Free term paper on group field sales management

How are the prospects located?

Identifying and knowing customer need assist in locating customer prospects. Lapperal’s most frequent customers are mothers with children between ages of 1 month and 7 years. . Iapperal has undergone drastic imperative changes structured to ensure stability and long-term sustainability of the company in all the prospects. On the other hand, stores locate countrywide are independently managed by branch managers (Manta 2013). The company management has many stores country wide where customers could access a variety of children wear. Customer prospects are located through a card issued to a customer once they purchase a product from any company’s stores. Moreover, a computerized system is used in storing prospect customer details for easier identification (Manta 2013).

Does the company set up booths at trade shows to attract leads?

How are sales territories determined?
Iapperal operates in different towns in New York with its stronghold at New York City. The region has a number of stores dealing with children and women wear sales creating a challenging moment for Iapperal in determining sales territories. In the today environment sales managers opt in doing more work with less cost. Organizations use different initiatives aiming at giving improved productivity in the sales force (Zoltners, Andris, and Sally 53-61). The company considers the following variables in determining its sales territories. First, the product population density assists in determining the density of potential customers in the prospect. The sales manager looks for demographic information to determine the strategies for various companies dealing with the same products. On the other hand, the management should know the geography of the area where potential customers come from. The management has broken down the sales territories into smaller areas to ensure products are found in many places. Finally, the company has set up many representatives in different locations. The representatives provide market information in their areas, which assists the sales manager in allocating products and staff to various stores (Manta 2013).

How much time does the salesperson spend traveling versus time in front of the prospect?

Every store in different parts of the country has a team of sales people who market and distribute products to customers. The business operates for 10 hours in a day inclusion of lunch time. In most cases, sales people spend 40% of their time travelling in search for new customers. When a potential prospect is found, the sales person ensures the person purchases a product, and it might take 2-3 hours to convince a person to buy a certain product. In general, a salesperson spends 80% of time travelling and marketing products in a single day.

How much time is spent away from home at night, on weekends, etc.?

Iapperal Company operates stores in major towns in New York. The sales team must travel for long distances in search for potential buyers. During week days, a salesperson spends almost 3 nights away from home while during weekends the person spends 1 night away depending on the distance travelled. For distances of not more than 200 Kilo Meters, people travel by car. When the travelling distance exceeds 200 Kilo Meters the salesperson travels by air. Travelling by air is a bit expensive forcing the management to limit the number of journeys. On average, percentage of people who travel using cars is 80% in a year. Air transport is most commonly used when managers are attending meetings and where travelling distance is significantly long.

How many calls does the salesperson make in a day or a week?

Communication is a vital aspect in marketing. Organizations have adopted the modern means of communicating to customers globally using the fast and efficient technology (Ana-Maria and Raluca-Ionela 121). At Iapperal Company, the sales team values communication a lot, and on average an individual makes 100 phone calls in a day.

Have territories ever been reorganized or will they be in the future? Why?

Iapperal Company aims at delivering quality children wear to customers. In the past, the territories faced poor management since the general manager operated all stores across the country. The company is in the process of reorganizing all its territories to overcome different challenges faced today. In addition, the stiff competition and globalization requires the company to define its territories in accordance to the present business design.

How are sales potentials/forecasts determined for each territory?

Sales forecast is an important element in marketing since it provides an organization with an estimate of the products and expected returns. Most organizations use cash flow projections in designing sales potential for the following year (Loubser and Tustin 58). In Iapperal, the management determines the sales forecast by analyzing the sales volume of similar stores in the same territory. Sales manager downloads the financial budgets of other companies that assist in preparing a sales forecast for the company.

What are buying motives of a typical buyer?

Different products have different perceptions when it comes to customer’s buying motives. In addition, the will of a customer to purchase a product depends on the desire and value of that product. A typical buyer for children wear considers want, need, and value of a cloth before buying it. Customers buy products from Iapperal Company with a motive of getting a quality product that has a higher probability of lasting long.

What is the biological sketch (detailed) of the typical buyer?

The company deals with the sale of children and sometimes women wear. Most customers visiting Iapperal stores are women with young babies, and rarely do men go to buy clothes for their loved ones.

Is a computerized contact (prospect) management system used?

Iapperal Company has a long contact list that required the company to use a computerized system to store customer names. The high rate of globalization and advancement in technology has created an opportunity for most organizations to manage the company information effectively. Iapperal Company uses the computerized contact management system that stores names of any customer associated with the company transactions.

What kind?

The type of system used is called Plaxo. The system is extremely specific and focuses on both manually typed contacts and those made online (Manta 2013).

Are prospect cards kept?

The company has a store for all prospect cards, in addition to a computer list. All the cards are available at the customer care desk of every store (Manta 2013).

Are there different classes of prospects?

Iapparel classifies prospects in terms of the amount of products purchased. These classes are: wholesalers, retailers, and individual customers (Manta 2013).

Are presentations made to groups? How many in a group?

Presentation of cards is made per person and not in a group. Every customer has the right to take a card at any convenient time.

What are the major buying decisions the customer must make before actually buying?

Before making any purchase, a customer must consider the following factors: The size of the child, the sex of the child, the financial status of the buyer, and the weather condition at the time of purchase.

Works cited

Ana-Maria, S. and Raluca-Ionela, C. ” Integrated Communication – Creating the Right
Relations with the Right Customers Title.” Annales Universitatis Apulensis : Series Oeconomica 11. 2 2009.
Loubser, M. G., and Tustin, D. H. Retail sales forecast for 1996. Pretoria: Bureau of Market
Research, University of South Africa. 1996.
Manta. Iapperal LLC. 2013. Retrieved from:
http://www. manta. com/c/mtmkmqy/iapparel-llc
Mullins, W. John and Orville C. Walker. Marketing management: a strategic decision-making
approach. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
Rotella, M., Sarah, F. Gold, and Lynn, A. ” Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of
Strategic Synchronicity.” Publishers Weekly 248. 40, 2001.
Sales Practice. Buying Motives – What should I be looking for? Retrieved from:
http://www. salespractice. com/forums/t-9584. html
Zoltners, Andris A., and Sally E. Lorimer. ” Sales Territory Alignment: An Overlooked
Productivity Tool.” The Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 20. 3 2000.