Essay: Sales planning and operations

Sales Planning and Operations

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Personal selling occurs where an individual salesperson sells a product, service or solution to a client. Salespeople match the benefits of their offering to the specific needs of a client. Today, personal selling involves the development of longstanding client relationships (marketingteacher.com). In comparison to other marketing communications tools such as advertising, personal selling tends to:

Use fewer resources, pricing is often negotiated(marketingteacher.com)..

There is some contact between buyer and seller after the sale so that an ongoing relationship is built.

Client/prospects need specific information.

The purchase tends to involve large sums of money.

Products tend to be fairly complex (e.g. financial services or new cars).

There are exceptions of course, but most personal selling takes place in this way. Personal selling involves a selling process that is summarised in the following Five Stage Personal Selling Process. The five stages are:

1. Prospecting.

2. Pre-approach.

3. Making first contact.

4. Approach.

5. The sales call.

6. Objection handling.

7. Closing the sale(marketingteacher.com).

1 – Prospecting.

Prospecting is all about finding prospects, or potential new customers. Prospects should be ‘qualified, ‘ which means that they need to be assessed to see if there is business potential, otherwise you could be wasting your time. In order to qualify your prospects, one needs to:

1.Determine which products or services best meet their needs.

2.Plan a sales approach focused upon the needs of the customer.

3.In order to save time, rank the prospects and leave out those that are least likely to buy(marketingteacher.com).

2 – Pre-approach.

Try to learn everything about the account and the product and the persons you want to sell the product to. Take as mush time as possible for you to complete the task(marketingteacher.com).

3 – Making First Contact

This is the preparation that a salesperson goes through before they meet with the client, for example via e-mail, telephone or letter. Preparation will make a call more focused.

Make sure that you are on time.

Before meeting with the client, set some objectives for the sales call. What is the purpose of the call? What outcome is desirable before you leave?

Make sure that you’ve done some homework before meeting your prospect. This will show that you are committed in the eyes of your customer.

To save time, send some information before you visit. This will wet the prospect’s appetite.

Keep a set of samples at hand, and make sure that they are in very good condition.

Within the first minute or two, state the purpose of your call so that time with the client is maximised, and also to demonstrate to the client that your are not wasting his or her time.

Humour is fine, but try to be sincere and friendly(marketingteacher.com).

4 – Approach

This is the part where the sales person takes action and where the buyer commits to a meeting(marketingteacher.com).

5- The Sales Call (or Sales Presentation).

It is best to be enthusiastic about your product or service. If you are not excited about it, don’t expect your prospect to be excited. Focus on the real benefits of the product or service to the specific needs of your client, rather than listing endless lists of features. Try to be relaxed during the call, and put your client at ease. Let the client do at least 80% of the talking. This will give you invaluable information on your client’s needs. Remember to ask plenty of questions. Use open questions, e.g. TED’s, and closed questions i.e. questions that will only give the answer ‘yes’ or the answer ‘no. ‘ This way you can dictate the direction of the conversation.

Never be too afraid to ask for the business straight off(marketingteacher.com).

6- Objection Handling.

Objection handling is the way in which salespeople tackle obstacles put in their way by clients. Some objections may prove too difficult to handle, and sometimes the client may just take a dislike to you (aka the hidden objection). Here are some approaches for overcoming objections:

Firstly, try to anticipate them before they arise.

‘Yes but’ technique allows you to accept the objection and then to divert it. For example, a client may say that they do not like a particular colour, to which the salesperson counters ‘Yes but X is also available in many other colours.’

Ask ‘why’ the client feels the way that they do.

‘Restate’ the objection, and put it back into the client’s lap.

For example, the client may say, ‘I don’t like the taste of X,’ to which the salesperson responds, ‘You don’t like the taste of X,’ generating the response ‘since I do not like garlic’ from the client. The salesperson could suggest that X is no longer made with garlic to meet the client’s needs. The sales person could also tactfully and respectfully contradict the client(marketingteacher.com).

This is a very important stage. Often salespeople will leave without ever successfully closing a deal. Therefore it is vital to learn the skills of closing.

Just ask for the business! – ‘Please may I take an order?’ This really works well.

Look for buying signals (i.e. body language or comments made by the client that they want to place an order). For example, asking about availability, asking for details such as discounts, or asking for you to go over something again to clarify.

Just stop talking, and let the client say ‘yes.’ Again, this really works.

The ‘summary close’ allows the salesperson to summarise everything that the client needs, based upon the discussions during the call.

For example, ‘You need product X in blue, by Friday, packaged accordingly, and delivered to your wife’s office. ‘ Then ask for the order.

The ‘alternative close’ does not give the client the opportunity to say no, but forces them towards a yes. For example ‘Do you want product X in blue or red?’ Cheeky, but effective(marketingteacher.com).

7- Closing the Sale.

This is a very important stage. Often salespeople will leave without ever successfully closing a deal. Therefore it is vital to learn the skills of closing.

Just ask for the business! – ‘Please may I take an order?’ This really works well.

Look for buying signals (i.e. body language or comments made by the client that they want to place an order). For example, asking about availability, asking for details such as discounts, or asking for you to go over something again to clarify.

Just stop talking, and let the client say ‘yes.’ Again, this really works.

The ‘summary close’ allows the salesperson to summarise everything that the client needs, based upon the discussions during the call. For example, ‘You need product X in blue, by Friday, packaged accordingly, and delivered to your wife’s office.’ Then ask for the order.

The ‘alternative close’ does not give the client the opportunity to say no, but forces them towards a yes. For example ‘Do you want product X in blue or red?’ Cheeky, but effective.

1.2 There are a few methods that can be used to accomplish the selling function:

Internet

• � Electronic data interchange (EDI): takes advantage of the internet by directly connecting the customers inventory management system with the sellers order entry system.
• � Customer Portal: a website that only customers can enter because it provides them with customised info such as there order history, shipping status, and other personalised data.
• � Reverse auctions: customers post their needs on a web site and let companies bid; the company with the lowest bid wins.

Call centres

Retail stores

Direct mail

Trade shows

Sales people

Distributors

1.3 I would recommend that the company host seminars to promote your product and to give information about what, where, when, and how you going to sell. Determine if you are prepared to follow up with customers that show interest, and if you are ready for additional business. When you’re amid the rush of making phone calls, arranging, preparing, organizing, and choosing the right promotional items, location and presentation equipment, don’t loose sight of the major issues. These main issues are the entire reason you are holding a seminar.

Find a professional yet comfortable venue to hold your seminar. Develop an effective and efficient registration process to capture information about the attendees and to create another opportunity for communicating with your customers. Make sure you offer your customers several methods of responding to you such as telephone, email, fax, or even regular mail.

Once you have identified your objective, it’s a good idea to choose your topic. Promote your strengths and core competencies while you’re presenting. It’s crucial to tailor the subject to their needs and to convey your message to them clearly. Make sure it is relevant to your particular audience. Although everyone likes cool or fancy promotional gifts, you will still need to provide engaging, interesting, and relevant content to be successful and to get your audience to purchase or take the next step(corporatesnobs.com).

2.1 Buyer decision-making

The buyer decision-making process consists of the following five stages:

1. Need recognition & Problem Awareness

2. Information search

3. Evaluation of alternatives

4. Purchases

5. Post-purchase evaluation

This model is important for anyone making marketing decisions. It forces the marketer to consider the whole buying process rather than just the purchase decision (when it may be too late for a business to influence the choice!)

The model implies that customers pass through all stages in every purchase. However, in more routine purchases, customers often skip or reverse some of the stages.

For example, a student buying a favourite hamburger would recognise the need (hunger) and go right to the purchase decision, skipping information search and evaluation. However, it is very useful when it comes to understanding any purchase that requires some thought and deliberation.

The buying process starts with need recognition. At this stage, the buyer recognises a problem or need (e.g. I am hungry ) or responds to a marketing stimulus (e.g. you pass Mug and Bean and are attracted by the aroma of there coffee and the smell of there lunch specials ).

An “aroused” customer then needs to decide how much information “if any” is required. If the need is strong and there is a product or service that meets the need close to hand, then a purchase decision is likely to be made there and then on the spot. If not, then the process of information search begins which is the 2nd stage.

A customer can obtain information from several sources:

�Personal sources: family, friends, neighbours etc

� Commercial sources: advertising; salespeople; retailers; dealers; packaging; point-of-sale displays

� Public sources: newspapers, radio, television, consumer organisations; specialist magazines