Arsalan Akhtar

Rol/No; B16-02

INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGEMENT

CONTENT

 Role of sales manager in international market

 International sales and marketing opportunities

 Challenges in international sales management

 Strategic issues for international sales and marketing.

 International sales techniques.

 International sales management practices.

Globalization has opened up markets and provided hitherto untapped opportunities to

companies across the world. With increasing competition, changing customer needs and
stagnation of demand in domestic markets, many companies have started looking at
international opportunities. International sales management plays an important role in
implementing the marketing policies and selling programs of the company in the foreign market
at the ground level.

ROLE OF SALES MANAGER IN INTERNATIONAL MARKET

Basic level functions

 Training-

Teaching sales team leaders to better conceive, plan, execute

and control their sales strategy

 Evaluating-

Analysis of the performance of your sales personnel

 Planning-

Assessment of current sales and future prospects

 Compensation-

Rewarding the sales personnel

  Advanced level functions

 Strategic account management-

The systematic analysis of the factors associated with customers

 Conducting negotiations

 Arranging agreements with distributors

 Developing relations and network locally

INTERNATIONAL SALES AND MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

 Diversifying market base

Strategies of marketing companies

 Emulating the competition

Imitating competitors

 Achieve economies of scale-

Producing goods on large scale with less input cost

CHALLENGES IN INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGEMENT

Economic Environment

 Tariff barriers- Taxes on imports of commodities into a country/region

 Non tariff barriers- Trade barriers that restrict imports but are not in the usual form of a
tariff.

Other economical factors

 Exchange rate fluctuations

 Credit control

Legal Environment

 Partnership laws

 Anti corruption laws

 Intellectual property rights

 Cultural Environment

 Language

 Religion

 Education

 Social attitude and behavior

STRATEGIC ISSUSES

Marketing Mix

 Ethnocentric vs Geocentric

Obtaining International information

 Internal company records

 Published sources

 Primary sources(surveys, observational and studies etc.)

Entering Overseas Market

 Exporting-Ship the goods and services out of the port of a country.

 Licensing- Permission to distribute products under a trademark

 Joint Ventures-Business agreement in which the parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a
new entity and new assets by contributing equity

INTERNATIONAL SALES TECHNIQUES

Personal selling process

 Preliminary selling

 Identify prospects

 Approach

Advanced selling

 Sales Interviews

 Flexible presentation
  Product demonstration

 Handling objections

 After sales techniques

Time Management

 Proper scheduling

 Territory Management

 Proper routing

STRUCTURES FOR INTERNATIONAL SALES ORGANISATIONS

Long distance selling

 Common in highly specialized industries like Aircrafts

Manufacturer’s Representatives

 High level of control

 Prerequisites for selection

 Legalities related to selection and termination

 Training aspects and support programs

Piggybacking

 Low cost entry

 It involves a rider(more established brand) and a carrier(new entrant)

 Whirlpool and Sony, AT&T and Toshiba in Japan

 Sometimes it can be a reciprocal

 Intermediaries

 Merchants

 Independent agents

 Facilitating intermediaries

 Transporting and warehousing

 Market research/advertising

Establishing direct sales force abroad

 Useful when greater commitment and control is needed

 Sales force structure (standard or customized )

 Size of sales force

 Market similarities

 Company operations

INTERNATIONAL SALES TECHNIQUES

Recruiting of sales personnel

 Selling approach

 Canada – no aggressive selling

 Mexico – Personnel relations

 Origin of sales personnel

 Home country people if the product is high value technical product

 Host country people for quicker establishment

 Third country people where similarities exist

 Source of recruiting
SELECTION OF SALES PERSONNEL'S

Education

 In Germany PHD holders are selected to sell chemical

equipment's

 Pfizer selects MBBS candidates to promote their specialty product in India.

Religion

 Muslims- Buddhist in Malaysia, Indonesia, Hindu Muslim in India and Pakistan, Sunni and Shia in
middle east

Social satisfaction

 USA health based, India caste based, sonority in japan.

 Different criterions and different products and industries.

Social economic development

 Education, religion , nepotism, talent, references psychological test plays different roles in
different countries.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF SALES PERSONNELS

Changing role attitude and perceptions.

 Difference in selling approaches

 In Europe relations are more formal

 Business lunch and different protocols

Flexibility in training content and methodology

 Modification to suit cultural and regional factors

 Length of training schedule

 Use of female sales person in video modules

 Shaking hands and implications in various countries

SALES INCENTIVES AND COPMPENSATION

 Uniform/ discriminating

 It needs to be tailor mode

 Often linked with organization performance

 Weight age of incentive component

 Influence as motivating factor in different countries

 Alignment of management practices with other countries is needed.