SALES PLANNING OPERATIONS

Sales Planning Operations

Sales Planning Operations

Task 1

Personal Selling Strategies

Personal selling in itself can be called an interactive strategy which the sales management and salespeople use to achieve set goals and targets of personal selling objectives via different methods. In short, personal selling methods and strategies are used to convince customers to buy a particular service or product; thereby making it one of the most effective promotional strategies. However, in order to keep up with the continuously changing needs, wants and demands of a variety of customers, personal selling strategies need to be regularly tailored. Moreover, in selling situations where buy behaviour changes between first time and repeat purchases of high value products and commodities; the sales task has to rapidly switch between different strategies in order to retain consumer satisfaction. A few personal selling strategies have been highlighted below which may help in customer retention and repeat purchase (Duncun, 2005, pp 358).

One of the best ways to maintain control over selling situations which change after first time purchases is to 'partner' with the customer as well as the prospects. This serves to create an effective strategy where the customer and the salesperson both 'win.' This is due to the fact that with a partnering approach, the salesperson becomes not only a representative of the selling organisation but also of the customer which helps in creating and building trust. Another personal selling strategy includes solution based selling where the salesperson can help repeat and even potential customers solve their problems and take advantage of the presented opportunity by making repeat sales. A third approach known as the CRM or customer relationship management denotes the use of a specialized automated database for the sales team and their activities. This database includes information relating to clients and the selling organisation. Furthermore, this approach can be used to automate the sales team, provide for efficient and timely customer support and a 'help desk' for channel members, helps in tracking the sales people and technical support staff in the field, and tracks the planning and execution of ongoing marketing campaigns (Duncun, 2005, pp 358).

All of these outlined methods can be tailored to suit the needs of repeat consumers and customers. Additionally techniques like direct searching and internal research which yields valuable information regarding the expectations of consumers in targeted areas can also be used. Also, searching for customers via the yearbooks method which includes research through classical instruments such as telephone directories, business registers, professional associations, etc can also be applied towards changing selling scenarios. The aim of these approaches is to develop a list of potential buyers and then proceed with the first time or repeat sale (Lipman, 2005, pp. 213-25).

Presentation

When you make a phone call or a visit to the presentation, you have to start already giving the customer the idea that we are working for them, not for us (Chron, 2013). To implement this, we must first get contact information to try to understand his needs and ...