S & D course may jun 2020

 
 SELLING  AS AN ORGANIZATIONAL  FUNCTION 

The “selling” involves a conversation between a salesperson  and a potential customer where the salesperson tries to convincingly portray his product as the right solution to the needs of the customer so that the customer moves in the direction of buying the product. Please note that advertising, promotion, leaflet, videos, discounts are not considered selling as per this definition because in selling "conversation" and "interaction" and "convincing" and "buying" are important.   

 SALES AS AN ORGANIZATIONAL DEPARTMENT 

since selling is a “customer facing” function of the company, sometimes other customer facing functions are also bundled along with the basic selling function for organizational convenience. Hence the “sales department” is frequently given additional responsibility for locating the customer. researching the customer needs and habits, doing price negotiations, collecting the billed amount, providing after sales service, arranging installation and training etc. In some companies there is no separate selling function but it is an additional responsibility of key account managers, commercial managers, marketing managers, service managers etc.  

  KEY  TASKS  OF  SALES  MANAGERS

For given product/s, the main role of the sales manager is to exceed or  meet the sales target of the product by 

(A) MANAGING CUSTOMER CONTACT : Defining, identifying, contacting and making interactive selling presentations to  prospective customers through the sales force. The customer contacts are of basically two types (1)   HUNTING : the selling here is the search effort undertaken by the sales organization to identify, contact and convince the prospective customer. The key concept here is called the sales funnel or  the hunting funnel (2) GATHERING : The search effort here is mainly undertaken by the customers to identify, call on or visit the store / vendor / source. The key concept here is called the supply chain or the distribution chain which may be have 0, 1, 2 , 3 tiers. 

(B) MANAGING THE SALES FORCE : by planning the sales organization, recruiting and training and deploying and motivating the salespersons, improving sales force capabilities and leading the sales force for producing the desired results.

CONCEPT OF A SALES TRIANGLE IS THE STARTING POINT OF CREATING A SALES ORGANIZATION

As a sales manager your major tasks are planning the selling organization, manning it, and motivating it to produce results.

In planning a sales organization never start from the top. Instead start at the bottom (where the rubber hits the road) i.e. start from the sales encounter which can be visualized as a sales triangle . This is at the very bottom (front line) of the sales force where the customer meets the salesperson and transaction happens. This is the main source of success of any sales department.  The sale achieved can be visualized as an intersection of 3 circles with the sales being the area where all 3 circles intersect


 PRODUCT VALUE : Is the product  better and different than the tended competitive products available to the customers? If the product is not better - or if it is not clear who is the customer or the competitor – it becomes difficult for the customers to  understand the value of the product or it becomes difficult for the sales force to present the product convincingly. Normally it is the marketing department who decides the specifications of the product and how it is to be positioned.

 NUMBER AND READINESS OF THE CUSTOMERS : How many customers have a BANT ( Budget, authority to spend, Need and Time limit ) for buying the intended product and how accessible they are to the sales force / outlets..

 SALESPERSONS EFFECTIVENESS  : The following qualities are important (A)  Effectiveness in identifying, contacting, understanding the customers in terms of their BANT  and other criteria (B) Effectiveness in communicating the product value to them in the light of their needs (C) Helping them progress along their buying journey.