Interview report assignment on sales, negotiating and customer relationship management

This work was preceded by a phone interview that I conducted with the sales manager, Emanuel Lopez of the Dell EMC, an American multinational corporation. The paper will delve into the questions of the changing retail environment, the indispensable role of sales forecasting, personnel management and planning, and the strategies employed in leveraging technology with the aim of improving sales management. Also, the paper will give a summary of the phone interview conducted with the Sales Manager.

To start, I will summarize the interview. To the question of changes in the sales environment, the sales manager revealed of the many diverse changes in the retail environment. He asserted that Dell EMC, like other sales organization, is disrupted and affected by an unprecedented combination of factors, majorly of technological nature. With the constantly changing technology, operational efficiency is achieved by sales organizations that constantly embrace the changing and upcoming technology. Also, he put forward the radical changes in buyer behavior in addition to multiple forces of external and internal change, for example, corporate culture and reorganization that are disruptive of the traditional sales approaches. In response to the question of the role of forecasting sales, he mentioned its significance in influencing the marketing plan of any sales organization. Sales forecasting enables an organization to determine the levels of demand in the marketplace as well as the future demand of the products that a company offers to the market. The forecasts used in assessing how marketing spending can be useful in channeling demand and increasing sales. The manager also pointed out the undisputed importance of personnel management which balances the individual goals with those of an organization. It ensures that the personnel stay motivated and their efforts are designed to achieving the goals of the organization. Also, he argued that good personnel management is helpful in reducing turnover which could otherwise cost any organization a fortune in conducting recruitments.

Also, in the interview, was a question of strategies found useful in leveraging technology with the aim of increasing sales. He responds, “ in order to increase sales, there is a need for an organization to make efficient use of the manpower and technology.” He mentioned briefly of the tools have been used in the company under study and which have been found to be of much significance. First, he talked about the Customer Relations Management software that improves customer relations with the company and makes them feel special. He also mentioned SalesLoft Software which shortens the cycle of sales while at the same time making it possible to deal with bulk volumes of data to get customers to make an informed decision. The information from the manager is relevant in application and practice. The information about the changing retail environment can apply in ensuring that the company utilizes competitive techniques and keep abreast of the changing technological economic, political and social-cultural environment. A company that seeks to increase sales must, therefore, employ and embrace the newest technology that will translate into high operation excellence leading to high sales. Also, it must respond excellently with changing in other environmental factors like political, economic, and competition factors. I would capitalize on sales forecasting, leverage of technologies and keep abreast of the changing general environment that will improve the sales management role.

Surprising in the company is that despite being a commercial organization, it values corporate citizenship by recognizing the environment in which it operates. It was named the greenest company in 2012. Also, it has sponsored a Human Face of Big Data which is an internationally crowd-sourced project that has much focus on the ability to gather, analyze, and visualize in addition to triangulating the data. It has the wildest fascinating stories with the highest innovative applications of data. In conclusion, the interview was much informative as it surfaced the changes that have occurred, and which have brought about a transformation of the sales organizations and their operations in response to these changes. The importance of sales forecast and the use of the best strategies in leveraging technology have already been discussed and whose usefulness is immense in the process of improving sales management roles of any sales organization.