Sales Management and Sales Representatives - Essay Example

? Sales Management Task: Sales management Question Sales representatives have to work in teams by embracing cooperation. Additionally, they have to be polite when talking to consumers and keep time when they have appointments with clients. Various factors make the sales representative of the Electronic Goods Distributer uncooperative, rude and miss appointments. These factors entail lack of motivation, lack of skills for handling customers, and poor relationship between managers and the workers (Jones, James, & Chonko 2000). Before the sales representatives go to the field, they have to acknowledge the approaches they can use to deal with different consumers. The electronic business should invest in regular training to make the workers familiar with the products offered by the company. Training is also vital because it enables the sales representatives to acknowledge the sales policies and processes. Some consumers are very rude. Consequently, failure to handle them makes sales representative appear rude. This may result into poor relationship between customers and worker. Moreover, it can make the firm to lose many consumers leading to low sales. The sales representatives should be trained on how to ignore rude customers. For example, customers may complain about things that do not involve the sales persons such as business policy or the prices of items. Workers should let the customers complain without responding to their complaints and express their regrets for any inconvenience later. Workers should receive sufficient training on approaches to address the polite customers to maintain good relationships with such customers (Overell 2003). Managers should equally stimulate consumers to be cooperative and committed to their work. They should set strategies for motivating the workers after seeking their opinions. Some of the common ways of inspiring the workers entail compensating and rewarding them. Managers should reward the workers by recognizing their efforts. This may entail praising them before other sales representatives or increasing their pay. Moreover, the managers should compensate the sales representatives who work extra time. For instance, some customers may set appointment times that are outside the usual working hours. Such workers who work beyond the working hours should be compensated by increasing their pay or other forms of compensation. Praising the workers and compensating them will increase the level of commitment and cooperation in the work places. Additionally, the motivated workers will stop missing the scheduled appointments (Susan 2004 13). The managers need to create and maintain good relationships with the sales representatives. The relationship between workers and their leaders in the work places determines the communication between customers and workers. Good relationship may be created by involving the sales representatives in the decision-making process. This will make the personnel feel appreciated and contented consequently enhancing their productivity. The managers should also treat the sales representatives with courtesy and always acknowledge their presence and contribution. The managers should also comment on the work in private whenever it needs improvement (Garg & Rastogi 2006 577). Question 2 Globalised trade, high foreign investment and increase in cross-border transactions are putting a lot of pressure on businesses. This has forced businesses to devise innovative measures to allow them continue marketing their products and services. These measures include maintaining good and close relationship between the business and customers. This is difficult in the competitive environment because customers demand more choices than before. Consequently, for a business to meet customer demands and improve loyalty, it needs to access accurate and current customer information. This is possible with the application of the internet that is an ultimate communication tool. Using the internet can support businesses in maintaining customer loyalty because it maintains communication. Furthermore, internet will encourage businesses to enrich customers with online experiences (Czarnitzki and Rammer 2003, 131). Building customer relationship via the internet has the following advantages and disadvantages Advantages The business that encourages customer relationship via the internet benefits by monitoring and managing customers’ records. The business gets a chance of managing the sales process from the initial to final contact. Internet has tools to enable businesses in recording customer’s contacts, sales opportunities and process customer’s orders. As a result, the internet allows a business to access customer’s management functions and control over the contact list (Bonometti 2006, 13). Businesses that use the internet to build customer relationship are cost effective and advance their marketing strategies. This is because the internet is the most used method to attract the public. Additionally, the modern societies prefer a trouble free transaction offered by internet shopping, making it a powerful selling tool. Internet offers cost effective promotions that allow small businesses to increase networks for their goods and services. It is the cheapest method of promotion because it entails reduced budget and storage costs. The internet is also beneficial in business because it encourages small businesses to penetrate in the market. It allows businesses to operate around the clock enabling them to increase their customers (Bonometti 2006, 13). The content used in internet business is enduring and time saving. This is possible because the promotions in newspapers and magazines lose their value after a certain period. However, internet promotions remain valid for years. Additionally, internet business saves time involved in counseling on the uses and benefits of a product. Instead, the customers’ access frequently asked question regarding the products and make decisions without involving staffs (Duke, Chul, Kim, and Soung 2006, 930) Disadvantages Building customer connection via the internet is disadvantageous because it isolates the customer and businessperson. The personal contacts between the customer and the salesperson are reduced. This makes it hard to cultivate an enduring association between the business and customers. Internet business offers poor and inadequate information pertaining customer’s contacts, history and preferences. Sometimes, it can be difficult to access customers’ information in a place without internet (Klang 2004, 200). Furthermore, internet business can be hard while evaluating legitimacy and transactions. Small businesses encounter different challenges, for example, thieves use stolen credit cards and information to conduct online transactions. Building customer relationship via the internet is not beneficial to small businesses. This is because the rate of credit card and identity fraud has increased forcing small businesses to finance costly security measures. The expensive security measures help them in reducing vulnerability and fraudulent transactions (Muhammad, Manaf, and Azlina 2010, 270). Question 4 Sales ethics typifies appropriate and bad conduct based on the company’s policies. There is no uniform sales ethics for all businesses but every company should have written ethic codes. It is vital for all sales representatives to consider ethics because it helps in increasing organizations’ sales and profitability. Salespersons face ethical dilemmas in the current competitive market world. They often make decisions based on their personal values and not the business culture. Sales ethics is influenced by various factors including the social factors. This involves the interaction between an individual and other workers. Furthermore, cultural values and business ethic codes also affect the business norms. McClaren (2000 285) indicates that ethical business codes affect sales because they guide the behaviors of the sales persons and the managers (McClaren 2000 286). Sales ethics is currently receiving attention because business performances rely on the ethics. The aim of all businesses is to increase sales by providing high quality goods and services to consumers. Sales ethics significantly influence businesses; however, managers in most companies fail to take them seriously. Businesses must be run ethically, but some of them have bad reputations because their leaders are self-centered. Ng (2011 48) indicates that they adopt unethical practices to increase their sales and gain more profits. For example, some businesses overcharge their items and end up losing customers. Sales ethics enables organizations to set reasonable prices for their goods increasing their customers’ loyalty (Ng 2011 67). Additionally, several organizations sale counterfeit products of poor quality; furthermore, some are very cheap compared to the original ones. The companies that deal with original goods end up losing markets and incurring huge loses. Sales ethics enables businesses to deal with genuine goods that increase the consumers’ satisfaction. Most organizations present false advertisements through the media. These companies may have reduced sales after some time because they lower the consumers’ loyalty. Additionally, most advertisements focus on children, negatively affecting their moral standards. Children copy what individual do in the adverts affecting their social behaviors. Ng (2010 48) highlights that sales ethics enable businesses to avoid such advertisements. Sales ethics receives significant attention because it leads to healthy competition. Most businesses increase their sales by telling the consumers untrue and unfair things about their competitors. The untrue statements may damage another business’s reputation leading to the reduction in sales and profits. This is not healthy competition because a company with a distorted reputation may spend a lot of time correcting misinformation. Companies with sales ethics try to increase their sales by increasing the quality of their goods instead of spreading lies about their competitors’ products (Valentine & Barnett 2002 192). Sales ethics increase the business compliance to business laws. Some of the restrictive corporate laws entail the copyright and trademark laws. Failure to comply with these laws made many companies experience losses due to huge fines. 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Ethics codes and sales professionals' perceptions of their organizations' ethical values. Journal of Business Ethics, 40(3), 191-200. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/198023458?accountid=45049 Read More