Answers to Questions About Sales and Marketing

2. Description of Sales Activities

The group conducted the sale of the items in Toronto. We targeted residents of the area under the following market segmentations:

- Geographic Segmentation

It entails customers location, region and ACORN classification. In our case, it composed of the people who live within a 10mile radius of the town.

- Demographic Segmentation

It entails the customers age, gender, occupation and socio-economic group. In our case, we targeted both genders within the age group of 13 years to the age of 25, mainly students.

- Behavioural Segmentation

It entails rate of usage; benefit sought, loyalty status and the customers willingness to buy. Some of the customers wanted their money worth, and some were impulse buyers.

- Psychographic Segmentation

It includes the customers personality, lifestyle, attitude and class. Most of our customers had a positive attitude on our items and comfortably paid the cost.

- Market segmentation

It is characterised by market readily available due to forces created by the demand of our items.

During our exercise there were some dominant buying motives which included:

- Product Motives

Our products were appealing to the customers eyes because they had unique designs, were packaged neatly, comfortable and price friendly.

- Product Emotional Motives

Our products were in style, and most of our customers were fashion driven and had a habit of impulse buying.

- Comfort and convenience

Most of our buyers are full-time students hence dont have much time to go shopping and delivering the items to their doorstep was an added advantage and convenient for them.

- Effective Selling Approach

During the exercise, our customers appreciated the soft sell approach where we would give guidance in making a decision on the particular item they would settle for. We would gently persuade and give suggestion to convince the buyer.

Group member: Hello Madam, my name is [name]. My friends and I are selling are selling some hats, socks and scarf, and we would like a moment of your time. Would you be interested?

Buyer: Yes, please may I see your items?

Group member: sure sir.....which ones would interest u?

Buyer: I would like a pair of each item, how will each cost me?

Group member: Only $10 for each item

Buyer: I hope the quality wont disappoint me

Group member: No maam they are good we sold a couple of them last week, and we have received positive feedback

Buyer: They look nice I will take these

Group member: Thank you

3. Team sales goals

Total items 12

Total Sale $120

Average Units 3

Average Sales (4 members) $30

4. Areas of greatest strength and weakest performance by team.

Greatest Strengths

i. Ability to follow through. We paid attention to every step in our exercise. Success always comes when one pays attention to every step of sale cycle, from the start to the thank you.

ii. Flexibility. It enabled us to serve many customers at once without difficulty.

iii. Organizational ability. We were able to plan well all our activities hence the exercise was carried out successfully.

iv. Verbal acuity. It is a level of communication where the words of the salesperson are understood by the target customer. We were able to convey the messages well hence credibility was achieved in our exercise.

v. Achievement oriented personality. We were motivated to meet our goals and continuously measured our performance in comparison to our objectives. As a result, we could function in competitive environments where self-discipline was a necessity.

Weakest performance

i. The tendency to over think a situation. At times we took too long to strategize on a sale, this would, in the end, lead to failure than if we could have made the simple initial plan.

ii. Handling issues as they arose. This was due to our inability to plan things well at times.

iii. Inward Pessimism. Salespeople always have to maintain a positive attitude when they are with the customers. Inner pessimism at times drove us to question the viability of the deal and credibility of the buyer leading to weak performance.

5. Key learning about Sales and Marketing

1. Develop an Understanding of the items and the Target Customers

The priority is to understand clearly your mission and create a marketing which will help achieve it. Know the ideal customers their ages, genders, education levels, incomes and then research intensively to identify their attitudes towards your goods.

2. Grow digital

Social media is essential in targeting customers find you items. Digital promotions to connect better with new and potential clients.

3. Measure and contextualize results

Measuring success is critical. Establishing which marketing styles work to convert consumers into customers. Map out increases in revenues to justify the return on investment on any of your activities. It is also good to remember that knowing the cost per item isnt enough, but one also need to understand how much revenue will b e generated.

4. Look for the right salespersons

Finding the right persons is essential to ensuring your success in the short and long-term. Make sure you and your team are well educated about the latest new and emerging approaches. Also, try networking with other sellers in your line of sales so you can exchange ideas and advice.

Above all, make sure every sale option you utilize makes smart business sense.

6. Recommendations to groups in future years to be successful.

To be successful in subsequent years, the sales groups should:

- Expand future revenue

To ensure high the chance of sustaining long-term growth and profitability, retailers should think ahead. This will make them have enough initiatives in place to discover, test, and expand future revenues.

- Work on reducing costs

The retailers must always take a real consideration for operating expenses. These costs are direct costs and labour costs. Retailers should aim at reducing these costs by up to 20 to 30 percent to be able to work well in a competitive environment. Hence, should look for appropriate ways of cutting the costs and apply them.

- Reduce or reconfigure their portfolio

We believe retailers have to give priority to tomorrow's needs and mobilize for their store networks. Given the durability of their property to levels of inventory, the earlier that retailers shed unneeded real estate, the better off theyre likely to be. Those that rent space should bargain to create flexibility through leases of shorter duration, in particular for properties with less certain futures.

- Use data and analytics for decision making

Retailers should use secondary analytics to promote offers that are targeted and localized, as well as delivered in real time. They should also be customized by location and shopping occasions.

- Rethink on product offerings

The retailers should proactively shape products and experiences for and with consumers by bringing them directly into key merchandising decisions to be successful.

References

Goddard, F. (1889). The art of selling. New York: Baker & Taylor.

Vieira, W. (2008). The new professional salesman. New Delhi: Response Books.

Ziglar, Z. Secrets of closing the sale.