Sales Planning and Operation

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September 21, 2014

Introduction
At the very beginning of sales, sales planning are the precondition for making marketing activities
effective and efficient. Most of the cases sales planning plays a vital role increasing selling products
and services of an organization. Promotional activities are the driving forces of selling a product or
service. One of he biggest challenges for marketing managers is to increase sales of products or
services and these challenges are normally being possible to over come by dint of a effective and
efficient sales planning and promotion. This assignment is made on the ins outs of sales planning
and promotion and the current issues about it.
This
assignment will be rich using the

references of AVON. Avon is one of the best examples for the establishment and improvement of
sales planning and promotional activities. The ultimate profit comes from more and more selling of
products or services. And for

that sales planning are the first condition. And that is why national and international level business
organization is much more concerned about these two important issues of marketing. The sales
team of Avon mainly plays the roles in making a good customer relationship at different ways like
they behave attitudes, characteristics and manner. Then the sales team plays the role in making a
good network and a good relationship with retailers who frequently provide the order for beauty
products.

Part 1
1.1: Explanation of how personal selling supports
the promotion mix using various elements of
promotional mix.
Ling, and Goddard (1992), promotion mix denotes the four things such as personal selling, sales
promotion, public relation and advertising. Among these four things personal selling supports
promotion mix at a larger scale.
Most of the cases banking, financial institutions, and some manufacturing organization are more
concerned about promotional mix particularly at personal selling. The ways personal selling supports
promotion mix are personal interaction, two way communication, better response, relationship, better
convincing, qualities of a good sales man like physical qualities, psychological qualities, social
qualities, mental qualities etc. In terms of personal selling a sales persons personal qualities like
good power of memory, proper leading representation, sound character, loyalty etc supports the
promotion mix at a greater extent.

1.2: Comparison of buyer behavior and the decision

making process in two different situation repeat
buying and new buy for new Avon Cosmetics.
The term buyer behavior or consumer behavior means they behave and attitude of buyer in terms of
buying the products and services. Buying behavior of different organization is shaped as different. In
the following we will try to see the buying behavior or buyer between the Avon cosmetics and
another organization like a first food organization.
In case of Avon, the consumers particularly the women consumers are demanding since many years
that sales man come to their door with the needed cosmetic products at some regular time or fixe
time in a day so that the service holder women buyer can reach and sell them as their sweet will.
These two attitudes of consumer shape these two organizations in two different ways (OLeary-Kelly
and Flores, 2002).

1.3: Analysis of the roles of sales teams within

marketing strategy of Avon.
Marketing strategy of Avon has been evolving at different stages since its establishment. From the
background of Avon it can be seen that sales team are playing very significant roles in sales and
promotional activities to attain the marketing goals (Onaldm, 2006).

The roles of sales team of Avon: the sales team of Avon mainly plays the roles in making a good
customer relationship at different ways like they behave attitudes, characteristics and manner. Then
the sales team plays the role in making a good network and a good relationship with retailers who
frequently provide the order for beauty products. Sales team of Avon also plays the role in case of
providing information from organization and receiving information from retailers and thus they
provide information to management to take the further decision for a better marketing strategy of that
organization.
I have a travel agency named Avon Air Travel and I appointed one manager and two sales
assistants. Here the manager will play role in sales development, financial management, and daily
operational management as per the best interest of my agency. Manger also will work as a promoter
and marketing the business. The most important role of manager is to motivate customers with
different package. On the other hand sale assistant plays role in collecting information from market
and delivering them to manager. Sales assistant will also play role in overseeing the needs and
requirements from bringing the customers in agency to the end of the travel.

M1: Strategies of approaching new customers for a

product.
Customers are always considered as the lifeblood of a business. It is a very common scenario that
over the time business will achieve and loose some customers. Most of the cases strategies of
approaching customers are responsible for it. So there are some strategies to approach customers
especially new customers for a product or service.
Advertising somewhere new: this is the better approach to draw the attention of new customers for
a product or service. Strategies, in this case, are regional and local publications, free advertising
source etc.
Offering free sample: very interesting and effective approach is offering customers with free
product or service to taste the product before buying it for a particular time period. And when
customers are used to use it price can be charged then.
Building partnership with other business: in competitive market it is one of the better approaches
to achieve new customers. If the sample of my product of service are kept in one or more than one
famous shop a vast of customers may be known to it.
Word-of-mouth recommendation: if it is possible to encourage the satisfied customers to
advocates other to buy it, many more potential customers may be attained.
Besides those approaches business can follow some strategies like trading online, building network,
getting involved in community etc.

M2: The use of ICT in large sale team like Avon.

By the use of ICT in sales team we mean the use and application of computer and internet to
maintain the overall operations of sales.
In the following sectors the use of ICT can be seen in large sales team like AVON:

Information flow in supply chain: supply chain in case of selling perspective needs ICT to
ensure the inflow and outflow of sales information.

Keeping sales record: ICT is also used to keep continuous record of sales by the members
of a large sales team.

Maintaining communication: ICT can be used to maintain communication among the

members of a sales team who are in remote area.

Coordination among the sales persons in sales team: mobile, internet etc can be used
to help each other in sales operations at different times.

Part 2
2.1: Sales presentation for a product or service.
Sales presentation on my own travel company

Name: Avon Travel Service.

Category: service.

2.2 Carrying out sales presentations for a product

or service.
Dove is a worldly famous beauty bar. In many countries of the world, Dove beauty bar is marketed
by Uniliver. The elements with which Dove Beauty Bar is made are more useful for human body
particularly for women (Feng, DAmours, and Beauregard, 2008).
Dove has some attractive features by dint of which it is being used widely:

Moisturizing: one of the best qualities of this product is that this is a moisturizing beauty bar.

Perceptions of customers about this product: lovely smell, doesnt irritate skin, Dove
make skin soft and calm, feelings refreshment after washing with Dove Beauty Bar.

Pricing: Dove Beauty Bar has very reasonable price. Price of this product is affordable.
Price of this product is reasonable compared to its performance.

Skin care: Dove Beauty Bar ensures skin care in a sensitive manner compared to other
uniform products.
From the website of Dove it has been that customers are highly satisfied to the performance of Dove
Beauty Bar. Dove is unique, different in terms of skin care, moisturizing, reasonable pricing etc.

M3: Challenges faced is preparing a sales

presentation. The way it is different from regular
presentation.
In the current competitive business world, preparing a sales presentation is really so tough and
challenging. And some special considerations are responsible for this. Those are as follows:
Challenges:

Sophisticated customers: nowadays customers are richer with available information and
relevant information. And understanding.

Unknown customers: realizing the tendencies of unknown and potential customers are
really very tough.

Required skills and competencies of presenters: necessary skills, knowledge, abilities

and competencies may be one of the big challenges to prepare a sale presentation.

Environment: it is also a big challenge for preparing a sale presentation.

How sales presentation is different from other presentation: it is very easy to
understand that sales presentation is prepared to deal the customers directly but other presentation,
for example financial presentation, is not concerned about customers directly.

Part 3
3.1 The ways sales strategies are developed in line
with corporate objectives of Avon.
Strategies are mainly designed by keeping in mind the objectives of the organization since strategies
are sets of actions for the purpose of accomplishing the objectives. Corporate objectives of Avon
product Inc. are statement of purpose that gives the organization the specific direction for the action
needs to be taken by the firm in order to achieve its mission.
The sales strategies of Avon are the planned approach which is designed to increase sales order in
order to achieve the sales target of the firm. The sales strategy of Avon Inc. facilitate in improving

loyalty from customers and increases sales and profitability from the most promising sectors. These
sales strategies are designed in a way so that corporate strategies are reflected in them while trying
to meet the clients needs (Chau and Kand Liang, 2007).
Although sometimes people get confused between the organizations goals and objectives, Avon Inc.
clearly makes difference between these two. Here we are going to show the ways by which sales
strategies are developed by Avon in line with its corporate objectives.
Sales strategy of Avon is also developed by the market research and market survey of relevant
products or services. Competitors current business strategies are also considered to develop sales
strategies in line with the corporate objectives of Avon.

3.2: The importance of recruitment and selection

procedures in a sales team.
Recruitment and selection procedures in a sales team are precondition to meet the sales objectives
for a company.
Sales recruitments is very significant as it differs form normal recruitment. For example, when is
recruit employees for administration I want relevant background for the job but when I recruit
employees for sales division I have to prefer the person who are with communication skills,
energetic, ability to work under pressures etc.
The ultimate success comes true for a company by dint of sales and sales growth. If sales and sales
growth are not ensured the total efforts may go in vain. Since recruitment and selection helps
organization get right employees with ability and knowledge so recruitment and selection, especially
in a sales team, bears significance importance (Grimson and Pyke, 2007).
. We can think the following issues to realize the importance of recruitment and selection in a sales
team:

Sales team is key persons to meet firms goals: sales team plays the ultimate and vital
role to increase the revenues for company.

For a perfect and competent sales team: fair recruitment and selection procedures help
firms get the right persons and reject the wrong persons aiming the sales targets.

Hire and retain satisfied employees: the more effectively a company recruits and select
candidates the more possibility to hire and retain capable, competent and satisfied employees

Company reputation: perfect and fair recruitment and selection procedures enhance the
company reputation in a larger scale.

3.3: Evaluation of the role of motivation,

remuneration and training in sales management of
a company.
Bower (2005), the role of motivation, remuneration and training in sales management of a company
is evaluated separately belowMotivation: the HR manager should not be held responsible or be assigned to motivate the
employees of sales team of any organization. Here the involvement of sales manager is really vital
because he knows what are the factors that can motivate the members of sales team what they
really perceive and what they want from the organization.
Training: sales managers involvement is also needed while it comes to train the employees who
are going to perform the ultimate selling functions of the organization. This is because the sales
manager knows the problems that a newly recruited person might face while doing his job and needs
to train him accordingly.
Remuneration: remuneration is one of the main reasons why people are going to work for an
organization. So while deciding remuneration for the sales member of an organization it is necessary
that the sales manager is involved in the decision making or his opinions are taken into account
because he knows what would be the best remuneration for the members by considering the ability
of the organization.
Salary, commission and rewards: for the employees of my travel agency I will offer annual salary,
performance pay and commission. Commission and combination package will result much more
motivation for the employees of my travel agency. For managers I will offer straight salary and
commission. Form sales executive there will be performance pay along with straight pay.

3.4: The explanation of how sales management

organizes sales activity and control sales output of
an organization
Olhager, Rudberg and Wikner (2001), sales management organizes sales activity for an organization
using different ways and use several strategies for controlling the sales output of a particular
organization and the selection of these strategies depend of the size, location and the sales volume
of that particular output.
. Normally trade fair is open to general public so it is a great opportunity for a firm to let other people
know about their products and service and get feedback from the customers directly. Sales manager
decides to employ some representatives from them to conduct sales promotion in trade fair.
Normally each sales output is operated under a particular person who will be held responsible for
any kind of mismanagement in the output and will be rewarded for successful completion of any
specific goal.

The sales manage may plan to sale at an exhibition like trade fair or trade show where only
interested companies with relevant products participate and visited by interested current and
potential buyers

3.5: The use of database in effective sales

management of a large company.
In todays world, one of the vital parts of sales department, especially in large organization, is having
database for successful and effective management of sales. Besides effective sales management,
use of database may benefit a firm, no matter if it is a large or small organization, in several ways.
This data base may help a firm to effectively manages all the information about the customers and
design and deliver the products according to individual client need and in a customized way. This
database may also help a firm to determine its lead and generate sufficient customers to achieve
that lead. Besides it can provide all the relevant information about the buying trend of the customers
which may help the firm to improve its sales continuously. Besides it can save time and increase
efficiency over the firm that still uses manual methods instead of latest database system.
The use of database in effective sales management is very beneficial in terms of getting the
accurate record of sales volume in regular basis. Use of data base in a sales management is very
useful to get the sales information. Data base is also very useful to maintain sales activities properly
to calculate annual turnover accurately.

Part 4
4.1 A sales plan for a product or service of my
choice
Here I am going to develop a sales plan for software and say the name of the software is Coding for
Fun. Grimson, Jand Pyke (2007), the steps involved are shown below

Setting Goal: we will increase the sales volume of this software by 15% within next year

Sales Objectives: we will increase our sale through cross-selling of other software and via
using affiliate marketing

Target Sales Market: based on available data from our market research on this software,
the demand for this product is also increasing among professional code user

Time Frame: here we will show the bar chart with details scheduling so that we can achieve
our expected sales within next year

Budget Section: here we will show the detail financial and human resource we might need
to achieve our sales objectives.

Strategy Development: we will design a top-down strategy so that we can easily

communicate the objectives and goals to our available human resource which is mandatory for
successful implementation of our sales plan of this software.

D3: Creative thinking in creating a sales plan.

Before going to discuss the creative thinking in creating a sales plan I would like to define the sales
plan.
Sales plan: a sales plan consist of some factors such as market segmentation, advertising strategy,
resource development and allocation etc. sales plan is just a target of sales and a set of tactics for
addressing that target as well as identifying some steps to make it true. Sales plan is also a strategy
to get old customers retained and exploring the new and potential customers from the target market.
Besides that sales plan includes the thinking of sales growth and declines stages based on the life
cycle of product or service.
Creative thinking in creating a sales plan:
Before writing the creative thinking for creating a sales plan we had better to know the steps for
developing a sales plan.

How sales plan is developed: some steps of sales plan development are defining the sales
target, choosing the strategies best suited for target market, identifying tactic activating and
motivating the sales team, reviewing the goals periodically and improving the approaches if needed
etc.

Creative thinking for developing a sales plan: creative thinking that can come to create a
sales plan are:

How differently can we serve our target market?

What unique value can we add to our offering?

What extra benefit can we ensure for our customers?

How better and what unique strategies and tactics can we adopt to our selling operation?

4.2 Opportunities for selling internationally

The world is now becoming more and more dependent on software and now people search on
internet every day to find the new software that can ease their day to day work. Not only business
and professionals but also non-professionals are also using software. Coding is one of the most
important parts of computer programming. Now everyone is interested to learn coding and many
schools teach coding to kids also. The software we have designed will let people learn computer
coding easily without any kind of confusion and difficulties. So the demand for this software is going

to increase many countries of the world especially in developed and developing countries where rate
of internet users is also increasing. Besides as it is software we can sell and deliver it to our
customers via our websites or other affiliated websites so we can serve customers from any
countries of the globe (APICS, 2007).
Besides those there are several opportunities for selling internationally. For example, different
customers of different countries want to taste product or service from different location of the globe,
customers of different countries may be bored with some common products and services by their
country, regional integration is increasing day by day and that is products and services of one
country is getting access to international markets.

D2: Identification of the differences in International

selling through example.
In the following issues international selling has some differences. Pricing: purchasing power parity
does not hold true for each country. For example, PPP of USA and Bangladesh is not same.
Regulations: selling rules and regulations varies country to country. Example, Regulations of UK and
India are different. Policy and strategies: business firm has to take different strategies, policies and
tactics for different countries. Customers view: different for different countries. Differences are also
seen in payment system.
Most of the cases, buyers and seller have to take international payment system. For example, Pay
Pal is an international payment system where customers have to pay, besides the product or
service price, as payee get the payment easily in the form of their own currencies. Another difference
may be seen in taxation. Tax paying and the tax rate may not same in multiple countries. That is why
seller has to consider the pricing based on the taxation system of a country.

4.3 Opportunities for using exhibitions or trade

fairs.
Jonsson, Kjellsdotter and Rudberg, (2007), trade fair is basically organized to let companies exhibit
their products to public in a specific place and the organizing committee do all the necessary thing to
bring visitors to the fair so it is an amazing way for any company to let target customers know about
their products.
Every year in UK, different kind of trade fair is organized on ICT based software in order to promote
these sectors and encourage entrepreneurs to invest in these sectors by generating new ideas. Not
only in UK but also in many countries of the world like Germany, USA, Singapore, Japan, China etc.
is now organizing different kind of trade fair on ICT based software and they invite companies from
different parts of the world. All these represent great opportunity for our software to sell using
exhibitions or trade fair not simply in Britain but also in other countries of the world. This trade fair will
give us the opportunity to have direct contact with the clients and know about their expectation from
the software and its next updated version and their perception about the company.

D1: Critical reflection to evaluate a trade show in

London.
Jonsson, Kjellsdotter and Rudberg, (2007, Trade show in London: in each year there is a trade
show to be held in London, United Kingdom. During the period of this almost all of the industries
from the states are appeared with their old and new offering. Many investors, entrepreneurs,
customers are normally the integral part of this trade show.
Trade show is not for the general public. Only company representatives in different companies and
media persons can only attend this trade show.

Evaluation of the trade show:

Facilitation of direct contract: trade show facilitate direct contract between the distributor
channels (retailers, wholesalers, value added resellers) and the manufacturer groups but sometimes
a direct contract is being occurred between the manufacturers and the end users.

Economical ways of getting sales: besides the sales volumes during the trade period
many big amount of selling contract is occurred during the trade period.

New and potential Customers can be found by this trade show: this trade show is an
excellent way to find many new and potential customers for the industries that participate in trade
show.

Effective promotion and advertisement: different media persons regularly focus the new
brand products and services.

Very helpful for industry and the country: finally it can be said that such a trade show
brings more and more integrations among the manufacturers and distributors channel members.

Conclusion
From the above discussion we can conclude such a way that Most of the cases sales planning play
a vital role increasing selling products and services of an organization. Promotional activities are the
driving forces of selling a product or service. One of the biggest challenges for marketing managers
is to increase sales of products or services and these challenges are normally being possible to
overcome by dint of a effective and efficient sales planning and promotion. The term buyer behavior
or consumer behavior means behave and attitude of buyer in terms of buying the products and
services. Buying behavior of different organization is shaped as different. The ways personal selling
supports promotion mix are personal interaction, two way communication, better response,
relationship, better convincing, qualities of a good sales man like physical qualities, psychological
qualities, social qualities, mental qualities etc. Now everyone is interested to learn coding and many
schools teach coding to kids also. The software we have designed will let people learn computer
coding easily without any kind of confusion and difficulties. So the demand for this software is going

to increase many countries of the world especially in developed and developing countries where rate
of internet users is also increasing. Normally trade fair is open to general public so it is a great
opportunity for a firm to let other people know about their products and service and get feedback
from the customers directly. Sales manager decides to employ some representatives from them to
conduct sales promotion in trade fair.
References

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4.

Feng, Y., DAmours, S. and Beauregard, R. (2008), The value of sales and operations
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