust relationship between the salesperson and customerthat is essential

- Time management skills: This skill is the ability to make an accurate

assessment of time requirements and prioritize one’s daily activities.Time management skills are critical for two reasons The typicalsalesperson spends only about one third of the time in face-to-faceselling Anything the person can do to spend more time with thecustomer should increase sales The better salespeople allocate theirtime so that they can spend most of it with that 20 percent of customerwho give 80 percent of sales come However, successful salespeople

do not forsake those smaller customers because they represent futureearning potential

 Attitude:

Some attitudes are essential and are the basis of a successful sales career:

- Empathy: the ability to understand a situation from another person’sperspective Empathy enhances a person’s ability to make predictionsabout others and helps to create a supportive/confirming atmosphere.The former aspect of empathy enables the salesperson to anticipateand prepare for customer actions

- Confidence: Sales people must be confident about their abilities andabout the product or services that they sell Lack of confidence onlymanages to instill doubts in the mind of the prospects Also, salespeople are bound to face rejections during the course of their workand it is their confidence that helps them to take rejections in theirstride and bounce back with enthusiasm

- Determined: Persistence and determination need to be the secondnature of a sales person There are innumerable obstacles that comealong and it is the determined person who refuses to accept defeat andgoes on to attain what he wants He should be a go-getter, neverlosing sight of the targets for the month and the goal that he hasplanned for himself

- Visionary: Successful sales people value the relationship withcustomers and maintain a long-term relationship with them throughregular follow-ups They understand the bigger picture and view eachsale as a stepping stone towards earning the goodwill of theircustomers who could provide valuable referrals to future prospects.They don’t think of today and just one sale, but plan on a long-termbasis Friendly: Sales people need to have a personality that isamicable so that people are comfortable talking to them They ask theright questions to understand the business situation of their customersand their buying needs They put their prospects at ease and listen totheir requirements and suitably amend their sales speech to make itmore relevant for their prospects

- Friendly: Sales people need to have a personality that is amicable sothat people are comfortable talking to them They ask the rightquestions to understand the business situation of their customers andtheir buying needs They put their prospects at ease and listen to theirrequirements and suitably amend their sales speech to make it morerelevant for their prospects

CHAPTER 3 REQUIRED COMPETENCIES FORSALES FORCE AT NRB

3.1 INTRODUTION OF NORTHERN REGION BRANCH (NRB)

3.1.1 Overview of VNA and NRB

The history of VNA dates back to January 1956 when the Vietnam Civil AviationDepartment was established by the Government, marking the birth of the civilaviation industry in Vietnam At that time, the fleet was small with only five aircraft

of IL-14, AN-2, Aero-45… which started to serve domestic flights in September1956

April 1993 was a major turning point when VNA was officially established as thecountry’s national flag carrier On the 27th May 1996, VNA Corporation was bornwith the gathering of 20 aviation enterprises and the airline itself as the corebusiness

On 20th October 2002, VNA introduced the new logo of the Golden Lotus andcorporate identity that symbolized its dramatic progress towards becoming a world-class airline The launch represented a complete repositioning and brand strategy ofVNA, coupled with significant improvements in its infrastructure, operations andfleet

The delivery of its first own “state-of-the-art” B777 in 2003 also marked a truerevolution in the airline’s fleet modernization Three years later, VNA became one

of the most modern fleets in the region

For 15 years of development with an average annual growth rate of over 10 percent(except 1997 when the Asian financial crisis broke out), the national flag carrier hasmarked an obvious advance to become a major competitor in the Asian aviationmarket, owning a modern fleet of Airbus and Boeing planes flown by well trainedprofessionals Beginning with non - regular services between two domesticdestinations, today VNA expands its network to 20 cities throughout the countryand 26 international destinations in the USA, Europe, Australia and Asia

In 2006, after being awarded the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) certificate,

a strict safety standard set by Aviation Quality Services (AQS), VNA joined the

International Air Transport Association (IATA) as an official member, affirming itsinternational standard.

In June 2010, VNA officially joined Skyteam, the world’s second largest globalairline alliance, affirming the carrier’s new position on the global aviation map andthe strategic partner of the alliance in Southeast Asia region as well as itsinternational standard services

Positioning its internationally recognized brand as a young and modern carrier,VNA excelled further when signing large purchase orders of world’s most modern,environment-friendly aircraft, such as Boeing B787 and Airbus A350-900 Theairline is expected to reach 110 and 160 modern aircraft in 2015 and 2020,respectively, making solid steps integrating into the global aviation industry as atruly regional carrier of choice, which is fully ingrained with Vietnamese traditionalculture

Recently, VNA has invested heavily in improving the quality of service throughselling electronic ticketing, online check – in, online booking etc The objective ofthe company is to become the 4 star qualified airlines and until 2020, is one of the

10 most popular airlines in Asia in term of service quality In Southeast Asia, VNA

is striving for the second largest in the area in 2020

To realize this goal, in addition to improving the quality, expanding the integratedtechnical infrastructure for aviation, ensuring the security and safety, employing andtraining the workforce to meet the international requirements, the Corporationcontinues to implement the project to modernize the fleet By 2010, the fleet willreach 110 units and by 2020 it is expected that VNA will have 160 units includingmodern Boeing 787, Airbus A350, A321, expanding route network to 65destinations around the world Currently, Vietnam Airlines owns a fleet of 70aircraft with an average of 6.5 years operation age. Young modern fleet is anadvantage of VNA

(Source: w.w.wvietnamairlines.com)

The NRB was established in 1996 It is VNA’s representative and coordinator ofsales activities in passenger, luggage, cargo and package transportation of VNA inthe northern cities and provinces (from Ha Tinh province northward)

After more than 15 years of establishment and development, the NRB hascontributed enormously to VNA’s success At the end of March 2011, it has aworkforce of 450 employees serving over 300 organizational customers Its growth

of revenue from passenger and cargo services has reached over 15% annually, andkept increasing over years Now, the NRB has continuously grown both in scale and

in quality, risen and maintained one of the leading units in domestic regional offices

in VNA sales channels, taking account of 25% total revenues of VNA’ salesnetwork NRB on behalf of the VNA Corporation controls the sales network of over

100 sales agents, 33 tour operators and 8 direct ticketing offices in northern areas NRB has some following functions and duties:

o Setting up and deploy the Office's sales plans, commercial policies on the basis of customer orientation, and VNA' business plan through direct sales channels, appointed sales agents and forwarders in the North.

o Carrying out researches, evaluate the effectiveness of sales policies and current service standards to promote sales, improve VNA' service quality.

o Monitoring cargo transportation service in Noi Bai International Airport, Gia Lam and My Dinh warehouses.

o Monitoring ground and in-flight services for all VNA' flights operating at Cat Bi, Vinh and Dien Bien airports.

o Representing VNA in establishing and maintaining relations with local authorities, bodies and organizations in the North of Vietnam

NRB’s objectives and orientations as bellows:

o Achieve average annual growth of 20%-25% in passenger revenue and 20% in cargo revenue Stay firmly among top units in the sales division of the Corporation.

o Continue building and developing the “Proactive Sales Culture”, crate action plans and solutions with the customer orientation.

o Continue to streamline regulations Policies for laborers Increase the effectiveness of recruitment, training and human resources development Promote investment, application of information technologies, through which to increase labor productivity and customer service quality.

o Endeavor to be awarded the first labor medal in 2015

With reaching the revenue in 201 at more than 9500 billion VND, NRB is one ofthe most important parts in sales network of VNA, taking account nearly 25% totalrevenue of VNA In reality, NRB is still a dependent unit in VNA’s organizationstructure It means that most of activities in NRB will be under VNA’s control

NRB’s sales network is divided into two divisions: first is sales agent network withtraditional agents and web portal agents and second is booking office At recenttime, NRB’s sales network takes about 20% total agent that provides air tickets in

the northern market (Ha Tinh northward) in term of the number of agents Throughthe sales network, NRB serves customers based on their characteristics such ascorporate account, study, labor and tourist This will help NRB to customize itspolicies that fit to each type of customer’s needs.

While the functional departments in VNA’s headquarter take in charge ofcontrolling and managing whole VNA’s sales network through issuing andperforming macro policies and orders, NRB, on behalf of VNA, is responsible toimplement this kind of policies in the area that NRB in charge or do the missionsthat VNA’s headquarter authorizes NRB to do

3.1.2 NRB structure

Chart 3.1 NRB structure

Vietnam Airlines’ BOM and BOD

Region Branches (Northern) Functional Depts

(Planning and Developing; Sales &

Marketing Group Sales Group Pricing and Revenue

Management Group

3.2 REQUIRED COMPETENCIES FOR SALES FORCE AT NRB

* Sales forces’ job analysis at NRB:

The Sales Promotion department has some following functions:

o Carries out research, collects necessary data and information for theanalysis and evaluation of passenger transportation market, then sets upand implements marketing plans, commercial policies to supportpassenger services in the North of Vietnam

o Carries out marketing, promotion and sales support activities to attractnew customers to Vietnam Airlines

o Manages and evaluates the operating effectiveness of appointed travelagents, tour operators and other intermediate partners, signs contracts,and develops the passenger sales network in the northern market

The salesmen in this department have following main responsibilities:

o Notify/update the agent network and customers about Vietnam Airlines’policies, product and other information; suggest, modify sales policies foreach market segment or customer; cooperate with other divisions,colleagues to carry out sales promotion activities

o Maintain relationship with other airlines, explain VN’s policies tocustomers and handles their claims. 

o Collect market information as input for market analysis and forecastactivities of the department Find out/report customers’ travel pattern andvolume

o Collect, analyze and generalize market information including operations,agent network, price, etc of other airlines for VN to have properresponses and adjustments such as approving adhoc fare, changingnormal price, etc

o Co-operate with related divisions (telephone sales, OCC, SCC) tosupport/serve customers in cases of unwanted/emergency situations.Ensure the efficiency of revenue commitment policies for the assignedmarket segment

* Overview about the required competencies:

In order to find out the required competency for sales force in passenger field atNRB, I will make the interview to top manager as well as the subordinates

Before interviewing, I prepare a draft list of questions about required competenciesfor sales force The questions include some details such as characteristic ofperformance of salesman, working characteristic, working requirements and traits oftask and future planning of company… All of these were the opening questions.They can help the managers give their ideas and demands to complete the answersfor each question

And after interviewing three managers about required competencies for salesman, Iasked them to illustrate their ideas by using 5-mark scale to reflect how importantthe competency is and how necessary the salesman must have 5-mark scale forassessing competencies as bellows:

- Extremely good (5): Posses an expert competence in working

- Good (4): Can do job professionally and independently

- Fine (3): Can do job skillfully by applying most of requiredknowledge and skills

- Bad (2): Can apply only basis knowledge and skill to the job

- Very bad (1): Can demonstrate a litter or none of required knowledgeand skill to the job

Then I put them into Excel and calculate the final result The requirements frommanager to salesman are quite nearly absolute

Besides, the managers are willing to help me and answer questions kindly, clearlyand intensively They gave me much information about company’s strategy as well

as policies about HR They also suggested me some points that helped me completethe list of required competencies

After finishing job analysis and interview, I summarized the list of neededcompetencies of salesman as following:

Table 3.1 Description of require competencies

FIELD COMPETENCIES DISCRIPTION

KNOWLEDGE

Fundamental Knowledge

Knowledge of trade and economyKnowledge of sales and sales managementKnowledge of the company

Knowledge of the civil aviation industry(competition, operation characteristics)Knowledge of the customers’requirements

Company strategy awareness

Has clear goals to reach company strategyand staff’s target as well as to perform thepersonal action

Has a wide spread of contacts throughoutthe business and uses them to stay in touchwith developments and requirementsacross the business

SKILLS

Communications Skills

Present clearly information, analysis, ideas

in writingSpeak clearly, convey full information andeasy to understand to listeners

Speaking and writing skill in Englishwhen communication with foreignpartners

Listen and provide feedback promptlyShare and exchange information and ideaswith others

Presentation Skills

Convey information by oral/speaking,gestures, as well as face expressionpolitely and clearly in front of the crowdsCreate logical presentations, and answerflexibly questions raised by listeners

Argue, persuade and orient listenerstoward new perceptions, attitudes to reachthe purposes

Problem solving Use logical way to make decision or find

solution for problem that finally achieve

desired goalsUse well-thought-out approaches to solvedifficulties, persistent problems

Effectively contribute to group problemsolving

Time management

Skills

Implement a task following stated/givenschedule Rearrange the order of steps tocarry out/implement a task

Plan, arrange the priority order of tasks toreach the given/pre-stated results

Continuously/seamlessly improve timemanagement to reach the given goal/targetthe most efficiently

Customer care Skills

Communicate politely and friendly withcustomers

Find out, understand and satisfy currentneeds of customers

Direct/orient customers’ needs, handleefficiently and satisfactory customers’claims

ATTITUDE Performance sales

Understand a situation from customer’sperspective

Confident about their abilities and aboutthe product or services that they sell Determined mind to refuse to acceptdefeat and goes on to attain

Visionary to value the relationship withcustomers and maintain a long-termrelationship

Be friendly so that people are comfortabletalking to them

3.2.1 Required Knowledge of Salesman

Almost Top managers emphasized that knowledge is always needed in all works.For the salesman, the knowledge of trade, economy as well as sales is veryimportant Besides, they also have to know clearly about the NRB such as the mainactivity of the company, the distribution system and the key function of theirdepartment… On the other hand, working in the aviation industry, the salesmenhave to learn the specified knowledge of this field such as airlines marketing,reservation and ticketing…All of these knowledge help the salesman do their jobseffectively and better

3.2.1.1 Required Fundamental knowledge

According to the Top managers, to complete their jobs, the salesmen must havebasis knowledge as follows:

 General knowledge of trade and economy

 Knowledge of sales and sales management

 Knowledge of the company

 Knowledge of the civil aviation industry (competition, operationcharacteristics)

 Knowledge of the customers’ requirements

Table 3.2: Required ‘Fundamental knowledge’ for salesmen

l 4.30

Knowledge of the civil aviation industry (competition, operation

Source: Author’s consolidation from the research