The sales system

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En provenance du cours de National Research University Higher School of Economics

Business Strategies for Emerging Markets

58 notes

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Business Strategies for Emerging Markets

58 notes

The course aims to transfer the fundamental knowledge and to form the basic competencies necessary for the development and the implementation of a business strategy in an emerging market. The students are going to improve their analyzing, decision making, and planning skills as well as the ability to recognize strategic opportunities and threats. The course requires the knowledge of basic economics concepts as the pre-requisite. It is preferable that the students have some practical entrepreneurial or marketing experience, but this is not obligatory. The course has a distinct stress to the practice of strategic management. Although a few fundamental theories are mentioned, the bulk of the ideas are based on simple though efficient applied model that are easy to understand and convenient to use. The multitude of examples and stories from the personal consulting and managerial experience of the author are the hallmark of the course. The author’s original drawings make the key concepts well memorable ad cozy to deal with.

À partir de la leçon

Managing sales in emerging markets

Dear student! In this module you will learn how to build and manage a strong sales system. You are going to study the sales system and its most important parts – the sales strategy, process, metrics, instruments and skills. On completing the module you will be able to analyze your current sales system, to design the necessary target sales system, to measure and to manage the sales process and the results. Do your best to apply all the ideas of the module to your business idea, discuss it with your friends and colleagues, do all the tasks, and you will have good progress in your learning. Good luck on this way!

The sales system8:52

Rencontrer les enseignants

Mikhail Plotnikov
Professor
Department of General and Strategic Management

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Designing models and

strategies is truly important to ensure the success of business.

This may be even exciting.

However, all the plans and

ideas may turn out to be just nothing if there is no proper sales.

In this module, we are going to discuss how to make sales consistent,

manageable, and efficient.

I would like to start with a brief description of the problems

that you may face when planning and implementing sales in emerging markets.

As we discussed earlier, the emerging markets often have very weak distribution

and sales channels, and huge volatility within them.

That is why you need to use multiple channels simultaneously and

diversify your activities in order to avoid the specific risks.

Besides, there is not enough valid statistic data to rely on.

That means you need to collect your own data, and

take approximate decisions under uncertainty.

The sales agents are too independent, sometimes even totally uncontrollable,

and used to take high commissions with little warranties.

This results in the necessity to use some hedge instruments and

increase margins in order to compensate the risks.

Yet, the emerging markets have high return rates and show significant growth.

This all keeps them truly attractive, despite of all hazards mentioned above.

Sales is not just a small number of steps or techniques.

It's a complex system where each part has significance and meaning.

There are five major parts in each sales system,

that is sometimes called sales DNA.

They are strategy, process, tools, metrics, and skills.

The strength and deficiency of the whole system are defined by their weakest part.

That means, balance is much more important than some outstanding extremes.

You may have excellent strategy and outstanding process, but this is just like

a paper and words if you don't have skilled sales people and proper tools.

Or, you may attract truly professional sales managers, but

they can do nothing all together if there is no strategy matrix.

Let's see these parts in details.

Sales strategy as a part of sales DNA comprises several aspects that define

where we are heading, what we are selling, and

why we are going to be successful on this way.

Among them are, goals, what we plan to reach.

Approaches, how we are going to reach this.

Differentiation, in what way we are going to be different from our competitors.

Segmentation, which group of clients we choose as a priority.

Positioning, how we pack our offers.

Marketing, how we manage the communications.

Distribution, how we deliver our products.

And objectives, what exact options and figures we are going to reach.

They are all important to be defined and balanced.

The sales process reflects the series of steps taken towards making a deal.

There is a difference between a client sales process, what steps does a client

take, and a sellers process, what steps does a seller take?

In order to ensure the efficient sales, these two processes should match.

Typically, the sales process consists of six major steps.

Attracting, where a client and the seller contact each other.

Building relationships, where the two get to know about each other.

Filtering, where they decide whether to continue the relations.

Presenting, where the seller informs the client about his offers and opportunities.

Managing objections, where the possible objections are formulated,

expressed, and argued.

And finally, dealing, where the two make a deal.

The sequence is typical for all types of the sales.

The main task at each stage is to promote the relations to next step.

The sales managers, even the most experienced ones,

need a set of tools to support and implement their regular activities.

There are four types of sales tools.

The presenting materials are ready made texts and

presentations to be used in the standard sales process.

The stock pieces are standard basic components

used to make non-typical presentations.

The patterns are guidelines for the numerous activities.

And the scripts are the step-by-step instructions, what to do and what to say.

When planning your sales, ask yourself, what instruments may be of use?

In what way they are enforcing the sales managers?

Although the tools may be a very powerful part of your sales system,

never forget that they are just tools, neither good nor bad.

But are they suitable or not?

Convenient or not?

That is why all the tools should be developed and designed specifically for

your company and your strategy.

Another important part of the sales DNA is the sales metrics.

Professional managers used to say, not measured is not managed.

This is so true for sales.

There are four measurements that form the objective ground for sales management.

They are the objectives, what exact results we're going to reach.

Activities, what actions should be taken and how many?

Targets, what specific effects should the actions have?

And the actual performance, what are the actual results that have been reached?

Find proper indicators and procedures to plan and measure the metrics, and

this is what will make your sales transparent and manageable.

The final fifth part of the sales DNA is the sales force skills.

Good people make good results.

Bad people make bad results.

Outstanding people make outstanding results.

Outstanding sales is not just about genius or talent.

It is about skill and techniques.

How skillful are your sales people?

There are four major groups of skills crucial for the sales.

They are communicating, that is how a sales manager establishes contact,

listens to a client, and delivers messages.

Presenting, that is how a sales manager describes the offer and the opportunities.

Negotiating, is how a sales manager takes and

overcomes the objections and leads a client towards a successful result.

And administering, is how a sales manager controls the proper implementation of

all the stages of the sales process.

Let's sum it up.

The sales in the emerging markets face several problems, such as weak channels,

no statistic data, huge volatility, high commissions, and low control of agents.

The sales system, or sales DNA, consists of five major parts,

strategy, process, tools, metrics, and skills.

The sales strategy can process goals, approaches, differentiation,

segmentation, positioning, marketing, distribution, and objectives.

A typical sales process consist of six stages, attracting, building

relationships, filtering, presenting, managing objections, and dealing.

There are four types of the sales tools, presenting materials,

stock pieces, patterns, and scripts.

The sales metrics are the managements for

our objectives, activities, targets and actual performance.

Finally, the major sales skills are communicating, presenting, negotiating and

administering.

It is important to balance

the five parts to reach high

sustainable results.

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