Personal selling objectives

Marketing management in consultation with sales management determines personnel selling’s exact role in the promotional program. Usually the marketing planning group sets personal selling objectives, determines sales related marketing policies, formulates personal selling strategies and finalizes the sales budget. For example, online blinds company who are selling vertical blinds and roman shades products, personal selling objectives are not much important part compare to retail business.

Types of personal selling objectives: Selling objectives broadly classified into two categories they are-qualitative objectives and quantitative objectives.

Qualitative objectives:
a) To do the entire selling job.
b) To service existing accounts.
c) To search out and obtain new customers.
d) To secure and maintain customers co-operation in stocking and promoting the product line.
e) To keep customers informed on changes on the product line and other aspects of marketing strategy. For example newsletter is best way to keep the customers inform for an online blinds business company.
f) To assist customers in selling the product line.
g) To provide technical advice and assistance to customers.
h) To assists with the training and middlemen’s sales personnel.
i) To provide advice and assistance to middlemen on management problems.To collect and report market information of interest and use to company management

Advertising Management

Advertising management is also important part of the Sales Management. Marketing depends heavily on effective communication flow between the company and the consumer, manufacturing a product and making it available on the market is only a part of company’s job. It is equally important or perhaps more important, to make it known to the consumer that the product is available in the market. In a competitive market, where several firms are striving to win over consumers, it is not enough if just the availability is made. It is essential to propagate the distinctive features of the product. The process does not end here either. The marketing communication is not over by releasing an advertisement, or by offering a price reduction or by introducing attractive packing. It is a larger and continuous process. It involves a continuous dialog between the firms and its customer.

The marketing communication mix consists of five major modes of communication they are: Sales promotion, public relation and publicity, personal selling, direct and interactive marketing and advertising.

Of all the above modes we have discussed all other modes in the earlier units and course except advertising, in this unit let us discuss in detail about the advertising management as a tool of communication.

Sales promotion

As a part our talk on Sales force management we have already talked on so many important factors of the sales force management like sales training, sales development, sales methods, sales types, sales organizations, sales reports etc…. today we are going to discuss one more important factor of sales force management and which is Sales Promotion. For any business sales promotion is the most crucial planning and organizing part of their sale policies.

Co-ordinating the activities of all departments so that maximum progress is made toward overall company objectives is top management’s responsibility. Department heads, in addition to implementing top management’s directives, harmonize their activities so that the tasks of all departments are accomplished effectively. Each understands the functions of other departments and, each is responsible for co-ordinating his/her department’s activities to contribute to company success. For example, a Blinds Company who sales vertical blinds and roman shades online. Marketing team get business online and the production team need to delivery order products within given time by marketing team. In that case co-ordination between two departs is most important.

Good sales organizations plays a very important role in maintaining above said relations and promote the sales. Although primary responsibility of top sales executives is to manage sales department. A telly caller for term insurance agency need to be in touch with his sales departments, so when they have seasonal promotional schemes it be offered to clients right away. Sales executives understand how other departments influence and are influenced by the sales department. These are dynamic relationships, so a change in one department often has repercussions in other. A special co-ordination is required between sales and marketing department, in the areas of advertising, marketing information, service, physical distribution etc.

Sales Volume - Sales

We are talking Sales Forecast and Sales Budgeting here as part of our talk on Sales forces management. Sales Force Automation (SFA) is part of sales force management. We talked Fixing Sales Quota in our last talk. Today we are going to talk about Sales Volume.
Sales Volume:
Quote is an important standard for appraising the performance of individual sales personnel. Sales volume quotas communicate management’s expectations as to how much for what period sales volume quotas are set for geographical areas, product lines, or marketing channels or for one or more of these in combinations with any unit of the sales organization, the exact design depending upon what facets of the selling operation management want to appraise or motivate.

Sales volume quotas are subdivided into following categories:

• Money sales volume quotas
• Unit Volume quotas
• Point volume quotas

Procedure for setting sales volume quotas:

• Sales volume quotas derived from territorial potential.
• Sales volume quotas derived from total market estimates.
• Sales volume quotas based on past sales experience alone.
• Sales volume quotas based on executive judgment alone.
• Sales volume quotas related only to compensation plan.
• Letting sales personnel set their own sales volume quotas.

ref: Insurance CRM Software, Insurance Agency management software

Incremental Method - Sales Force Management Software

Sales Force Management we are talking here with reference to Sales Force Automation. We talked Workload Method, Sales Potential in previous posts as part of agency management system.

Today we are going to talk about Incremental Method as tool deciding the size of the sales force.

Incremental Method:
The incremental method is the best approach to determine sales force size. It is based on one proposition that net profit will increase when additional sales personnel are added if the incremental sales revenues exceed the incremental costs incurred. To apply this method as organization need two important items of information namely:

• Incremental revenue.
• Incremental costs.

Though this method is conceptually correct, it s also the most difficult to apply. It requires lot of efforts from the organization side to develop a sales response function to use in approximating market behavior in relation to alternative levels of personal selling efforts, and one need to have an efficient research and information team in the organization.

ref: sales force management software, agency management system

Distribution Policies - Sales Policies - Sales Force Management

Sales Force Automation is part of Sales Force Management we are talking here. As a part of our talk about sales force management we were talking about Sales Policies Formulation and we talk about product police as part of sales policies formulation.

Today we are going to talk about Distribution Policies as part of sales policies formulation.

Distribution policies (who to sell): The component policies related to distribution are :

• Channel design and channel types
• Channel remuneration, motivation and training.
• Channel principal relations.
• Channel costs.

ref: sales force automation software

Product Policies - Sales Policies - Sales Force Management

Sales Force Management we are talking here. Sales Policies Formulation was our last post and before that we talk different aspect of Sales Force Management including Sales Force Management and Sales Management-Task Involved, Setting Personal Selling Objectives.

Formulating sales policies is nothing but the policies related to marketing. These sales related marketing policies delineate the guide lines within which the effort to reach personal selling objectives is made. There are three major types:

1. Product policies (what to sell).
2. Distribution policies (who to sell).
3. Pricing policies.

we talk each of the about types of sales policies.

1) Product Policies (what to sell):-

• Which product should find a place in the product line?
• Whether some of the existing products are to be dropped?
• Whether any new products are to be added?
• Whether product design or product quality needs to be changed?
• What models, type, size, colors and packing are to be sold?
• What kinds of product guarantees are to be given?

we talk about remaining two types in our next post.

ref: sales force management software

Personal Selling Objectives-Sales Management Task-1

Setting Personal Selling Objectives

We talk about Sales Force Management and Sales Management-Task Involved in our previous talk. Today we are going to talk first task that is Setting Personal Selling Objectives which we have mention in our taks involved list in our talk on Sales Management and Sales Force Management.

Marketing management in consultation with sales management determines person selling’s exact role in the promotional program. Usually the marketing planning group sets personal selling objectives, determines sales related marketing policies, formulates personal selling strategies and finalizes the sales budget.

Types of personal selling objectives:
Selling objectives broadly classified into two categories they are qualitative objectives and quantitative objectives.

Qualitative objectives:
1) To do the entire selling job.
2) To service existing accounts.
3) To search out and obtain new customers.
4) To secure and maintain customers co-operation in stocking and promoting the product line.
5) To keep customers informed on changes in the product line and other aspects of marketing strategy.
6) To assist customers in selling the product line.
7) To provide technical advice and assistance to customers.
8) To assists with the training and middlemen’s sales personnel.
9) To provide advice and assistance to middlemen on management problems.
10) To collect and report market information of interest and use to company management.

Quantitative Objectives:
1) To capture and retain a certain market share.
2) To obtain sales volume in ways that contributes to profitability.
3) To obtain some number of new accounts of given types.
4) To keep personal selling expenses with in set limits.
5) To secure targeted percentage of certain accounts business.

ref: sfa and sales management software

Sales Management-Task Involved

According to the definition committee of the American Marketing Association Sales Management meant “The Planning, direction and control of personal selling including recruiting, selection equipping, assigning, routing, supervising, paying and motivating as these tasks apply to the personal sales force”. Following are the important task involved in the success of sales management in any organizations:
1) Setting personal selling objectives.
2) Formulating sales policies.
3) Structuring the sales force.
4) Deciding the size of the sales force.
5) Designing sales territories.
6) Developing the sales territories.
7) Developing the sales forecasts and sales budgets.
8) Fixing sales targets for individual sales territories/salesman.
9) Creating the sales force
10) Managing the sales force
11) Managing the marketing channels.
12) Ensuring growth and developing new accounts.
13) Sales communication and reporting
14) Sales coordination and sales controlling including sales expense control.
15) Building the sales organization
16) Co-ordination with marketing management in the areas like, product mix, pricing, distribution, advertising and sales promotion.
17) Creating and maintaining right image for the company and its products in the market.