Q) What are purposes of organizing sales contests?

SalesContest Meanings

Sales contests are taken as one of the measures of sales promotion. A sales contest is a special selling campaign offering salesman incentives in the form of prizes or awards above and beyond those provided by the compensation plan. Sales contests are most popular with firms specializing in consumer products like food and drugs etc. The main object of sales contests is to provide sales personnel with extra incentives to increase sales volume and also bring more profits to the company. Sales contests aim at fulfilling the needs of individuals for achievement and recognition. If they are well-organized, they can be used to counter off-season decline in sales and bring in new customers. They also generate team spirit among the salesmen and foster a sense of co-operation. These sales contests bring out the talented and more intelligent salesmen to the forefront. Objectives of the Sales Contests Sales contests motivate salesman to increase sales volume along with higher profits. The main objectives of sales contests are as follows: 1. To risen the sales. 2. To make new customers attracted. 3. To arrest seasonal sales slumps. 4. To push new products, high margin goods and slow moving goods. 5. To get repeated orders from present and former customers. 6. To improve sales personnel performance. 7. To bring a spirit of competition among the salesman. 8. To improve customers services. 9. To achieve the sales targets. 10. To increase incentives to sales force.

Advantages of Sales contests The main advantages of sales contests are as follows:

1. The sales contests increase the sales volume along with increase in profits of the company. 2. Sales contest stimulate salesmans efforts more vigorously to attain the sales targets. 3. The possibility of winning the prizes attracts young, talented and efficient salesmen to offer their services more effectively. 4. During slump period, sales contest are the best means of not only arresting the decline in sales but also raising the volume of sales. 5. Sales contest generate team spirit among the salesmen and foster a sense of cooperation. Disadvantages, Limitations or Objectives of Sales contests The disadvantages, limitations or objectives of sales contests are as follows: 1. Sales contests do not really increase and sales over the long run, but they merely provide a short-term sales expansion. 2. High caliber and more experience sales personnel look upon the sales contests as juvenile and silly. 3. Sales contests cause sales personnel to launch their sales efforts during the competition and thus sales slump occurs both before and after the sales contests. 4. The disappointment suffered by sales contest losers causes a general decline in sales force morale and enthusiasm. 5. Sales contests distract salesmen from the main job of selling and encourage them only to concentrate on winning prizes by fair or foul means.
Q) What are important methods of motivating the sales personnel? Q) What are characteristics of good sales territories? Q) What are characteristics of a good sales quota? Q) Explain various bases of market segmentation, with suitable illustrations. Q) What are salient features of different methods of compensating the sales personnel? Elaborate with examples. Q) Describe various techniques of controlling and monitoring the performance of the sales force. Q) Explain the concept of job evaluation

Q) Enlist various quantitative and qualitative performance standards. Q) What are Gross Rating Points? What do they measure?
Gross rating point (GRP) is a term used in advertising to measure the size of an audience reached by a specific media vehicle or schedule. It is the product of the percentage of the target audience reached by an advertisement; times the frequency they see it in a given campaign. For example, a TV advertisement that is aired 5 times reaching 50% of the target audience, it would have 250 (GRP = 5 50%) i.e., GRPs = frequency % reach. To arrive at your total gross rating point s, add the individual ratings for each media vehicle you are using. You can also calculate GRP by dividing your gross Impressions by the population base and multiplying the answer by 100. GRPs are also used by broadcasters to sell their advertising space to potential customers.

How You Do It
Media planners calculate total Reach, average Frequency, and GRPs as part of the planning of a campaign. The goal is to obtain the highest possible GRPs at the lowest possible cost, while remaining focused on the target market. After the campaign, you can calculate actual Reach x Frequency = GRPs to produce a permanent record.

Q) Discuss any two types of demand forecasting techniques.

Ans- Simple Survey Method:

1) Experts Opinion Poll: In this method, the experts on the particular product whose demand is under study are requested to give their opinion or feel about the product. These experts, dealing in the same or similar product, are able to predict the likely sales of a given product in future periods under different conditions based on their experience. If the number of such experts is large and their experience-based reactions are different, then an average-simple or weighted is found to lead to unique forecasts. Sometimes this method is also called the hunch method but it replaces analysis by opinions and it can thus turn out to be highly subjective in nature. 2) Consumers Survey- Complete Enumeration Method: Under this, the forecaster undertakes a complete survey of all consumers whose demand he intends to forecast, Once this information is collected, the sales forecasts are obtained by simply adding the probable demands of all consumers. The principle merit of this method is that the forecaster does not introduce any bias or value judgment of his own. He simply records the data and aggregates. But it is a very tedious and cumbersome process; it is not feasible where a large number of consumers are involved. Moreover if the data are wrongly recorded, this method will be totally useless.