Sales Presentation to Whole Foods Market - Essay Example

? Sales Presentation to Whole Foods Market of the Table of Contents PROSPECTING 3 3 of the organization 3 PRE-APPROACH 3 APPROACH 4 SALES PRESENTATION 5 Script 7 HANDLING OBJECTIONS 7 CLOSING 8 FOLLOW UP 8 CONCLUSION 9 References 10 PROSPECTING In sales terms, a prospect is a potential client, customer or purchaser. Prospecting in sales is searching for potential customers who are new and competent. This is the first stage in a sales pitch. The sales representative from the selling organization will find the most competent and suitable lead of clients. From this lead, those clients having appropriate resources, compatibility and need for the product or services will be approached. In this stage, it is important for the seller to select those prospects who can provide maximum profit to the organization. In the prospecting stage, information about the client or the customer as well as the selling organization is evaluated. Description of customer The potential customer chosen for sales presentation will be Whole Foods Market. The retail store is a grocery supermarket chain based in America (Wholefoodsmarket, 2013a). The retail chain is headquartered in Texas and was founded by John Mackey who is the current Chief Executive Officer for the organization. The company was established in 1980 and is publicly traded. The retail chain is known for selling of foods which are minimally processed and organically farmed (Wholefoodsmarket, 2013b). At present the organization has around 400 stores located in different parts of America and United Kingdom. Description of the organization The organization name is organic valley, which is a cooperative of about 1500 farm families producing market certified and premium organic food products. It is one of the largest organic farmer’s cooperative in United States. The cooperative was established in 1988 and the major food products include vegetables, dairy and eggs (Organic Valley, 2013a). Apart from selling organic food products, the organization is also involved in activities such as ecological sustainability. PRE-APPROACH Pre-approach is the second step in sales pitch. In this approach relevant information about the prospective client is gathered in order to prepare customized and appropriate sales presentations. In the current sales presentation, the prospect chosen is one of the well known supermarket stores in United States. Wholesale Food Markets is into selling of those food products which are considered natural and organic. The retail chain is strict about organic and natural foods and allows only those food products which clear the safety standards according to organic food committee. This will be the primary reason for targeting Wholesale Food Market. It can be seen that both the selling organization and the prospect dwell on a basic goal of serving high quality and sustainable food products. This will be the primary touch point for rapport building. It is necessary to find common traits so that the two parties can relate to each other. Organic Valley’s objective of sustainable and eco-friendly foods and Wholesale Food Market’s mission of providing quality foods will help in breaking ice during sales pitch (Organic Valley, 2013b). Wholesale Food Market purchases products from regional, local and international wholesale vendors and suppliers. Most of its purchases come from local players provided these local food producers maintain the quality standards. According to the current reports on organic farming, only a few producers in United States meet the quality and standard criteria for organic foods. Organic Valley is one of them. These will be the building blocks during company description to the prospective client. The objective will be to initiate relationship even from an early stage, so that the prospect can connect with the company as well as its products and services. APPROACH The third stage of a selling process in approach. Here a rapport is built with the prospective customer taking the help of the research information gained at the previous stage. This will help in establishing a better communication. In order to get the attention of the customer, the present status of organic food market will be discussed. Industry statistics and the suggested future growth of the organic food market will be presented. Figure 1 United States Organic Food Market Value & Value Forecast: $ billion, 2005-2014 (Source: Chacon, 2009) According to the current industry statistics there is a rise demand for organic non-vegetarian food products. United States industry report will be presented according to which, there are only a handful of cooperatives producing organic foods in the non-vegetarian category. This will be the anticipated problem approached to the prospective client. The objective of the presentation will be to inform the prospective customer about the incoming gap in demand and supply of organic foods in non-vegetarian category. Throughout the presentation, the pitching will be generating needs about specific foods and making the client understand how the organization can only satisfy their needs (Score, 2013). Few of the ice breaker comments will be based on; Common goals of the companies Sustainable business practices by Whole Foods as well as Organic Valley Animal Compassion Foundation created by whole Foods In order to verify the correctness of the anticipated problem, any scepticism from the prospect will be resolved. The customer will be asked if they have any query or if they are not satisfied with the anticipated problem. In case of any concern or query, it will be resolved with relevant proof. Relevant and established market data reports will be provided and the sales person will check for acceptance from the prospective client. SALES PRESENTATION A strategically prepared presentation engages prospective clients with relevant information and entices them into a purchase commitment (Cicala, Smith & Bush, 2012). This is one of the crucial stages on sales pitch. It can also be considered as a supporting stage in sales pitch. In this stage, once the anticipated need is accepted by the customer, the seller acknowledged the need. After that relevant features and benefits of the services or products are described in order to satisfy the anticipated issues and problems. The objective of this stage is to make the customer believe that the product or service offered by the organization is the best solution to the customer’s problems (Abed & Haghighi, 2009). In the previous stage, the need of the customer had been identified. The key points which differentiate the products and services of Organic Valley and make it the best fit for Wholesale Food’s problems are as follows; Organic Valley is one of the largest and most recognized organic cooperative societies in America. The cooperative has been distributing in more than 50 states and also in some parts of Europe and East Asia. The organization is a direct distributor to retailers and wholesalers. The cooperative does not engage any middle men or third party like other cooperatives. This is a plus point for the customer as the organization will be quoting lower than the market price. The company’s market line of pork, beef, turkey and chicken products are increasingly in demand. According to the Organic Valley’s company reports, the revenue share from non-vegetarian food products is rising sharply. Due to the company’s good recognition in the organic food business, most of the consumers are loyal to Organic Valley’s brand. This will be a positive outlook for Wholesale Food market and will help in increasing the profits. Organic valley has very strong financial reports. The company reported whopping sales of around 800 million dollars in the year 2011. As a result, the profit margin has increased. The company is now able to offer discounts on bulk purchase. To support the presentation many support documents will be presented. The objective of using visual aids is to increase customer engagement into the entire process. Displays Displays will be used in order to increase visibility to the customer as well as provide visual detail of the products and services offered by the company. Samples The representative of Organic Valley can also bring some samples of organic non-vegetarian food products in order to give a firsthand experience to the customer. Certified documents In order to build confidence among the customer, the cooperative can also use certified documents regarding the company’s foray into organic farming and its recognition over the years. Script The current script is for sales presentation in which Organic Valley demonstrates the product features and benefits. Organic Valley: I believe by now it is clear to you that the major opportunity in the organic food business will be coming from animal food market. Even the data and statistics suggest that. Do you agree? Wholesale Foods Market: Yes I do agree. Though, I do not know if I require any of these products. You know, we are already doing well in the market and I am not sure about this. Organic Valley: I appreciate that you are already thinking about the benefits of Wholesale Foods. Let me make it more interesting. The demand for organic animal food has increased. But the same is not with supply of these organic food products. So, in future you might see that your vegetables sale is decreasing while more and more customers are asking for animal foods. This is the future opportunity you will miss if you do not stock organic animal food products. Wholesale Foods Market: You have made a very strong point. I think buying the stocks will be beneficial though I have some queries. HANDLING OBJECTIONS Handling of objections is another crucial stage in the sales presentations. A customer may ask questions regarding the presentation as well as about the selling company. The sales representative should be ready with answers in order to resolve those issues and concerns. The first objection might come with respect of pricing. Organic Valley is a premium supplier of organic food products. Compared to other suppliers, the cooperative places its products in higher price range. This can create a negative image for the company. In order to resolve this, Organic Valley will pitch for its high quality and certified food products. The company will focus on its properly trained employers and hygienic maintenance of the animals, which explains a higher pricing. Wholesale Foods might be concerned with the supply contract and delivery days of the company. To resolve this, Organic Valley will thrust on its logistics and supply chain function. With the help of statistics and customer testimonials, the cooperative can build confidence on its logistics. Another area of concern might be terms of sales, suppliers and wholesale policies of the company. Wholesale Foods might not be comfortable with the sales term of Organic Valley. In this case, negotiations can be established between the two parties. Wholesale Foods will be informed about the advantages of bulk purchase and contractual business with the help of futuristic statistics and growth patterns. Responding to any query or objective is crucial, as it builds mutual trust and understanding between the two parties and helps in successful closing of the deal. CLOSING Successful closing of sale is established when desired outcome is achieved. This can be signature acquiring, exchange of money etc. These represent any act which ensures that exchange has been done and sealed. Closing can be achieved through various techniques. The most common one is directly asking for order. This type of closing is established in cases when the customer has decided purchasing services or products. The case of selling organic food products to Wholesale Foods, following two approaches can be used; In case the sales representative is sure about the customer, and the customer has given ample of positive signs suggesting his/her interest in the product, direct close or half Nelson close can be used. In this closing style, questions like “May I confirm your delivery and invoice” or “When would you like delivery?" can be used. This is basically used to induce positive purchase motivation in the customer. In case the customer is willing to purchase the products but is still concerned about few minor issues, the sales representative can use Duke of Wellington or Ben Franklin close. In these type of closing style a list of positive and negative points are made and each negative point is converted into positive point one by one, with the help of relevant features, benefits and advantages. FOLLOW UP Once the sales pitch is established and closing is confirmed, a follow up plan is established. In this plan, the sales representative will present a plan of further meetings and discussions. Proposal will be made for the next steps in business between the cooperative and the customer. After that the representative will check for acceptance. Once Wholesale Food Market has signed the contract with Organic Valley, a follow up plan will be established. This plan will include an immediate follow up email, which will include appreciation and acknowledgement of the contact. The email will also contain receipt of bills. Further follow up will be done though phone calls, invitation to lunch and business parties, memberships and participation in Organic Valley’s campaigns and programs. CONCLUSION Personal selling, sales pitch and presentations are a common practice in our daily lives. However, most of the time, these presentations are marred with flaws and lesser efforts. A good sales presentation helps in minimizing the wasted effort, increases the return on investment, promotes sales and well as branding and positively induces word of mouth marketing. In the current report, the sales presentation of Organic Valley to Wholesale Food Market was evaluated. The cooperative used a series of steps to pitch its sales strategy. Prospecting and approach are basically used to identify the prospective clients, understand their needs with the help of background research and find out common grounds for communication and establishing rapport. While approach phase was used to build concrete idea about the problem and issues, in the sales presentation stage proper solutions were provided for the anticipated problem. Once the objections were handled and deal was closed, proper follow up plan was established. References Abed, G.M. & Haghighi, M. (2009). The effect of selling strategies on sales performance. Business Strategy Series, 10(5), 266 – 282. Chacon, F. (2010). Organic food retailers. Retrieved from http://www.sbdcnet.org/small-business-research-reports/retail-organic-food-industry-in-the-U-S. Cicala, J.E., Smith, R.K. & Bush, A.J. (2012). What makes sales presentations effective – A buyer-seller perspective. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 27(2), 78 – 88. Organic Valley. (2013a). About us. Retrieved From http://www.organicvalley.coop/who-is-your-farmer/index/ Organic Valley. (2013b). Our sustainable path. Retrieved From http://www.organicvalley.coop/about-us/sustainability/page10/ Score. (2013). Plan your sales pitch. Retrieved From http://www.score.org/resources/plan-your-sales-pitch Wholefoodsmarket. (2013a). About our products. Retrieved From http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/about-our-products Wholefoodsmarket. (2013b). Mission and values. Retrieved From http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values Read More