INTER-CULTURAL COMPETENCE AS A KEY SUCCESS FACTOR FOR SALES PERFORMACE OF FRONT LINE EMPLOYEES: THE CASE OF THE BANKING INDUSTRY IN CYPRUS

In the current highly competitive market, with events such as the recent global recession, banking institutions have to enrol with the changes of the environment and utilize to the fullest extent possible all of their key components. As such, among the most precious elements a bank possesses is the front line workforce that interacts on a daily basis with the end customer. However, in the banking industry of Cyprus, appraisals undertaken by a banking institution in order to evaluate the sales performance of its front line employees showed a considerable weakness. Based on an extensive and systematic review of the literature, this article introduces three new factors regarding the sales performance of front line employees, inter-cultural competence, Problem Solving Approach (PSA) and negotiation skills. Lastly, front line employees should learn to sell through communicating rather than persuading, which calls for a searching need in the field of relationship developmental skills. Hereupon, through its synthesis and the introduction of those new elements into a new synthesized conceptual model, that is what this paper aims to fulfil.