Lecture 1: Introduction to Sales and Marketing Flashcards
What is “selling”? (two definitions
- ‘Give or hand over (something)
in exchange for money - ‘Persuade someone of the merits of.’
- -> can be non-tangible things as well
- ->as, or more, important than the exchange part
why was Aristotle an early sales researcher?
- ethos (appeal to character)
- pathos (appeal to emotions)
- logos (logical reasoning)
–> all of these are essential in persuasion
describe the bias towards sales people
• Often dubious image -->if sales people are successful, often dom't attribute sales to them • Frontline of organisation (in eye of many customers: sales people = the organisation) • Good products do NOT sell themselves
What are the 6 main aspects/characteristics of selling
- Customer development, retention and deletion
- Information management ( ex. know stock)
- customer relationship management
- marketing the product
- Problem solving and system selling
- Satisfying needs and adding value
describe Customer development, retention and deletion
as a sales person, want to be able to identify high value and low value customers
–> who should you invest time into?`
describe marketing the product
have to recognize segments,
have most direct customer touchpoint –> sales people have to be able to explain value of offer to customers
What are the 3 overarching types of selling/salespeople?
- order-takers
- order-creators
- order-getters
describe order-takers
Responding to already committed customers
Inside order-takers
• Purely transactional task
• Receiving payment and passing over goods
Outside order-takers • Visit customers • Respond to customer request instead of persuading • Increasingly being replaced by telemarketers
describe order-creators
- Do not directly get orders
- Talking to those who specify
Missionary salespeople
• Don’t try to persuade customer • Seek to specify seller’s products • Educate and build goodwill
describe order getters
Attempt to persuade customers to place an order
• Front-line salespeople • Major objective: persuade consumer to make direct purchase • Most challenging type of selling • Technical support salespeople • Support front-line salespeople • Provide detailed technical information • Merchandisers • Mainly retail and wholesale • Help with display, promotions, stock level…
What are the five sales and marketing orientations?
- Selling orientation
- Production orientation
- Product orientation
- Marketing orientation
- Service orientation
selling orientation
• Has likely been created in 1920’s and 30’s
- Usually adopted if:
- Overproduction or excess supply
- Consumers need to be persuaded to buy the product
- Supply exceeds demand
• Assumption is that consumers are slow to buy
production orientation
- Arguably developed in 1920’s before sales orientation
- Cutting production costs by increasing efficiency -> economies of scale
- Assumption is that consumer will buy if:
- Reasonable quality
- Reasonable price
- Reasonable availability
- Not suitable if supply exceeds demand
- Surplus from this orientation might have least o sales orientation
product orientation
• Focus on quality and performance
• By continuously improving
• Assumption is that customers choose products
for their quality rather than their price
• Pitfalls:
• Pricing yourself out of the market
• Improvements might not be desired by consumers
marketing orientation
• Shift from ‘sell what we can make’ to ‘find out what consumers want and then we’ll make it’
• Likely evolved somewhere 1950-70’s as a result
of dissatisfaction with earlier orientations
• Marketing orientation integrates parts of earlier orientations: • Quality and performance • Promotions • Reduction of costs
- ‘Out-side in’ perspective
- Customer at the core of the business
service orientation
• Most recent addition
• Moves focus from the product to servicing the
consumer
• Business philosophy based on the service
elements of its offer
• Used to (co-)create value with the customer (Lecture 9)
• Organisation focuses on how it engages with
external agents
• Sales people are essential link here
• Manage expectations of both parties
what is the “marketing concept”?
Marketing Concept holds that the key to achieving its organisational goals consists of the company being more effective than competitors in creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value to its chosen target markets
what are some potential dangers of differential advantage if not implemented correctly by the salesforce
- Salesforce can undermine differential advantage by giving in to customer demands for price reductions
- DA is communicated but not appropriately communicated in
terms of benefits for customer
what are four ways of achieving sales “buy-in”
- objectivity and rational persuasion
- sensitivity and responsiveness to reality
- positioning them for success
- involvement strategy creation
