QUESTION
Question 1
- Discuss the several factor briefly
- Sales force planning and organization
- Sales force motivation
- Recruiting and selecting sales force
Question 2
Discuss the sales training for new and exprerience sales people
- Short and long term benefit for new and experience sales peopla
- Types of training
- Possible outcome or evaluating
- Possible achievement of trainning
Question 3
Discuss the use of telemarketing in sales (specific)
- Why is it used?
- How is it used?
- Benefit of telemarketing
- In what situation or scenario would telemarketing be used
Question 4
CRM
- What CRM do for organization
- Why is it important
- How we can use the CRM to build customer relationsip
- Long term relationship => developing a good long term relationship
SOLUTION
Sales managers supervise and manage the sales force of an organization. They are responsible for planning, leading and controlling activities of the organization. The sales force consisting of sales executives interacts with the customers and prospective customers during the process of selling. The sales force is the point of revenue generation for an organization (Philip Kotler and Kevin Kohler, 2009, pg 650-660).
Sales personnel therefore serve as the personal interface of the company with the customers. The sales executives or representatives also serve the critical role of providing information about the customers and prospective customers to the organization. They get this information during the course of their interaction with the customers.
Because of this critical function of the sales force, sales management is an equally critical and challenging task. The sales managers face many problems and challengers during the course of sales management.
Sales forecasting and budgeting are such problems. Through sales forecasting the sales manager assesses the future sales. The sales forecast of the sales manager informs many of the strategic level decisions of the organization. The sales budget sets the financial requirements for achieving the goals and objectives of the sales force (Philip Kotler and Kevin Kohler, 2009, pg 650-660).
Sales force planning and organization is one such problem or challenge that emerges before a sales manager. It involves decisions relating to the size and structure of the sales force. How should the sales force be spatially and strategically distributed for maximizing efficiency and effectiveness?
The goals, objectives and targets of the sales force are set in this stage. The strategies and tactics for achieving the sales objectives and targets are devised. The sales planning and organizing need to be done within the constraints set by the sales budget.
The sales force planning and organization stage sets the direction for the activities of the sales force. They are guided by the objectives, targets and strategies set in this stage. Getting this stage right is one of the biggest challenges that a sales manager faces.
Recruitment and selection of the sales force is another challenge of a sales manager’s job. At the center of a successful force is the recruitment and selection of efficient and effective sales executives. An empirical survey revealed that the top 27% of the sales force is usually the source of 52% of the sales turnover (Spiro, Rosann, L., Gregory A. Rich, and William J. Stanton, 2008, pg 99-115).
Recruitment and selection of the right sales force is a complicated task. The sales manager should recognize the right sources for potential sales candidates. The right recruitment processes should be put in place for measuring the abilities of the candidates against predetermined job requirements.
Continuous motivation of sales force is needed so that majority of the sales force can perform at their optimum level. Motivation enhances the productivity of the sales force. For motivating the sales executives or personnel, the sales manager needs to convince the sales people that they can sell more through working harder or through better training so that they can become more effective and efficient.
The sales managers also need to convince the sales force that the rewards offered for better performance are commensurate with the extra effort needed. Motivation is one of the most challenging tasks of a sales manager and it requires leadership skills.
Answer 2:
Sales training is a continuous process that facilitates the continuous growth of the sales personnel. This continuous growth is reflected in the increased productivity of the sales force. The sales personnel should be trained so that their awareness about the customer needs and customer buying behavior is enhanced (Philip Kotler and Kevin Kohler, 2009, pg 650-660).
The sales people should be able to recognize the buying cues. Training in communication and inter-personal skills is equally important for a sales persona. Such skills can be imparted through both formal and informal training.
Formal training can be imparted through in-house training modules or through the use of external training experts. The need for such formal training is very high in new and inexperienced sales people who have just been recruited in the organization.
The experienced sales personnel also need sales training so that their selling skills are updated according to the dynamics of the external environment. The sales manager should conduct a training needs assessment of the experienced sales personnel. Such a training needs assessment will help in the identification of the training needs of the experienced sales personnel.
A successful training program has clearly set training objectives. These objectives are linked to the performance of the employees. One of the primary objectives of formal sales training programs is to enhance the productivity of the sales personnel. The increased productivity also brings down the cost of selling and has a direct impact on both the top-line and bottom-line of the organization.
The productivity of both experienced and new sales people is increased through effective training. Many contemporary training programs operate with the perspective that professional salespeople are actually advisors or consultants and not merely product pushers. Such a holistic approach towards the function of selling also motivates the sales personnel and increases their self-esteem.
The two main types of training programs are initial sales training program and continuing sales training program. The initial sales training program, lasting for three to six months, is designed for the newly recruited and inexperience sales personnel.
The continuing sales training programs are devised for the experienced sales personnel. These training programs are shorter in duration and are more intensive in their focus of specialized topics and emerging challenges for the sales people.
The sales training program imparts product knowledge, company knowledge, competitor knowledge, customer and market knowledge, technology training and selling skills knowledge to both the inexperienced and experienced sales personnel.
Sales training plays a critical role in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales force. It is one of the critical factors of success in sales management. The costs of an effective training program are often offset by the benefits resulting from increased sales, increased market share, better customer relationship management and lower costs of sales. Sales training is of great significance for newly hired inexperienced sales personnel. However, they are also of no less significance for experienced sales personnel in a dynamically changing external environment. Companies that neglect this aspect of sales management suffer from ineffective and inefficient sales management. They are also deprived of long term benefits of sales training like improved customer relations, increased sales, reduced sales force turnover and increased profitability.
Answer 4:
Building relationship with customers is important for customer relationship management. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) encompasses the whole set of activities and processes that strive for managing the relationship with the customers in such a way so as to retain them for an extend9ed period of time. The ultimate goal of CRM is to exploit the life time sales value of a customer (Greenberg, Paul,2010, pg 115). Suppose a customer X purchases $ 10 worth of goods of a company every year. X is currently 30 years old and the average life expectancy is 70 years. So the lifetime value of X will be:
$ 10* 30* 40 = $ 12000.
Through customer relationship management the company aims to generate this lifetime value of the customer X.
Customer Relationship Management now relies a lot on the use of technology and automated processes and software. However the role of sales personnel and sales management in CRM continues to be of critical importance.
Sales personnel manage the customer relationship through the role of advisors or consultants. The sales person identifies the problems of the customers and suggests solutions. He provides useful information to the customers relating to the product and services of the company. After the sale is completed the sales personnel stay in touch with the customers for getting feedback on the performance of the product. They also provide solution to the customers for problems that the customers face after they start using the product or service.
Sales force automation and the information management tools have greatly helped the sales force in customer relationship management (CRM). Sales force automation has streamlined the different phases of the sales process. This has minimized the total lead time and has thereby increased the productivity of the sales personnel. Sales personnel now have more time and information for recognizing the needs of the current and prospective customers.
Customer relationship management focuses on retaining the existing customers. It is three times easier to retain an existing customer than to recruit a new one. This highlights the long term importance of customer relationship management (Lior Arussy,2010,pg 87). Training programs of sales personnel therefore places a lot of emphasis on training the sales force in the various aspects of customer relationship management. The popularity of CRM software tools is also because of these reasons. Effective customer relationship management also helps in identifying the customers that generate the maximum sales. The sales force can then give special focus and preference to these highly valuable customers. For many organizations like banks 20% of the top customers are responsible for generating more than 80% of the sales. In such a context the importance of customer relationship management is increased manifold. Customer Relationship Management becomes the top priority area of the sales force of the company. Over the past few decades the importance of customer relationship management and building long term relationships with the customers has been realized across all the sectors. It now tops the priority list of the sales force of all the major corporations.
References:
Philip Kotler and Kevin Kohler. Marketing Management . New York: Pearson, 2009. 650-660
Spiro, Rosann L., Gregory A. Rich, and William J. Stanton. Management of a Sales Force. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2008. 99-110
Greenberg, Paul. CRM at the Speed of Light. New Jersey : McGraw Hill, 2010.115
Lior Arussy. Understanding the Fatal Mistakes:Passionate and Profitable. London : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010. 87
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