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Trends in sales management Intro: The concept of sales is as old as the human economy. Starting with the ancient Venetian traders, Chinese traders that followed the Silk Road, it was sales people who would deliver the merchandise to the areas that needed it, presented it in a favorable way, close the deal and return home with money for more operations like that. In the following essay I am going to speak about the current career prospects of sales managers, regarding the current economic state of the USA, as well as commenting on the whole sales process that makes the job of a sales person always in high demand especially in the nearest future. Body: Any job can be it business related or not can be broken down into smaller elementary parts or steps that make this job process easy to grasp for the novice and help the professional veterans polish their process techniques. The selling technique involves human interaction and therefore still cannot be fully replaced by computers or robots.
Because selling a product is a process that involves human interaction the development of our process should consider the potential responses from other humans involved. I believe that any sales process (that is basically an exchange of money and goods) can be broken down these eight basic steps: Sale of a Good Process. Commentary to the Job Process Sale of a Good. Pre-Customer Contact. Albeit, this first step does not involve the customers yet (and thus can involve computer aided planning), it is truly necessary for the successful sale to take place.
This step includes the three sub-steps that have to be taken in order to go to the second step Company policy, rules, laws and regulations. The sales person should know the company approaches and start-up statements said to each customer as well as to know what products can be sold to who (no alcohol for minors for instance, etc. ) Target Market knowledge. The person who is conducting a sale should have at least some basic knowledge of the customers in order to engage in a productive communication. For instance, if a sales person does not know that the target market for tampons is primarily females, he would waster his time telling the males about this product. Product Knowledge. A sales person involved in the sales process should possess the knowledge of the product to be able to answer the questions a potential customer might have.
Prospecting. This step might not be always necessary or legal in the sales process, yet it is the person who is responsible for successful contact, because a person unlike a computer has a personal approach to each individual customer unlike a computer that sends out thousands of spam mail letters that start like Dear Sir/Madam. Prospecting involves contacting customers (via phone, internet, visits, and radio messages) and offering them your goods or making them aware of your services. Initial Contact.
This is when the seller and the potential buyer get together in a direct contact. The role of the sales person is to find out what the customer might want, while the role of the buyer is to find out the most about the product qualities and to compare it with what they expect. Because human interaction involves the human psychology the sales person should use positive tone, and attempt to make the customer happy. Computers still cannot take this role, because people do not trust them yet, and because computers cannot answer promptly all the questions a customer might have.
That is why most of the durable goods sale and expensive items like yachts, cars, and even computers take place either over the phone or during the direct contact and not on the web. The web serves as a good reference for the product description, yet humans still choose humans to buy from. Presentation of Merchandise. When the customer tells what merchandise is needed, the salesperson presents that merchandise, and uses human psychological techniques to entice the customer buy the product. Customer involvement. This step is intended to make the customer feel relaxed and confident about the product or service of their interest.
This stage involves the longest customer-seller conversation and is the critical step in the process of selling a product. This is in my opinion, why the sales job exists. If the customer does not feel involved and secured, he / she will not buy. This step involves special tone of voice, a wink, or a smile done by the sales manager and is the apogee of sale process. Creation of value, motivation and objectives handling.
At this step, it is the role of the salesperson to give the customer a proof why the given good / service should be bought from this very store, instead of another place. The salesperson should emphasize the promotions, sales, product technical support and other benefits that go with the product / service as well as use the knowledge of human psychology to appeal to the customers emotional state, i. e. giving the customer idea that with this good he / she will look more professional, sexy, young, and other qualities that might seem relevant to that person. If the customer has any objections about the product they should be handled immediately and if possible an alternative should be presented to the customer.
Closing the sale. This step actually involves actual exchange of money for goods / services and is oftentimes considered the actual selling process. During this step, the terms of sale are agreed upon and the goods and services are rendered. Sales follow-up.
Usually involves a positive tone of the sales person after the actual product was sold. This is done to make the buyer feel happier, more confident, and more likely to return to the seller to repeat the process of selling a good. This is an optional step and can be (but should not) ignored by the businesses. In addition to this job process description I would like to say that the given process analysis was created for describing most of the sales processes of various goods.
Apparently, the aforementioned eight steps can be further broken down into more specific steps that would describe the process of a sale, or on the contrary, can be consolidated into fewer steps or into the actual step when the money and goods change hands and still call is a selling process. The degree of complexity depends on the readers knowledge of selling processes and the desire to grasp the dynamics of sales that can be seen in the process of selling a good. Economic Assessment and relevance: The current US Economy operates in a very competitive global environment where ideas spread with the speed of light by the click of a mouse. It is a well-known fact is that the USA is the country that spends the most on the research and development that as a result keeps it on top of the world economically, politically, militarily and technologically, with a large pool of triumphant ideas. Having democracy as its system, and free market as its regulating forces, the West (primarily the USA) has been faced with the cut-throat competition for the available resources, national recognition, affluence and ultimately even survival.
It is the west that encourages not only superior quality (it is not longer a competitive advantage because almost all firms provide good quality) but also vivid image, famous brand, reliable service, and colorful package. Yet it is the thousands of employed image-makers, brand-creators, and service people that work across the clock in order to benefit their companies and to create more wealth for themselves. Ultimately, it is the sales people who bring money into the organization. It is no wonder, why many companies call the sale people producers, because no matter how good the product is, it is the sale people who have to follow the eight abovementioned steps and use all their communication skills to decide the customer on the given product. As an example of this idea lets view the Coke Company and the way it operates in order to have the idea regarding the career prospect of sales managers. The Coca-Cola is loved around the globe its brand makers, and marketers create a customized image for each of the regions Coca-Cola works, while it is also the western brands that strive to implant the ideas of value in the minds of customers around the world, and I believe often succeed to the point of wiping out local brands and industries.
It is no wonder that the world knows only about the western newest technologies and ideas, because besides developing something, the harsh competitive market conditions and picky customers require extensive marketing campaigns to be launched to share the information and possibly attract someone to the given idea and service. That is why the companies in the USA like Coke spend billions of dollars on the global marketing campaigns to assure an adequate coverage. To the best of my knowledge, the Coca Cola Company operates in more than 90 countries around the globe dealing on a daily basis with clients who have different customs and habits and speak different languages. That is why it constantly employs the local labor force for the sales positions, while also teaching them the Western selling practices to benefit from the clash of the two cultures.
The point I mentioned Coke is the fact that we live in the global environment with the various international companies entering different countries in search of higher revenues, more sales, and greater markets. The USA represents the worlds largest single market for most of the consumer goods, while at the same time being the worlds healthiest economy, and strongest economic, political, and military power. The US dollar is a reserve currency and is universal. Despite the economic decline during the summer of 2002, the USA still is the most promising country for both investors and companies. If during the crisis, downsizing occurs, the most common positions to be eliminated are the labor force not connected to sales, for the fact that any company relies on sales for its survival.
Thus, in my personal opinion, the major US trends are to increase efficiency and at the same time establish global presence by increasing the amount of outlets and internet commerce portals. From all those trends in globalization, US domestic stability that attracts foreign companies into the country, it is the sales people who benefit, because the demand for this position is constantly growing (Maxam, 2001). In conclusion, I would like to say that the sales manager has the greatest prospects in the organization for the good personal qualities necessary to remain on the given position. A Sales manager is a wiz of human psychology and the buying habits of customers. He / she knows well what the customer expects and what the company should do at any given moment. Besides the fact that the global economy of today only increases the number of sales people because each company strives to conquer more international markets and desperately needs sales people for achieving this goal, it is the great written and oral communication skills that also make former sales managers great executives and directors and thus also add up to the prospects of this position on the global labor market.
Bibliography: web (general sales-manager related information together with the position description. ) web (general sales-manager related information together with the position description. ) web (general sales-manager related information together with the position description. ) Mark Thorns, The US competitiveness, Prentice Hall, 2002. C. Maxam, The image making in the USA, Oxford University Press, 2001.
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Research essay sample on Coca Cola Sales Person
