Sales Planning and Operations Assignment Help

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 20 Sales Planning and Operations
QFC Level	Level 5

Introduction:

In this unit 20 sales planning and operations assignment, I have discussed about how sales and management helps an organisation to attain its success. I have moreover discussed about the important of personal selling, and effectiveness for better functioning. Furthermore I have also discussed about how sales employees are being motivated to its core in such process of selling. I have also depicted the role of customer database and how this does operates in our day to day life. Sales management is one of the major revenue generating departments which helps a company to attain its success.

Task 1

1.1 Explain how personal selling supports the promotion mix

Personal selling usually refers to an individual sales person, who tends to interact with a customer in one to one basis and tries its level best to satisfy its customers according to the needs the role of personal selling is as follows:

• Vision: the most important function of a sales person in personnel selling is looking for new kind of customers.
• Communication: the role of personal sales in a salesman s to keep an constant mutual  communication process  among the customers about the new or existing product
• Proper selling: the most tactical task is to convince a customer and close the deal at once
• Servicing: personal selling adheres to the fact that the sales person should provide its adequate service which begins after the deal is done and continues till delivering
• Gathering adequate information: it is important to gather proper and meaningful information and resume its proper planning process.
• this kind of role is important in times of need. (McClaren ,2013)

Promotion is the most important aspect of marketing mix. This comprises of five major ingredients:

• Advertising
• Public relation
• Sales promotion
• Personal selling
• Direct marketing.

All these above are the key factor of promotional mix or communication mix. It mainly depends on the type of the consumers, the products etc.

Advertising: the most effective way of marketing a product, media has become one the most efficient way of promoting a particular product. (Shimp, 2010).

1.2 Compare buyer behaviour and the decision making process in different situations

In 1968, Engel, Blackwell and kollat postulated a model for consumer behaviour under 5 stages:

• It is the Need for recognition: most important process where it is important to identify that there cannot be any purchase without any kind of need arousal. This kind of problem arises when there exist a gap between the actual scenario and the desired one. (Donoho, Heinze, Kondo, 2012).
• Information: When there is identification abut a need, it is important to gather as much information as possible. this can be in case of any kind of related food items like pasta , one will have to take certain i9nformation regarding the value and the taste
• Evaluating alternatively: After information is being imparted, the consumer will be evaluating different kinds of alternatives produced in front of him.
• For example, it is possible that a product is being liked by me X, which has more value to him , while the same product will be of different value to someone else say Y. So this kind of evaluation process differs from one person to another.
• Decision on purchase: After paying the attention on the information’s and the alternatives, it is time when the consumer finally comes to a decision where the most appropriate brand is being chosen by him. The decision of choosing a particular product or services       
• Behaviour after post purchase: Once after a product is being bought, the consumer will be evaluating on the effectiveness and will be see if it is satisfied to it and also on its decision too. And will be effected if it is found to be disappointing.

There are different types of customer buying behaviour which tend to affect their decision making processes, out of these I will be explaining mainly Veblen effect and bandwagon effect.

Veblen effect consumer behaviour	Bandwagon effect consumer behaviour
This effect refers to those consumers who tend to measure a particular product in relation to price.	This kind of effect refers to those consumers who tend to do something, whatever the other people is possessing.
They are in the belief that high price means high quality	They tend to acquire the things whatever other people are doing , despite of considering its own beliefs
They tend to buy products which are expensive, which depict their prestige in the society. (Paul, Rana, 2012.)	It is the extent to which the demand for a particular commodity increases just because others are using it regardless of the price.
EG: Buying Chanel instead of normal perfume	E.g. :  Neymar’s hairstyle during the world cup

1.3 Analyse the role of sales teams within the marketing strategy.

Sales and marketing, both are the most important ingredient in any kind of business. Marketing being most important of all and consists of the 4ps, which is namely people, price, product and promotion.

Role:

• Selling consultatively: It mainly involves when a particular sales person these kind of approach to increase its sales numbers. Under this the sales person will have to know about a particular product and visits the customer’s base, and gives certain perspectives.
• Management of sales: It is the sales managers who have the prime responsibility of setting up certain important goals and perspectives which it has to set for the success of the business. It has to review the data’s relating to customers, sales, their figures etc.
• Proper functioning: It is the responsibility of the sales man to carry out the function of selling, it has to use certain tactics like it has to make a simple product and sell it like a huge thing. For that proper strategy is required by the sales person.
• Segmenting of the market: It is one of the most important roles which are being played by the sales team. It largely depends on the type of the product and depending on which the segmentation is being done in relation which location, price, durability etc. (Shimp, 2010)

Task 3

3.1 Explain how sales strategies are developed in line with corporate objectives

In order to achieve a concrete corporate strategy on growth, it is very important to look into the fact how does these cooperate scenarios actually work. At corporate level, the strategy of sales lays more emphasis on STP or segmenting of the market, targeting and thereby positioning. They are usually based on the market growth and share with the help of using the Boston matrix chart.

These Boston consulting group they organise the portfolio of a company by using 4 perspectives namely cash cows, stars, dogs and question mark .where the cash cows depicts the money generator , the stars are the those which are more profitable . the dogs in the other hand helps in removing any kind of disinvestments, whereas the problem child tends to look deeply into low market share areas . At a corporate level, the strategy in a market tends to be cooperated both at operations level as well as in a functional level. At business level, it tends to look into the marketing activities. It is very important to make important decisions regarding the specification of the products. (Trainor ,2012) Moreover it tends to help the business in providing a proper edge of competition, redefining the margin of all the profits and helps in establishing a proper link between the corporate lines. A concentre and successful strategy tends to outsell the performance of other competitor

3.2 Explain the importance of recruitment and selection procedures

Manpower is the most important part of any kind of  business strategy  , so it is very important to hire appropriate candidates, provide adequate training facilities, in order to achieve the organisational goals. Recruiting and selecting are one of the most important processes which are being practised in many companies. Recruiting involves many methods and steps which is very important for companies to follow significantly. There incurs huge amount of cost in this process, so some organisations uses certain processes like

• Outsourcing: where labours from external organisations are brought to work at a minimum amount of wage
• Contingent works: These kinds of workers are generally of short time or part time basis.
• Overtime workers: sometimes in order to cut the cost from recruiting, the workers are blended with some overtime schedule where extra hourly pay is given provided.

There are different types of ways which are being used in the process of recruitment:

• Recruiting internallysuch as referrals , job posting and job bidding

• External recruiting: job fairs, advertisement in media, providing internships, from employee consultancy. Media advertising being one the most popular means. (Zhu Zhang, , 2010.)

Selection methods:

After the advertisements have being given and candidates are being selected as per there resume, then comes the roles of selection:

• Preliminary interview: in such interview, the Hr manger he takes the initial interview via telephone or by video conferencing , this helps to save time .
• Application review after the first step the hiring team , chooses some candidates who matches the skills
• after which the selected candidates will have to undergo certain test like psychometric test, personality test, aptitude test etc.
• This is followed by another round of short listing of the candidates
• After which comes the stage of final interview, where the hr manager along with other board of management are present to take the final call after interviewing the person.
• After which the desired candidates gets selected and is handed over with all the company agreements.

3.3 Evaluate the role of motivation and training in sales management

Role of motivation: In sales process, motivation serves as a key in helping the marketing team to perform in a better way . The first and foremost being, understanding the sales team. It is very important to ensure that a everyone in a sales team are from different cultures and background, where there are two types are product which are

• Product sales: it is very important that the sales person should have the skill and the knowledge to sell a particular product, sometimes it differs from one person to another, so it is the responsibility of the sales manager to properly motivate the sales person in order to acquire the proper means.
• Solution sales: on the contrary these solution sales person tends to cater the needs of the individual person and there by satisfying their needs. This generally involves, solving the problem an individual people is being facing. (Zhu Zhang, , 2010.)

Role of remuneration:

Remuneration the basic motivating factor for any organisation for any kind of employee. In the perspective of sales, remuneration plays a very important role:

• The sales manager tends to make its sales person much more motivated by providing additional amount of bonus , which tends to be a driving factor
• Sales team often work in a team, to achieve their level of target. This is being done by mangers of sales in order to make the sale person work more cohesively and work towards the success of the team.
• It tends to increase the morale of each sales person; they work more actively towards achieving further more.

Training: Training, which is considered as the most important function, which helps to make the sales person aware about these products, to manage the customers and the key factor for any kind of success. There are many organisations that tend to spend a lot of investment in such trainings;

• Increasing the revenue: the department of sales is considered as the revenue generating section.  Human resource  and other operations are merely the supporting functions. The main aim of the sales person is to deliver the right amount of product in the appropriate time. So it is important to provide proper training.
• Enhancing the knowledge factor :it is important that the sales people to properly identify a particular product , its pros and cons ,be aware of the terms and conditions etc
• Imparting proper soft skills
• Providing the adequate ethics and value information
• Encouraging the sales them and helps them learn better.

3.4 Explain how sales management organise sales activity and control sales output

It is one of the most important functions placed by the management of sales.  There are mainly two types of methods which are used to synchronise and control the sales productivity. They are:

• Sales productivity control: This productivity of sales can be controlled easily by triggering the documents relating to sales. There should be proper safeguarding of the productivity of the condition as mentioned.
• Output productivity by using: This is usually made by using the bill, the type of order, the type of sales order etc.
• Controlling the productivity: They usually used the channels like printers, Fax machines
• Language: Language is one of the most important criteria ain such scenario. If any customer wants a particular product on an immediate basis, then there should be proper communication and the tone of the language should be adequate enough to make him understand. (Shimp, 2010)

3.5 Explain the use of databases in effective sales management

It is the proper use of software of the sales team and the online quick base management of sales, which will the managers to properly understand his team and makes it sure that the business is growing at a fast pace. The functions are as follows:

• It is through the use of proper quick base system that helps in predicting the opportunities and to break even the opportunities which comes in its way for the proper success.
• It also helps the sales team to be properly managed by using such quick base management system, which through their business prospects will take a higher level.
• Management of such databases helps the sales team to properly co-ordinate with the other teams and make them work effectively
• Sales team cannot function if there is no proper existence of the past data or information. Sales times takes time to build a customer, so it is very important to preserve them and for this purpose the use of database is very important.
• It is through the proper use of the databases that a proper allocation of the information’s are being stored, and it can shared with the high authorities instantly ,
• Data maintenance is a huge responsibility and it is being taken by the sales manager or whosoever is in charge of it, must take this into account that the presence of quick base system can help in quick printing , following up with the customers easily and help in generating enough revenue for the company . (Biemans,Bren?i?, Malshe, 2010)

Task 4

4.1 Develop a sales plan for a product or service.

An adequate sales plan is very necessary for the success of any kind of business. It helps to define the tactics, the proper strategies while covering all the scenarios. In this case I am designing a sales plan for a fashion industry namely the designing clothes The sales plan can be specified as follows:

• Step 1: defining the executive summary: It is important to define the executive summary first which is a summary of the entire business plan.
• Defining the product: It is very important to properly define the business, the idea of the product, its point of initiation. Secondly it is important to define the worth of my clothing line as defined.  I have to see that my clothing line is unique from others .Analysing the industry or the business. So it is the responsibility of the sales person to look into the product.
• Analysing the industry: After the product is being defined, it is important that the position of the product.  It is important that the clothing brand which I am depicting the plan for should have the perfect industry.
• Customers perspective: It is important that I identify the customers whether it is for a particular gender or for both male and female and kids. I have to take into account the age group starting from the kids 5 yrs to 14 years, adult like 20 years to 30 years etc. So the age limit or any other criteria’s should be taken into account quiet delicately.
• Gaining economical edge: It is important to ensure the strength and weakness of the various other fashions brands and come up with new innovative strategies.

Chalking out the ultimate plan:

After depicted all the scenarios, it is my responsibility to critically chalk a plan for the success of my clothing line:

• Establishing proper price structure , the strategies along with it
• The goals relating to short term and long term
• Determination of the place, the place where the store will be located.

4.2 Investigate opportunities for selling internationally

Marketing a product internationally gives it is a global edge and helps to broaden the line of the product, gaining a lot of advantage etc. Selling a product internationally has lots of advantages like:

• Expansion of market: Due to the international edge it helps the product to be expands its product globally and thus increasing the profit margin to a great extent.
• Reputation of the brand: having selling a product internationally , helps to lift up the image of the brand , like if any kind of clothes is being sold internationally it tends to life up the brand’s importance to a great extent .
• Expansion of the network globally: It helps a product to become aware of new customers, new connections. There can be more new kind of business partner who could be interested in such connections.
• Linking the door for further prospects: Selling a product globally helps in wide range of expansion of the particular brand, but it serves as a connection for expanding its product globally. With the advent of new partners, new collections, new brand image and workforce as well.

4.3 Investigate opportunities for using exhibitions or trade fairs.

There are a lot of speculations regarding the effectiveness of the trade fair. While trade fairs has both advantage and disadvantages:

Advantage:

• Trade shows provides a gateway in showcasing the products one has and helps to create an awareness of the brand.
• These shows are generally created for a open forum where all the people visits and gets an awareness about the products.
• It’s a good platform for promoting.
• It further helps in building connections.
• Helps to strength the power of the particular brand or product
• Sometimes it is required that the sales team have to invariably close a particular deal for a particular product at that moment without creating any kind of resentment. (Symonds, 2014)

Disadvantages:

• It lasts only for a day or two, there cannot be much impact.
• Sometimes these trade shows occurs at far places which tends to be costly
• Trade shows means depicting the brand image which requires huge set up , sometimes it can quite costly
• There exists a lot of competition s, since brands from far and near places they tend to exhibit their products. (Symonds, 2014)

Conclusion:

In this Sales Planning and Operations Assignment Help, I have learnt the important of sales and marketing in any organisation. Moreover I have learnt the importance of personal selling and how is it done.  Furthermore I have learnt about the various methods which are involved in the recruitment and selection process in a sales team. The importance of motivation in a sales team, how are the sales person motivated the methods used etc.

Reference:

Biemans, W.G., Breni, M.M. and Malshe, A., 2010. Marketing–sales interface configurations in B2B firms. Industrial  Marketing Management  ,39(2), pp.183-194.
Donoho, C., Heinze, T. and Kondo, C., 2012. Gender Differences in Personal Selling Ethics Evaluations Do They Exist and What Does Their Existence Mean for Teaching Sales Ethics?. Journal of Marketing Education, 34(1), pp.55-66.
McClaren, N., 2013. The personal selling and sales management ethics research: Managerial implications and research directions from a comprehensive review of the empirical literature. Journal of business ethics,112(1), pp.101-125.
Melchione, A.R., Martinez, R., Seifert, E. and Hirsch, M., Citibank and NA, 1999. Sales and marketing support system using a customer information database. U.S. Patent 5,930,764.
Paul, J. and Rana, J., 2012. Consumer behavior and purchase intention for organic food. Journal of consumer Marketing, 29(6), pp.412-422.
Symonds, P (2014). 4 reasons to exhibit a Trade Show . Online available at http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/offline-media-integration/4-reasons-exhibit-trade-show/ . accessed on 27/6/16.
Shimp, T.A., 2010. Integrated Marketing Communication in Adver-tising and Promotion 8e. International Edition. Printed in China.
Trainor, K.J., 2012. Relating social media technologies to performance: A capabilities-based perspective. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), pp.317-331.
Wang, E.S.T., Tsai, B.K., Chen, T.L. and Chang, S.C., 2012. The influence of emotions displayed and personal selling on customer behaviour intention.The Service Industries Journal, 32(3), pp.353-366.
Zhu, F. and Zhang, X., 2010. Impact of online consumer reviews on sales: The moderating role of product and consumer characteristics. Journal of marketing, 74(2), pp.133-148.