Developing a Personal Selling Philosophy in Cadbury Company - Term Paper Example

Sales Manual for Strategically Planning a Sales Presentation Chocolate Cadbury Company Developing a Personal Selling Philosophy Market setting Cadbury is one of the international company that has attracted many customers. It has various products ranging from Dairy Milk chocolate, Roses selection box and the Crème Egg. Because of its familiarity all over the world, the company has established marketing structures to meet the customer demands. In essence, the company has identified the driving forces that bring changes to the industry. Before the company makes its sales, it identifies the categories of customers and set out both primary and secondary segments. The target market is the youth, children and the families. However, the company has established sales distribution chain to reach the customers. The company has distributors worldwide to distribute the products to the wholesalers. In most occasions, the company has standardized supply chain to sell its products. The distributors get the products directly from the company. They distribute mainly to the wholesalers. However, Cadbury products are very perishable and they require few distribution channels. These distributors may sell the products to the final consumers but at a retail price. The wholesalers, on the other hand, sell directly to the retailers and to the final consumers. Although the chain of distribution is flexible, they are guided by the regulations. For instance, the price per unit to the final consumers is the same, but B2B price is subsidized. This will ensure business harmony in all transactions. Role of personal selling Personal selling refers to oral or verbal communication with the potential customers of the Cadbury products with the aim of increasing the sales. This approach has been very important because it focuses on developing a concrete relationship with the consumers or the buyers. Furthermore, it is one of the elements of the promotion mix as well as an effective tool of promotion. Personal selling has significant roles in Cadbury Company. These include: Prospecting-the company has used personal selling in looking for new customers to buy the products. Like any other business, the company continuously looks for new markets for its products as this is the way to measure the growth of the company. By looking for many markets, the company can increase its sales and maximize the profits. Personal selling plays a significant role in realizing this. Communicating- personal selling is more expressional than any other approach. This is the most suitable way of explaining to both the existing and new clients of the range of the products. Customers get instant feedback to their questions about the products hence easy to persuade them to make purchasing decisions. Information gathering-the feedback from the customers is very significant. Customers may give views and suggestions about the product that is very important in improving the products. As a matter of fact, customers are always right, hence their response builds or retracts the reputation of the company. Furthermore, customers are very resourceful on their tastes and preferences. Through personal selling, the company gets to know the desires of the customers thus meeting them accordingly. Servicing- personal selling provides a means to support the customer demands as post-sale and delivery service. Meeting the customer needs means satisfaction of their demands. After sales service is one of the ways of maintaining business loyalty. However, personal selling is a convenient approach to identifying which customers deserve which services. Training for salespersons There are two forms of training that the company should give to its sales persons. These are teaching sales’ mechanics i.e. how to engage in selling activity, in a general view with much emphases on sales techniques and industry specific training i.e. details about the company products/services, process of selling which the sales team is expected to adapt, resources, tools, etc. Regardless of the sales person, irrespective of experience, may benefit from the sales training. Essentially, how to sell is a continuous process. Every day, there are new technologies and new strategies that the team should be fully aware of for effective selling. When new sales persons are recruited, priority is given to industry-specific training while the selling mechanic follows. However, the best way to get started is to make the sales person sit down with the customer service team. It is obvious that the customer service team is familiar with the products and the favorites of the existing customers. If they are not fully acquainted, they can be issued with the manuals or the guides. Once they are conversant with the company product line, pair them with the expertise salespersons. Moving around and receiving phone calls on appointments gives a clue of the recruits of the process. Superlatively, they will see at least a sale sail through the whole process. Finally, interchange the roles of the new recruits with the expertise team. The results are amazing. From here henceforth, you will get to know the cost of mechanical training that the new recruits need. As this is not enough, internal training will constantly update the salespersons of what is needed from them and update them on their progress. If there are any change, they can be updated also. Developing a relationship strategy Relationship between salesperson and customer Generally, both buyers and sellers want to establish a strong relationship with each other to seal the deals easily. Usually, salespersons are more interested than the buyers in establishing a strong relationship to several buyers. For obvious reasons, they want to increase their profits by capturing a large market. Many customers mean a big market for the products. Salespersons aim at going to the shoe of the customer to persuade him/her to purchase the products. In most cases, salespersons get more commissions when they bring more customers than when they wait for their basic salary only. This implies that the company has recorded an increased sales volumes enough to boost their income. On the other hand, the customers are the target group that gives the salespersons a platform to make more sales. Without the salespersons, Cadbury Company would not reach the potential customers. Customers should be taught of the available products and services of the company so that they can buy them. For instance, children like chocolate and they should be taught how sweet or tasty they are. Salespersons play a big role in reaching them with the product information. On the other hand, their feedback is very important in improving Cadbury’s performance. Therefore, both the salesperson and the customer are resource persons to the company. Appropriate attitude for salesperson Confidence: Confidence of the Cadbury products being sold is very important attitude that all salesperson should possess. If truly one believes that the products are very important and worth the quoted price, there will be conviction and sincerity in all the words use to convince the clients to buy. This integrates personal courage and confidence in personal abilities to market the products. Communication: salespersons should have the capacity to tirelessly communicate with strangers while marketing company products. It should go without saying that salespeople should show an attitude of affability and easily picks up conversation with strangers as if they have met before of they are long friends. Interestingly, this attitude can be spotted during the interview. Hesitant persons, shy and takes time to warm up may have natural weaknesses of communicating with strangers. Therefore, their attitude is questionable. Good sales outlook: building relationships in sales process has never been taken seriously. There is need for salespeople who understand their clients, ask and answer their prospects and come up with concrete solutions to meet their demands. Furthermore, they should be willing to nurture their demands regardless of their negative first response. Lead nurturing is very important role in the process and requires candidates who are capable of taking this. High degree of self-accountability and self-motivation: good salespersons are those that show a high levels of motivation and are accountable for their deeds. Candidates with such qualities will show a lot of interest especially in a tiered compensation set up, because they know they have room to fulfill their goals while earning a lot of money. Health: with a healthy attitude, both in body and mind, displays a person’s attitude. Being well groomed and self-presentation contributes towards a positive impression. Getting time to relax is very important since stress may influence negatively a person’s attitude and mood. Appearance of a salesperson Salespersons are people who determine the fate of the company products. The way they express themselves, they look like will either attract or distract the clients. However, they should have high degree personality to make them presentation. They should: Good looking: the biggest asset for a salesperson is the physical appearance. The customer’s first impression is created by the salesperson’s appearance. Therefore, good appearance creates more confidence of the marketer thus able to persuade customers easily. Generally, salesperson’s appearance is categorized into clothing, grooming and tidiness. Cheerful: this is one of the greatest virtue of salespeople. They should be cheerful since everybody likes cheerful people. If, for instance, a salesperson is cheerful, healthy and humorous, he can entice several clients. Imaginative: it is very important to consider salespersons who are able to detect the exact needs of the clients. This feature assists the salesperson to know the customer’s problems at his/her position. Alert: this is the sensitivity to situations at hand. It is simply what to say, how to express in which occasions. Salespersons encounter vast situations depending on the type of clients they interact, some of which may be harsh. Salespersons should be sensitive to such situations and make correct decisions very fast. Upright posture: good posture promotes the appearance as well as personality of the salesperson. A salesperson should have an alluring posture especially when attending to the clients. He/she should stand upright. Methods of strengthening long-term relationship for repeats and referrals The foundation of a constructive revenue stream is the repeat business. Nevertheless, there are methods that the salespersons can adopt to strengthen their relationship with potential buyers. These are: Maintaining a steady cycle of contact: by maintaining a steady contact does not only assist the salespersons to understand their customers better but also raises the chances of salespersons knowing when issue services arise. This reduces damage and provides ample opportunity for salespersons to cement their relationships. Soliciting steady, proactive response: this is giving the clients a voice and they will reciprocate with their businesses. Therefore, ensure that you are soliciting continuous response all the time, that is, before, during and after every sale. Creating rewards programs: most of the successful companies have specific rewards programs. This is because most of the loyal customers who want to seal their deals need appraisal for their deeds. Rewards also ensures that customers make all their purchases in the same company so as to accumulate rewards points. Promoting referrals: let the clients understand that the company rewards those attracting new prospects. The more the colleagues a client refers to your organization, the more powerful they become. At the long run, they are devoted in what the organization is doing. Hosting regular seminars and luncheons: inviting best customers to the organization strengthens along term relationship because it provides the best opportunity for them to meet other clients and executives within and outside the company. Taking personal initiative and accountability for solving problems: it is evident from the surveys that more than half of the customers have never sealed businesses deals with the companies that have taken more than 24 hours to settle issues. To this point, customers want their issues to be addressed so that they can be assured that they have a company that is concerned. If they are not addressed, they will look for other salespersons or suppliers. Communication style Communication style is the tendency of an individual to converse through distinctive patterns or combination of content, codes or communication rules. Communication style is very important when the salespersons are carrying out personal selling. For them, communication is measured by their tasks, interaction and self-orientation scores which are very important in explaining the sales variance. Therefore, communication style is a behavioral dimension that affects sales outcomes. The style a salesperson uses will attract or distract the customers. The most successful salespersons are those who recognize the various communication styles of the customers and use the most appropriate one for interaction. Likewise, the perception of the salesperson towards the customers is linked how he/she can influence to make purchase decision. This implies that the salesperson should be aware of all communication styles to attend to the customers of various styles, as well. There is need also to consider environmental and personal variables when deciding a communication style. For instance, salespersons should consider the age, experience and the level of education of the customers so as to use the appropriate style. Company Cadbury is one of the multinational confectionery company I Britain owned and managed by Mondelēz International. It the second biggest confectionery company after Wrigleys, with its head office in Uxbridge, London. It has more than fifty branches operating all over the world. The company is known for confectionery products like crème eggs, dairy milk chocolates and Roses selection boxes. It was established in 1820s in Birmingham by John Cadbury who use to sell coffee, tea and drinking chocolates. Cadbury together with his brothers developed the company with the help of their neighbors as workers. However, dairy milk chocolate gained more favor in the market than the rival products. By mid 1920s, the product was rated the most selling product of the company. Product Product Chocolate is one of the sweetest foods in the world believed to have been the food of the Gods. Its origin is traced back in the ancient Aztec and Mayan civilizations in America. Theobroma cacao, implication of food of the gods was staged for decades by American Mayan Indians which was made from roasted beans (Cocoa). The Spaniards were introduced to cocoa by the Aztecs who later took the product to Europe. By then (16th century), the product was for the rich only because it was very expensive. Interestingly, chocolate was for drinking before solid-eating chocolate was improvised. Technical expertise needed by salesperson Objection: salespersons should be able to overcome rejections and objections of the customers. They should have sufficient knowledge to handle the clients and persuade them even if they object at the first instance. Communication: salespersons should have excellent communication skills to handle clients of all levels without hurting them. They should understand body and facial expressions to gauge whether the customer likes the products. Rapport: salesperson should establish a rapport with the client. This is creating a temporary relationship to establish a platform for communication. If the client does not like the product or has no trust in the salesperson, he/she will not buy the product. The sale representative should make the customer like him/her accept the product. Persistence: salesperson is persistent to the point of being irritating but not quite. They are not quite until the customer refuses completely to the product. They constantly persuade the customer without wearing out in their words. Feature benefit worksheet of chocolate Chocolate has distinct features and benefits to people. Feature Benefit Made up of five Superfoods – Moringa, Luo Han Guo, Coconut Flower Nectar, Konjac fiber and Himalayan salt Lowers cholesterol levels Hand harvested and dried in the sun especially the natural. Prevents memory decline Has natural taste without additional flavors Minimizes the risks of heart attack Proprietary plant-based protein blend is a whole protein source Prevents stroke No added fructose Prevents obesity and diabetes Allergy Information: Shakeology is manufactured using a plant that processes soy, fish, egg, tree nuts, crustacean shellfish, and wheat product Teens who eat a lot of chocolates slim up The new Chocolate formula has about 6g of fiber Protection against type 2 diabetes From the history of the company and the product, chocolate, like other Cadbury products is a long service product that has taken deep roots in most customers worldwide. The product has remained marketable in most countries since the 18th century. Nevertheless, to market the products requires both price and value-added product strategy. The market is flooded with competitive products that requires use of inclusive strategies to capture. Price strategies implies setting standardized prices that are neither too high nor low to compromise company sales while maintaining the recommended quality. Developing a customer strategy Buying motives of prospects and prospect as an individual Sales prospects refers to potential customers for certain company that have undergone qualification process and have shown interest of doing joint business with the company. Essentially, typical salespersons are attracted towards the prospects so as to secure new markets for the company. A well designed and qualified prospect should have a perfect opportunity of securing sales for sales representative and move on to becoming a frequent customer of the business. Whereas the criteria for determining what comprises of sales prospects differs from one place to another, it is worth realizing that sales and prospects are not in the same category. On the other hand, buying motives are more of psychological than logical. Customers react to the psychological than the logical. For instance, if the salespersons want to know the psychological attitudes of their clients, then they need empathy and self-knowledge. The salesperson should ask the clients why they like chocolate, what drives them to buy, how it feels like to eat chocolate and so on. Therefore, the salesperson should be in a position to unearth prospects and inner motives. Some of the buying motives include: Product motives- these are the physical and psychological attributes that prompts the customers to purchase the products. The product, in this case chocolate, may be appealing to the eyes, tongue, nose and suits psychological demands. Chocolate may have very good color, package, size, taste, etc. that triggers emotional appeal. Patronage motives- these are motives that speak specifically to certain people. Identifying prospects Segmenting current customer base- begin by analyzing the customer base and group them accordingly. Defining an appropriate “profile” from the data collected- having grouped the customers, use their information in building profiles of “ideal” prospects. Creating a qualification checklist- using the profile information, suggest the best ten criteria for looking in the prospects and develop a qualification checklist. At this stage, rate the prospects that meet the required standards. Preparing for the sales presentation Objectives a. To investigate the origin of the chocolate b. To analyze the evolution of chocolate to date c. To discuss the benefits and nutritional value of chocolate Sales cycle The typical sales cycle shall comprise of various phases that the consumer studies before making purchase decision. Since the product is very perishable, the company shall use short sales cycles so as to arrive at the market easily. For instance, the company shall make at most three phone calls to the customer before selling the product. Team versus one person and group versus individual presentation strategies There is no doubt that the team and solo presentations are the same. Both depend on the same fundamentals-structuring, preparation, objective setting and the presentation using the right skills and techniques. To be more successful, team-individual presentation comes out as just a team presentation. A team leader, as every team should have, mobilizes the other members to achieve the goals of the organization. Most importantly, a team leader is seen as a guide and not a dictator. At the end of the day, the presentation will be more effective than a solo presentation. Ways to achieve good social contact For good social contact, the company should: 1. Begin with clear strategy 2. Keep records of the customer contacts 3. Know its audience 4. Engage the existing customers 5. Take no chance Methods to achieve good business contact Make a table or spreadsheet containing customer contact information as shown below. Ensure that the sheet is protected to avoid loss of data to unauthorized persons. When entering their information, ensure that there is power backup to avoid loss of information due to power blackouts. Make a table as shown below. Name Company Department Title Phone Extension Mobile Fax e-mail Creating the sales presentation. Discovery Worksheet Financial Position How do you feel about your budget? What fraction of your income do you save? How comfortable are with your current debt? How much would you set aside for emergencies? Risk Management What will happen to your family if you don’t wake up tomorrow? If one of your family members gets an accident, what will happen to you? What will you do if the doctor denies you your favorite food, say chocolate, due to your ill health? Have you made any provisions to curb any risks that may come your way? Wealth Accumulation Whom do you like to help educate? When? Do you know how much it will cost? What else do you want to gain from the money you save? Retirement Planning When do you see yourself retiring? What type of lifestyle do you wish to live after you retire? From the customer motives (product and patronage), it is evident that chocolate is no doubt a motivating product. Chocolate is made of natural products that makes its taste sweet. The product has been known for unique features that benefits people. For instance, it reduces health risks like heart attack, obesity and stroke. People, especially the youth, can control their body sizes by eating chocolate. These features and benefits appeal to the customer eyes, nose and taste. Its benefits are distinct that the customer just buys without much persuasions. As the company salespersons persuade the customers, they have easy move due to the confidence they have on the company and its products. Summary of appropriate need-satisfaction presentation strategy Having all said and done, the Cadbury company should use appropriate persuasive technology to convince the customers of the product. Although the product is known for its benefits, there is need to constantly remind the customers of the product range and other services. This will ensure that customers are supplied with the products all the time and their demands are met. Since there are other competitors, the company has a duty to inform customers that their products are superior to the others. Conducting the sales demonstration Features/benefits a. Prevents memory decline b. Minimize the risks of heart attack c. Prevents stroke d. Prevents obesity and diabetes Sales tools Sales tools Use Turbo Lister To create listings especially offline and uploading them in large quantities SalesLoft Projector This tools enables one to project what has been displayed on the computer screen to large dashboards. Nimble Allows one to make frequent updates in the profiles, edit and link any new information. Negotiating sales resistance The company expects some sales resistance from some customers. These are the people who are ignorant of the product and its benefits. These group are mainly the aged and the learned. The old have little information about the product and may view it disgust. Furthermore, this group are elderly which are prone to diseases and may have been limited in their food. They take little food, probably some sugarless. This is opposite with the ingredients of the product. The learned group tend to view the product as too good for their health. They may associate with some chronic diseases basing on their knowledge. In order to reduce this resistance, the following negotiation form will be beneficial. Company Interests Their Interests Company Resources & Capabilities Their Resources & Capabilities Value-Creating Options To capture the attention of the customers To enjoy the products To offer quality chocolates Quality chocolates Infusing customer interests into the company Bringing customer preference Closing the sale The company should be alert to the taste of the products. This is because chocolate expire faster when exposed to external conditions. When they expire, their taste change and may not be noticed. This may bring harm to human health. In order to minimize this loss, the company will develop a closing plan worksheet to facilitate free circulation of fresh products. The stale products are isolated from the fresh ones at any given time they are produced. Type of Close Explanation What you are going to say in your presentation Choice close Encouraging the customers to make decisions between two items All the products serve the same purpose Product close The products were sold but there are few remnants This will be the first stock the following day Servicing the sale As the customer buys the product, he/she should have home fridges and preservatives to keep the products long. This is because chocolate is perishable and should be kept under controlled temperatures. Customers who buy the products in large quantities will get discounts and their products delivered to their door steps. However, since the company sells fridges, the customer may get extra services if they buy both the product and the fridge. They will get free transport and installation at their premises. Any electrical appliance will be issued with warranty to protect the customers from undue breakdowns and other inconveniences. For schools and other large institutions/organizations like supermarkets, they will get free delivery services due to the large quantities they buy. In case of any expiry before the due date, the company is willing to make replacements of the same. References Steve, G., & Kevin, J. (2012). Premeditated Selling: Tools for Developing the Right Strategy for Every Opportunity. American Society for Training and Development. Read More