Building Customer Relationships via the Internet - Essay Example

?Sales Management Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 0 Advantages and Disadvantages of Building Relationships via the Internet  3 2.0 Transaction Focused Traditional Selling and Trust Based Relationship Selling 5 3.0 Analysis of the Statement and Reasons for Support 7 4.0 References 9 5.0 Bibliography 11 1.0 Advantages and Disadvantages of Building Customer Relationships via the Internet  The growth of present business scenario is based on the capability of businessmen to maintain close Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The customers are creating huge demands and having more choices to meet their expectations. For generating customer loyalty, a business organisation requires accurate, absolute and current information of customers. Web based CRM facilitates an organisation to keep the entire customer records as well as manage the sales processes from initial contact towards final order. The other facilities that can be developed through internet are maintenance of absolute customer contact profiles, examination of sales prospects and processes that are required for fulfilling the entire orders (SAP 2007). The internet has drastically altered the traditional supply chain that allows an organisation to connect with the employees, suppliers as well as customers within a communication network. CRM is assisted by the internet application as it helps to gather as well as store and access data in addition to share the information and feedback from customers to companies (Instructor Manual 2011). However, as the entire information of customer is stored via web, therefore it becomes easy to contact with the people locating in remote areas for sales activities, contacts and orders. The functionality of CRM related to web-based technology assists the customers and the business partners to be updated with vital information of business. The marketer by means of regular mail may advertise special promotions such as discount offer codes and coupons. The mail of the customers also remains updated with new products and/or services. The entire purposes of marketing through the information technology system are a great advantage for marketer to manage liaison with customers (SAP 2007). On the other side, also there are a few disadvantages in generating customer relationship management through internet. Small business in order to maintain their online promotional security and to reduce the vulnerability utilises huge finance. The other challenge that is faced by the business personnel for the internet based marketing is that there is less personal contact with the customers. The contact may occur when there is chance of sales but after this period the whole contact gets stopped (Lendor 2011). The information in internet marketing quickly gets outdated; as a result, regular updates are essential. The end-customers might not easily access the customers’ service and fail to receive immediate responses. As a result customers consider such types of marketing technique as a poor one. Due to poor navigation in several websites customers fail to receive the appropriate information they need. The inaccurate stereotypes in internet marketing may act as barrier for online purchase by customers because they are fearful of using credit cards. Moreover, there are ample of links where the need products of customers are available. The competitors may search and find the products in the competitors’ sites and as a result the advertisement remains unused. These are the factors which may develop negative impression in the mind of customers regarding the internet marketing, which ultimately points to development of poor customer relationship management. Thus, marketers require being much careful about the online advertising of the products (Vi Advocacy 2011). 2.0 Transaction Focused Traditional Selling and Trust Based Relationship Selling The traditional way of selling has become outdated as it fails to maintain its competitiveness in the market. The traditional methods are not focused towards satisfaction of buyers rather it provides importance to the sellers’ firm. The sellers are less concerned for the interest of the buyers. This approach is a short-term prospect as it is only based on present situation and also the seller fails to develop long term planning. It involves follow-up till the sale is made and are not focused to provide value to the customers. The follow-up method is established so that a firm can make more sales. In this method, relationship development is not provided any importance (Rinker 1999). Traditional selling is totally sales person oriented method. The sales persons are interested to satisfy the buyers’ requirements within a short-term period. There are limited stages in traditional selling method as sellers take less time to demonstrate to the customers about the products. The specific need of buyers may not be understood clearly by the sellers and as a result there may be loss of clientele. Sales person provides little information regarding the products to the customers. In the presentation of the seller, major focus is on the product and not on the customers’ choice (University of Minnesota 2011). Relationship selling referred as multi-staged process that provides emphasis to personalisation as well as sympathy and considers these as vital components in identifying prospects, extending them as customers and satisfying them. The relationship marketing generally focuses on trust development because for certain sales trust plays a vital role. As the selling of products or services contains risks, the customers are required to trust the sales person along with the company from where the product is bought. Trust is considered as an obligatory force that provides customer with high level of expectation to gratify the need. The trade involving the buyer as well as the seller becomes effective when there is huge trust on each other. The customers generally purchase from the sales person who provides them with lesser risk in comparison to others. It is the responsibility of sales personnel to attain trust from the buyers. As observed by Doyle and Roth the trust is generated between buyer and seller depending on five areas of traits such as ‘customer orientation’, ‘dependability’, ‘competence’, ‘likability’ and ‘candor’ (Rinker 1999). Customer orientation acts as first trust developer with a desire to serve the customers by recognising the need of buyers. Dependability is based on the transformation of promise into action and that is expected by the customers from sellers’ side. In present scenario, sales personnel are required to be competent enough to interrelate with the customers. Due to various characteristic of sales persons, they are liked by customers which results in building of trust. The word ‘Candor’ means accuracy and quality of words that are utilised by sellers to the buyers because good quality words may result in purchase decision by buyers (Rinker 1999). 3.0 Analysis of the Statement and Reasons for Support Motivation acts as a significant contribution to make an individual an effective sales person. A sales person may be motivated if he is paid higher monetary value. On the contrary, if the sales person is paid less then he easily can become frustrated and disappointed and his morale values may become lower. This negative perception and behaviour arise due to their designed job responsibility (Rohan Academic Computing 2011). The sales people are encouraged by incentive programs. The managers may offer them money as an incentive tool in order to perk up their morale because money is considered as a significant ingredient for incentives. It is a challenging task for sales manager to motivate the sales persons all around the year so that their moral remains upbeat. The success of a company in the sales oriented segment depends on the sales people, thus continuous inspiration of sales-force is essential (Boe 2011). Formulating of good compensation plan for the sales force may encourage them to reach their success. The sales manager must prepare an appropriate compensation plan for the sales persons so that they never get disappointed. As good sales persons are entrepreneurial in their nature, they are prepared to take risks if sufficient rewards are arranged for them. The achievement to reach the target is not a difficult task for sales force if desirable amount of incentive is presented to them. The compensation plan developed by sales manager of a company may fail in certain cases if long term goal planning is not developed which ultimately discourages the sales force (Hoffman 2011). The development of effective planning may promote sales person to work passionately in order to achieve the target that has been set for him. As a result by developing such enthusiasm they can reach the definite profit margin of a company. The sales person may reach their utmost potential and destination and remain motivated all the time. It also facilitates them to develop their sense of job security by building trust with the company in which they are working. The incentive scheme and good compensation plan may develop strong desire in them to make huge monetary growth. The compensation plan that is designed for long term must be flexible enough, highly challenging with sound economy and should be well administered. The entire factors that have an impact on the designing of compensation of sales people are required to be dealt with clarity. The success of sales person is based on the motivational level of company. Companies are much focused towards motivational aspects of the sales force as it is a challenging factor to make them encourage throughout their work period (Hoffman 2011). The provided statement refers that more amount paid to the sales people may result in more sales of the company, thus it is a true fact which has been observed from the above discussion. The money as a motivation tool is a significant factor to keep the sales force to be energised in the work. Sales person must be provided importance by the management of the company as well as by the sales manager for enhancing the growth of the company. 4.0 References Boe, John. 2011. The Art of Motivating Salespeople. http://www.get-articles.com/articles/management-and-best-practice/the-art-of-motivating-salespeople1 Hoffman, Jack. 2011. How Do You Motivate and Compensate Your Salespeople? Accessed May 21, http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.milestone-solutions.com%2Farticles_downloads%2Fways_to_motivate_and_compensate_salespeople.doc&rct=j&q=How%20Do%20You%20Motivate%20And%20Compensate%20Your%20Salespeople%3F.%20&ei=7VPXTemUNMS4rAf3yYH1BQ&usg=AFQjCNF-Sk1Yd7PdCSmQnbUanjpu5Hd0FA&sig2=F-LYi6ylcrg3R67pGWALJQ&cad=rja Instructor’s Manual. 2011. Key Concepts. Accessed May 21, http://www.bauer.uh.edu/mnewman/HS/Chapter13.doc Lendor, Carla. 2011. Disadvantages. Accessed May 21, http://www.keyboardcommunications.com/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_view/gid,16/Itemid,67/ Rinker, Andrea M. 1999. Relationship Selling. http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/virtualpress/student/honorstheses/pdfs/R56_1999RinkerAndreaM.pdf Rohan Academic Computing. 2011. Motivating Salespeople. Accessed May 21, http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~renglish/473/notes/chapt14/index.htm SAP. 2007. Web Access to Real-Time Customer Data and Sales Information. http://www.dbs.ca/Web-Based_Customer_Relationship_Management__.pdf University of Minnesota. 2011. Collaborative Versus Traditional Selling. Accessed May 21, http://faculty.apec.umn.edu/wnefstea/sales-training-tony8.html Vi Advocacy. 2011. Disadvantages of Internet Marketing. http://www.viadvocacy.org/internet-marketing-advantages-and-disadvantages-0407.html 5.0 Bibliography Jones, Susan K. 2008. Business-to-Business Internet Marketing: Seven Proven Strategies for Increasing Profits through Internet Direct Marketing. United States: Maximum Press. Read More