REGENT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

PROPOSAL

PERSONAL SELLING AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL

(A CASE STUDY OF BARCLAYS BANK GHANA LIMITED)

BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD

GROUP WORK

MEMBERS:

1.1 Problem Statement

In the early stages of marketing, goods were produced to offer the most quality, performance or

innovative features and managers assume that buyers admire well made products and evaluate

quality and performance. Managers therefore did not pay attention to the promotional mix, such

as door to door sales. Today that concept does not work properly because of the changing

economy such as competition on the market. It is quite unfortunate that personal selling which is

increasingly seen as an effective promotional tool , hence enhancing the flow and winding of

customers information and problems in the organization is being given a cold attention in Ghana.

Some of the problems which may be addressed by this research study are the wrong perceptions

about personal selling, the unknown profitability of personal selling, the reward of personal

selling, lack of interest in the personal selling profession and why personal selling is given a cold

attention in Ghana. From the marketing point of view, personal selling applications promises

changes in the way a marketing organization goes about its activities and reach decisions to

achieve the goals and objectives of the organization.

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

The aims and objectives of this study would focus on the achievement of four important needs

which are:

• To examine personal selling on the operations of the organization

• To examine personal selling in connection to the sales volume and profitability of the

organization.

• To identify the effects of personal selling on the moral and perception of the sales

personnel’s

• To find out why most people do not want to be Sales Representatives.

1.3 Scope and Limitations of the Study

The Research tried to identify the responsibilities and what it entails to be a Sales Representative

of Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd. In essence, the study focuses its attention on the neglected but

powerful communication tool, thus personal selling in the promotional mix. The scope covers the

importance of personal selling in organizations and the trained sales force need to embark on this

task effectively and efficiently. The research covered seven selected branches of Barclays Bank

Ghana Ltd, Accra. The selected branches were High Street, Mathaheko, Kaneshie, Ring Road,

Spintex Road and Dansoman branches of Barclays Bank.

1.4 Research Hypotheses of the Study;

• What are the impact of personal selling on the operations of the organization

• To examine personal selling in connection to the sales volume and profitability of the

organization.

• To identify the effects of personal selling on the moral and perception of the sales

personnel’s

• To find out why most people do not want to be Sales Representatives.

1.5 Justification of the Study

It has been the norm of most organizations to treat personal selling as not a segment that should

feature prominently in their organizations strategic plan or business plan, yet expect sales people

to deliver their best when it comes to output. This research study has identified that most

organizations do not take the sales force team seriously, and therefore assign the employment of

sales people to external employment agencies. It has been noted that there is a poor relationship

between the institutions recruiting the sales personnel and the sales representatives. This is

because the Banking institutions pay less attention on the sales representatives, and employ all of

them as temporal workers but expect them to work as permanent staff. This is what the

researchers want to research about and recommend on the findings.

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Marketing Defined

Marketing is typically seen as the task of creating, promoting and delivering goods and services

to consumers and businesses. Marketers are skilled in stimulating demand for a company’s

products, but this is too limited a view of the tasks marketers performs. Marketing is a societal

process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating,

offering and freely exchanging products and services of value with others (Kotler, P.2004).

According to The American Marketing Association, ‟ Marketing is the process of planning and

executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to

create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals. (Kotler, P. 2004). Marketing is

the primary management function which organizes and directs the aggregate of business

activities involved in converting consumer purchasing power into effective demand for a specific

product or services to the final consumer or user so as to achieve company set profit or other

objectives (Lancaster, G. and Massingham, L.1995). According to the generally accepted UK

definition of marketing, given by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Marketing is the

management process which identifies, anticipates and supplies customer‟s requirement

effectively and profitably (Lancaster, G. and Massingham, L.1995)

2.2 Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is the set of marketing tools the firm uses to pursue its marketing objectives in the

target market (Kotler, P. 2004). Marketing mix is the combination of all the marketing elements

in order to achieve the organizational goal. McCarthy classified these tools into four broad

groups that he called the four Ps of marketing. These elements of the four Ps are: product, price

place and promotion. They are illustrated as follows:

2.2.1 The product and the product mix

A product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need. Products that are

marketed include physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties,

organizations, information and ideas (Kotler, P. 2004). People who are unfamiliar with

marketing often hold the erroneous view that a product is only a physical object with readily

identifiable and tangible attributes. They would not consider for instance an insurance policy or

the banking services such as the different types of accounts such as premium savings, money

builder, current account and others to be a product. Marketing practitioners must however adopt

a very much wider view of the product (Lancaster, G. and Massingham, L.1995). According to

Karl, Stephen and Walker (1996), a product includes everything that comes with the sale,

including the physical item itself, warranty and others. A product is a bundle of tangible and

intangible attributes, including packaging, color and brand, plus the seller. People buy more than

a set of physical attributes. 9

They buy want –satisfaction such as what the product will do its quality and the image of owning

the product (Futrell, M. 2005).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3. 1. Research Design

The research methodology deals with the methods that will be employed in conducting the

research. The methods that the researchers are going to use for the data will be both primary and

secondary data for effective results. The primary data uses two key approaches, which are

questionnaire designation and interview. A sixteen item questionnaire will be designed as the

basis of data collection from the customers and direct sales representatives of Barclays Bank to

solicit their views on effectiveness of personal selling in the banking industry.

In all one hundred questionnaires administered for five selected branches of Barclays Bank,

meaning twenty questionnaires for each selected branch and twenty questionnaires for the direct

sales representatives. An interview will be conducted for senior officials of the bank to answer.

A secondary data will also be used for the research study. A documentary secondary data which

include documents of Barclays Bank such as notices, minutes of meetings and reports to

shareholders will also be used. Again other written documents such as books, magazines and

articles other authorities have written will be used in the secondary data.

3.2 Data Collection Method

Data collection methods that will be employed are as described below.

3.2.1 Sources of Primary Data

Primary data is expressively collected for a particular enquiry. They are those collected afresh

and for the first time and thus happen to be original in character (Aboagye, C. 1999). The

purpose of the primary data to be used includes people’s views and comments about the

effectiveness of personal selling in the banks, its benefits to the banks and as a promotional tool.

The following are some of the primary data approaches used:

Questionnaire administration

Formal questions will be framed and written down for the respondents to provide the answers.

As a method for data collection, the questionnaire is an efficient way to collect statistically

quantifiable information. It is an efficient method in the sense that many respondents can be

reached within a short space of time (Twumasi, P. A. 2001). A sixteen item questionnaire will be

designed as the basis of data collection from the customers and direct sales representative (DSR)

of Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd to solicit their views about the effectiveness of personal selling in

the banking industry. Questionnaire will be distributed through the assistance of the Barclays

Bank customer service officials to the respondents who were randomly will be selected from the

selected Barclays Bank branches and sales Centre.

Interviews

This is a method of field investigation whereby the researcher meets his respondents and through

the interaction he asks specific questions to find answers to his research problem (Twumasi, P.A.

2001). In addition to the questionnaire to be administered, the researchers will also interview

some senior officials of the bank about how sales representatives contribution has promoted the

bank both financially and sales volume.

3.3 Population

Population is the universal set of all the people, units, items, or organizations that contain the

characteristics of interest (Aboagye, C. 1999). The individual people, units, items, or

organizations refer to as the population element, and the investigation of all the individual

elements that make up the total population is called census. It involves observing only a small

proportion of that population and making generalizations to represent the facts and views of the

entire population. The population for the study involves the customers of Barclays Bank and

other banks and the direct sales representatives of Barclays.

Sample Description and Sampling Technique.

The population for the study involves the customers of Barclays Bank and other banks and the

direct sales representatives of Barclays.

However due to time constraints, lack of financial resources and the combination of the research

scientists academic and office duties, the researcher had to limit the study to seven branches of

Barclays Bank, High Street, Mathaheko, Kaneshie, Ring Road, and Dansoman branches of

Barclays Bank, where twenty customers answer twenty questionnaires at each branch mentioned

above, for a total of one hundred customers answering the questionnaires. On the other hand

twenty direct sales representatives of Barclays Bank also answered a separate questionnaire for

their views about personal selling and its profession. Again, Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd was

chosen because of its pioneering use of personal selling, since 2000 in the banking industry.

Among the probability sampling method is the simple random sampling technique. A simple

random sampling technique will be used because it is assumed that all the elements or the

individuals in the population were judged to be homogeneous. The individuals for example had

similar characteristics or attributes. The population for the study involves the customers of

Barclays Bank and other banks and the direct sales representatives of Standard chart. However

due to time constraints, lack of financial resources and the combination of the research scientists

academic and office duties, the researcher had to limit the study to seven branches of Barclays

Bank, High Street, Mathaheko, Kaneshie, Ring Road, and Dansoman, where twenty customers

answer twenty questionnaires at each branch mentioned above, for a total of one hundred

customers answering the questionnaires. On the other hand twenty direct sales representatives of

Barclays Bank also answered a separate questionnaire for their views about personal selling and

its profession. Again, Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd was chosen because of its pioneering use of

personal selling, since 1997 in the banking industry.

3.4 Data Analysis

Trends of growth in number of transactions and performances of the sales force as against the

branches for the last two years will be compiled. Data compiled from a random selection of one

hundred and five customers, twenty direct sales representatives and other officers of Barclays

Bank draw a conclusion during the analysis stage which involved the use of graphs, qualitative

computation of statistical variables such as mean and average values indicate: effects of cost

avoidance due to the deployment of sales representatives, effects of customer satisfaction as a

result sales representatives activities and value added effects of sales force in the area to keep the

image of the bank, customer perceptions, strategic benefit and elimination of too much pressure

and fraud by money launderers through the sales force, especially by identifying almost seventy

percent of the customers residence or offices. Background information on the Barclays Bank, its

vision and strategic reasons for establishing the sales Centre will be analyzed and conclusions

will be drawn on the bank’s expectation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods will be

applied. The Quantitative methods to be considered of the number of accounts and loans sales

force brought to the company as compared to the branches performance. The cost effect of

Barclays Bank staff handling the necessary local activities in the absence of sales force will also

be considered. Qualitative methods such as effects of the enhancement of the image of the bank

due to the availability of sales force and the effects of offering different services apart from sales

will play a major role in both data analysis.