Cours 1- Strategy Role Of Sales Force And Marketing Flashcards
Designing a sales force, manager need to decide on
- The sales force’s objectives and strategy
- Its structure and size
- Its system for hiring, training, evaluations and compensating
Sizing the sales force
8 step method to construct sales force size
8 step method to construct sales force size
- Segment the types of customers and estimate the number
- Estimate the call frequency
- Step 1 x step 2
- Compute the net number of working days possible - vacation / sales person
- Identify the time necessary/ sales call (including travel time)
- Hours per day x step 4
- Step 6 / step 5
- Step 3 / step 7
Personal selling
Crucial part of marketing
Involves interpersonal communication between buyers and sellers to initiate, develop customer relationships
What is go to market strategy
Defines the activities and the participants that connect a firm to its customers and prospects
Sales forces
Direct : sales to customer face to face
Indirect : agents, distributors, retailers ; value added partners
Non sales functions
Tele channels
Internet
Advertising & promotion
Direct mail
Influences on décision Consumer buying process
- personal influences
- psychological influences
- social influences
Buying center
A cross functional team of decision makers who often represent several departments
Sales process matched to
Customer
Buying needs
Why direct sales forces is important
More convincing
More demonstrating
Face to face
Persuasive
High cost of maintaining a sales force
Role of sales force
Delivering the products and services
Distributing, collecting data’s on market
Marketing communications strategies
Personal selling driven
Advertising driven
Personal selling driven
- message flexibility
- timing and credibility
- reaction speed are important
advertising driven
When low cost per contact
Repetitive contact
Control of messahe important
Audience is large
Communication strategies
Push strategy
Pull strategy
Push strategy
The producer directs its marketing activities toward channel members to induce them to carry products
Pull strategy
The producer directs its marketing activities toward final consumers to induce them to buy the products
External forces
Customers
Compétitions
Environment
Internal forces
Company strategy —> marketing and sales strategy
Types of sales person
- field sales rep
- inside sales (store or phone)
- missionary sales : influence them
Today sales force exists to
Solve customer’s needs rather than to simplify sell
When to choose direct force ?
- The product is specialized in terms of function, market
- The product line is relatively wide
- The organization is sufficiently established to support the additional employees
Downsizing direct sales force is difficult
- in countries where labor laws require extensive pre layoff notifications
- firms are vulnerable to cost pressure and must respond to regulatory constraints
How to manage the enormous costs of maintaining a sales force
- downsize
- favoriser indirect channels
- shift to smaller teams with more limited responsibilities
- defonse area of focus : high customer lifetime value
High customer lifetime value
Present value of future profits expected from a customer by using a leverage sales force
Sales force design
Dynamic sales force decision marking : a process that seeks for optimizing the sales force coverage to the given customer segment
Key sales force design question for sales manager
- how many sp should we have in each role ?
- should the company sell directly or indirectly ?
- how should I assign responsibility to sp to maximize coverage and give them faire chance to succeed ?
Key sales force design questions for sp
- which customers should I focus on?
- what offering is best to each customers
Sales force design process steps
3 steps
Step 1
Determine an appropriate sales strategy
Appropriate sales strategy
Who to sell ?
Customer segmentation
What to sell
Customer offering
How to sell
Link the selling process steps to a customers buying process
Customer segmentation
Profile
Behavior : historical, growth, loyalty
Customer offering
Price system program products/services
Step 2
Define the go to market strategy
How to define the go to market strategy
Use multiplication le selling channels that work together to accomplish critical selling activities in an effective and efficient manner
Sales and marketing channels
Value added partners Direct sales force Télé channels E channels Advertising and promotion
Step 3
Focus on sales force design
Focus on sales force design
Structure
Size
Assignment of responsibilities
The optimal structure and size of a sales force depends on
Micro and macro economic factors
Micro and macro economic factors
Product
Market
Account
Geography
The effectiveness or efficiency change over time
The sales force structures should be revisited at each stage of the business cycle
Direct sales force
Recommended when control is important over the info flow and budget planning
Product line is wide
No specific knowledge or qualification is needed
Product is specialized in terms of function market …
Indirect sales force
Seasonal goods Market fragmented Lacks of knowledge Few products Selling cycles is short and orders are small
Personal selling driven
Few buyers
Buyers concentrated geographically
Post purchase service important
Adversitig driven
Low cost per contact Large audience Product less complex Time saving Dispersed geographically
Market penetration
Identify new sales opportunities with your actual customers
If the market strategy is expanding the geographic scope + increasing the sales in existing areas
Sales force implication :
- management : prospecting, incentive plan
- sp : prospecting with reports, strengthen the detailing skills
Non sales function : detailing : webinar, report, conference, press …
Factors to consider before deciding on its sales force design
External factors : industry, competitors, customers, channel partners
Internal factors : sales and non sales functions
Micro and macro eco factors
