Sales Planning and Operations - Assignment Example

Sales Planning and Operations - Sales Planning and Promotions Contents Q.3.4. Evaluate qualitative and quantitative sales management techniques 3 Introduction 3 Body / Discussion 3 Qualitative and quantitative sales management techniques 3 Benefits and short-falls of each type of sales management technique 4 Apply these two techniques into an organization 5 Conclusion 5 Q.3.5. Describe the use of databases in sales management 6 Introduction 6 Body / Discussion 6 Identify social media that can be used as a sales tool 6 Describe benefits that social media presents to sales managers over regular face-to-face selling 7 Describe some of the limitations of social media as a sales tool 7 Conclusion 8 References 9 Q.3.4. Evaluate qualitative and quantitative sales management techniques Introduction Sales operations are a set of processes and business activities that helps the organization to run efficiently and effectively and to be aligned with the strategies and objectives of the business. The sales operations are sometimes referred to as business operations, sales or sales support. The major benefit of the sales operations is to make timely and sound business decisions to enhance the long term as well as short term performance. The sales operations help to align the selling resources with the market opportunities and in the most cost effective method. Body / Discussion Qualitative and quantitative sales management techniques The qualitative sales management technique is based on the experience and opinion of people who are informed in the forecasting techniques rather than any data. There are majorly three common techniques that are used in qualitative sales management. They are Delphi method, panel method and scenario planning. The Delphi method is the most popular for sales management or forecasting using the experts. A survey or questionnaire is send to the chosen experts rather than meeting them face to face. The survey method is repeated continuously unless a consensus is determined (Wright, 1969, pp. 76-77). The panel method is a technique in which a focus group is formed and the panel members meet face and face and discuss about the forecast required with the common goal of obtaining a consensus. The scenario planning technique is often regarded as contingency planning and is not about reaching a consensus but about identifying the various scenarios related to the various sales outcomes and designing a plan that can be adopted by the business in the least desirable scenario. Quantitative sales management techniques are based on the designing algorithms of varying complexity. Quantitative methods can be briefly segmented in two parts such as time series method and explanatory method. In the time series method the management or sales forecast is based on the historical data. It uses the historical site visit data so as to proceed with the forecast. The explanatory method takes into account other data as input into the whole procedure of forecasting or sales management. However both the methods in quantitative technique incorporate the use of actual data available on the internet or field (Tyagi and Kumar, 2004, pp. 95-96). Benefits and short-falls of each type of sales management technique One of the major advantage of quantitative techniques is that its simplicity. The method is based on statistical principles and its simple approach makes the outcome is easily accessible compared to the lengthy process of opinion based technique. The other advantage is that it is highly reliable method as it is based on existing data comprising of some element of predictability. The quantitative method is very objective and is based on sheer data and hence do not involve any subjective interpretation. The last advantage is that it helps in a more sales management. The disadvantages of the quantitative method are that it involves a very high cost, it even does include the intangible human factor in its approach, and it represents just the tool and do not facilitate the complete decision making process (Run, Fam and Srivastava, 2008, pp. 101-103). The main advantage of the qualitative technique is that its predictable ability, since the opinions of experts are taken into consideration the method helps in predicting the necessary changes in the future sales patterns. It has the advantage of flexibility as it does not involve any numerical data. The other benefit is that it is a very useful approach when there is inadequate or ambiguous data. The major disadvantages of the qualitative approach is that it is very time consuming, have a selective perception as the experts involved in the techniques can simply ignore the relevant information so that it does not hinder their judgment about the future, and anchoring events through which the recent events influences the perception for future events and thus resulting into an opinion full of flaws (Armtrong, 2001, pp. 65-66). Apply these two techniques into an organization TESCO supermarket utilizes these two approaches into their system so as to enhance their sales and productivity levels. The quantitative approach it can further implement is time series method this would help in matching its performance over the time. The qualitative approach that can be applied to this organization is Delphi method, in which some experts of the group or other from other industry can be involved and a survey can be conducted to analyze their opinions in order t have an effective sales management procedure in the system (David, 2008, pp. 225-226). Conclusion Hence it is essential to have the best of techniques to facilitate sales management as the sales operations is the major driver for the revenue of any organization. If the sales operations are not managed properly it would hinder the overall business operations. For instance in this situation TESCO is able to outperform because of the effective sales management techniques it has incorporated in the organization for achieving higher standards in its sales performance. Q.3.5. Describe the use of databases in sales management Introduction Databases in sales management offers a way to easily, quickly and effectively manage the sales pipeline. It helps the business in terms of getting out of the react mode. The business activities forecasted on the portals helps the management to formulate the future plans in relation to the client base and driller deeper in every situation. It helps in saving the time today and makes the future more productive. Database even helps in enhancing the communication with clients and improves on the internal process and facilitates more control over the business. Body / Discussion Identify social media that can be used as a sales tool A very integral part in the sales process is to identify the prospects and develop efficient relationships with them. The social media helps in accomplishing this objective very easily and quickly. The social media helps in analyzing the comments that people post regarding the brand and the products of any company. Twitter can be used as a sales tool as it is the fastest growing social network. Twitter is an effective sales tool both for B2C and B2B, and it helps in keeping the name of the company in front of the prospects. Twitter helps in seeing what people are saying about the competitor’s product. Twitter search helps in enabling the company to follow those people who are using target keywords in their profile (Hallam, 2013, pp. 67-68). The people who are not satisfied with the competitor’s product and looking for a solution can be targeted as they are potential prospects who in turn would link the company to other prospects through their profile. This would ultimately result into increase in the product sales. The company can even twit coupon codes on the site and even hold some contest in which the winner would be awarded some discount on their purchase; this eventually would help the company to generate more sales. Describe benefits that social media presents to sales managers over regular face-to-face selling Social media is a smart telling tool compared to that of the regular face to face selling procedure. It helps in connecting with the prospects in the least possible time but only possible if social media is used by the clients and the prospects. The benefit of social media is engagement as it allows a company to communicate with the customers even when they are not present in the store or office in a real time environment. Social media gives the chance to connect with those people who are discussing about the company’s product which is otherwise not possible in face to face selling (Feigon, 2013, pp. 67-68). Through this social media a broader audience can be reached which is otherwise not possible in face to face selling. Social media networks helps in effective brand exposure. The customer loyalty and customer tracking can be well maintained through social networking which is very difficult to maintain in face to face selling (Richardson and Gosnaym, 2010, pp. 56-57). The major advantage that social media posses over face to face selling is that it helps the company to reach to a vast target audience at the least cost and in the least time which in turn gives the company more time to convert the prospects into buyers and generate revenue. Describe some of the limitations of social media as a sales tool Though there are some major benefits that social media have but there exists some limitation too of using social media as a sales tool. The limitation is that it would require commitment of significant resources by the company to utilize the social media as a sales tool. These resources would have the responsibility to respond to the feedback generated and develop new content. This would ultimately influence the restructuring of an organization as a separate human resource allocation would be required to manage the social media activity to generate sales. Social media has the disadvantage that it cannot be quantified and hence the company would not be able to analyze effectively the return on investment (Curtis and Giamanco, 2010, pp. 92-93). It is also not possible to analyze the value of one channel over the other in case of social media. As in case of face to face selling the people gets a human touch so the trust level is build more effectively whereas in the case of social media it is not possible to build trust in the least time. The other limitation would be the ineffective use of the social media. If the company using the network to continuously push sales without effectively engaging with the customers or by not providing any significant solution to the negative feedback than it damage the reputation of the company and result into negative word of mouth and ultimately hinder the sales growth of the company (Turner and Shah, 2010, pp. 112-113). Conclusion Social media is the most effective tool for initiating sales in today’s highly competitive world and requires efficient management so as to overcome the limitations that this kind of medium have compared to the face to face selling procedure. References Armtrong, M. 2001. A Handbook of Management Techniques: The Best-selling Guide to Modern Management Methods. USA: Kogan Page Publishers. Curtis, J.C., and Giamanco, B. 2010. The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media. USA: ABC-CLIO. David, J. 2008. Selling and Sales Management. New Delhi: Pearson Education India Feigon, J. C. 2013. Smart Sales Manager: The Ultimate Playbook for Building and Running a High-Performance inside Sales Team. USA: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Hallam, J. 2013. The Social Media Manifesto: A Guide to Using Social Technology to Build a Successful Business. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Richardson, N., and Gosnaym R. M. 2010. A Quick Start Guide to Social Media Marketing. Hong Kong: Kogan Page Publishers. Run, E. C. D., Fam, K. S., and Srivastava, R. K. 2008. Sales Management. New Delhi : Excel Books India. Turner, J., and Shah, R. 2010. How to Make Money with Social Media. USA: FT Press. Tyagi, C.L., and Kumar, A. 2004. Sales Management. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Dist. Wright, G. B. 1969. New Techniques for Effective Sales Management. Canada: Parker Publishing Company. Read More