ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This study would not have been completed without the guidance and the help of several individuals who contributed and extended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this study First and foremost, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Dr… Finally, I would like to thank all my colleagues who warmly helped and took part in surveys as without it I could not complete this study with sufficient information ABBREVIATION AAC: Autoclaved aerated concrete GIC: Gyproc Installer Club GM: General Director HN: Hanoi HCM: Ho Chi Minh KPI: Key performance Index PM: Project Manager SGVN: Saint Gobain Vietnam EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The project sales team of Saint Gobain Vietnam (SGVN) had been set up for two years Since then there is no official research about sales competencies of project salesmen This is the first research for SGVN about how to improving sales competencies in highly competitive Vietnamese gypsum market today Objectives of this study are:  To assess the current competency of project salesmen in SGVN  To find out the gap between desired sales competency and current competency of project salesmen in SGVN  To draw a plan for improving sales competencies of the project salesmen in SGVN To reach the objectives, the following research methods had been used:  Data collection through questionnaire survey and in depth interviews  Data analysis in quantity and quality, with the support of Microsoft Excel And here is the result of this study: A sales competency frame work for project salesmen of SGVN was built up from two concrete bases:  Internal Focus: From Sales process, internal & external relationship of project salesmen and requirement of sales & marketing managers  External Focus: From the World Class Sales competency and the Seven Emerging Sales Competency A survey was conducted to analyze the current sales competencies status of project salesmen It is shown that the most advantage of project salesmen in SGVN is experience and product and market knowledge as well But they have some abilities and skills need improving:  Pro activeness  Building and maintaining relationships with stake holders in project  Personal Accountability  Consultative Problem Solving  Understanding Financial Impact of Decision The research also reviewed current sales performance assessment (KPI table) of SGVN and find out that it need adjusting to be more fair and suitable Because it might have leaded to low motivation in working and affects badly to sales competency improvements Some recommendations are made which focus on solving the three most important issues to improve sales competencies  Adjusting the sales performance assessment (KPI table)  Sales Training to improve the lack competencies  Motivation Sales Force It is necessary to solve the three issues together because SGVN need to have a comprehensive plan to improve sales competencies and maintain high sales performance in future TABLE OF CONTENT Problems with leniency and strictness 10 Problems with central tendency 10 Problems with personal prejudice 10 Problems with halo effect .10 Problems with recent performance effect 10 1.3 Developing an externally-Focused, Market-driven Model 13 1.5.1 Sales Competency Assessment Process 17 1.5.1.1 Determinant of Sales Competency 17 1.5.1.2 Appraisal Participants 17 1.5.1.3 Assessment Process 18 1.5.2.2 360 degree competency assessment 19 1.5.2.4 Behaviorally anchored rating scales 20 CHAPTER 21 2.1 About Saint Gobain Vietnam 21 2.1.1 Saint Gobain Vietnam Company Chart 21 2.1.2 The Saint Gobain Vietnam Sales Chart 22 2.1.3 Distribution Channels of Saint Gobain Vietnam 23 Chart 2-5 Distribution Channel of SGVN .24 Relationship among the two departments and customers .24 2.1.4 Competition Analysis of Saint Gobain Vietnam 25 2.2Building a sales competency framework 29 2.2.2 Mapping the sales process 30 2.2.3 Building Sales Competency Framework for Project salesmen of SGVN 33 2.2.3.1 Sales Process Based 33 2.2.3.2 Internal and External Relationships Based .35 3.3Motivating the project salesmen 53 3.3.1 Motivation defined .53 3.3.2 Determinants of action and inaction 53 3.3.3 Motivational tools 55 3.3.4 Motivation, Job satisfaction and Performance 57 INTRODUCTION Introduction 1.1 Introduction of the topic In business today, salesmen become more and more important They are the ones who directly create revenue and make profit for any companies whether you are in service or production field Coming back to some arguments that salesmen is not important and selling is an easy task because when services or products are good enough, customers will know to choose themselves It could be misled and totally wrong I not want to deny the truth that if services or products are not qualified enough or met the demand of customers, nobody will buy it But who makes them buy, who consult and convince them to change their awareness about products and help them understand the need that even they not know it exists, that is salesman That’s why I say, salesmen is the key influential factor to sell services or products or in some other sayings “they not only to educate market but also inspire the need of market” This research helps to understand the way to build and develop competencies of project salesman in business with customers (users or distributor) so that Saint Gobain Vietnam (SGVN) will find it useful and feasible in highly competitive market today 1.2 Rationale of this research Saint Gobain Corporation is a giant in global construction material, ranked 126 th in 500 biggest corporation in the world currently (in 2009) In 2005, Saint Gobain acquired BPB and became the No1 in the world with based Gypsum products SGVN was then established in 2007 with an European Standard factory in Nha Be district, Ho Chi Minh, selling its gypsum boards (brand name Gyproc) through some Vietnamese main distributors: three in the North and three in the South Up to present, all main distributors are doing very well as the roles of distribution channels, they account for nearly 100% total revenue of factory so the truth that “the successful business of SGVN is mainly Abilityd by them is undeniable” And SGVN also awares that it is depending much on domestic distribution channels What will happen if the distributors become “unhealthy” or they not want to cooperate with Saint Gobain in future? And what is the role of leading market of SGVN as the manufacturer? Besides, the competitors in gypsum field in Vietnamese market are increasing They come from developed countries: France, China, Japan, and America They could be equal or lower quality, comparing to SGVN but they always try to innovate their products and technology In 2007 – 2009 period, people in construction field only know about Gyproc or Lagyp, the two biggest gypsum French companies in Vietnam with standard boards (board with normal function) But at present, there are many brand names from other countries like: Daiken, Armstrong, Owa, Smart Board, with various functional boards for specified purposes (fire stop, moisture resistance, strong robust, sound reduction or insulation ) Moreover, such competitors are building or already have good project salesmen Their project salesmen not only have good specified background about gypsum in construction filed but they are also very sensitive with customers and the trends of market In fact, with the same projects in certain areas, project salesmen of other gypsum companies has quicker and better way to approach customers than SGVN They could have larger business networks or relationships; they could be more sensitive in communicating with customers that make them always come one step faster than us Even with the first sight, they always show a very professional and customer-oriented attitude They are also good at following, taking care of customers Creating contacts with customers is difficult but maintaining and developing them is much more difficult Otherwise, we will lose customers Frankly to say, SGVN project salesmen usually lose 20% of customers after some first contacts because we cannot manage to follow them In term of soft skill or knowledge, our project salesmen are not good or equipped enough to win most of business cases, comparing to other project salesmen or our strength and advantage are not really clear With current situation, SGVN knows that product is not our sole advantage at all so the project salesmen will play the most important role to the success or failure of winning projects There are two biggest rising problems that will affect directly Gyproc Brand name if we not have competent project salesmen: - Our competitors will surpass us and take over Vietnamese market shares, Gyproc brand name will lose its position in customers’ mind Main distributors will always act more initiatively than SGVN and they will become less depend on SGVN in term of price and products 1.3 Problem statement Competitors and distributors are preparing or already have competent project salesmen They are professional and experienced enough to take main role in Vietnam Gypsum market The share market is being divided into pieces for current competitors and the slower in approaching and keeping customers are the strong proofs showing that it is necessary to improve sales competencies of project salesmen in SGVN SGVN must play a truly active role as a bridge between main distributors and customers We must take initiative movements in market and become closer to customers We must have competent project salesmen” otherwise “SGVN will continue to depend on distributors and could not compete with other competitors” Objectives of this study are: To assess the current competency of project salesmen in SGVN To find out the gap between desired sales competency and current competency of project salesmen in SGVN To draw a plan for improving sales competencies of the project salesmen in SGVN Scope and limitation of the research 3.1 Scope of research Because of time constraint, I propose to focus on improving competencies for the project salesmen, which are useful and compatible with Vietnamese market Meaning I might refer to global sales competencies model but only try to improve the ones which are suitable with current status of SGVN The main objects in this research are project salesmen in Marketing Department of SGVN and the directors, managers of this department because they are the ones who involve and take the most benefit from this research Other reference to other project salesmen if any, only to main competitors in Vietnam market: Lagyp (Gypsum board manufacturer of Lafarge Corporation), other light brick manufacturers Time to collect data: - Primary data: Taking from August to September 2011, it was a busy time of Marketing Department with many events and meeting so salesmen who were surveyed could not take part in fully to show their most accurate output for survey Secondary data: Taking from sources on internet, company database but it is not highly accurate because it is public or they are secret figures to SGVN 3.2 Limitation of research This research only study on current sales competency of SGVN It does not represent for project salesmen in Saint Gobain Group in other countries SGVN has just recently restructured its sales function and the project sales team is a new department under Marketing & Technical Department This research was done for the purpose of improving of sales competency of project salesmen at the moment It may not be applied for when project sales team will work for a longer time in future External data: Due to limitation of time and because this is first building sales competency of SGVN This research will not the survey from customers as usual sales competency assessment So this may lack the aspect from customers’ opinions this time Methodology of research 4.1 Data collection • Secondary data will be collected through: company’s database, other sources on internet to study the sales competencies regarding to competency assessment framework - Company database: market share, labor, revenue, competitors… - Source on internet: world competency model, world emerging sales competencies These data help to describe more clearly the situation of project salesmen in SGVN and make a better reference to the world standard sales competency • Primary data will be collected through: - Survey: Questionares - For creating questionnaires, I will base on the objectives of this study So the information or criteria in questionnaires should be sufficient and concise - The information from survey will be collected and structured according to the sales competency assessment frame using to assess project sales competencies Questionnaires will be conducted among salesmen in Marketing Department of SGVN Size of doing survey by questionnaire is 15 as the whole project salesmen from four levels: Director, Manager, Senior and Executive The questionnaire was distributed online to all participants The research was conducted during the months of August to September 2011 There are three type of question: - The graphic scales questions: 05 questions - The check list question: 05 questions - Open questions for comments and proposals: 10 questions (Detail content of questionnaire is shown in Annex 1) There will be some problems when doing survey: Problems with leniency and strictness The leniency bias crops when some raters have a tendency to be liberal in their rating by assigning higher rates consistently Equally damaging one is assigning consistently low rates Problems with central tendency Some raters appraise all salesmen around the middle point of the rating scale and they avoid rating the people higher or lower level They follow play safe policy because of answer ability to management or lack of knowledge about the job and person he is rating or least interest in his job Problems with personal prejudice If the rater dislikes any salesmen, he may rate them at the lower end and this may distort the rating purpose and affect the career of these ` Problems with halo effect To minimizing the halo effect, we should appraise all the salesmen by one trait before going to rate on the basis of another trait A person outstanding in one area tends to receive outstanding or better than average ratings in other areas as well, even when such a rating is undeserved Problems with recent performance effect In general, raters remember the recent appraisal of the salesmen and they usually follow appraisal results last time - In depth interview: Main objects of interview are the director and manager of Marketing Department in SGVN From interviews, we can collect the comments and requirements about project sales team competencies (Guideline of in depth interview and list of interviewee is shown in Annex 2) 10 REFERENCE Brian Lambert,Brian Lambert, Tim Ohai, Eric Kerkhoff,Tim Ohai,Eric M Kerkhoff World Class Selling: New Sales Competencies, printed by Victor Graphic Inc., 2009 Bernard L Rosenbaum, Seven emerging sales competencies Business Horizons, 2001, vol 44, issue 1, pages 33-36 Porter, M E The Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance N.Y.: Free Press, 1985 (Republished with a new introduction, 1998.) Gregory Stebbins, Ed.D\ Stebbins Consulting Group, World Class Selling – Competency-Based Sales Excellence Earl D Honeycutt,John B Ford,Antonis C Simintiras, Sales management: A global perspective, published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003 Internal auditing reports of Saint Gobain Vietnam Website: http://www.tonghy.com.vn/content/view/14/37/lang,en/ http://vn.dalecarnegie.com/imap/curriculum_areas http://www.professional-learning.com/ http://performance-appraisal.com/home.htm http://www.humanresources.hrvinet.com/performance-appraisal-procedure/ http://www.growthengineering.co.uk/academy-lms-and-elearning-resourcesblog/217/Creating-a-Sales-Team-Competency-Framework-/ http://www.ehow.com/facts_4899735_customer-service skills_.html? ref=Track2&%3Butm_source=ask 59 ANNEX - QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY AND RESULT Frequency Distribution Frequency How long have you worked in building material area? years 1-2 years 3-5 years More than years How long have you been a sales person? years 1-2 years 3-5 years More than years % 0% 20% 60% 20% How you think about your knowledge of gypsum market in Vietnam? Excellent Good Average Poor 0% 40% 47% 13% 20% 47% 33% 0% Do you know how to create a typical specification solution of drywall for customer? YES 15 100% NO 0% How you understand how excellent performance our drywall systems do? Deeply Relatively deep Well Basically 13% 33% 40% 13% In which status you work more effectively and maximize your ability? Independently 47% In a team 20% Both (depends on situation) 20% Nothing different 13% Do you willing to share your experience and information when working in team ? YES (we are working as united team) 10 67% NO (because it is personal advantage) 33% 60 How often you feel stress during a deal for a long time ? Always Usually Often Seldom Are you willing to work with specified weekly or monthly target? 0% 13% 53% 33% YES 11 73% NO 27% Analysis: Most of salesmen are experienced enough to work well with pressure of target 10 11 What will you first when facing a problem in work? Try to manage myself Discuss with my team Ask my leader immediately Leave it there until someone notice and help me If you cannot contact to a customer what will you do? It is normal because they don't need to know us so I try later Think about the way we contacted with them Review all my previous relationship to see whether it can help Never try to contact further 12 13 14 15 How you think about your presentation skill? Excellent Good Average Poor 33% 47% 20% 0% 2 53% 20% 13% 13% 13% 40% 33% 13% When you are presenting in front of colleagues or customers, they are usually? Highly attend 40% Listen & discuss 33% Sometimes interrupt or go outside 20% Leave the room before I finish 7% Which method you think the most appropriate way to make appointments with customers? Email 7% Make phone call 20% Introduction from friends 33% Previous relationship 40% How many percents of customers call back to you after first meeting ? 10% 30% 60% 26.70% 61 50% 70% 16 17 1 Do you often take care of previous customers? I set a periodical time to take care Only if they are having projects Just met once time then they have to call if they need me They not like us to bother if there is no business 6.70% 6.70% How is your attitude when working with customers? Just try to sell products & services Introducing & Listening but let customers to choose their own solutions Try to make most appropriate solutions for this deal Try to understand the cause of problems then propose solution to the root 27% 53% 13% 7% 5 33% 33% 20% 13% 18 Do you often try to visualize the results for customers after proposing solutions? Always 20% Usually 20% Sometimes 47% Seldom 13% 19 Do you think about how internal resource will use before dealing with customers ? YES 40% NO 60% 20 Do you think about how profitability customers will have when selling products? YES 33% NO 10 67% 62 In general, the questionnaires involves in three components of sales competency: Knowledge, Ability and Skill The following graph summary will show the detail contents: - Survey of knowledge and experience 63 - Survey of Ability a Indepedently b In a team c Both (depends on situation) d Nothing different 64 65 a Try to manage myself b Discuss with my team c Ask my leader immediately d Leave it there until someone notice and help me a Try to manage myself b Discuss with my team c Ask my leader immediately d Leave it there until someone notice and help me a Highly attend b Listen & dicuss 66 c Sometimes interrupt or go outside d Leave the room before I finish a Email b Make phone call c Introduction from friends d Previous relationship a 10% c 50% b 30% d 70% 67 a I set a periodical time to take care b Only if they are having projects c Just met once time then they have to call if they need me d They not like us to bother if there is no business a Just try to sell products & services b Introducing & Listening but let customers to choose their own solutions c Try to make most appropriate solutions for this deal only d Try to understand the cause of problems then propose solution to the root 68 69 ANNEX – IN DEPTH INTERVIEW GUIDLINE The interviews were conducted with the Director of Marketing & Technical Department and North Sales Manager of SGVN Some question, focusing on sales competencies were asked to collect points of view of line managers List of interviewee: - Ms Phan Thu Hang – Director of Marketing & Technical Department - Mr Ngo Van Hieu – North Project Sales Manager List of question: Do you think a project salesmen must be experienced? Which knowledge you expect from the project salesmen? How you expect from knowledge of project salesmen? Which is the most important ability which you think a project salesman must have? In which ability you are not satisfied with project salesmen at present? Which skill you think it is the most necessary of project salesmen at current situation of SGVN ? 70 ANNEX 3: SAMPLE OF GRAPHIC RATING SCALE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL FORM Mr /Ms: Position: Division: Commence date: Conditions: Performance factors Outstanding Very good Good Fair Poor Score Job knowledge 10 Quality of works 10 Diligence 10 Cooperativeness 10 Relation with colleagues 10 Attendance and Tardiness 10 Attitude 10 Initiative 10 Reliability 10 Obedience to regulations 10 TOTAL SCORE ANNEX 4: SAMPLE OF CHECKLIST QUESTIONS Yes No 71 Does the employee lose his or her temple in public? Does the employee play favorites? Does the employee in public when they have done a good job? Does the employee volunteer to special jobs? ANNEX 5: SAMPLE OF BEHAVIORALLY ANCHORED RATING SCALE Scale value Anchors ( ) Excellent Develops a comprehensive project plan, documents it well, obtain require approval and distributes the plan to all concerned ( ) Very good Plans, communicates and observes milestones; states week by week chart of project accomplishments and backlogs and uses these to optimize any schedule modification required ( ) Good ( ) Average ( ) Below average Lays out the parts of job and schedules each part; seeks to bear schedule and will allow for slack Satisfies customer’s time constraints; time and cost overruns occur infrequently Makes a list of due dates and revises them as the project progresses, usually adding unforeseen events; instigates frequent customer complaint May have a sound plan but does not keep track of milestones, does not report slippages in schedule or other problems as they occur Plans are poorly defined, unrealistic time schedule are common 72 Scale value Anchors Cannot plan more than a day or two days ahead, has no concept of a realistic project due date ( ) Very poor ( ) Unacceptable Has no plan or schedule of work segments to be performed Does little or no planning for project assignment Seldom, if even, completes project because of a short of planning and does not seem to care Fails consistently due to lack of planning and does not inquire about how to improve 73 ... anchored rating scales) 20 CHAPTER ASSESMENT OF CURRENT PROJECT SALESMEN COMPETENCY IN SAINTGOBAIN VIETNAM 2.1 About Saint Gobain Vietnam 2.1.1 Saint Gobain Vietnam Company Chart Saint Gobain Vietnam. .. stake holder in project Consultative problem solving Understanding the Financial Impact of Decisions 2.3 Current status of Sales Competency of the Project Salesmen in Saint Gobain Vietnam To have... rating scales 20 CHAPTER 21 2.1 About Saint Gobain Vietnam 21 2.1.1 Saint Gobain Vietnam Company Chart 21 2.1.2 The Saint Gobain Vietnam Sales