Sales Management

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Introduction

This assignment is about sales management, and it's the strategies including the sales funnel

and hit rate metrics, Consumer buying behaviour process, business buying behaviour process,

the promotional activities etc. It also gives a clear picture of sales leadership and the sales

executive in an organisation. In this regard, the example of Argos has been taken.

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LO1 Demonstrate an understanding of the principle of sales management

P1 Explain the key principles of sales management in relation to the importance of sales

planning, methods of selling and sale reporting.

Sales management of a company is to develop the force of sale with the proper coordination

of sales operation and implementation of sales techniques in order to hit the sales

targets(Familmaleki, Aghighi and Hamidi 2015). One of the major responsibilities of a sales

manager is attaining the sales targets. The sales management principles are to measure the

value of the product with the help of proper customer’s perception, for identifying the stream

value and to develop the process of sales. As opined by Hande and Ghosh (2015), the other

significant sales management aspects are embedding the sustainability within the business

commitment, giving appropriate which assists in establishing a sales team which is highly

efficient. However, the key aspects of sales management include situation analysis, sales

strategy, sales target, understanding customer’s need, sales control, and application of sales

methodology, sales process, or techniques etc.

Different roles involved members of the sales department at Argos.

In the sales department of Argos, there are some impotent roles such as the Cashier, the

salesman, and the deliveryman. The responsibilities of a cashier are collecting money and

gathering information from the customers, informing the customers regarding the offers,

boosting up the sales, and working with money. Whereas, the sales-man boosts up the sales

of the company by several selling qualities like a convincing approach to the customers,

pleasing behaviour, trustworthy appearance etc. (Argos.co.uk 2019). On the other hand, the

delivery boy needs to be well communicative, as they have to interact with the customers.

Customer Service

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Strategies and monitoring of sales management:

Sales management process, being an integral aspect of business operations, is all about to

measure and monitor the whole work process of sales in a business. It contains the strategies

in order to provide support and training to the sale department of an organisation

(Cuevas,Donaldson and Lemmens 2015).In addition, proper maintenance of product

transparency, identification of the rivals, and the strategic formulation in sales in order to

grab the target customers and to maintain the sales performance are also into this process.

Here the mention of Sales funnel is undeniable. It is also named as sales process or revenue

funnel. It is one of the vital sales tools that can be explained as the buying process.

Stages of the Consumer Buying Behaviour Process-

A consumer decision-making process depends on the type of products and the brand name

that attracts or retains a consumer. As stated by Zhang and Benyoucef (2016), with the rise of

social business, there are extensive changes in the buying behaviour of consumers. In other

words, due to the influence of online selling and buying process through a digital platform, it

is a challenging task to attract more of consumers for a significant product. Therefore, it

depends on the promotion quality and skills of a salesperson to satisfy the customers to the

expected level. The below figure shows the demonstrations of stages of the consumer buying

behaviour process in detail:-

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 Figure 1: Stages of Consumer Buying Behaviour Process

(Source: Zhang and Benyoucef 2016)

According to the above figure, it shows the consumer buying behaviour process undergoes

five distinct stages. The first stage begins with the need for recognition of the product to be

purchased online or from retail stores. Secondly, a consumer tries to search for information

based on previous experience or else from other sources such as by collecting a review,

which can be positive or negative, and acquiring knowledge and idea from friends and

family. In the thirds stage of Evaluation of alternatives, a consumer generally evaluates the

competitive price, efficiency and quality of the purchased product with other competing

products in the market. Finally, in the fourth stage, consumers come to a purchasing

decision to buy the products. In this stage, the decision of purchasing might be from a

negative view for trying a particular product, or it can be from unanticipated circumstances as

well. The fifth stage is the Post-Purchasing Behaviour that appears to be most significant, as

it may retain or dissatisfy a consumer from the product quality and expectations made before

buying. Hence, it creates an impression and brand loyalty for a long-term relationship with

the Company.

Different modes of selling (B2B and B2C) and their impact

Two types of selling modes are there: B2B and B2C. B2C refers to direct selling, where B2B

is related more to the buying party, which covers a longer process (Hande and Ghosh 2015).

However, for both the modes, effective product marketing and good customer's satisfaction is

very important aspects. In order to the characteristic features of these two selling processes,

both the similarities and differences are there. As per the structure, B2B is complicated

whereas B2C is quite simpler.

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In the case of Argos, there are two important modes of selling that can be mentioned here; the

introduction of the Argos App and the promotional strategies of the company. The mobile

App of Argos played a vital role in securing the company in the top list of the multichannel

retailers of UK. It's a contribution to enhancing the sale if the company is undeniable. Again,

with the help of the promotional codes, that company launched are very useful to the

customers as they can easily check the code from the website of the company(Argos.co.uk

2019).

The impact of new technology and its benefits: The influence of technology has always been

fruitful for any retail sectors to promote and attract a number of customers and employees for

hiring. As per Pineda et al. (2018), the use of digital tools works as knowledge transfer media

in any organisations. In the case of retail operating services, digital dominance acts as a

weapon for promoting a wide variety of content and advertisements. For example, in the case

of Argos, the use of social media can be useful in different ways. It helped the organisation

to understand different reasons for changing behaviour of the consumer choice and therefore,

social media worked as an active listening platform for Argos to identify the consumer

sentiments towards new digital stores and it acted accordingly in improving its digital

marketing techniques (Argos.co.uk 2019).

Use of Skype in Argos: The use of Skype is another option for Argos to promote more

number of applicants with a workshop and training program for the purpose of showing the

techniques of using tablet devices. Being associated with the digital partnership charity

workshop with GO on the UK, the Argos staffs are able to provide knowledge of basic skills

of using the tablet for improving skills for mainly the new interns (Argos.co.uk 2019).

Use of Argos Mobile App-the use of the mobile app is another option for Argos Sales

management team to reach the customers directly twenty hours for any queries, requests and

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complaints. In other words, it will help the customers to buy online at any time and order

online products. The app is useful in another way by saving the previous items intact through

the consistency of CTA. However, the app is helpful for customers to know about the

efficacy of the sales strategy of the company as a whole (Argos.co.uk 2019).

Sales promotions and Sales incentives

The brand image of a Company stands on strategic advertising management. According to

Percy and Elliott (2016), strategic advertising management focuses on innovations in

promoting a product as per changing tastes and behaviour of consumers along with the

changing weather.In other words, it waits for a new season with new offers and discounts and

provides a range of opportunities for consumers to grab it as soon as possible. Therefore,

Argos’ new sales promotion and sales incentive scheme introduced new Argos Cash

incentives to Bolster ‘Ride into Adventure’ spring promotion. Through this, the consumers

will get the opportunity to get into a new cash retail incentive earning provision. Similarly,

another example placed by Argos is the promotion of ‘Boxing Day Sale’ in January 2019 and

promotion of voucher codes for smart saving options for the customers. Below is the image

of the sales promotion and sales incentives launched by Argos in real:-

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LO2 Evaluate the Relative Merits of How Sales Structures Are Organized and

Recognize the Importance Of ‘Selling Through Others’.

P2 Evaluate the benefits of sales structures and how they are organised using specific

organisational examples.

Roles and Structure of Argos Sales Team

The structured framework that the company follows for organized behaviour within the sales

team of the company is the sales structure of the company. Argos generates half of its sales

through online shopping. Again, 75% of online sales are collected in stores

(Econsultancy.com, 2019). The individuals in the sales team act responsibly and

professionally with directions from the authority above them and carry out the sales

initiatives for the company. The sales structures of Argos are based on the following

criterion:

 Customer Base: The demand for a large number of customers loyal to Argos is the

highest priority of the sales team of Argos. Around 72% of the customers exploits on

the opportunity of the “Fast Track” services as introduced by Argos to order on the

same day from the very same day (Econsultancy.com, 2019).

 Variety of Products: The wide and varied range of Argos products as well as their

prices compared to other companies in the market is considered for structuring the

sales team of Argos. The company has launched Argos product pages tool which

provides its customers with a handy map of the information about the products and

their availabilities (Econsultancy.com, 2019).

 Geographical Position: The sales team of Argos have been distinctly distributed to

target various regions according to the local demands and economic backgrounds.

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 Figure 1: Distribution of Argos stores in the UK

Source: (Argos.co.uk, 2017)

Sales Structure Like Geographic, Marketing, Product Sales

Reasons for Implementing Geographic Sales Structure:

 Cheaper Cost of Maintenance: Argos prefer recruiting sales executives and officials

from the local region of their geographical position as it saves a lot of expenses for

relocating its sales team to a new location(Argos.co.uk, 2017). Moreover, due to the

economic background, some regions have low hiring costs to new sales members.

This also saves some expenses for the company.

 Geographical Uniqueness: Argos can sell products designed specifically for that

specific region.

 Customer Uniqueness: Each region has its separate customer base and the sales team

targets those segregated customers based on their specific demands.

 Easier Management: All the regional sales teams of Argos have their own

professional and trained marketing and sales managers who are also local and are

efficient in managing the team with the least number of obstacles.

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Reasons for Implementing Marketing Sales Structure:

 The targeted audience can be easily identified through the marketing process of the

sales team.

 Helps to understand and keep up the current market trends and popular demands.

 The market can be specifically targeted for people based on their age group, social

status and income level.

Reasons for Implementing Product Sales Structure:

 Each member of the sales team is specifically trained for the products that are sold

and updated in case of any product change.

 The selling of products, their methods and attributes are all controlled by the sales

manager of the company.

Ethics of Behaviour

As Argos makes a lot of toys for children, they must keep in mind about the safety of the

children as a sign of ethical behaviour in business. This is why the toys are embedded with

the Lion mark which is a symbol for safety and quality. This ethical behaviour of the

company is backed by the legislation of the British Toy and Hobby Association (BTHA)

passed in 1988 (Argos.co.uk, 2017).

UK And EU Laws for Sales Department

The Third-Party Act 1999: Under this act, the terms and conditions that were placed by

Argos does not allow or create any enforced benefits from an individual unless it is a party.

(Argos.co.uk, 2017).

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Intellectual Property Legislation: All products manufactured and supplied by Argos are

write protected with trademarks and individuals cannot utilise those products for other

business purposes unless authorised by Argos's licences. (Argos.co.uk, 2017)

P3 Explain the importance and the advantages of the concept of ‘selling through’

others.

The approach of ‘selling through others’ is a form of selling approach or alternate sales

channel used by Argos for increasing their product sales and gain new potential customers.

For this reason, Argos has done collaborative businesses with other third-party retailers who

can sell their products on their retail stores on behalf of the company. Examples of some

collaborations are mentioned below.

Argos and Sainsbury’s:

 The collaboration of Argos with Sainsbury has allowed the retail stores of Sainsbury’s

to sell both food and non-food products to be sold under the same roof which was

beneficial to a lot of customers.

 Sainsbury allowed more than 30 Argos outlets in their retail shops, which helped

Argos to sell more than 90,000 different products to customers visiting the retail chain

(About.sainsburys.co.uk, 2019).

 The mini outlets of Argos inside Sainsbury have provided customers a wide range of

choice for buying furniture, homewares and upholstery.

Argos and eBay:

 The collaboration between Argos and eBay was a unique approach as they started an

exclusive offer for customers called ‘Click and Collect’, which would allow

customers to purchase Argos products online.

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  In return for this, Argos also helped eBay customers to drop and dispatch their

products on the nearest Argos store from where other customers can purchase them

(Garber, 2017).

Supervising, Managing and Leading the Sales Force

Argos has developed recent management approaches for better coordination of its sales force.

Professional and well-trained managers are hired for continuous guidance and monitoring of

the sales team and supervise their work for development of the team. In order to encourage

sales officials, enthusiastic goals are set by the management and performances are monitored

and analysed for rewarding the most efficient person in the sales force. This approach has

turned out to be rewarding for the company as more and more sales officials are working hard

for rewards and increasing the productivity of the sales team.

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LO 3 Application and analysing the selling principles

P4. Analyse the techniques and fundamental principles to make the selling successful

Types of sales leads:

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Cold Lead-maximum disciplined methods have been cancelled in this criterion. It is noticed

prospect management helps the qualifier and it makes easy for doing the difference between

the current and another system.

Hot Lead-there is many useful methods are described in this hot lead. By proper explaining

this that is easy to understand the system band. Proper Budgeting, Association, need, and

time. For submitting the project in time, it is very important to make a strategic budget and

also a proper time management (McCord et al., 2017). The main responsibility of the

company is checking the report correctly. Only the body can take a valuable decision about

the project. There is only one criterion which is the need that makes an employee more

passionate about the project work and finishes it on time.

Warm Lead-few criteria have not found in this criterion. So it is called a warm lead. Need is

the most important criteria which are located in this lead. In maximum cases in this lead the

timeframe and budgetary is missing (Ingramet al.,2015).Any useful criteria may be applied

by this lead. Sometimes it may be damaged.

Brief discussion about the cold approach and warm approach:

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It is observed that the warm criteria except the criteria need two or three criteria are

disqualified while most methods have been cancelled. This is very valuable difference in

these two approaches. So, it is observed that could approach not make success to make the

profit of the business of company Argos. The warm lead capable of achieving the business

goal and make a profit for the organisation Argos. Warm lead is the primary criteria which

are useful to reach the success of the company Argos.

Ethics of overpromising and behavioural- The Argos Company needs to maintain the

ethics of overpromising and behavioural. The company Argos promote the products of the

company which is delivered by the customer of the company. It has been identified that it is

understandable to expect the customer behaviour.The growth of sales of the company may

beenhanced. By applying of behavioural ethics, the company Argos promote behaviour

ethics.

Negotiation tactics and techniques:

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In the process of selling there are various steps that have been mentioned and discussed in the

below section.

a. The pre-closing approach- there is enough time to require for introducing the

preparation of sales in the company Argos. This approach begins the process of

closing sales. It helps to engage with the customer that makes the customer is the

phase of that approach.

b. The initiate phase- this is identified thatthere are many designed for collecting data

for collecting dataof the organization Argos. It helps to points out the problems and

encourage the employees to solve the problems(Sacco et al., 2015).

c. Sales Presentation- this is the very significant process at the ending of sale. After

knowing the prospect of the business, the company needs to the sales presentation. It

is instrumental that the presentation must be the essential facts about the company

Argos.

d. Handling the objections carefully- many issues have been arisen by the customer

when purchasing services and products of the company. The company properly

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 handles the customer. It is always observed that the customer does not heart any time

when saying no by the company.

e. Closing the sale- the useful providing solution closes the sales for solution to the

problems (Ingramet al.,2015) if the project manager does not respond to the queries

then the authority of the company Argos needs to solve the queries.

Use of customer relationship management in creating good relationship:

Some factors trust, mutual respect and open communication build to make a healthy

relationship. It is essential to building a better relationship. There is also need proper

timeframe to build a strong relationship. Praising others and be positive in any situation help

to make a strong relationship.

A proper ending of the relationship is significant in the business world. For creating a

relationship, it is essential to terminate the previous relationship of the company Argos. At

first, for starting a new contract, it is essential to end the previous contract. It is observed that

the existence is the correct for the troubled relationship for the other companies.

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As far as Argos is concerned, from its each store, the use of CRM software will help in

collecting huge amount of raw data. These raw data then can be compiled and evaluated with

the help of big data analytics to understand customer intentions, their buying pattern, choices

and preferences (Ingramet al.,2015). In this way, it will be possible for the company to not

only improve customer service, but also to create customer relationship with the company

which in turn will improve the overall sales figure of the company.

Suggestions on improving customer relationship management:

It is important for any company to provide the best quality products and services to its

customers. For Argos as well, it is necessary to focus on providing the best quality service to

its customers (Ingramet al.,2015). In this context, providing customised products and

exclusive products to the customers can help in improving good relationship with the

customers.

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Another factor that has a major impact on customer relationship is that being transparent

(Davies and Ryals, 2015). The company needs to be transparent in all its activities to ensure

customers value the company and become loyal to Argos.

Successful selling principles to follow by Argos:

Personal selling skills:

Right skills are required to achieve the organisational goals and for making the profit for the

organisation. Therefore, employees with the ability to create good relationship needs to be

hired for making personal selling.

KAM (Key Accounting Management):

This is useful in the sales approach for an individual to make a better relationship between a

customer and the company. Selling huge products to the consumer is also referred by KAM

(Davies and Ryals, 2015).

Use of latest technologies:

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Selling process can be improved by involving the latest technology in the organisational

work. Big data, mobile technology and cloud-based technology such as BYOD and CRM are

now using this technology in the sales process.

Direct marketing process:

Communicationis required for this process and by using this method the goods and services

in the company are properly advertised in social platform. Text message, email and online

advertising several media have used these direct makings.

Relationship selling:

The relationship between the customer and the salesperson is focused on this process. The

Argos Company uses this skill for its existing customer.

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LO4 Demonstrate and well understanding the finance of selling

P5 Importance of the strategy which will make the profitability within the structure of

sales.

Calculating the margin profit:

The margin of gross profit is used for calculating the cost of production of the company. The

gross profit calculated the profit margin. The cost of goods and production, labour cost are

also included in the profit margin. The gross profit measures it. By conduction the profit of

margin it has been observed that the selling price ofgoods, deficit, the expenses which os

related to goods and it is deducted from the total revenue. The net profit margin is the same

as the margin of the profit. It is arrived by subtracting the margin from the revenue.

The management of the portfolio:

This portfolio management consists of three useful activities such as asset allocation,

selection of security and how heavy is the classes of the main asset. The main object of the

asset allocation is blending the classes of the main asset for obtaining low risk. Weighing of

the class asset is made by the opportunistic shift to improve the return prospect.

Performance management:

The skill and the level of performance need to be sufficiently headed by the HR. and the

company’s project manager of Argos. It helps to increase the level of productivity of the

company. The increment of the production level of the organisation makes the profitable for

the organisation (Buckingham and Goodall, 2015). The employees of the company Argos

needs to be more sensitive, specific and result oriented. They have to be knowledgeable about

the product of the company.

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Sales cycle

It is observed that if the company’s production has been increased, then the sales cycle of the

company also raised. It is a proper path and depending on this reason, it is called the sales

cycle. By this process, the company Argos can achieve the organisational goal and make a

considerable profit. I think that this sales cycle is crucial for the company and it helps to

understand the market condition.

Fig 1: Sales cycle

Source: (Wotruba and Simpson, 2015)

It does not always increase the production level and profit making for the company. There are

various steps in this sales cycle have been mentioned below.

1. Identify the needs:

The needs must be identified. This need to build a strong relationship between a

customer and the company. The proper timeframe helps to make a healthy
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 relationship. It is the main criteria to create a strong relationship which makes

employees more passionate about their work and accomplish it on time to achieve the

organisational goal.

2. Initiate contact:

The advertising of products and sales are the two main objects for marketing the

products of the company and also the idea of the customer toward the product of

Argos. The advertisement helps the customer to understand the information about the

products and services of the company (Wotruba and Simpson, 2015). Also making a

strategy for buying the products is the sales promotion for the country. By using this

process, the sales of the company also increased.

3. Handling objections:

The main problem is that the many questions asked by the customer when purchasing

products of the company Argos. To solve this problem by simply saying NO by the

company to the customer, but also focused that this rejection can not dissatisfy the

customer.

4. Facilitating various offers and discounts:

It is always true that the best deals and several offers attract the customer and increase

sales and also make a considerable profit for the company. It has been observed that

the offers and deals can be updated by the administration of the company and the

assistance of the workers. To gaining the goods services and the distribution and sales

management can refer products. The company Argos can achieve organisational

objectives by selling more products. By this process distribute the products to one

hand to another it helps the customer to know about the product very well.

5. Prospecting:

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 The sales of the company can be increased by proper analysis and research. It is

essential to good research for the products of the company, and the result of the

research needs to be developed (Campbell and Pryor, 2015). This result also helps the

company Argos to understand the full analysis of the sales process of the company.

6. Payment mechanisms and terms:

It is expressed that the Bureau of deals engages the base which is related to the client

of the organisation. Again the accomplishing of the products is influenced by the fund

of the bureau. It helps to make a proper business division between the businesses

division and the back bureau association.

7. Closing:

A closing sale is a final stage. The closing sale process describes solutions to

problems. The egotism during the closing sale has to be mitigated. If the manager of

project of the company Argos is not able to solve all the queries, then the authority

should be involved to solve the problem.

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Conclusion:

The entire assignment has provided all the information about the sales process which is

needed to grow the sales of the company and what techniques need to be applied in the sales

process. It also described that is essential which is associated with the company Argos.

Before applying the various approaches in business should be properarranging by the director

of the company Argos. The company needs valuable offers for accomplishing better

development for the association.

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References

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