Adoption and use of B2B enabling technologies in Australian companies - Essay Example

TEAM REPORT TO THE CEO SHOWING TEAM LOCATION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: B2B Marketing is a business transaction between business organizations, who are co-related, or deal with the same kind of products. An example is the relationship between a wholesaler and a retailer. Contrasting terminologies to B2B marketing are B2C which stands for Business to Consumers and B2G, which stands for Business to Government. In the B2B transactions, the volume of trade is higher and large amount of capital flows between the two organizations involved. The main cause to this is that in a supply chain, involving B2B trade, many sub components involving the purchase and use of raw material in a necessity as compared to a business consumer relationship which involves sale of a finished product to the consumer (Ho, 12). In Australia, there is lack of excellent mailing and telemarketing campaign lists and therefore people who are involved in direct marketing are frustrated. Direct mail is always wasted by being sent to the wrong person and on most occasions, in major companies in Australia, the contact person is the company’s chief executive officer and this executive will receive constantly a series of irrelevant mail that on most occasions are of no use to him or her. In Australia, the maintenance of data and its quality is poor and a large amount of junk mail reduces business campaigns, causing irritation among clients, therefore reducing the growth of direct marketing. This lack of choice and low standard of data production creates an opportunity for us to engage in provision of specialist database services and of higher quality, developed through extensive research. As an organization, we should focus on the quality of the database service to introduce in the Australian Market. For the success of the database product to be a reality, proper sales mechanisms needs to be enacted in order to realize the growth of our company the penetration of our services in the Australian Market. As our company grows, the need of developing complex sales strategies also arises, as this will effectively target the desired clients in the corporate structures. In addition, our company has to invest heavily in employing qualified and highly experienced sales personnel as this will facilitate professionalization of our marketing strategies to facilitate penetration of the Australian market. Investments in sales will be reflected by the successes our sales team will achieve in meeting the objectives of the organization as it will evolve into a significant player of database marketing in Australia and New Zealand and therefore making it the preferred choice of markers who engage in provision of high value services and products. As the National Sales Director, I am responsible for the performance of the sales team of the organization and because of this; I am preparing a report that will highlight the structure of my sales team that reflects the staff number, their geographic location, their roles and remuneration package. This report will highlight the distribution model that exists and the various costs and revenues expected. From this report, I will start by highlighting my salary, benefits and bonuses and thereafter highlight the salary scale of my staff, their expected benefits and bonuses. Thereafter, I will construct a budget basing on this analysis. In this report, I will provide my findings, based on research on the salary scale of sales staff in the Australian market and thereafter provide recommended salary structures of sales people putting into account various incentives our organization shall provide to motivate our staff. As the national sales director, my duty is to improve the sales of our database services to corporate organizations whose sole aim is to improve on the decisions made by these organizations. In marketing our databases services, the basic fundamental principles of marketing must be applied. These involves knowledge of the product, setting of competitive pricing system, engaging in promotive activities in relation to our database services and thereafter having efficient distribution channel of our services to the target market. To effectively promote our services, we have to engage in aggressive advertisement and this requires proper planning and budgeting. In order to develop a better plan, we need to gather information on the following areas, The history and general trends in the database industry and their future implications. The anticipated reactions of our competitors and their strategic partner concerning our entry into the database industry. Identification of the attractive segments of the database industry and outlining the buying needs of our expected clients. After collecting sufficient data, we need to develop a sales plan that will give us an edge over our competitors. This plan will enable us to develop an appropriate sales budget that will be able to control the use of company’s resources while conducting sales promotions and its related activities. The developed budget will have to factor the salaries of the sales team, the costs of conducting sales promotions and advertisements, the costs of recruiting and training new sales staff, money for emergency situations and for compensating staff engaged in working extra hours of their allocated time frame. The money allocated to my sales team will be put on good use, basically for the purposes of advancing the companies goals and objectives. To add more skills and knowledge to our sales people, my department, using part of the allocated money, shall train our sales staff, on the following areas, Accountability in their actions in order to achieve the desired results. Understanding the nature of the organizations business. Designing of the right sales methodologies to persuade our clients on the quality of our services. Problem solving skills in cases of emergencies concerning the organizations policies and services. The allocated money shall also be used in building the structure of the sales team and organization. In order to do this, we have to develop an organizational structure that will support the various units in our sales organization, classifying them into different categories. In developing the sales team structure, the money will be used to develop a reward system that is acceptable to all the staff in my department. It will be used to create an organizational structure that will coordinate all the operations of the sales team on the ground for the purposes of achieving the organizations goals and objectives of the department. In conducting administrative issues, the money will be used to integrate new staff into the sales culture of the organization into to create a team that works jointly and in coordination with each other. The Structure of sales department organization. The structural organization of my sales department is developed after extensive research on the economic dynamics that operate in Australia and it encompasses departments in the following fields and each plays a significant role in ensuring the success of the department in achieving its goals. The followings are the departments involved, Compensation and Remuneration department: This department has the responsibility of fixing the salary scales of the sales team and approving payments of our sales staff. This department, basing on research, will allocate compensative benefits to our sales staff who encountered difficulties while working for our company. Staffs required in this department are highly trained accountants and financial experts who have experience in operating in the database industry (Power, 20). This department will have its headquarters in Sidney, the capital city of Australia. This location is strategic because the staff of the department will be able to monitor the operations of our staff and thereafter calculate their remuneration, based on their performance and the difficulties our staff experienced in the industry. Recruiting and Selection Department: This department has the responsibility of selecting sales staff for the purposes of aggressively selling our products. In order to save on costs, my department will employ sale personnel on contractual basis and will be paid on commissions. This department will consist of human resource personnel who are highly experienced in recruitment of sales personnel. Training and Performance Evaluation Department: This department has the responsibility of training new staff on the policies and the culture of the organization. The main emphasis of training is laid on the followings, 1. The company’s objectives in relation to selling database services. 2. Technological trends in the database industry. 3. Effective sales methods and techniques. 4. Effective customer relations. 5. Political, Economic and Social Trends surrounding the databases industry in Australia. 6. Training them on proper team work skills. Department on Management and Administration: This department will be under my supervision as the overall executive in charge of the sales operation. The functions of this department are supervisory and direct marketing. The department involves itself in direct marketing and all staffs employed for the marketing purposes are under this department. It supervises the operations of the first two departments to ensure they function in accordance to the objectives of the department and the organization. Sales team organization chart: Since my department is the centre of the organization, it will require a staff of approximately 200 people. The Following is my sales team organizational charts. Salary Packaging and Contents This chart gives an outline of the structure of my department from the highest authority to the least. The national sales manager is in charge of the department of sales and I hold such position. It is my duty to give direction to my staff on the objectives of our organization. Basing on the current salary scale of people on the level of authority I hold earn, my expected salary per annum is $ 200000. This includes bonuses and other allowances. For example, I will need travel allowances, since I will move around Australia supervising my staff in these regions and following up on the progress of my sales team. The regional sales managers are my principal assistants, and their salary packages will amount to $ 150,000. They are three since in conducting operations; my team has divided Australia into three divisions, namely, Southern, Northern and Western Sector. Their remuneration is justified because these are extremely experienced professionals in the database sector and their expertise is essential to ensure that our organization penetrates the Australian market efficiently. The Financial and Recruitment officers shall be paid a remuneration of approximately $100000, the two officers are extremely important to my department. The financial officer controls all financial aspects of my organization while the recruitment officer has the responsibility of hiring sales staff in my department (Hurwod, 76). The responsibilities of these officers are only on my department and they are answerable directly to me. There are various allowances and bonuses that these officers enjoy but are limited to a specific role that they play, once in every week. For example, weekly, well need to conduct recruitment of direct sales staff. Interviewing and review of candidates’ applications take time and the recruitment officers have to work over long hours to meet the deadline. Due to this, his weekly allowances amounts to $3000. The divisional managers have the role of implementing the objectives of the department. These officials have the roles of managing the staff under them for efficient delivery of our services (Baviera, 12). On recruitment, they are trained on the culture of the organization and thereafter trained on sales management. It is these people who have the responsibility of managing the various funds allocated for use in our department and therefore they need to enjoy good remuneration and allowances. Basing on their importance in the sales department, these officers will enjoy a salary package of $99000, with various allowances such as transportation allowance, medical allowance, and health allowance. In total, their remuneration will amount to $200,000. The manufacturing and service sector managers are middle level managers who are in charge of implementing the department’s objectives on their various sectors. They are also professionals who are highly experienced in their fields of allocation. They are responsible of managing direct sale staffs in their areas of responsibility and they are people whose main work is on the fields. Basing on their roles and nature of work, they shall enjoy a salary package of $90,000 minus allowances. These staff will be given transportation allowances since they are on the field and they need to move from one region to another in supervising their staff. They will be given health and hardship allowances because they are always at risk, staying for longer periods outdoors and in difficult weather conditions. In total, their remuneration will amount to $140,000. The direct sales staffs are our main sales agents since its them who look for market for our products (Xu, 37). They will enjoy a retainer salary plus commissions on their Sales. They will also be given transportation allowances to facilitate easier movement of such individuals while looking for market for our products. The retainer which will be paid to our direct sales staff will be $ 3500 a week. The transportation allowance that these staff will enjoy also amounts to $ 3500 a week. It is prudent to pay these people well in order to motivate them work harder and efficiently. The followings are a summary of the proposed budget of my department, ITEM COST Salaries and Bonuses $ 3million Transportation Costs $ 1 million Advertisement Costs $ 500000 Rental Costs $ 500000 Office equipments and Stationery $ 1 million Staff Training $ 1500000 Total Costs $ 7.5 million As outlined, majority of the department’s costs will be used for paying salaries and bonuses, since the department requires labor to operate. Advertisement costs are justified, since advertising our products in print and voice media is expensive but essential. This is because of the number of people who have access to such institutions of communication. We shall also use the internet to advertise our services and this will be done on social sites such as facebook, twitter and on commercial websites. The money budgeted for this purpose is sufficient. My department will have offices in various locations of Australia. To run these offices, we have to acquire buildings, either through rentals or purchases. It is cheaper and efficient to rent offices for efficient delivery of our services and therefore the money proposed is justified. The costs of hiring new staff emanates from the various advertisements to be made by our organisation concerning the direct sales vacancy. My department will embark on constant recruitment of sales staff and to do this, information has to be passed out to job seekers. The money will be used to produce train new officials, sign contracts and pay allowances to recruiting staffs. The costs of purchasing equipmens are factored on my proposed budget. The main equipments to be bought are computers and mobile phones. This is to facilitate effective communication while carrying out our objectives. From this report, I strongly believe my recommendations will be considered and thereafter allocated the requested amount of money. Works Cited Baviera, Araceli. Sales. Quezon City, Philippines: University of the Philippines, 2005. Print. Ho, Henry W. L.. Customer value delivery in B2B virtual network organisations: an intelligent -agent systems approach. Saarbru?cken, Germany: LAP Lambert Academic Pub., 2010. Hurwood, David L., Elliot S. Grossman, and Earl L. Bailey. Sales forecasting. New York: Conference Board, 1978. Print. Power, Damien. Characteristics of adoption and use of B2B enabling technologies in Australian companies. Clayton, Vic.: Monash University Accident Research Centre, 2002. Print. Xu, Jun, and M. A. Quaddus. E-business in the 21st century: realities, challenges and outlook. Singapore: World Scientific, 2010. Print. Read More