Recent Trends

Consider the following

John is at Ace hardwares head quarters, before call he is loaded with testimonials from a client who praises dell note books, and a consultants report that does the same for dell servers. John broke the ice with Ace two months ago with $250,000 order. During the call he notes down, red ink for action, black for intelligence, by the end of the meeting john knows with whom Dell is competing, who will decide the order, who matters the most to them, and when they will make up their minds one subject that never comes up is price, john does not talk terms, he doesn't take orders. Who is John? He is know as internal lexicon ( hunter)

Consider the following..

The 3M account manager of the IBM storage found out that one of the major problem with IBM hard drives was giant magnetic resistance heads that are extremely sensitive to electrostatic discharge which is created during manufacturing. Thinking that proprietary 3M technology could help address the ESD problem, he bought a core group from 3M who over a period of two years created static dissipative material that would optimize the performance of GMR. Through these efforts 3M reduced IBM product loss by 10%,The account manager coordinated all the activities for the same. Is the efforts worth it? IBM eventually asked 3M to supply components globally which accounted for $ 10 million.

TECHNOLOGY

CUSTOMER ORIENTATION

RELATIONSHIP SELLING EMERGING TRENDS IN SALES MANAGEMENT DIVERSITY

GLOBAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES

NEW SELLING METHODS

CUSTOMER ORIENTATION

Structures, systems and processes are designed around customers Retaining the customer is key Service, quality and low cost have become customer expectations Customer Switching is lot common Brand loyalty cant be just assumed

NEW SELLING METHODS

Solutions based selling is the mantra Team based selling

buyer seller buyer seller

Traditional interface

Team interface

Non personal form of selling Call centers

DIVERSITY

Virtual organizations What's the impact? Cultural sensitivity Sales force diversity

RELATIONSHIP SELLING

From transactional selling to relationship selling Customer profiling Customer loyalty programmes

Transactional vs. Relationship

Emphasis on sales skills Responsiveness to customer needs Good products, price and service Narrow customer focus Differentiation through products Sales revenue focus Traditional customer relationship

Emphasis on general management skills Proactive innovation/ opportunity identification and offers Value based offers Extended to customers customer Differentiation through people Profit management focus Trusted business advisor and partner

GLOBAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES

Bribing Difference in treatment.

Technology

Two fold impact

Selling function Performance of the individual who is selling

Integrated vendors Enterprise wise information flow Customization Faster reporting and information feed to the organization

Performance
Productivity metrics Amount of time required ( necessary) to complete the sale Gross margins associated with the sale Level of price discounting

Amount of promotional support

The amount of post sale support

The impact of future product sales