How to enhance communication skills of salespeople at curewel international company in viet nam

but the sales force when approached new customers or take care of old customers, they either not convey sufficient products’ information to customers, or listen to the customers properly

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

NGUYEN HA HOANG OANH

HOW TO ENHANCE COMMUNICATION SKILLS OF SALESPEOPLE AT CUREWEL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Tran Ha Minh Quan, for his professional guidance, positive encouragements and helpful guidance during the time of doing my thesis

Further, I would like to thank all the members of the committee, who gave the helpful comments for me to complete the thesis in the right direction

My sincere thanks are also given to all of the professors at International Business School – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City for their teaching and guidance during

my master course

In addition, I would like to say thanks to all the board of director, staffs and customers

of Curewel International Company Limited, who provided documents, answered the questionnaires and gave the feedback for completing this thesis

Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my classmates in MBUS 4.2 and my family for their support and encouragement so that I can complete this thesis

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Curewel International (Vietnam) Co., Ltd in Vietnam (CIV) established in 2004 and is one of eight subsidiary companies of Curewel International Group CIV represents for many manufacturers from many countries and delivers healthcare products from four segments such as Pharmaceutical, Orthopedic, Dentals and Pharma-Cosmetic to customers In Orthopedic, Dentals and Pharma-Cosmetic, the customers are the distributing companies while in pharmaceutical, the customers are the hospitals, clinics and pharmacy shops in whole of Vietnam

The main channel of CIV is to approach such customers by introducing and selling products directly through the sales force So far, CIV mainly bases on the brand name of the manufacturers or the quality of product to push the business in local The segments of Orthopedic, Dentals and Pharma-Cosmetic are developing sustainably, but the developing rate of Pharmaceuticals is reducing recently Nevertheless, in recent years, sales revenue has been decreased; sales time for completing any business is longer comparing previously; number of exploited customers dropped down and the rate of new customers is less increasing which having influence on the sales revenue of the foreign manufacturers to Curewel International in general and CIV in particular Withdrawn from the failed business and feedback from customers and sales force, we recognized that sales force of CIV have poor communication skills

The purpose of this thesis is to find out the roof of problem that make CIV have those bad symptoms After researching the real situation at CIV, we found that CIV had a problem

at communication skills of their salespersons to the customers, comparing with competitors Because CIV’s concentration is in B2B, so almost business of CIV is through the sales force,

but the sales force when approached new customers or take care of old customers, they either not convey sufficient products’ information to customers, or listen to the customers properly, or understand the customers, or build CIV brand awareness to customers to persuade customers to buy products through their communication skill

To solve problem of low communication skills of sales force of CIV, researcher discussed in-depth with the Board of Directors and found three alternative solutions: Training, Teamwork, and Dismissal & Recruitment to solve the problem Comparing these three solutions each other, we found that training brings more benefit and less time and cost than the two remained solutions, so we selected training as a best solution for the problem It takes two and half months for this solution The Admin-Sales Department will take one week for preparing documents for training information about CIV including introduction about CIV in general, products categories of CIV, the partners of CIV, the role as well as the high responsibility of CIV to sales people The Board of Directors and Products Directors will be responsible for training products knowledge like types of products, dosage, indication, contraindication, side effects, products category and training skill of listening, understanding, empathy customers and training behavior for the sales force in one month and three weeks Also, the company will invite the expertize trainers to equip solid foundation in effective communication for sales force in the aim of branding for CIV in two weeks Training programs will apply on sales force in 2017 to enable CIV to increase business effectively

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATION vii

CHAPTER 1: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION 1

1.1 Company background 1

1.2 Background of problem 3

1.2.1 Symptoms 3

1.2.2 Possible problems 7

1.3 Problem justification 14

1.3.1 Problem definition 14

1.3.2 Justify the existence of the central problem 15

1.3.3 Justify the importance of the problem 17

1.4 Potential causes of the problem 18

1.5 Causes validation 20

CHAPTER 2: ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION ANALYSIS 22

2.1 Alternative Solutions 22

2.1.1 Training 22

2.1.2 Teamwork 24

2.1.3 Dismissal and recruitment 24

2.2 Solution comparison 24

2.3 Select the best solution 27

CHAPTER 3: ACTION PLAN 29

3.1 Business goals 29

3.2 Objectives 29

3.3 Cost and benefit of three alternative solutions 29

3.4 Detailed implementation plan 29

CHAPTER 4: SUPPORTING INFORMATION 31

Table 4.1 Interview sales people to identify the most important causes of the problem 31

Table 4.2 Interview sales people to identify the most important causes of the problem 32

Table 4.3 Interview sales people to identify the most important causes of the problem 33

Table 4.4 Interview sales people to identify the most important causes of the problem 35

Table 4.5 Interview customers to identify the most important causes of the problem 36

Table 4.6 Interview customers to identify the most important causes of the problem 37

Table 4.7 Interview customers to identify the most important causes of the problem 39

Table 4.8 Interview customers to identify the most important causes of the problem 40

APPENDIX 48

Appendix A Survey questionnaire: Interview pharmaceutical salespersons of CIV to find out symptoms 48

Appendix B Survey questionnaire: Interview pharmaceutical customers to find out possible problems 49

Appendix C Survey questionnaire: Interview pharmaceutical customers to identify the existing of problem 51

Appendix D Survey questionnaire: Interview sales people of CIV to identify main causes of problem 52

Appendix E Survey questionnaire: Interview pharmaceutical customers to identify main causes of problem 53

Appendix F Survey questionnaire: Interview board managers to select the best solution for the problem and detailed implementation plan 54

Appendix G Customers’ assessing about communication skill of CIV’s sales people 55

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1.1 Revenue of CIV and RV Life from 2013 to 2016……… 5

Table 1.2 Average time to win customers……….10

Table 2.1 Strategies evaluation……… 25

Table 2.2 Cost and benefit of three alternative solutions……… 26

Table 3.1 Detailed implementation plan………30

Table 4.1 Interview sales people to identify the most important causes of the problem… 31

Table 4.2 Interview sales people to identify the most important causes of the problem… 32

Table 4.3 Interview sales people to identify the most important causes of the problem… 33

Table 4.3 Interview sales people to identify the most important causes of the problem… 35

Table 4.5 Interview customers to identify the most important causes of the problem…… 36

Table 4.5 Interview customers to identify the most important causes of the problem…… 37

Table 4.5 Interview customers to identify the most important causes of the problem…… 39

Table 4.5 Interview customers to identify the most important causes of the problem…… 40  

Figure 1.1 Structure of sales force of pharmaceutical industry……… 3

Figure 1.2 Number of Pharmaceutical Customer………5

Figure 1.3 Number of Pharmaceutical Customer………7

Figure 1.4 Cause - and - effect map……… 20

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

CIV………Curewel International (Vietnam) Co., Ltd

CHAPTER 1: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION 1.1 Company background

Curewel International Company is one of the leading companies involved in multifaceted business in India The company is most dynamic and diversified business conglomerate in its operations Curewel International business includes Pharmaceuticals, Orthopedics, Dentals and Pharma-Cosmetic products Curewel International Company committed to provide quality products and services to its customers through constant improvement and innovation Curewel International Company founded in 2001 in India and has its presence in eight different countries which are Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Cambodia and Vietnam in various businesses like Trading and Distribution; and associates with many reputed manufacturers in India, Italia, UK and Malaysia Curewel International is on behalf of foreign manufacturers who want to introduce and occupy the market in locals without spending much expenses in importing, distributing and positioning their products The mission of company is to enhance the quality of life for humankind globally, with quality and affordable products and services, specifically:

•   Customer satisfaction is ultimate goal in our business

•   Offer products and services of the highest quality

•   Provide opportunities to our people to excel their full potential

•   Foster mutually beneficial relations with all our business partners

Curewel International (Vietnam) Co., Ltd (CIV) was established since 2004 CIV also operate business on four segments Pharmaceutical, Orthopedic, Dentals and Pharma-Cosmetic

In the orthopedic industry, CIV associated with Dynamic Techno Medicals for the orthopedic products like cervical collar, lumbar sacral corset, abdominal corset, wrist splint and knee immobilizer corsets In dental industry, CIV associated with Eucare Pharmaceuticals India and Group Pharma Private Limited India manufacturers for toothpaste, mouthwash, sterile absorbable membranes, sterile absorbable collagen and gelatin sponges, etc And in the pharma-cosmetic industry, CIV associated with Lee-ford Healthcare India, Claps Industries Pvt Ltd India, Medical-life Italia and Ken-rich Malaysia These such three segments CIV has their sole marketing and distributing customers who are distributing and have their own sales team So, CIV based on the brand name of such manufacturers or the quality of product to push the business in local And the revenue also grows steadily

In pharmaceutical industry, CIV associated with the following India manufacturers for three products categories that are Antibiotic/ Anti-bacterial/ Antifungal, Anti-inflammatory/ Analgesics and Anti-ulcer/ Anti-acid/ Anti-Emetics with total 75 products

Representatives and 4 Managers in three regions north, central and south of Vietnam The structure of the sales team of this segment is as below:

Figure 1.1: Structure of sales force of pharmaceutical industry

(Source: Structure of pharmaceutical department of CIV)

1.2 Background of problem

1.2.1 Symptoms

The existing symptoms at CIV are that:

•   Total sales revenue of Pharmaceuticals segment reduced comparing with the rest of segments;

•   Number of current customers lose annually;

•   Increasing new customers is ineffective

Total sales revenue of Pharmaceuticals segment reduced comparing with the rest of segments

Medical Representatives

(5)

Regional Sales Manager (South provinces) (1)

Medical Represetatives

(8)

Total sales revenue of CIV comes from four segments Pharmaceuticals, Orthopedics, Dentals and Pharma-cosmetic Sales revenue of the Orthopedics, Dentals and Pharma-Cosmetic segments where CIV through the Vietnamese distributing companies who has their own sales team to sell products, increase steadily But sales revenue of pharmaceuticals segment went down In specific, in orthopedics segment, the sales revenue increased slightly

385 million VND from 2013 to 2014, from 2014 to 2015 sales revenue increased 2,068 million VND and went up 1,417 million VND from 2015 to 2016 In dental segment, the sales revenue increased around 8% to 10% over the years from 2013 to 2016 In pharma-cosmetic, from 2013 to 2014 the sales revenue increased strongly from 8,845 million VND

to 10,222 million VND, equally 14% In 2015, sales revenue almost remained unchanged In

2016, sales revenue extended to 12,632 million VND, increased 2,601 million VND The details show in the figure 2.1 below

But sales revenue of Pharmaceutical segment reduced In consecutive four years recently from 2013 to 2016 the sales revenue reduced significantly In particular, from 2013

to 2014, sales revenue decreased 2,648 million VND, equally 10% From year 2014 to 2015, sales revenue reduced 1,084 million VND, equally 4% In 2016, the sales revenue went down strongly 4,299 million VND equally 17% comparing with 2015 The details of

pharmaceutical sales revenue show in the figure 2.1

Figure 1.2 Business Overview of CIV

Unit: million VND

(Source: Annual report of CIV)

In pharmaceutical industry, the competitor of CIV is RV Life RV Life is cooperating with many foreign manufacturers and has strategy like CIV Their customers are also the hospitals, clinics and the pharmacy shops To highlight CIV business, we compare between the two companies in term of sales revenue from 2013 to 2016

Table 1.1 Sales Revenue of CIV and RV Life from 2013 to 2016

During four years from 2013 to 2016, sales revenue of RV Life increased steadily In contrast, sales revenue of CIV reduced from 2013 to 2014, then increased from 2014 to 2015 and again dropped down significantly in 2016

The number in tablet 1.1 shows that during the period of 4 years from 2013, sales revenue of CIV dropped down significantly from 27,778 million VND to 21,915 million VND, reduced 22% This made CIV face big problem in their business

Number of current customers lose annually and Increasing new customers is ineffective

Till year of 2013, the number of exploited customers of CIV is 350 customers But in

2014, CIV lost 14 customers, then lost further 9 customers from year 2014 to year 2015 In year 2016, CIV continue lost 5 customers

The number of new customers of CIV was also reduced In 2013, the number of new pharmaceutical customers is 63 customers comparing with the previous year 2012 is 75 new customers In year of 2014 and 2015 the new customers further reduced In year of 2016, new customers were only 41, reduced 19 customers compared with year of 2015

Figure 1.3 Number of Pharmaceutical Customer

(Source: Annual report of CIV)

In conclusion, CIV is facing some symptoms that are sales revenue reduced, number of current customers also reduced and increasing new customers is ineffectively So it is necessary to find out a key problem of those bad symptoms to rectify such bad symptoms

1.2.2 Possible problems

After having brief interview with the Board of Directors, the salespersons and the customers, we disclosed that there might be some possible problems, which led to the symptoms mentioned above The detail questionnaire used to discuss is mentioned in Appendix F

1.2.2.1 Objective possible problems

From the year of 2013, lots of licenses of pharmaceutical products expired and could not be renewed in time To continue business, such expired licenses need to be renewed

However, the manufacturers could not provide sufficient documents in accordance with new drug registration regulation ASEAN Common Technical Document (ACTD) of the Drug Administration of Vietnam - Vietnamese Ministry of Health as per the Circular no 22/2009/TT-BYT effected from 24th November 2009, so the customers of CIV who faced expired licenses, had to find other suppliers to replace the products This license problem made loss on the current customers and also affect to increasing new customers of CIV Besides, licenses of new pharmaceutical products are extremely difficult to obtain Because time of doing renewal expired license as well as new registration for pharmaceutical products is very long Though the beginning of year 2012, CIV started doing renewal for such expired licenses and registration for new pharmaceutical products too, but because time for renewal/new registration is 2 years which is very long time, according to new drug registration regulation and moj.gov.vn (November, 2016), so when Drug Administration-Vietnamese Ministry of Health granted license for products, at that time it already 2 years from the date of submission of products dossiers So such granted licensed products became obsolete and the customers of CIV lost interest in products This made CIV reduced sales revenue and the existing customers number

The problem may also come from strategy of the customers The customers changed the other products category which they got market share and benefit, compared with their existing product category For instance, Mr Thang, the director of Thanh Hang Pharma Company changed to cardiovascular medicine instead antibiotic medicine because he found more benefit in cardiovascular medicine, so he left the antibiotic which he was doing with CIV The salesman of CIV was unable to convince him to attach more with CIV Besides, some pharmaceutical customers worked with many suppliers simultaneously to reduce risk

on supplying Ms My, the director of Nhan Sinh clinic revealed with Mr Quan, the sales director of CIV that she used to look for at least two sellers for one product so that if any issue happened with the one supplier or if she got better quotation, she will change to the alternative supplier She also revealed with CIV’s director that she found conflict information between the salesperson and marketing department of CIV She asked the salesperson that, is there any marketing program of company which help her enhance image

of products to her customers as well as help her customers understand deeply about products

so that her customers buy products Telling to one by one customers about the CIV’s products usage, indication and benefit will take time and may not ineffective, so some marketing activity or any kinds of will help her a lot The sales person told her that at that time, company did not have any marketing activity But when she talked to the company she came to know that company is putting standees at some hospitals and advertise on websites but the salesperson did not tell her Study of FitzHugh and Piercy (2010) indicated communication is one of four factors that are “internal” to the sales and marketing interface Within the interface, creating effective communications is used to improve the sales and marketing interface Therefore, CIV should look at this matter of conflict information between salesman and other department at company

1.2.2.2 Internal possible problems

The first internal possible problem that make CIV had bad symptoms may be capacity

of CIV’s salespeople, especially in capacity of negotiation and closing deal of salespeople Dimitrios (2010) stated that the negotiation methodology used allows salesman to negotiate with customers in a certain geographical area based on their sales capacity Obviously, negotiation is a crucial component of sales Negotiation is a controlled communication

process that resolves the conflict of interest of two or more reasonable negotiating parties (Perkov, D., Primorac, D., & Kozina, G., 2016) No matter what you’re selling, or to whom, you need a reliable negotiation strategy that enables both parties to succeed in the deal (Dolan, J., P., 2005) Ineffective negotiation may end up losing sales or not getting the best outcome for sales people and company

This low closing deal of salesman show clearly through the salespersons spent more time to complete the deal The salespersons spent so much of time and repeated cost in approaching and convincing the customers to buy products Mr Luan, the sale executive said that generally he spent around 3 weeks that is 21 days to win the customer, but from

2014 to 2016, he had to spend for almost 40 days to complete the deal While RV Life had lesser time to get the deal done RV Life sales executive spent only 18 days in year 2013, 25

days in year 2014, 30 days in year 2015 and 2016 to win the customers

Table 1.2 Average time to win customers

(Source: Annual report of CIV)

The second internal possible problem that makes CIV lose in business may be unclear price policy Mr An, the manager of Amy pharmacy shop answered interview that when he negotiating price with salesperson, he understood that the salesperson did not clear the price policy, he would have received 20% discount on price but the salesperson only informed

him 15% Ms Hanh, chief of pharma department of Hong Duc hospital also said that she was not satisfied with the price policy of CIV The price is not fixed Price is used to increasing without informing her in advance This throve her on the defensive, and she did not how to report to board of director She was thinking changing to other supplier

The third internal possible problem that make CIV had such bad symptoms may be low communications skill of CIV’s salespeople about knowledge of products and other information of CIV The medical representative could not communicate the information effectively with the customers For instance, Mr An, the manager of Amy pharmacy shop said that when the salesman first met him, he was very disappointed with the way that salesman communicated about types of products which CIV is selling Even when Mr An asked about the indication of medicine, the salesman was not able to answer So he denied to buy medicine from that salesman He also shared that he met many medical representatives daily from many companies and almost of them had very good knowledge about product as well other related information to product He also believed that the good company will bring good product So whenever he decided to buy any medicine, he always care about the image

of the seller

Furthermore, as per the discussion with some new customers, we came to know that many new customers did not feel about CIV role and other information about CIV from the sale persons because the sales persons did not talk about CIV in business transaction The sales persons communicated about the products, prices and the manufacturers’ information

to customers but CIV role and other information about CIV Mr Phong, the director of Nguyen Dong Company who is new customer said that when the salesman approached him for antibiotic medicine Ceftazidime 2gm, the salesman only introduced to him about

product, price and how big size of the manufacturer but the salesman did not say anything about CIV This made him have doubt on how CIV accompany him if any issue happens in future So he spent so much time on considering to cooperate with CIV Since medicine is extremely important to human body when the immune system was weak so it has to be good quality However, unfortunately if any issue happens, it may due to warehouse conditions, the quality of medicine went down, at that time if the supplier is not trusted enough then the customer has to be responsible in all which is very risky on their side So Mr Phong was not convinced to buy product by the communication of salesperson until he had meeting with the Mr Quan, the sales director of CIV In meeting, the sales director clarified to Mr Phong about the CIV as well as about the quality products which CIV are selling in markets Mr Quan also clarified that CIV checked very carefully about the manufacturers whom CIV associated with to make sure about the quality of products and the good quotation to bring to the customers as well as high responsibility of CIV in product quality, so far to position CIV brand to customers Mr Quan also said he is trying to build the concept that whenever the customer thinks of buying new antibiotic or anti-inflammatory or anti-ulcer medicines, they think of CIV Also in the meeting, Mr Phong understood more about some other products which the salesman could not communicate to him After meeting, Mr Phong understood very well about products information and the role, value of CIV which the salesman could not transfer Obviously, the corporate image is important as it is a basic on which the customers choose to establish contact or business transactions with the company and whether or not to attach good or ill will towards it (Schuler, 2004) The salesman also need

to understand this to communication verbally with customers to make customers to understand and give decision of buying products

According to Berry, 2000 & Farrel (2001), salespeople of a company are one channel for the communication of a brand's attributes, especially in service-oriented industries Their interactive and persuasive capabilities translate into emotions, such as trust, and thus have a significant effect on brand equity, from there enhance sales performance Also according to Dortok (2006), employees are considered one of the most information sources about an organization This is so because they embody the corporate brand and interactions between them and external stakeholders as much as (if not more than) traditional marketing communications (de Chernatony, 2002) Good communication skill of salespeople in any organization also is a key to build image of organization with the customers, develop trust with the customers, help customers to understand clearly about the product and make them

to establish business transactions with CIV, from their company increase organization’s sales revenue So, the sales people need to have good knowledge of the products they are in charged, all other information relating to the products and they also need to build CIV brand

to customers to make customers chose and attach with company However, when we had the interview with the customers, four over six customers said that they were not provided sufficient information of products by the salespersons, or some salesperson only communicated about products they are in charged, when they asked about other products the salesperson did not convey proper information Also, the customers did not understand clearly about the role of CIV through the sales people, so they worry whether CIV supply good product or not, so they delayed in deciding to buy products from CIV Also according

to Asher, CEO at ASHER, “Because the art of selling is so dependent on persuasive and believable information exchange, salespeople must be effective communicators Great communication is not simply what is conveyed, but how it is conveyed and how choice

rhetoric, info and body language can drive relationships and sales.” Perhaps nowhere is this more important than in service industries where employees are routinely the contact point between a company’s internal and external environments and where the interactions or

‘moments of truth’ (Gummeson, 1999) can deliver the brand promise and create a powerful image and experience among customers through – or not (Hardaker & Fill, 2005) According

to Lynch and Chernatony (2004), for B2B brands to connect with organizational customers, emotional brand values need to be communicated effectively both within the organization as well as externally through the industrial sales force

In conclusion, there are five possible problems are existing at CIV They are government policy particularly long time renewal/ registration procedure, customers’ strategy, capacity of sales people, unclear price policy and communication skill of CIV’s sales people The first two issues are objective factors that CIV cannot give solution, the problem of capacity of sales people and unclear price policy are caused by communication

of CIV’s sales people So the main problem we decided to focus is that the problem of communication about CIV of sales people

1.3 Problem justification

1.3.1 Problem definition

As mentioned above, communication skills are very important to salesman According

to Skillyouneed (n.d.), communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place to another, and how well the information can be conveyed and received is a measure of how good communication skills are Furthermore, Hamid, Sara and Rabia (n.d.) also indicated that effective communication depends on one’s competency in communication

Communication involves purpose and efforts from both the sender of the message and the receiver It's a process that can be filled with error such as with messages mess (i.e., mixed

up by the sender, or misinterpreted by the recipient) Miscommunication always should be avoidable, because miscommunication may cause tremendous confusion if it not found Lawrence, Jeanne and Melinda (2015), also appointed that effective communication combines a set of skills including nonverbal communication, engaged listening, managing stress in the moment, the ability to communicate assertively, and the capacity to recognize and understand one’s own emotions and those of the person that he is communicating with

So to increase sales performance as well as the image or brand of company in markets, the sales people must communicate clearly with their customers verbally and in writing both The sales people have to convey complex topics into easy-to-understand summaries for customs who may not have a lot of knowledge in the areas in which they are seeking advice When a salesperson has a plan to approach customers, they should prepare all the relating information about products, prices, role of company, marketing skill and sales skill so that they can communicate with the buyer properly and effectively to improve sales performance

as one means to increase business of company

1.3.2 Justify the existence of the central problem

We used the questionnaires of Ramsey and Sohi (1997), Takahashi and Miyaoka (2006) and Pierrette Desrosiers (1999) and had depth interview with Board of Director as well as had interview with customers and sales people of CIV to find out whether low communication skill about information of salespersons is existing or not in CIV The questionnaire contains 11 multiple choice questions with seven points scale ranging from 1 (not agree) to 7 (totally agree) for understanding the level of communication about

information of CIV of salespersons compared with communication of sales people from other companies The details of questionnaires and interview questions were enclosed in the Appendix C, Appendix G

Sixty questionnaires were sent to sixty customers to conduct the result of multiple questions Then we found that the average result of CIV’s salespersons were 2.43 to 3.72, which indicate that CIV’s salespersons really have low communication about information of products of CIV The customers did not satisfy with the level of communication skill about information of products of CIV’s salesperson, compared with the communication skill of salesperson from other company like RV Life, especially when the customers were approached new products Ms Lan, the owner of Tam Phuc pharmacy shop said that the salesman from RV Life when approached her, he introduced clearly about the RV Life, about manufacturer and especially clarified clearly her about all information of products of

RV Life RV Life’s salesman could explain to her about the contraindication and side effect

of products when she asked while the salesman from CIV could not When she wanted to understand deeply about CIV so that she makes sure that CIV is strong enough in supplying because before she faced with a case that the supplier could not supply continuously due to week relationship with manufacturer This made her lost in business Besides interviewing the customers, we also asked CIV’s salesman and got the similar result to the answers of customers Mr Linh, who is the salesman of CIV said that because he did not get enough training about products of CIV, he was trained on products generally, but not so deeply so when he met customers, he tried to bring to customers all good information about CIV like good service, good price Regarding the products, what he knew he told the buyer But unfortunately the customers asked some information which he not well-cleared The result of

the interview indicates that the existing problem of the company that the sales people have low communication about information of products of CIV with customers Miss Hang, CIV’s sales person also said that almost her customers are relatives or though friends and coworkers, so she can tell them to support her by buying products She thought her customers understand well about products, so she need not to tell much to her customers about products Through the outcome of the interview, it demonstrates the existing problem

of the company is that the sales people have low communication skill with customers

1.3.3 Justify the importance of the problem

“Marketing communications is essentially a part of the marketing mix The marketing mix defines the 4Ps of marketing and Promotion is what marketing communications is all about”, according to MSG (n.d.), However, as we mentioned above, because CIV imported

so many products from many segments and CIV continue brought new products from different reputed manufacturers, so CIV did not have strategy clearly in marketing brand through other marketing instruments except through the sales force As said by Mr Quan, the director of CIV, the sales people are the sole channel communicating with customers, the sales people of CIV must have good communication to bring proper information of products, price, other information like information of CIV and manufacturer to the customers, develop trust with the customers, help customers to understand clearly about the product to make them to establish business transactions with CIV Owen (1997) affirmed that communication skills of salespeople effect on buying decision of customers, so if a salesperson has good communication skills, they will improve their return and increase profit for their company Asher (2014) also illustrated that once salespeople elevate communication skills to a professional level, they can improve sales and relate better to prospects

In conclusion, communication skills of salespersons are very important to CIV because it enhance buying decision of customers, improve sales revenue of each sale person, from there increase business for the company

1.4 Potential causes of the problem

Through the review of literature and the discussion with salespersons & customers, there are many factors that would cause the problem The factors are classified into two groups: external and internal factors

External factors: Strategy of the customers changing to other product category which

bring them more benefits This make the salesperson lost the customers and was unable to convince the buyer to attach with CIV more Government policy made CIV face big problem

in business This also made CIV loss customers and even increasing new customers is ineffectively

Internal factors: Ineffective communication of sales people of CIV comes from the

many factors Wendy (n.d.) believed that “nearly all sales experts agree that knowing at least the basics about your product is critical to selling it effectively However, understanding your product is even more helpful” When the salesperson of CIV understand well about the products will help the salesperson to explain clearly to customers and gain the customers’ attract so that the salesperson can easier to convince the customers Training program of the company to help the salespeople understand deeply about the products knowledge and other information of CIV means of affecting on communication skill of salespeople to help them

to catch proper customers

Understanding what the customers wanted to know or what the customers wants to buy clearly also helps the salesman communicate effectively and the sales people will be successful in their career

Mayer and Greenberg's (1964) classified that the traits of the successful salesperson identified only two attributes: empathy (the ability to feel as the customer does) and ego drive (a strong personal need to make the sale)

Study of the determinants of salesperson performance (a meta-analysis of 116 papers) by Churchill et al (1985) indicated that the determinants of salesperson performance were ordered as follows: personal factors such as, abnormal psychology and experience; skill; role variables; aptitude; motivation; and organizational/environmental factors

Through on the interviews with Board of Directors, sales people of CIV and CIV’s customers, we found out the factors that effecting on communication skill of sales people of

CIV, from there develop cause - and - effect map

Figure 1.4 Cause - and - effect map

We are not able to control the external causes, so we study internal factors more to find

out solution for solving problem mentioned above

and Brian Tracy, nd)

- Ego drive (a strong

personal need to make

the sale) (Mayer and

products take long

time, made difficult

Inconsistant information of salesman and manager

Conflict between salesmans and other department

- Low Sales

- Loss current customers

- Increasing new customers is ineffective

Base on the probably causes that were listed on the Cause - and - effect map and the research of Othman (2010), Optimal thinking (n.d.) and Schivinski, Bruno, and Dabrowski Dariusz (2014), we created two questionnaires (Appendix D & E) to understand the main causes of inefficiency’s communication skill of CIV’s salespersons We only focused in the internal factors, because as we mentioned above the company not able to control external factors, and we also rejected ego driver and abnormal psychology of salespersons when assessing communication skills of sales people

We used questionnaire (Appendix D) to make in – depth interview with five salespersons and found that experience is not a cause, because all CIV’s salespersons were interviewed have four years or more four years worked for CIV Other cause like knowledge of medicine, understanding customers, listening to customers to understand customers need and behavior of salesman when the salesman communicate to customers are the main reasons of the problem

In conclusion, when we know the root of problem that are lack of products knowledge, low listening skill, low understanding skill and un-well behavior of CIV’s salespersons, we can solve the problem effectively

CHAPTER 2: ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION ANALYSIS 2.1 Alternative Solutions

After studying carefully, we found the real problem at CIV is that the sales people had weak communication skill when they interacted with the customers The major cause of this problem are lack of product knowledge and other information about CIV and manufacturer, weak listening skill, low understanding customers This made CIV’s customers losing decision of buying products, led to low sales revenue Based on the solutions that were listed

on the paper of Applegate (n.d.) and Toporek (2014), and after disusing with the Board of Directors, we suggest three alternative solutions that are training, teamwork and dismissal & recruitment to enhance efficient communication skills of CIV’s sales people

2.1.1 Training

Because CIV’s sales people is lack of knowledge of product and other relevant information, weak listening skill, low understanding customers, the board of directors of CIV will be responsible for training to make sure to get efficient result According to Tara Duggan (n.d.), product knowledge training means teaching the sales force with features and benefits and information According to Applegate (n.d.) and Toporek (2014), Role - playing

is also used in training salespeople

Features & benefit According to CIV’s Board of Directors, CIV’s products consist of

followings:

1)  Features of products: types of pharmaceutical products, dosage, indication,

contraindication, side effect, price

2) Products category: CIV is dealing with three products categories which Antibiotic/

bacterial/ Antifungal, inflammatory/ Analgesics and ulcer/ acid/

Anti-Emetics The salesman should remember which products are in tablets and which products are in capsules While communicating with customer, the salesman should list out name of fast moving products while: cefixime 100mg/200mg, cefpodoxime 100mg/200mg, cefuroxime, etc The benefit of this feature helps customers know about the products categories which CIV is working with so that whenever they want to buy any antibiotic and anti-ulcer they remember about CIV

3) Other information: information of CIV, how many countries CIV has represented, what

kind of business CIV is involved, what is the mission and goal of CIV, sales teams and distribution channel

4) Products are good quality products, produced by good quality manufacturers and have all the required documents for competing tenders: The benefit of this feature helps the

customers have trust on the products CIV introduce, reduce time of convincing the customers

5) Responsibility of CIV after sales service During storage condition or transportation,

products may be damaged So, the CIV should be responsible and tackle properly with the customs so that the customers feel satisfy with CIV service

Information The information generally is covered in product knowledge training

includes terminology explanations and examples that define concepts Samples and graphics participants with details about the product Portfolio training usually provides relevant sales information, emphasizes market overview and describes the competitive environment This information is used by sales people to help them to give solutions to their customers and help customers solve problems Support employee also can use this information to answer questions of customers and overcome problems faced