Key findings:

The study explored sales productivity optimization in Bank Oranye's wealth management division, identifying factors like low sales effectiveness, low efficiency, and manual processes as crucial challenges. The research revealed that integrating digital tools and technology with the wealth system could streamline the sales process and improve productivity.

What is known and what is new?

What is known is that maintaining sustainable sales performance is crucial for a company's profitability and success, with the sales department playing a vital role. What is new is the comprehensive case study of Bank Oranye's wealth management division, which explores the causes of declining sales productivity and identifies digital tools and technology integration as key to improving sales processes and productivity.

What is the implication, and what should change now?

The implication is that Bank Oranye needs to implement a digital sales strategy and tools integrated with its wealth management system to streamline the sales process, address inefficiencies, and improve sales productivity. Changes needed include investing in digital transformation, automating sales workflows, and aligning the sales process with customer-centric digital engagement to drive sustainable sales performance.

Banking industry plays a critical component of the global financial system and also plays a crucial role in supporting the stability of the financial system, facilitating economic activities, and managing monetary policy. Banking industry is a fundamental pillar of the modern economic landscape, and as the architects of the financial ecosystem, banks serve as facilitators of wealth and economic activities.

Bank Oranye’s wealth management business recently faced declining sales productivity which directly impacted business performance and threatened future business risk in sustainable sales performance. High attrition rate of sales staff also faced by Bank Oranye’s wealth management business as the competition between the banking industry remains high. Therefore, it is needed to assess and analyse ways to increase the number of sales productivity in achieving business sales revenue targets. The declining sales productivity was analysed and connected to the sales management. Making the most of team member’s skills may motivate firms to organize in selling teams. [1]

Bank Oranye’s wealth management business unit, SINAYU, was first established in 2008. Started focusing on savings and time deposits products, expanding to bancassurance and investment products. SINAYU focuses on giving excellent personal services for high-net worth segmented markets. In 2020, SINAYU launched SINAYU Prioritas, an advanced digital priority banking service that is supported digitally through GENIUS mobile application and best personalized Relationship Manager. SINAYU has 58 branches spread throughout Indonesia, divided into 3 regions and 9 Area (Jakarta 1, Jakarta 2, Jakarta 3, Surabaya, Jawa Tengah, Jawa Timur Bali dan Nusra, Indonesia Bagian Timur, Sumatera, Jawa Barat), with over 200 sales staff.

The aim of this research are:

1. To identify the causes of declining sales productivity rate in Bank Oranye wealth management business.

2. To assess tools that can improve sales productivity.

There are several limitations in this research which are SINAYU – wealth management business unit of PT Bank Oranye, its sales productivity, sales revenue performance, sales process, and other related factors that are affected.

Sales productivity according to Forsyth, P., (2002), is the sales equivalent of productivity in an area, the focus here is on efficiencies that maximize the amount of time spent with customers (rather than traveling, writing reports etc.), it focuses on ratios and touches on anything that increases sales success however measured [2].

Researcher involves the sales organization effectiveness framework to comprehensively evaluate sales organization determinations means for improving performance and sales productivity, as developed by Ingram, T. N., 2004 [3].

Figure 1: Sales Organization Effectiveness (Ingram, T. N., 2004)

The sales organization effectiveness evaluation model conducts analysis in sales, cost, profitability, and productivity. Each of the elements analysis model is elaborated as follows [3]: (Figure 1)

• Sales Analysis

Several types of analysing problem areas of sales effectiveness are evaluating organizational level of analysis, type of sales, and type of analysis. Organizational level of analysis consists of evaluating sales results throughout the sales organization from a top-down perspective [3]. Evaluating type of sales based on several categories like product type, account type, size, volume and type of distribution method. Based on type of analysis, it makes comparisons within sales organizations, forecasts, sales quotas, past period, competitors or industry.

• Cost Analysis

Cost analysis evaluates the expenses incurred by the sales organization to attain the achieved sales levels. It compares the budget (planned cost) with the cost incurred. The key sales management budgeting task is to determine the best way to allocate these sales resources throughout the sales organization and across the different selling activities [3]. Objectives in this cost analysis is to determine the lowest possible expenditure necessary to achieve sales quota.

• Profitability Analysis

Several types of profitability analysis are income statement analysis, activity-based costing, and return on asset managed analysis (ROAM). Profitability analysis combines from the sales and cost from the previous analysis to evaluate in different organizational levels of different types of sales.

• Productivity Analysis

Productivity analysis is measured by ratios between inputs and outputs. Profitability analysis and productivity analysis are highly interrelated, from the profitability analysis point of view from a financial perspective, whereas productivity analysis is more managerial oriented. As mentioned by Ingram, T.N., 2004 [3], Improvements of productivity can be obtained in two basic ways such as increasing output with the same level of input which is sales effectiveness and maintaining the same level of output using less input which is sales efficiencies.

Efficiency in sales is one of the major elements in defining sales force productivity. Efficiency measured in the number of sales can be generated by salesperson compared to cost or time spent in making sales. Based on the review of several literatures, Zallocco et al. (2009) notes that efficiency is likely to be seen as part of an operational model that encourages salespeople to take responsibility in maintaining quality of data and best practices [4].

Time management training allows salespeople to have structured plans and could maximize every time they have to do more value-added activities. Sales and marketing automation supported by technology leveraging in the sales process, making good use of sales tools, digital flow process frameworks. Sales efficiency could increase the good use of time and effort spent in generating higher numbers of sales revenues. It is often described as the comparison between quantity vs quality, ensuring efficient time management and cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, based on Jessica Wahlberg (2017), sales efficiency is managing allocation of resources, ensuring minimum wastage of capital and time, as well as ensuring that effort is not wasted on non-profitable customers [5].

The adoption of digital technologies within the wealth management sector has profoundly transformed the execution of business transactions. Digitalization involves incorporating digital tools into routine business activities, thereby enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and client satisfaction. A key impact of digitization in wealth management is the improved engagement and experience for clients. Research by McKinsey & Company (2020) indicates that digital tools enable wealth managers to offer more personalized and timely advice to their clients [6]. This is achieved through advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), which help in understanding client preferences and predicting their financial needs. Digital platforms, such as robo-advisors, provide clients with access to financial advice and investment management services at reduced costs and with greater convenience [7].

This research design is to show the steps and flow how the research will be conducted to be able to answer the research questions. The model will begin with identifying business issues and elaborate the research questions, The main source of data collection are primary data and secondary data. Data that is not published yet and is the first-hand information which is not changed by any individual is known as primary data [8]. To do the analysis and formulate the business strategy to give business solutions to the problems.

The research will use qualitative methodology approaches to answer research questions in understanding current business conditions and how to improve sales productivity of the sales team. Qualitative methods are best for addressing the why questions about the project [9]

Figure 2: Research Design

For data analysis methods, researchers conduct using PESTLE and Porter’s Five Forces for external analysis. As for the internal analysis, researchers conduct day-in-life observation (DILO) method and five-why analysis. The observation was conducted with DILO (Day-In-Live-Observation) methodology to oversee more factors that might affect the sales productivity. [10]. The 5 Whys is a simple yet effective tool for performing root cause analysis. It involves asking "Why?" five times or more to move past symptoms and identify the underlying cause of a problem [11]. One of the methods for collecting data in qualitative research is doing interviews. Researchers rely on interviews, generally, when they face complex or sensitive concepts and need detailed and high-status information [12]. Qualitative data collection using an in -depth interview method with the stakeholders

The result of external analysis using PESTLE analysis summary elaborates in Table 1.

Table 1: PESTLE analysis summary

Table 2: Porter’s Five Forces in Wealth Management

The Porter's Five Forces analysis for the wealth management business within Indonesian banks reveals a competitive landscape where established players are contending with intense rivalry, albeit with high barriers protecting against new entrants. The sector is experiencing a notable impact from substitutes, with fintech and digital platforms offering alternative wealth management solutions, thereby heightening the competitive stakes. Suppliers hold moderate sway due to the specialized nature of financial products, while buyers exert significant influence due to the availability of information and alternative providers. Environmental factors, particularly the rise of sustainable and ESG investing, are becoming increasingly pertinent, requiring banks to adapt their product offerings. Moreover, the industry operates under stringent regulations, with compliance and legal standards being a defining feature of the market landscape. This environment necessitates strategic agility and innovation, particularly in sales strategies, to sustain and enhance productivity in the wealth management sector. (Table 2)

For the internal analysis, researchers conducted the DILO from 3 areas within different regions with 15 samples of salespeople.

Figures 2: DILO Result

From the DILO results, researchers classified Relationship Manager’s activities into several categories such as selling and prospecting, meeting and training, administrative activities, break, idling or waiting, and traveling. For further analysis, researchers group those activities based on activities that give value added (VA) and non-value added (NVA). the NVA (non-value added) activities took quite a significant part of Relationship Managers’ daily productivity. (Figure 2)

Figures 3: VA vs NVA

The breakdown analysis of the NVA points out some keynotes, like administrative activities that took 18% of Relationship Managers’ time-spent due to filling many paper-based forms caused by manual transactions process, manual reporting, preparing transactions and portfolio documents. Travelling activities also took 20% of Relationship Managers’ time due to lack of efficiency in planning routes and making appointments with customers. Non valued activities were mainly caused by poor sales planning, lack of supervision, and lack of target focus. (Figure 3)

These non-sales activities can be developed to be allocated for generating more sales & prospecting activities in producing revenues.

Researchers adopted secondary data from internal SINAYU sales management data to give additional point of view in supporting the accuracy of primary data. Some sales indicators such as number of revenues generated, number of sales activity (sales call, sales visit), sales activity target, measures relationship manager sales effectiveness and sales efficiency. Those indicators produced the sales productivity ratio.

Table 3: Baseline Sales Productivity Ratio

From the preceding internal analysis, several issues are identified in the sales process that could be assessed further:

• Too much paperwork needs to be done by a relationship manager for processing wealth transactions.

• Relationship manager spent more time servicing customer’s inquiry.

• Low customer prospecting interaction to gain new customers.

• Manual transaction processes caused a high number of transaction errors.

• Sales managers not making good use of CRM to monitor their sales team activities.

• Relationship managers were not focusing on growing their portfolio.

Based on the data analysis in the preceding chapter, researchers can conclude that most of sales time is spent in non-value-added activities which primarily cause the decline in sales productivity. As the business grows, sales revenue targets incline every year. On the opposite side, the sales productivity was declining consecutively online with the business sales revenue achievement. Following the analysis of relationship manager day in life observations, internal sales process, and sales productivity ratio, it has been determined that the primary cause is most of the relationship manager time spent in administrative tasks and travelling activities to fulfil customer inquiries which are caused by inefficient sales transaction processes especially in wealth products. This situation also limited relationship managers' productivity capacity in achieving sales revenue targets. The issue is further validated by the low sales productivity ratio from 3 main piloting areas as a benchmarking baseline.

The strategy of PT Bank Oranye to improve sales staff productivity in the wealth management business is digitizing wealth product transaction process from paper based forms to digital sales process by developing and implementing e-form application in relationship manager sales tablet. The digital sales process will be sophisticatedly integrated from relationship manager mobile applications which integrate directly with the wealth system to customers personal smartphones. As proposed by this research, this end-to-end digital sales process not only reduces time in processing wealth transactions, but also significantly could increase customer experience and load on operational teams.

This research shows focus on the importance of cutting down the sales process flow. By enhancing sales process efficiency, relationship managers could allocate their time savings from sales process efficiency to do more sales and prospecting activities to generate new customers and higher potential sales revenues. The strategy also increases customer satisfaction by offering flexibility to buy wealth products through relationship manager’s assistant and operational services as it increases transaction accuracy.

RECOMMENDATION

For the future researchers, the researcher offers some recommendations to get more holistic understanding of the factors that drive sales productivity and developing more effective strategies for enhancement:

1. Future researchers may consider expanding the scope of research on the bank-wide level by combining sales productivity analysis in multiple retail business units. The research also may expand to widen the scope of products.

2. Sales staff employee-centric approach can be explored by future researchers to focus on organizational behaviour aspects to gain deeper understanding of sales personal factors influencing sales productivity. The performance of industrial salespeople is more strongly related to what salespeople do rather than how hard they work [13].

3. Combining quantitative methods with qualitative insight to gain a more comprehensive view of sales productivity. Future researchers could capture the underlying reasons behind the productivity behaviour change.

4. Leveraging on exploring more advanced technologies such as machine learning or artificial intelligence to increase better sales efficiency. Technology helps salespeople increase their productivity and effectiveness, and allows them to gather and access information more efficiently [14].

 Funding: No funding sources.

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Northern Technical University.

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