Chapter-1-Introduction-to-Sales-Management.ppt

Editor's Notes

• #4: Mission statement is a brief document that defines why the organization exists, what it seeks to accomplish, and the principles that the company will adhere to as it tries to reach its goals.
• #5: To transform vision into reality, managers must define specific organizational goals, objectives, and philosophies. A starting point is to write a company mission statement, a brief document that defines why the organization exists, what it seeks to accomplish, and the principles that the company will adhere to as it tries to reach its goals. Typical components of a mission statement include the company’s product or service; primary market; fundamental concern for survival, growth, and profitability; managerial philosophy; and commitment to quality and social responsibility.
• #14: Market penetration; the firm can try to gain more market share with its existing products. It is often about trying to find more customers like the ones who are already buying your products. Product development; involves creating new products in order to get more business out of the company’s existing customers. Another term for this strategy is account penetration because it involves selling more products to same accounts. In the market development approach, a company can try to find new markets. Examples of potential new markets can include new countries or new industries in which to sell the company’s existing products. Combining new products and new markets is called diversification. The risks associated with diversification are far greater than with other market expansion approaches because it requires developing both new products and new markets.
• #17: Progressive firms have known for years that the key to successful business means keeping customers satisfied by developing a deeper understanding of their buyer’s needs and producing products and servicing that they truly need or want. This is often easier for business-to-business firms to do because their sales forces are very in-touch with their customers. They also have relatively fewer customers to deal with than, say, retailers do.
• #24: Firms that adopt a CRM strategy tend to follow three distinct stages; Having accurate information about buyers allows the sales force to up-sell more expensive products and cross-sell new products to existing buyers who haven’t purchased these products before. In the second stage, sales managers recognize that CRM allows their representatives to manage customer relationships to earn higher profits. In the third stage, sales managers understand that CRM is the driver of customer lifetime value. Thus, sales managers encourage their salespeople to offer customized solutions to their most profitable buyers.
• #27: For example, an objective to simply “increase market share” is not specific enough. As a manager, you need to ask yourself, by how much do we need to increase market share? If the objective is to increase customer loyalty, you need a way to measure customer loyalty, perhaps by recording the number of repeat purchases customers make. If the objective is to double market share, you need to ask yourself whether such an ambitious goal is achievable or even realistic. Finally, the objective needs to be time-based. When will it be met? In the next month, year, or decade?
• #28: For example, an objective to simply “increase market share” is not specific enough. As a manager, you need to ask yourself, by how much do we need to increase market share? If the objective is to increase customer loyalty, you need a way to measure customer loyalty, perhaps by recording the number of repeat purchases customers make. If the objective is to double market market share, you need to ask yourself whether such an ambitious goal is achievable or even realistic. Finally, the objective needs to be time-based. When will it be met? In the next month, year, or decade?
• #33: During Pre-Approach, the salesperson tries to learn everything he can about the account. Perhaps using contact management software, the account’s history with the firm can be explored and the salesperson can tell what the customer needs. Or, using the internet, the salesperson can examine the account’s financial strength, future strategies, and the like. The salesperson might also try to find out what can be learned about the industry in which the account operates.
• #35: The needs-identification step is comprised of three important elements; The first one is the use of questioning techniques in order to figure out the customer’s needs. The questioning process can take quite a while in a complex, custom sales situation. The second element is the identification of the decisions process elements facing the customer (authority to purchase). The third is the gaining pre-commitment. A pre-commitment is an agreement that all of the customer’s needs have been identified, a budget has been identified, and the decision process is known. In other words, the pre-commitment sets the “rules” for the sale and confirms that the buyer is MAD (has money, authority and desire to purchase).
• #36: One approach to presentations is to string together a series of FEBAs, or statements of Feature, Evidence, Benefit, and Agreement. Using this approach, the salesperson begins with a characteristics of the product or feature. Then evidence is provided. The evidence is written or visual. Whenever possible, the salesperson should offer tangible evidence that is credible. The salesperson then ties that feature back to the need mentioned by the customer. Describing how a feature satisfies a need is a benefit. Finally the salesperson asks the customer if the product meets the need, gaining agreement.