Effective Business Plan for the Implementation of Routers in the New Market - Case Study Example

Hypothesis for effective selling: Demographic location ‘A’ [sales cycle is high] to be targeted assuming there are lesser companies there. This means that they deal more with premium routers. The company expects to have maximum revenues i.e. Return on Investment [ROI] from sales in this area. Moreover it may be taken that B and C are locations where the base model is prevalent. New territories chosen: 3, 5, 6 and 9 Territories where market infiltration is sort: 1, 8 and 10 Strategies for selling in existing markets Out of the 3 [1,8 and 10] territories, the one needing the most aggressive selling would be territory 10. The Q1 here is 90%, followed by territory 1 and 8. Strategies for selling in new markets Here the real challenge would be to maintain projected business decisions to percolate in territory 5; equally spaced with 25% across four quarters. These territories need more marketing and publicity. Staffing requirements: Aim of the Sales Force: Aggressive selling/orders for market penetration especially in the Q1 and concentrate more on demographic locations of A. Since the sales departments across industries work under extreme pressure to deliver their targets, we are also going to follow the same structure. The basic idea here is to formulate a task force of a small team capable of undertaking substantial work and deliver goods as targeted and their goals are more aligned with the organizational goals. Further after a year, depending upon the nature of the business the team may be expanded on need basis. The staffing requirements are a combination for existing as well as new markets. The entire sales team will be headed by the general sales manager [GSM], reporting to the CMO. Further the team would comprise of fields sales manager, the accounts group and the admin staff. Four telemarketers are to be hired since the company expects high returns in mostly all sectors. Offcourse downsizing would be looked at based on the need of the hour. All the staff will be trained hands on before putting them on field operations. Here the motivation for employees should be handsome incentives quarterly, based on achieving targets. For the first year the team should be paid incentives at 5 – 10 % of their base pay. This will be steered up the following financial year. Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for Sales: Consumer loyalty is based on the use of our machines for the first time and coming back to use the same machine over a period. This needs to be combined with the value proposition of the product and the best in class machine longevity [7 – 10 years] against competitors having say 4 – 5 years. This is one of the keys to build loyal consumer base. Basic design for Effective Sales: The sales task force should “think consumer to be big”. The sales strategies should be consumer centric, i.e. more focused on delivering goods to the buyers. All these concepts are designed to achieve targets “first time right”. This also ensures customer satisfaction. The key points that the sales team should look into is delivering targets for the company and machines to the consumer. These commitments should help the sales team to achieve organizational goals for the financial year 2012 -2013. Sales focus should be on more mature territories like 10, 8 and 1. Here the scope of ROI is high and the market share for capture is also high. In this sector it is very logical to sell only premium models of routers for the first year. It is also apparent that due to the presence of fewer companies in sector ‘A’ as compared ‘B’ and ‘C’, the net profits would also be high since our premium routers would compensate for the volumes required. Hence, the need to maintain the customer base here is critical. The accounts team will have to play a major role here in retention of clientele. They will also have to coordinate with the telemarketers to get the job done. And here the sales rigor has to be maintained over a substantial period of 8 months for ‘A’. Once the Q1 targets are achieved then the team can also take up sales of the base models for smaller firms. This call can be taken by the CMO eventually. Territory 5, 6 and 9 will open up more new avenues for sales and further strengthen the company’s brand image. Especially because it is well spaced out between quarters Q1 to Q4. Here the sales focus should be more on the combinative effect of sales of base as well as the premium models. These markets will be sensitive because of the reluctance of customers to accept new designs and technologies for their firms. Here the GSM has to identify to have his best men on field to get the initial orders and then build on it subsequently. Territory 3 can be taken up once the fire-fighting of the rest is done. By then the sales team would be well acquainted with the market opportunities there. Another strategy that the company can consider is alternative pricings. This may be a cumulative effect of shelf life [7-10 years], technology platform; giving the machine it’s life. Another attempt would be price your product based of the demographic locations. Like, the premium routers should be priced high for sector ‘A’. Here the ROI is expected to be high with respect to profit margins. Then if the base models are priced low in ‘B’ and ‘C’; the losses here would be compensated by profits from A. Hence, we have an overall profit margin. If our products are priced higher with competitors, the alternative pricing strategies should bail us out and we could still sell well. For the first year the ROI may not be high, but it will be sure that the end of the financial year will be a beginning of good returns. These strategies should be able to deliver goods for the financial year 2012- 2013. Note: For Staffing and Organizational Chart please see the excel sheet. Read More