Sales Operations and Planning - Assignment Example

Sales Operations and Planning 1. Sales Strategies Main types of personal selling Three types of personal selling will be applied. These include order takers, creators and getters. Order-takers Order takers will further be comprised of three components. Inside order-takers form the first component headed by a retail trade assistant who facilitates business by receiving cash and handing over the products to the customer. In this case, the customer is expected to select the products needed without assistance from a sales person. Outside order takers on the other hand will be visiting customers mostly upon request to take orders. However, the outside order takers will transform in to telemarketing teams after the business has established in the UK. They will be taking orders through telephone which is much easier and cost effective than personal visits to the customers (Cagan & Vogel, 2001). Order-creators These are sales people that will be focused on establishing customer requirements. They will persuade consumers to make orders that satisfy their needs in terms of quality, packaging and delivery (Cagan & Vogel, 2001). Order-getters This team of sales people will be significant for the success of market expansion in the UK as they will be required to apply their marketing skills to persuade customers to buy products from any outlet near them. They will be required to identify potential customers and offer as much information as possible to enhance understanding of company products among the target consumers. They are also expected to make consumer satisfaction surveys and follow-ups to determine the product utility (Geller, 2002). Support for the promotion mix The sales team will support the promotion mix through demonstrating professional understanding of the product. Their customer centred attitude is expected to generate satisfaction and the confidence to buy the products among customers (Belch & Belch, 2006). Their appearance through dressing in branded T-shirts and caps will be significant in promoting the product as well as the company’s presence in the UK. The sales people will offer essential advice to customers regarding the application of products to ensure that they derive maximum utility. Revising strategies revised in line with corporate objectives The sales objectives need to be aligned to the corporate objectives, which need to form the basis of the sales strategy to be applied. The job descriptions of sales people and their remuneration plans also need to reflect the corporate objectives. This alignment is a significant step aimed at maintaining the financial wellbeing of the company. It motivates the sales team to engage in activities that enhance corporate objectives by avoiding sever connections between what the organization is trying to accomplish and the aims of the sales team. If the alignment is not established, there is a likelihood of the sales people overemphasizing on certain products or activities that they associate with maximal gains in terms of compensation while disregarding others (Stone & Jacobs, 2001). This may negatively influence the company’s market expansion especially in the efforts for new product launch as sales people focus much of their energies on the already established products in the market and less efforts to the slow moving and less known products. It is also important to align sales strategies with corporate objectives to motivate and retain competent sales people. Strategic human resource strategies applied by the organization will be focused on enhancing job satisfaction. It is one of the significant objectives to consider in the process of alignment because the sales people as a significant asset that is expected to facilitate the organization’s growth in the UK market. Satisfied employees are happy with their work and will strive to maintain competence to maintain consistent income. The financial objectives of the organization need to be communicated effectively to the sales team so that they can accomplish their daily tasks from an informed perspective. This will be important to ensure that the sales team does not underperform while on the other hand it is not overstressed leading to dissatisfaction and low morale. The sales strategies should recognize the organizational culture to ensure that the corporate values are upheld. Their operations need to reflect the corporate culture of quality and customer centred business of We-Print. The organization’s marketing plan will offer guidelines to the sales people, who will in turn assist in information collection from customers to facilitate planning and sales forecasting that are necessary in decision making (Tayal, 2007). 2. New Sales Staff Organization of the sales team The structure of the sales team will be developed after establishing clear job descriptions that will enable the identification of individual responsibilities that will be suitable for accomplishment of the sales strategy. All the responsibilities will be assigned to individuals based on their competences. Job descriptions are necessary human resource instruments that inform the sales people what the organization expects from them. They enhance performance through generating focus among the sales team especially for new staff. They will be reviewed annually to ensure that the organization responds effectively to changes in the business environment. The structure of the sales team will reflect the organizational structure with different levels and scope. The job description will illuminate the reporting structure to enhance accountability (Yeung, 2010). Every sales person will understand whom to report to as well as the scope of work with regards to geographical distribution. The expected results will be communicated to the sales team to assist them to set targets. The team will be required to collaborate to accomplish a common goal of meeting the company’s annual sales target. Recruitment and selection of sales professionals The process of recruitment and selection of a competent sales team is significant in the accomplishment of organizational goals of future growth and overall profitability. It is necessary to ensure that sales professionals are hired through a well-coordinated plan that leads to the selection of people with the capacity to accomplish or surpass the sales targets. The criteria for selection of the sales professionals will be based on their ability to develop relationships with potential consumers. They are expected to demonstrate this competence by the first impression they create in the interview. The candidates will demonstrate their capacity to convince customers to buy. The suitable candidates will demonstrate their capacity to identify or generate the need for consumers to make a purchase. Investigative skills are necessary in sales as the sales person demonstrates that he/she is able to understand consumer needs. The candidates need to demonstrate their capacity to avoid doubts so that customers can develop the desired confidence in the company’s products. Sales people need to demonstrate to consumers how their needs will be satisfied (Gareth, 2005). This requires understanding of what they are selling and how it matches the needs of consumers. It forms the foundation of competitive advantage as it is the reason why consumers will purchase an organization’s products and not those of competitors. They also need to understand how to present the product to the consumers and ensure that they understand that they got value for their money. After determination of the selection criteria, the company will attract both internal and external applicants. This is because there are some staffs in the current workforce that have acquired the necessary competences to drive sales and their knowledge regarding the organizational culture is a significant asset to the organization. It will help in the speedy induction of new staff in the sales team. On the other hand, new sales people will bring in new knowledge especially if they worked in competing organizations. Applications will be evaluated and organized in order of merit and the candidates that satisfy the selection criteria will be selected and appointed to the sales job. The induction process will be necessary to help the new employees understand the corporate culture and also to understand the work environment (Bruce, 2011). Motivation of the sales team Staff motivation is one of the significant aspects of organizational growth that helps to retain competent employees. Apart from financial compensation, the staff will be motivated through promoting a culture of trust that will enable them to work independently. When employees are allowed to take challenging responsibilities whose outcome is critical to the organization, they are motivated to accomplish their full potential (Leigh& Maynard, 2002). The company will promote peer recognition especially for the best performers by posting the sales on the company website. Employees are likely to feel appreciated and wanted in the company when their contribution to the success of the organizational goal is recognized. Incentives will be used as a strategy to increase friendly staff competition, such as free return air ticket to the US for the salesperson with the highest sales every year, and one free lunch in a high end restaurant in the UK for the best three sales people every week. These incentives will generate a competitive relationship among employees and hence increased sales volume. The staff competitions will not only be for the top performers. Rather, the company will engage every sales person by ensuring that all have an opportunity to win at least once. This will be important to avoid disillusionment of some sales staff who might think that there is no need to work hard as they might never win. The competitions will also involve other members of staff supporting sales people so as to get the whole company to participate. Even though the sales people will be the key players in the competition, they will belong to sales teams founded on the workplace interplay of roles. The team members will help in mentoring, encouraging and supporting the sales people. The prize will be shared among the team members but the sales person in the leading team will get additional cash award. It is also necessary to ensure an enabling working environment and also provision of the necessary instruments to accomplish tasks. The motivation strategy needs to reward the actions that promote performance. Employees need to be guaranteed of career progression which is a personal goal that many strive to accomplish. Performance management strategies need to be established to ensure that reward and benefit schemes for the employees reflect the efforts that they put towards realization of the sales targets. In other words, greater efforts should be rewarded with greater benefits and rewards (Bruce, 2011). Techniques to co-ordinate and control sales output Coordination and control of sales output can be accomplished through sales funnels whereby the company’s management will have an approach to control customers’ movement from market entry leads to regular customers of its products. This will be most suitable to the UK market where the company needs to attract new customers and retain them to enhance its establishment. The sales people will require a high number of customers to start with as it is expected that they will decrease over time until the number eventually stabilizes at the bottom of the sales funnel. The number of customers leaving the funnel at each stage is an important indicator that can be used by the sales management to determine the aspects that need enhancement to reduce the number of exits (Fock, 2001). Sales forecasting is also a strategy that the company will apply to predict the amount of sales that are likely to be accomplished over a certain period of time. This will help to satisfy the changing demand of products and also enable the company to minimize costs associated with excessive inventory. Sales forecasts also help the sales teams to set achievable targets (Hoyer& MacInnis, 2006). Use of databases in managing the sales function Database marketing will be used as an important instrument to achieve competitiveness in the market. The sales team will enhance database marketing by ensuring that they stay in touch with the customers. They are also required to understand consumers’ needs and ensure that they are satisfied, especially through good treatment after they have made a purchase. Databases will be maintained in computer software to help the sales people address consumer concerns and enquiries precisely and also to direct the marketing strategies towards a specific number of people (Bergeron, 2002). Customers’ e-mails, telephone numbers, social media accounts and other platforms for communication will be kept in a database to enhance future communication. The databases will contain important information including consumer transaction history to understand customer buying behaviour and needs. They will also indicate consumer responses to the organization’s innovativeness. Segmentation and targeting are significant strategies in marketing that will be accomplished through evaluation of the information contained in the customer databases. This will enable sales people to effectively target the appropriate customers for the various product categories. They are important research instruments that that will keep the company well informed regarding the market dynamics enhancing prompt reaction in case of opportunities or threats (Aaker et al. 2006). 3. The USA sales professionals Role in the organisation The expatriates will be significant in the sales team as the company will be venturing in a new market environment and it is necessary for the sales team to possess substantial background information regarding the products. Moreover, most of them have demonstrated responsibility to the company’s standards and are motivated by career progression. The US expatriates will also acquire essential international experience which is necessary for career advancement and future assignments. Employees are also motivated by the opportunity to work in a new environment with a different culture from the parent company (Fock, 2001).The parent company in the USA will also have greater control over the subsidiary company in the UK when it sends a USA sales team who will promote the company’s organizational culture in the new work environment. The expatriates from US will also play a significant role of enhancing knowledge transfer to the new UK sales people. Each of the US sales people will be assigned several local employees to enhance skills transfer. They will fill the top positions in the organization’s hierarchy in the UK that cannot be immediately filled by newly employed UK nationals. 4. Trade fairs Reasons and benefits of the company attending a trade fair Trade fairs present an important avenue for sales people to meet customers face-to-face and explain various aspects of the product to the customers. Consumers are happy to meet suppliers to clear any uncertainties regarding the products. This strengthens consumer confidence and can help to retain customers and also attract new ones. The company will use the opportunity to identify competitor products and prices, which are important in the development of a differentiation strategy to attract customers from market segments currently owned by competing companies (Crawford& Benedetto, 2008). Being a new company in the UK market, trade fairs are important in the efforts to promote the company’s brand and to publicize its presence in the market. The sales people are presented with an opportunity to reach a broad consumer population within a short time. They demonstrate how to apply the company’s products as well as how to deal with problems that may arise in the process. First-hand information offered to consumers as well as allowing them to touch and compare products provides them with a valuable opportunity to appreciate quality (Belch & Belch, 2006). Trade fairs allow sales people and consumers to exchange contacts that are necessary for follow-ups. Promotional materials from the company will be distributed to attendees. They will also be offered business cards in case they need to contact the sales people in future. Customers who purchased the company’s products earlier have an opportunity to offer feedback or to complain directly to the company representatives who can compensate and also identify the problem and strategies to avoid it. Customers develop trust in a company when they realise that they can be compensated for inappropriate product purchases. This is important for maintenance of customer satisfaction and hence the need to attend trade fairs for one-on-one discussions with consumers (Aaker et al. 2006). References Aaker, D. A., Kumar, V. & Day, G. S. 2006. Marketing Research, Wiley Belch, G. & Belch, M. 2006. Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective w/ Premium Content Card, McGraw-Hill/Irwin Bergeron, B. 2002. Essentials of CRM: A Guide to Customer Relationship Management, Wiley Bruce, A. 2011. Manager's Guide to Motivating Employees, McGraw-Hill Cagan, J. & Vogel, C. M. 2001. Creating Breakthrough Products: Innovation from Product Planning to Program Approval, FT Press Crawford, C. M. & Benedetto, C. A. 2008. New Product Management, McGraw Hill Higher Education Fock, H. K. 2001. “Retail outlet location decision maker - franchisor or franchisee?” Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 19(3): 171 -178. Gareth, R. 2005. Recruitment and Selection: Developing Practice, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Geller, L. K. 2002. Response: The Complete Guide to Profitable Direct Marketing, Oxford University Press Hoyer, W. D. & MacInnis, D. J. 2006. Consumer Behavior, South-Western College Pub Leigh, A. & Maynard, M. 2002. Leading Your Team: How to Involve and Inspire Teams: People Skills for Professionals,Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Stone, B. & Jacobs, R. 2001. Successful Direct Marketing Methods, Seventh Edition, McGraw-Hill Tayal, P. K. 2007. New Trends in Marketing, Rbsa Publishers Yeung, R. 2010. Successful Interviewing and Recruitment: Creating Success, Kogan page Read More