Sales Managment Assignment - Essay Example

Introduction The company, Total Gas & Power Ltd has been in the market since 1987, hence is considered to be an experienced player in the market. Also, it is a leading energy supplier to industrial, commercial and business customers within the UK, and supplying over 70,000 sites across all market sectors. However, it has been facing certain problems in terms of its sales department for sometime such as high turnover of sales personnel, decline in sales performance and increasing volume of complaints from the customers. The Sales Department has two divisions – Business Development Team and Managed Account Team. Job profile of a Business Development Manager The Business Development Manager must be recruited keeping in mind the current scenario of the sales department and his ability to manage the same. The Business Development Manager must have certain qualities on two platforms- managerial and personal. On a personal level, he must be highly motivated and driven in order to push his sales team forward to perform better. He must be an excellent communicator and be able to build the gaps that have been created over the period of time and have led to a poor performance. He must be possessed with leadership qualities so that he can have the ability to lead his team on the way to success. On a managerial level, he must be able to perform a lot of duties with responsibility and accountability. In order to find out the reason for high turnover of sales personnel in the organization and solve the problem immediately, he must have a high level of understanding and clarity and work accordingly. He must be experienced and hence knowledgeable about the market trends and hence be accountable to the complaints of the customers and find out solutions for their worries. he must display an approachable and professional manner to all of his colleagues, suppliers, customers and other business partners at all times positively thereby maintaining a reputation and hence promoting the company. He must keep himself up-to-date with market developments in order to be abreast with the market and hence function well when they open a sales office in mainland Europe. Finally, he must actively seek improvement and personal development and hence be attentive to all the developments taking place in the organization. Methods of Recruiting of Business Development Manager Recruitment of staff should be preceded by an analysis of the job to be done written into a job description so that it is known what physical and mental characteristics applicants must possess, what qualities and attitudes are desirable and what characteristics are a decided disadvantage. Once this is done, various sources of recruitment exist- such as internal promotion and internal introductions, careers officers, university appointment boards, agencies for the unemployed and advertising or the use of other local media- from which the selector must choose the most suitable form. Next, the organization Total Gas & Power Ltd should use its identifying logo as its trade mark for rapid attraction and it must take care not to offend the sex, race, etc. antidiscrimination legislation either directly or indirectly. The form on which the applicant is to apply (personal appearance, letter of application, completion of a form) will vary according to the posts vacant and numbers to be recruited. It is very desirable that claim about experience and statements about the qualifications required are thoroughly checked and that applicants unfailingly complete a health questionnaire (the latter is not necessarily injurious to the applicant’s chance of being appointed as firms are required to employ a percentage of disabled people). Before letters of appointment are sent any doubts about medical fitness or capacity (in employments where hygiene considerations are dominant) should be resolved by requiring applicants to attend a medical examination. Then, Interviewing should be carried out by the National Sales Manager or by panels of interviewers. Ultimately personal skills in judgment are probably the most important, but techniques to aid judgment include selection testing for: Aptitudes Attainments General intelligence In more senior posts like that of a Sales Manager other techniques which can be used are: Leaderless groups Command exercises Group problem solving Training in interviewing and in appraising candidates is clearly essential to good recruitment. For consistency (and as an aid to checking that) rating often consists of scoring candidates for experience, knowledge, physical/mental capabilities, intellectual levels, motivation, prospective potential, leadership abilities etc. (according to the needs of the post). Application of the normal curve of distribution to scoring eliminates freak judgments. Welcome Letter for Sales Desk Executive Sales department of an organization is its driving force. It is that department which finally brings the ‘moment of truth’ and helps in realizing sales for the organization. Hence the job of a sales executive is to maximize the sales of Total Gas & Power Ltd in many different settings. There are various responsibilities of the Sales Desk Executive which begin with maintaining cordial relationships with the existing customers with the help of regular review visits. This is done in order to increase the sales with the existing customers. Also, he should have a clear understanding of his client’s businesses and requirements. He should visit potential customers in order to demonstrate the company’s products and thereby gain new markets. This will be especially helpful as Total Gas & Power Ltd is planning to start a sales office in mainland Europe. The executive should act as a link between the company and its markets- be it existing or potential. He should contact the customers by phone and negotiate terms of agreement and thus conclude sales. He should do a lot of research work such as gathering market and customer information. He should garner best deals for his organization such by negotiating variations in the delivery, price, and specifications with managers. He should be functional in staffing various trade exhibitions and demonstrations, keeping a record of the sales and order information and send copies to the sales office. He should advise on certain crucial forthcoming product developments and hence discuss special promotions- which will be possible only if he is up to date with the current market information. For this he must visit the retail and wholesale outlets to gather current information. He should make precise and rapid cost calculations and also check the balance between the quantities of goods on display and in stock. Finally he must review his own sales performance and always try to improve it. Induction plan for the Sales Desk Executive In general, induction is mind preparation and is carried out remote from the actual work area, training is the systematic development of the attitude, knowledge, skill pattern required by a person to perform a given task or job adequately and development is the growth of the individual in terms of ability, understanding and awareness. Within Total Gas & Power Ltd all three are necessary in order to: Develop sales executive to undertake higher-grade tasks; Raise efficiency and standards of performance; Meet legislative requirements (e.g. health and safety); Inform people (induction training, pre-retirement courses, etc.); From time to time meet special needs arising from technical, legislative, and knowledge need changes. Meeting these needs is achieved via the training loop. Designing training is far more than devising courses. This process will also help the sales desk executive to quickly integrate into the work environment - mainly to become recognized among other staff members. Keeping the current scenario in mind, Total Gas & Power Ltd depends on its people being able to work together and systematically planned induction training will greatly accelerate this. Hence an induction plan is accordingly set which would cover a long checklist. A formal induction will be carried out. In case of formal orientation the program is very much structured and systematic. Everything in program is layed down previously and the flow is very much according to that. In this, the sales executive is made knowledgeable about four aspects which are- the organization, the job, the employees and other aspects. First, the sales executive will be briefed about Total Gas & Power Ltd, its history and its growth since then. Here the sales executive will also be informed about the latest difficulties faced by Total Gas & Power Ltd and reasons behind it. He will be informed about the organizations vision and mission policy and its objectives. This step is basically taken to give the sales executive a sense of belonging to Total Gas & Power Ltd. Next, the executive will be briefed about his job and various responsibilities attached with them. Here he will be given the job description and the manner in which it is supposed to be performed. He will be told about his various duties, scope, authority, and area of coverage. He is explained about the different uses of job specific equipment, materials, consumables and substances. Also, he will be told how his job of a sales executive really fits into the service or production process. These will include his job as a sales executive and hence maintaining cordial relations with the clients and relevant market information in order to maintain or increase the current sales base. Then, the sales executive will be briefed about his co-workers or other employees working in Total Gas & Power Ltd. Here he will be formally introduced to the senior post management and employees in the sales department and informally introduced to other co-workers. He will be told about his employees personalities overview which will be very helpful to him later when he will have to coordinate his work with them. Finally, the sales executive will be told about various other aspects in relation to his job at Total Gas & Power Ltd. These include certain information regarding the local departmental amenities, security, catering, time and attendance, washrooms, sickness, emergency procedures, holiday’s absenteeism, etc. he will also be informed about the various politics and policies of the organization by which it works and sets its standards. He will be given information about how he is expected to use the issued equipment, local housekeeping and maintain the stationery and supplies. Evaluation of the effectiveness of training will be done to ensure that it is cost effective, to identify needs to modify or extend what is being provided, to reveal new needs and redefine priorities and most of all to ensure that the objectives of the training are being met. Improve the Performance of the Sales Team Various measures can be and should be taken in order to better the sales performance of Total Gas & Power Ltd. This is a process which should first start by evaluating the reasons behind the organizations poor performance. Only when this is done can the organization go one step forward and solve these problems. First, the sales team should be motivated enough to reduce the high turnover of sales personnel and thereby improve their performance. This can be done by making the working environment more favorable such as reduce isolation of workers and improve communication within the organization- inculcating both top-down approach and bottom-up approach. The sales personnel should be made more knowledgeable about their product’s features and its functions through seminars etc. Finally good performance should be rewarded with monetary incentives. Next, the performance appraisal scheme that had been introduced should be communicated to the employees properly leaving no room for confusion. Then, a senior sales executive should undertake the responsibility of tackling the complaints received from customers, evaluate its causes and then find out their solutions. Finally, the organization is looking forward to introduce another office in the mainland Europe. For this, they s should be highly motivated and informed about the market trends. The risk bearing capacity should be high in the beginning and they should strive towards building good customer relations. Bibliography   1. Prospects Sales executive: Training (2007) (http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/Types_of_Job/p!eipaL?state=showocc&idno=310&pageno=4) 2. Induction (2007) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction) 3. Induction training and induction checklist (2006) (http://www.businessballs.com/inductiontrainingchecklist.htm) 4. Prospects Sales executive: Job description and activities (2007) (http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/Types_of_Job/p!eipaL?state=showocc&idno=310) 5. Sales (2007) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales) Read More