...previous chapter which is chapter 15, we already discussed on the process by which we determine the number and type of sales people needed, and also how to recruit applicants. In this chapter we are in the third phase which is selection. This phase involved of developing a system of tools and procedures for matching the applicants with the predetermined requirements and actually using this system to select the salespeople. There are some major tools in the selection, they are application blanks, personal interviews, psychological tests, references and credit reports and the last tool is assessment centers. This chapter also discuss about the fourth phase of staffing process which is hiring and also the final phase, which is assimilating new hires into the company. The figure below shows the tools on selecting salespeople. In this chapter, the processing applicants are a key activity in implementing a company’s strategy planning. When using the any of the selecting tools, manager has to make certain that it is complying with all pertinent laws and regulatory guidelines. The application blank and the personal interview are the two most widely used selection tools. A short application blank may be used as an initial screening device. A longer application blank is a primary source of personal history information that can be used in hiring and in other phases of sales operations. An application blank is an excellent tool for getting information in three major categories of job qualifications...
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...‘ Sales controls : Objectives, process & difficulties * To ensure the achievement of sales and profit objectives * sales people sometimes pay inadequate attention as they are caught up in the maze of everyday activities - many related to individual sales personnel & customer problems – they neglect long term perspectives * To find out strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the organization. * To locate the defects and take corrective steps to improve the situation * by coordinating and controlling effectively various sales operations * Control process : Sales Audit, Sales Analysis & Cost analysis What is a sales control & cost analysis ? Sales control and cost analysis is the function of the sales management of the company to ensure the achievement of sales and profit objectives by coordinating and controlling effectively various sales operations. The sales control and cost analysis tools are : * Sales audit * Sales analysis & * Cost analysis These tools provide means to a sales management to find out strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the organization. By using the above different tools of control, the management can locate the defects and take corrective steps to remove the shortcomings and improve the situation and tone up the functioning of his department. Sales audit Sales audit is defined as * “ a systematic, critical and unbiased review and appraisal...
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...Sales Management Question 1. A leading University in Kenya is planning to recruits two sales people to contribute in their growth plan. They have approached you as a marketing expert regarding the qualities of sales people should hire. What would be your advice? A salesperson should possess several qualities that would enable him/her to perform the outlined tasks effectively. A person may make a good salesman in one line of business and may fail in another. Therefore, as a marketing expert, I would advise the University to consider both the physical and mental attributes of the available candidates. a) Physical attributes: A successful salesperson must have sound health and pleasing personality. A growth plan in the University is arduous and requires sharpness in handling the associated responsibilities. He/she should have capacity for hardwork, stamina and sufficient tolerance. A good personality consists of several attributes namely; neat appearance, refined tastes, good habits, clear voice and a confident demeanour. Only a well-groomed and cheerful candidate can create a good impression on the clients. The recruiting panel should be keen to look out for: Personality: Personality is a composite of various characters of a person-personal appearance, habits, manners, way of dressing, posture and voice. They should be good listeners who appreciate constructive criticism. A good personality will ensure that there are minimal deviations from the growth plan due to challenges...
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...In the 1970s, most companies concentrated on using personal selling techniques. This technique of using person to person communicating selling has not changed, even in large companies of the 21st century. This paper discusses the reasons how personal selling has helped in relation to the company and their communications with their customers, and why it is still important when technology is seemingly replacing people. Personal selling is two way communications between company and customer, a salesperson can effectively provide the customer with the product's information, where he/she can assess the feedback to adjust product's information (Hair et al. 2009). In this situation, the consumer can be provided with the knowledge of the facts about the products they are interested in. This is also very important in helping the company to build good relationships with consumers. If a salesperson can build up a relationship, he/she will have more clients and this can lead to superior long-term performance through better customer retention. In addition, personal selling also can be an important source of marketing information. Salespeople may learn about competitors' products or about emerging customer needs when they communicate with customer. It may lead to the development of a new product (Boles et al. 1996). The interactive nature of personal selling also makes it more effective to promote the particular product (Boles et al. 1996). For example, an encyclopedia is a particular...
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...To me team sales approach is really important for any kind of business. It can show the business a different way and can make the business a success. In this case, Roger Owens hired the Royal Group as a sales team for the betterment or the development of his new project “Lake Oconee Plantation” . This sales team consisted of Dan cross (owner of the Royal Group) , Sara (Dan’s wife) ,Jim Thompson, and Kimberly Southworth. Each and every member of this team played an vital role in the success of Roger’s business. Dan and sara was in the field team who spent most of their times with their customers. Dan was mainly the deal maker. On the other side Kim and jim worked back in the office. jim worked in the creative sector including the development of the website, designs, and print production. And kim was basically the traffic controller or in other word she was in service sector. They worked in different four sectors to bring different angle in the business. I think, in other sales organizations, this idea can also work out. By focusing in these four sectors one business can easily improve their sales. Let’s take an example of our telecommunication companies. Their target is to establish their network within the whole country and for this reason they have to focus on their sales. Suppose , they have hired a new sales team and one effective member is working with the customers face to face , one is improving the website to let the customer know better about their product , another...
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...ROLE OF A SALES MANAGER BA032IU Sales Management Guest Speaker Report Marking sheet Group: _______________________ Date: ________________ 1. Executive Summary of the Essay a) Summary of the major content, the purpose of this essay, what this essay is about and so on 2. Discuss the Role of a Sales Manager - Where applicable, provide theories to support the evidence b) Describe the responsibilities and challenges (E.g., what should a sales manager do when sales slump or drop off? or how to handle stress situation of sales target, manage sales team diversity and so on) 3. Describe the Process of Selling and Buying of B2B or B2C from the experiences shared by the sales manager (guest speaker) and provide practical examples to illustrate, included: c) How to prospecting a customers d) How to building rapport e) Discuss critical aspects in relationship selling 4. Sales Performance and Others a) Discuss recruitment and selection b) Leadership and motivating sales forces c) Leadership and motivating sales forces d) Compensation, incentives, non-financial reward and personal satisfaction 5. Conclusion (5) a) Discuss your own point of view regarding the challenges. Group mark: _______/100% ___________________ Grade RULES OF THUMB The creativity of the report presentation, analysis and idea arrangement is highly marked The credibility of information source/reference must be guaranteed Quality not quantity! ASSIGNMENT 2 - B2B/B2C SALES CALL PRESENTATION ...
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...which are exploration, establishment, maintenance and disengagement. Exploration: sales person is most concerned with finding the right occupational field. He is thinking if he chooses the right career or not. He aspires to be accepted as a productive member in his company, he is concerned with learning the skills required to do the job well. He wants to establish a good initial self-concept. He need support from his manager, acceptance from his peers and seeks for challenging position. Some sales people dropout or terminate in this stage. Establishment: Sales person commits to the sales field as an occupation of choice. His skills are increasing. He begins to concentrate on producing better results. He is working with greater autonomy developing creativity and innovation. He is producing superior results on the job in order to be promoted. He is balancing the conflict demand of career and family. Maintenance: Sales person performance is reached to a satisfactory period; He strives to maintain this period. He reports quite positive attitude. He develops boarder view of work and company. He maintains a high level of performance. He needs some motivations through personal rewards. He is concerned about aging and disappointment over what he has accomplished. By this stage both the opportunity and desire for promotion diminishes. Disengagement: This is a transition from work to retirement. Sales person perspective becomes more oriented towards factors outside the company such...
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...What is Sales? Sales is what you do and say during the one moment your product or service is being purchased. It's confirming the payment options. Sales is a one time process (means just selling the product to the customer). It's converting an inquiry or lead into a contract or shipment. Sales is not market research, business development or advertising. Pre-sales, Sales and Post-sales Pre-sales is a process or a set of activities normally carried out before a customer is acquired, though sometimes pre-sales also extends into the period the product or service is delivered to the customer. The task of a pre-sales person starts from the initial contact phase and often ends once the customer is acquired i.e. sale is made. The Pre-Sales Activities can be broken into two areas, planning and preparing for the call. Planning, in the Pre-Sales Activities, can include Prospect/Customer identification, Product/research/customer analysis review, competitor/industry research, creating a call strategy, evaluation of your products and services relative to the competition. To prepare is to put together or make by combining various elements or ingredients. Write an objective, determine the processes you will use to achieve those objectives, set quantifiable goals for each objective and practice for the call. Sales Activities are the execution of all your hard work planning and preparing. These activities may include the sales call/meeting, negotiation or follow-up, closing the deal/order...
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...Paper: Sales Management Practice Timothy M. Smith Marketing 4030: Sales Management Purpose This term paper exercise is designed to have you study the specific sales practices of a company of your choice. You are to study a company directly, that is, by personally interviewing one or more key executives (for example, the regional sales manager). This will be a group project. You will select a company for your study according to several criteria: 1. Personal interest : your group finds the company intriguing 2. Convenience: a family member, friend, or a member of your group can provide access. 3. Availability of supplementary library material: Is the company one that the business press writes about? Whatever your reason, the selection of your company is up to your group. Important Concepts The following is a format for constructing and presenting your term paper on Sales Management Practice. Please remember that your own creativity and style are critical in any report. C ompany and Industry Background: Describes the context in which the sales function operates. Includes a brief company history, a description of company objectives, management philosophy, strategy, etc. You must do a library search on the industry and compan y and present an original strategy overview relevant to the sales position (in other words, identify key marketing strategies and the role of personal selling within them). Description of the Sales Manager's...
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...SPECIAL DOUBLE ISSUE: SALES >> RESEARCH REPORT BY B A R RY T R A I L E R A N D J I M D I C K I E Patterns of customer behavior have changed. Today, consumers may be well along in their buying process before you get the first whiff of a lead. Consequently, sales organizations should redesign – and in some ways reinvent – the selling process. Understanding What Your Sales Manager Is Up Against F we have conducted an annual survey of chief sales officers – the executives in charge of their companies’ selling efforts. One purpose is to understand what challenges their sales organizations are up against and how those challenges are shifting over time. The 1,275 responses to our 2006 survey indicate an acceleration of trends established over the past several years. Across industries, the selling context has changed, buyers are behaving differently, and the work required of the sales organization is becoming more difficult. Let’s start with the fact that 85% of companies report increases in their product-line breadth, product complexity, and participation in new markets. The impact on the sales organization comes in many forms. It takes longer to get a new salesperson up to full productivity: 62% of companies report a rampOR THE PAST 12 YEARS, up period of more than seven months. The percentage has risen in each of the past four years, but it made its most dramatic one-year jump from 2005 to 2006. The quotas being assigned to salespeople have also gone up substantially...
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...IN SALES MANAGEMENT A Resource Guide for Sales Managers BEST PRACTICES IN SALES MANAGEMENT A Resource Guide for Sales Managers Over the course of my career, I’ve had the privilege of personally working with several great sales managers and also seeing many examples of effective sales leadership in our client organizations. I’ve seen the impact that a great sales manager can have on an organization, and I’ve also seen how quickly a corporate strategy can fall apart without this vital leadership. Sales management may be one of the most critical roles that influence the success of an organization. You are closest to two important corporate assets: customers and the sales team. The impact of an effective sales manager can be felt throughout an organization. Unfortunately, the same holds true for those whose attempts are not meeting expectations. It’s challenging. The responsibilities of this role are to execute against a defined strategy and produce results that have been defined by executives who are often many levels above them. But it is also rewarding. It is the sales manager who is both the coach and cheerleader for the revenue engine that will determine if a company makes it to the finish line or falls short. As you build tenure in a sales management role, you will also build a toolbox of resources to help you fulfill those obligations. As the recognized global leader in delivering sales performance solutions, we’ve compiled this Sales Management Guide...
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...Sales and Selling Management 1 MAN436 Felecia Steed Anthony Duran June 19, 2013 Sales and Selling Management 2 1. Do you believe Alan is doing a good job in his new sales management position? Why or why not? I do think that Alan is trying to do a good job, but going about it in the wrong way. Some people can handle a promotion really well, others let it “go to their head”. 2. Describe the functions Alan should be performing as sales manager. What should the approximate allocation of his time be in performing these functions? I think Alan needs to spend time Planning Organizational goals and how to achieve them. He Will need to decide where decisions will be made, who will do what jobs and tasks. He needs to sit down and motivate the employees to so their best. Last he needs to monitor the progress of the employees toward their goal achievement. I think he needs to visit each store, and devise a plan of action. He will need to become a team player, and allow the employees to help with the plan. It depends on the progress of each store as to how long it would take in each store, but I would say a week in each store then check on them once a month. 3. Do you believe that Alan’s behavior will have a long-term negative effect on those salespeople who have had a problem with his way of field supervision and training? If so, what could Alan do to moderate the situation? A great manager should keep his or her word and strive to set a good example. A good boss...
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...KINNAIRD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN SALES MANAGEMENT AND ADVERTISING SEMESTER-5 OTHER-ASSIGNMENT Read the following case study and answer the questions that follow: Sue Wilson, purchasing manager for the Humboldt, Tennessee, plant of National Agri-Products Company, is back in her office reviewing her notes from a meeting she just finished with Tom Roberts, Vicki Sievers, and Greg Runyon. Tom is the plant manager of the Humboldt plant, Vicki is the plant engineer, and Greg the production manager. The four met for the last hour to discuss the equipment National needs to buy to complete expansion of the Humboldt plant. National Agri-Products Company produces various agricultural products at its four manufacturing locations throughout the Midwest. The Humboldt plant was built seven years ago to produce cornstarch and dextrose for use as food ingredients. Five and a half years after the plant was completed, top management decided to expand it to produce corn syrup, which is an ingredient in soft drinks, candy, and various baked goods. Humboldt will be the second National Agri-Products Company plant with the capability to produce corn syrup. As Sue reviews her notes, she notices that Tom, Vicki, and Greg have various requirements for the equipment that would be needed to produce the corn syrup. During the meeting, Tom said it was very important to "get everything right" in completing this project. The company already had invested a lot of money in the expansion, and Tom didn't want...
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...installed browser lockdown. This is a timed quiz with 45 minutes to complete. Chapter 2: * Types of sales jobs * Salespeople who focus on gaining new customers called hunters or pioneers. * Order-takers this category of salespeople try to increase sales as they build customer share * The sales effort by providing information and performing other supplemental services called Missionary sales people * Merchandiser * Personal selling approaches * Stimulus response: stimulus response selling is the least flexible and least focused on the buyer’s unique needs and strategic priorities. * Mental states: Mental states selling is essentially a sequential approach to selling in which the salesperson leads the customer through stages, or mental states, in the buying process. * Problem solving: Problem-solving selling extends need satisfaction selling beyond identifying needs to developing alternative solutions for satisfying these needs. * Need satisfaction: Salespeople using this method help customers identify their needs if customers are not already aware of their needs, and then sell customers products and services to meet the needs. * Consultative selling: Consultative selling is the process of helping customers reach their strategic goals by using the products, services, and expertise of the sales organization. . * Trust-based relationship selling process * Seeks to initiate, develop, and...
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...use, I will process 3 steps to make a sale, such as making contact, closing the sale and following through. Making Contact In the very beginning stage, an invitation email will be sent to related parties for first approach and introduce our company background and products. After that, a courtesy call will be made to Jim Lo for brief company and product introduction and meeting arrangement. Closing the sale Before meet the potential customer, detailed slides and business proposal will be ready to introduce our company service offerings, competitive advantages and benefits. During the meeting, business proposal and brochures will be available for Jim Lo. Also, a fruitful and interesting presentation will be performed to him to arouse his attention and got into the conversation to realize their actual needs. After the meeting, a tailor-made or fine-tune business proposal will be ready to ingratiate and build rapport with Jim Lo for consideration. Furthermore, on site inspection will be free to Jim Lo’s company so that to reduce his post-purchase dissonance and overcome the difficulties encountered in service and respond to the problem quickly. While performing the service, we will be considerate, courteous, and careful with their belongings. Following through After the free trial, a follow up call will be made to Jim Lo to ask the feedback and satisfaction and reinforce our service offering’s features, prestige after sales service, competitive advantages and proactively...
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