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

  i   UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business --------------------------- NGUYEN HA HOANG OANH HOW TO ENHANCE COMMUNICATION SKILLS OF SALESPEOPLE AT CUREWEL INTERNATIONAL COMPANY IN VIET NAM ID: 22130053 MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: DR. TRAN HA MINH QUAN Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2016   ii     i   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.   ii   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,   iii   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.   iv   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     v   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     vi   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   vii   LIST OF ABBREVIATION CIV……………………………………………Curewel International (Vietnam) Co., Ltd   1   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 PharmaCosmetic.   2   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. •   Zee Laboratories •   Lanark Laboratories •   Swiss Parenterals •   Amol Pharmaceuticals •   Mednext Pharma The customers of the pharmaceutical industry are the hospitals like Cho Ray Hospital, University Hospital, 115 Hospital, Hong Duc Hospital, Hoan My Hospital, Tu Vu Hospital, etc., general clinics and pharmacy shops in whole of Vietnam. In this segment, CIV approach such customers through the sales force - 22 sales peoples including 18 Medical   3   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 Sales Director Regional Sales Manager (North provinces) (1) Medical Represenatives (5) Regional Sales Manager (Central provinces) (1) Medical Representatives (5) Regional Sales Manager (South provinces) (1) Medical Represetatives (8) (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   4   Total sales revenue of CIV comes from four segments Pharmaceuticals, Orthopedics, Dentals and Pharma-cosmetic. Sales revenue of the Orthopedics, Dentals and PharmaCosmetic 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 pharmacosmetic, 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   5   Figure 1.2. Business Overview of CIV Unit: million VND 30,000   25,000   20,000   15,000   10,000   5,000   -­‐ 2013 Pharmaceuticals   2014 Orthopedics 2015 Dentals 2016 Phama-­‐Cosmetic (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 Unit: million VND CIV RV Life CIV/ RV Life 2013 27,778 27,925 +-147 % 99% 2014 25,130 28,026 -2,896 90% 2015 26,214 28,200 -1,986 93% 2016 21,915 29,890 -7,975 73% (Source: Annual report of CIV)   6   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.   7   Figure 1.3. Number of Pharmaceutical Customer 400 350 350 336 327 322 300 250 200 150 100 63 55 60 41 50 0 Year  2013 Year  2014 Number  of  New  Customers Year  2015 Year  2016 Number  of  Exploited  Customers (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.   8   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   9   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   10   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 CIV RV Life 2013 21 days 10 days 2014 28 days 25 days 2015 35 days 30 days 2016 40 days 30 days (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   11   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