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

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY NEU BUSINESS SCHOOL GIANG THI THANH XUAN SALES FORCE COMPETENCY OF PASSENGER SALES AND PROMOTION DEP[.]

INTRODUCTION

RATIONALE

Nowadays, in both domestic and global economies, selling is increasingly becoming more vital Personal selling involves direct interaction between salespeople and customers It requires good interpersonal skills and training because of its highly professional nature Salespeople are pre-occupied with creating value for both their firms their customers Sales force can build long-term exchange relationships that benefit both their customers and the company it represents Sales force is critical to the sale of many goods and services, especially major commercial and industrial products as well as consumer durables (Dalrymple, 2004) Therefore competency for salesman in the company is an important issue.

In fact, although the salesmen were recruited with a good profile met with the NRB’s recruitment’s requirement, when doing the real job, some of them do not satisfy the needs of work These staff could not have enough competence to satisfy the work or have less knowledge about the selling skill, inactive attitude Another side, 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 ”.

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 Passenger Sales 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 and requirement need at Passenger Sales and Promotion department

 What are solutions to improving sales force competencies?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This research will follow those main objectives:

 To clarify the competency requirements of sales force at Passenger Sales and Promotion department.

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

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

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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

Required competence for sale staffs

Current competence of sale staffs

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

- From the previous studies which the writer searched There are some researches on competence They focus on definitions, how to analysis the competence and the requirement for competencies Thus, the information in the 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 collecting primary data are: interview and questionnaires survey

Table 1.1 Collecting methods for Primary data

- 01 General manager 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

- Their evaluation of sale staff competency

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

(60 agencies, 25 corporate 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

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

RESEARCH SCOPE

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

Scale: in the Northern, in 2013

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

RESEARCH STRUCTURE

This part gives brief information about researching purpose, findings and conclusion of the thesis as well as an overview of the research.

This chapter gives the reasons why the thesis focuses on the competencies of the sales force at NRB Then it clarifies objectives of the thesis, and main question need to be addressed Research methodology will help readers understand the whole researching process.

Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework on competency

In this chapter, the reader can see briefly selected theories about competency which are 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 requirements competencies for sales force It also provides methodology to get the requirement from 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 is found out The methodology is also described to help the reader understand more clearly 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 between required 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.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON SALES COMPETENCIES

COMPETENCY AND SALES COMPETENCY OVERVIEW

2.1.1 Definition, components and analysis process of competency

As Wikipedia source, the term "competence" first appeared in an article authored by R.W White in 1959 as a concept for performance motivation Later, in 1970, Craig

C Lundberg defined the concept in "Planning the Executive Development Program" The term gained traction when in 1973, David McClelland, Ph.D wrote a seminal paper entitled, "Testing for Competence Rather Than for Intelligence" It has since been popularized by one-time fellow McBer & Company (Currently the

"Hay Group") colleague Richard Boyatzis and many others, such as T.F Gilbert

(1978) who used the concept in relationship to performance improvement Its use varies widely, which leads to considerable misunderstanding However, till 1990s when Furham clarify it by giving an explanation: “The term competence is new and fashionable, but the concept is old Psychologists interested in personality and individual differences, organizational behaviors and psychometrics have long debated these questions of personality traits, intelligence and other abilities”

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

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

“Competency is the standard requirement for an individual to properly perform a specific job It encompasses a combination of knowledge, skills and behaviors utilized 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 people inside the organization It is a result of interaction of all the single competencies inside the organization, so it could be weaker or much stronger than the result of simply adding single competencies inside the organization.

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

Knowledge is a body of information needed to perform a task relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems Knowledge is gained through learning or experiencing Knowledge includes understanding about jobs It refers to a context of information relevant to job performance such as before performing 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 elements like levels of studying, working experience and personal orientation Knowledge acquisition 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 has come to be recognized as a factor of production in its own right and distinct form labor.

Skills are the learned ability to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both In other words, skill is the abilities that one possesses Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain- specific skills In the domain of work, some general skills would include time management, teamwork and leadership, self motivation and others, whereas domain-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 through technology, the workplace is changing, and identified 16 basic skills that employees must have to be able to change with it.

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

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

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

Motivation is the process of getting people to work towards achievement of an objective From various theories, motivation could be rooted in the basic needs of a person which include physical and mental needs, for example, pleasure, satisfied, eating, playing, time self-organizing… Most of employees want to make effort to have motivation that also means they want to get more things that they need As Chris J Noonan in “Sales Management” book, salespeople need constant motivation to maintain performance and productivity to satisfactory levels, and to present challenges that encourage them to raise their performance and productivity to greater than satisfactory levels by offering way that address the personal needs of each Therefore, it is clear that motivation plays a direct role to affect salespeople’ performance, and by doing this, it can affect their competency.

The performance of a company depends not on the human asset but the right match of competencies and their level for performance requirements To improve performance, companies must use reliable techniques and identify the right competencies and their levels Additional, employees need and should have an accurate performance assessment to have enough motivation, to know how they meet the position requirements, and help them figure out what they are needed to perform better This can make employees learn, change, and make more progress to work and that means their competencies are improved. Nevertheless, if an employee has an accurate performance review but have no motivation it would become worse They would not make any efforts to work better even they would work worse due to their unsatisfactory.

Training is the process of helping people learn the materials and skills the company thinks is important Through training, salespeople are introduced to the overall goals of the organization, the procedures used to accomplish specific tasks, and the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in selling the company’s products For the veteran salespeople, through the training process they can learn new information and can regenerate their selling skills for new products and changing environments (Sales and sales management, Ralph W. Jackson – Robert D.Hisrich) In general, training helps salespeople develop specific knowledge as well as skills that enable them to succeed in their current job and develop for the future

Job – base Model find out needs competencies based on job description available for every position, solution and strategy to develop competencies to suitable with the job description The approach may seem to focus more on the actual job output In other words, this approach focuses on the job, no on the individual in that job The standard approach focuses heavily on the outcome of a work process Most of the necessary competency is identified through a functional analysis Thi model has significantly contributed to develop and make clearer about Competency.

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

SALES COMPETENCIES

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

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

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

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

The sales force plays an importance role to sales and profits of a company The salesperson’s actions and behavior can significantly enhance or detract from the company’s image There are some key characteristics should need to have with successful sales people base on KSA model as bellows (Source: Sales and sales management, 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 to use the product, product distribution and delivery…

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

Training is the way to provide new hires the foundation of information on which they can build However, if the acquisition of knowledge stops there, the salesperson will soon become outdated No one can expect to possess all the knowledge of information necessary for all situations, so the salespeople should garner information when needed They need to know where to get the necessary information Furthermore, they must be able to examine information sources critically, glean pertinent material form them, and then be able to assimilate and organize that material.

There are some most commonly skills are:

- Communication skills: Communication is a two-way street involving both listening and talking Communication allows the salesperson to understand the needs of the customer, to find out the problems, to help the customer develop the right solution for a problem, and to persuade the customer that the solution will work Good communication can establish the trust relationship between the salesperson and customer that 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 typical salesperson spends only about one third of the time in face-to-face selling Anything the person can do to spend more time with the customer should increase sales The better salespeople allocate their time so that they can spend most of it with that 20 percent of customer who give 80 percent of sales come However, successful salespeople do not forsake those smaller customers because they represent future earning potential

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

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

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

- Determined: Persistence and determination need to be the second nature of a sales person There are innumerable obstacles that come along and it is the determined person who refuses to accept defeat and goes on to attain what he wants He should be a go-getter, never losing sight of the targets for the month and the goal that he has planned for himself

- Visionary: Successful sales people value the relationship with customers and maintain a long-term relationship with them through regular follow-ups They understand the bigger picture and view each sale as a stepping stone towards earning the goodwill of their customers who could provide valuable referrals to future prospects. They don’t think of today and just one sale, but plan on a long-term basis Friendly: Sales people need to have a personality that is amicable so that people are comfortable talking to them They ask the right questions to understand the business situation of their customers and their buying needs They put their prospects at ease and listen to their requirements and suitably amend their sales speech to make it more relevant for their prospects

- Friendly: Sales people need to have a personality that is amicable so that people are comfortable talking to them They ask the right questions to understand the business situation of their customers and their buying needs They put their prospects at ease and listen to their requirements and suitably amend their sales speech to make it more relevant for their prospects

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES FORSALES FORCE AT NRB

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 Aviation Department was established by the Government, marking the birth of the civil aviation 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 September 1956.

April 1993 was a major turning point when VNA was officially established as the country’s national flag carrier On the 27th May 1996, VNA Corporation was born with the gathering of 20 aviation enterprises and the airline itself as the core business.

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

The delivery of its first own “state-of-the-art” B777 in 2003 also marked a true revolution 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 has marked an obvious advance to become a major competitor in the Asian aviation market, owning a modern fleet of Airbus and Boeing planes flown by well trained professionals Beginning with non - regular services between two domestic destinations, today VNA expands its network to 20 cities throughout the country and 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 its international standard.

In June 2010, VNA officially joined Skyteam, the world’s second largest global airline alliance, affirming the carrier’s new position on the global aviation map and the strategic partner of the alliance in Southeast Asia region as well as its international 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 The airline is expected to reach 110 and 160 modern aircraft in 2015 and 2020, respectively, making solid steps integrating into the global aviation industry as a truly regional carrier of choice, which is fully ingrained with Vietnamese traditional culture.

Recently, VNA has invested heavily in improving the quality of service through selling electronic ticketing, online check – in, online booking etc The objective of the 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 integrated technical infrastructure for aviation, ensuring the security and safety, employing and training the workforce to meet the international requirements, the Corporation continues to implement the project to modernize the fleet By 2010, the fleet will reach 110 units and by 2020 it is expected that VNA will have 160 units including modern Boeing 787, Airbus A350, A321, expanding route network to 65 destinations around the world Currently, Vietnam Airlines owns a fleet of 70 aircraft with an average of 6.5 years operation age Young modern fleet is an advantage of VNA.

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

After more than 15 years of establishment and development, the NRB has contributed enormously to VNA’s success At the end of March 2011, it has a workforce of 450 employees serving over 300 organizational customers Its growth of revenue from passenger and cargo services has reached over 15% annually, and kept 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’ sales network 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 of the most important parts in sales network of VNA, taking account nearly 25% total revenue of VNA In reality, NRB is still a dependent unit in VNA’s organization structure 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 with traditional agents and web portal agents and second is booking office At recent time, 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 Through the sales network, NRB serves customers based on their characteristics such as corporate account, study, labor and tourist This will help NRB to customize its policies that fit to each type of customer’s needs.

ANALYZE THE CURRENT COMPETENCIES OF SALES

CURRENT COMPETENCIES OF SALESMEN AT NRB

From the list of required competencies as mentioned in the previous chapter, I want to review them here for the easier reading and consulting.

The result of questionnaire survey and the interview shows the gaps between required and current fundamental knowledge The required fundamental knowledge is 4.3 meanwhile the current mark get only 3.54.

Table 4.2: Current knowledge of Salesmen

Knowledge of trade and economy 3.6 3.8 3.5 3.63

Knowledge of sales and sales management 3.3 3.4 3.0 3.33

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

Knowledge of the customers’ requirements 3.6 3.8 3.5 3.63

Basing on the chart, we can see that the knowledge of sales and sales management have largest gap between the requirement and the current So the manager should care about this matter.

Chart 4.1: Gap between required and current fundamental knowledge

Current company strategy awareness is required because the salesmen need have the good insight into corporation’s strategies and objectives, so that they can find out what will be the best ways to implement the assigned works

Table 4.3: Current strategy awareness of Salesmen

Top Manager s Salesmen Customer Average

Have a wide spread of contacts 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.0

The gap between the required and current strategy awareness is not too large (only0.17 point) It shows that the salesmen know clearly the corporation’s strategies and objectives quite well in work.

Chart 4.2: Gap between required and current strategy awareness

4.1.3 Current communication skills of Salesmen

Communication skills are the key skills for the salesmen The salesmen contact with the customer daily so with this skills, they become more confidential.

Table 4.4: Current communication skills of Salesmen

Present clearly information, analysis, ideas in writing 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.30

Speak clearly, convey full information and easy to understand to listeners 4.0 4.0 4.0

Speaking and writing skill in

English when communication with foreign partners

Listen and provide feedback promptly 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.0

Share and exchange information and ideas with others 4.0 4.0 4.0

In all the component of the communication skills, the gap between the required and current speaking and writing English is quite large This means salesmen is still not good at English as requirement

Chart 4.3: Gap between required and current communication skills

This gap has to be fixed as soon as possible because communication is like the main body of the organization

4.1.4 Current Presentation skills of salesmen

The Presentation skills is very necessary for the salesmen It helps them to be confidence in sales activity As per the result of survey, this current skill is as below:

Table 4.5: Current presentation skills of Salesmen

Convey information politely and clearly in front of the crowds 4.0 4.0 3.8 3.9

Create logical presentations, and answer flexibly questions raised by listeners

Argue, persuade and orient listeners toward new perceptions, attitudes to reach the purposes

The gap between required and current presentation skills of the salesmen is quite large (approximately 1 point) This can affect negatively the result of their work.

Chart 4.4: Gap between required and current presentation skills

The solution for this competency is that it is necessary to have the profound training session for presentation skills.

4.1.5 Current problem solving skills of salesmen

The salesmen at NRB are required to be flexible and aware of problems By doing this, they can make fast, correct and determining decisions without hesitate So the required mark of problem solving skills is quite high.

Table 4.6: Current problem solving skills of salesmen

Problem solving skills components Top

Use logical way to make decision or find solution for problem that finally achieve desired goals

Use well-thought-out approaches to solve difficulties, persistent problems

Effectively contribute to group problem solving 3.0 3.2 3.0 3.06

But in fact, salesmen at NRB do not meet the requirement They have an approximately 1.3 point lower mark for this competency The gap among the components within problem solving competency are quite the same That means salesmen still lack all the needed factors to have a better competency about solving problems.

Chart 4.5: Gap between required and current problem solving skills

This kind of competency is one of the most difficult competencies for improving because it depends much on the instinct or talent of each individual The truth is that not all people who have the great knowledge and obtain many high education certifications could solve problems successfully This competency is gained by practicing and experiencing in the real situations and in some cases, it also reflect the personality of individuals.

4.1.6 Current time management skills of salesmen

The salesmen are required the time management skills because they have to arrange your plan to meet the customer, to solve routine job The evaluation of the Top manager as well as salesmen and customer is following:

Table 4.7: Current time management skills of salesmen

Top Managers Salesmen Customer Average

Implement a task following stated/given schedule.

Rearrange the order of steps to carry out/implement a task

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

Continuously/seamlessly improve time management to reach the given goal/target the most efficiently

This skills of the salesmen is still not good, it is below the requirement So the manager must consider and give plan to improve this skills for the salesmen.

Chart 4.6: Gap between required and current time management skills

4.1.7 Current customer care skills of salesmen

As said in the previous chapter, this competency is the key to have a good result of work The more better the salesmen are at customer care skills, the more truly relationship they have.

Table 4.8: Current Customer care skills of salesmen

Communicate politely and friendly with customers 4.2 4.2 4.0 4.13

Find out, understand and satisfy current needs of customers

Direct/orient customers’ needs, handle efficiently and satisfactory customers’ claims

Although the performance sales get 4.08 point, it still is lower than the required mark The salesmen should improve more their communication and understand more deeply the need of the customers

Chart 4.7: Gap between required and current Customer care skills

4.1.8 Current performance sales of salesmen

Performance sales is specific personality characteristic of each person The current performance sales of salesmen as below:

Table 4.9: Current performance sales of salesmen

Understand a situation from customer’s perspective 4.3 4.0 4.0 4.1

Confident about their abilities and about the product or services that they sell

Determined mind to refuse to accept defeat and goes on to attain.

Visionary to value the relationship with customers and maintain a long-term relationship

Be friendly so that people are comfortable talking to them 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.0

So the top managers give quite high mark to salesmen in understanding a situation from customer’s perspective The other competency also get mark 4 – Good,however it still is lower than the requirement.

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

CONCLUSION OF THE CURRENT COMPETENCIES OF SALES

After collecting, analyzing and consulting the data, the current competencies are reported above by each component: Fundamental Knowledge, Company strategy awareness, Communication skills, Presentation skills, Problem solving skills, Time management skills, Customer care skill and Performance sales.

In generally, all the factors of competencies are different between the requirement and the current The required mark for each factors of managerial competencies are all higher than the current mark It means that the salesmen at NRB must improve their competency to meet with the requirement of Manager as well as of the work

To sum up, the current competencies for the salesmen with these above 8 components are following:

Chart 4.9: Current competencies of Salesmen at NRB

As the graph shows, the lowest mark is Problem solving skills (just over 3 point). The highest mark belongs to the Customer care skills (above 4 point).

And the illustration for the gap between the required and the current competencies of salesmen is showed on the below chart The chart can provide us the overall view of the gap with the largest gap belongs to Problem solving skills Knowledge and Presentation skills

Chart 4.10: The gap between required and current competencies

Besides, the smallest gap belongs to Company strategy awareness This means that salesmen at NRB are aware of branch’s strategies and objectives, they work follow the given strategies and very stick to the corporations’ objectives They know which work has to be put more efforts than others The rest factors of competencies of salesmen have quite the same gap.

RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS TO COMPETENCIES OF

THE BASIC SOLUTIONS FOR THE HR

HR development strategy is a plan that defines how the human resources would be utilized through an integrated array of training, organizational development and career development efforts to achieve individual and organizational objectives HR development focuses on improving the professional skills or employees It targets to individuals, groups or the entire staff

For the NRB, the HR development strategy should follow the steps below:

- Step 1 – Getting the situation: Understanding deeply of NRB such as: markets, distribution, competition, commercial policy

- Step 2 – Developing a mission statement: the mission statement should relate to staff of NRB The statement should be in a formal manner

- Step 3 – Conducting SWOT analysis of NRB: focus on internal strength and weakness of the human such as current skills, capability and research the external business and market environment to highlight the opportunities and threats.

- Step 4 – Conducting a detailed human resource analysis: focus on the

NRB’s culture, organizational structure, human and COPS (culture, organization, people, and systems) The gap analysis can be undertaken by examining present status and desired status.

- Step 5 – Determining critical people issues: the business strategy is reviewed and examined against SWOT and CPS analysis to identify the critical people issue This must be addressed so as to have a key impact on the delivery of business strategy.

- Step 6 – Developing consequences and solution: For each critical, issue the options for managerial action generated needs to be highlighted, elaborated and created Then action plans around the critical issues is to be developed with set targets and dates for the accomplishment of the key objectives.

- Step 7 – Implementation and evaluation of the action plans: the ultimate purpose of developing a human resource development strategy is to ensure that the objectives set are supportive so that the reward system are integrated with employee training and career development.

5.1.2 Improvements of assessment criterion for Salesmen

A standard or appraisal criterion refers to ongoing performance criteria that must be met time and time again Like goals, they are most effective when established with the participation of those who must meet them Performance measures must be based on performance targets and appraisal criterions According to the respondents, criterions to measure performance should be:

- Frequently to administration’s work effort

- Stated in terms of current and desired performance

- Raised as soon as the desired performance is achieved

Basing on the situational analysis on the current PA and the results of the surveys and interviews, it is showed that the current PA for salesmen at NRB is relatively limited to competency review and failed to look at the staff’s needs and their motivation The author proposes the method of PA at NRB with both criteria on competency and staff’s needs and motivations at their work

The Branch appraisal form need have more criteria on staff’s work achievement assessment, behaviors and conduct, career development, (job, supervisor, and working environment) satisfaction levels, and personal development plans This proposed PA contents will bring about a more comprehensive appraisal on the staff in competency, motivation, and plan of staff rather than simply evaluation on staff’s competency as present With these proposed contents in the Branch’s appraisal form, the PA activities can get the more comprehensive results and more accurate evaluations of its staff.

Research process