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For the large organizations, the most common method for setting
quotas is the use of sales forecasts plus market and territory
potentials.
The procedure used includes:-
Firstly, estimate the marketing potential/industry sales forecast for a product line (cosmetic items) for a
geographical area. Secondly, estimate the multiple factor index for each sales territory. (i.e, population and
buying power). Thirdly, the expected industry sales in each territory is obtained by multiplying the industry
sales forecast by multiple factor index. Finally, the company’s estimated market share in the territory is
considered out of the territory market potential in order to come up with sales volume quota for the territory.
For example: a salesperson may be paid a salary plus a bonus of 1 to 10 percent on all sales over quota.
Typically, the quota for this situation is based on the past year’s sales. If the sales volume was Rs. 500,000
the salesperson would be paid a percentage of all sales over the Rs. 5,00,000, quota.
Sales audits provide an overview of a company's sales tactics, tools, efforts, inventory and objectives.
Understanding these aspects can help sales professionals reconsider their methods to adopt more efficient
and effective practices. This can help managers within the sales department make more realistic sales goals
and boost company profits.
Taking an inventory may also help identify overlap, where tools are being used to perform the same tasks.
Choosing the more efficient tool to perform these tasks can preserve the marketing and sales budget.
If it appears the data isn't useful to the team, you may consider changing the metrics to measure success
and gather sales information. Here are common metrics to use for sales reporting:
o Number of sales
o Customer acquisition
o Return on investment
o Average revenue per customer
o Customer retention
o Lead generation
6. Create a report
Create a report of all of your findings from the audit. This provides documentation for the sales and marketing
managers to assess their team and process and helps develop strategies to improve sales for the company.
The report may include your own suggestions for how to optimize the sales process, improve the quality of
leads and increase efficiency on the sales team. Try to remain objective in your reporting and provide a
detailed list of the sales data and discoveries you make during the audit.
It might sound counterintuitive in such a results-driven business, but more sales teams need to focus on the
overall sales process, and not just the final results. You need to have a “sales funnel” in place that guides
your prospective customers through each stage of the buyer’s decision-making along the entire customer
journey, including these touchpoints:
• More detailed relationship-building conversations and discussions about the potential ROI of the
customer buying your solution
You should evaluate your reps not only on how well they close deals, but on how well they work through each
stage of the sales process. You might discover that some of your best closers struggle with the early stages
of making a sale, and that some of your salespeople with lower conversion rates in the final stages are great
at qualifying sales leads initially.
Measuring the overall performance of your reps throughout the sales process will help you identify people’s
individual strengths and help your sales team get better as a whole. Unfortunately, many sales teams
currently do not have a consistent sales process in place–according to stats cited by HubSpot, 68% of B2B
organizations have not identified their sales funnel.
2. Promote good prospectors
Most salespeople hate prospecting. They hate making cold calls, and they hate making those first uncertain
steps on the road toward finally closing a sale. This reluctance means that there is an opportunity to find the
salespeople who actually enjoy prospecting and who are good at it, and make prospecting a niche role within
your sales team.
Perhaps you’ve got salespeople who struggle with closing sales or building longer-term relationships, but
who have the right energy level and relentless ability to keep getting on the phone and introducing themselves
to new prospects. Find a way to reward your salespeople who do the parts of the job that most salespeople
don’t want to do.
3. Reward training
Many sales managers believe in the 80-20 rule—the idea that 80% of your sales results come from the top
20% of your sales reps. If this 80-20 rule is true for your organization, it can be tempting to just let your top
sales reps keep doing their own thing and keep selling and selling—but this can be a mistake. Instead of
evaluating your top sales reps based only on their sales numbers, try to capitalize further on their success by
asking them to create best practices and training opportunities that can be shared with the rest of the team.
The best players in sports don’t just rack up great statistics for themselves; they find a way to make other
people on the team get better. It’s the same for sales. Enlist the support of your best salespeople in training
the rest of the team. Find out what they do so well, and replicate that success—and make sure your top sales
people understand that training is part of their job performance evaluation.
4. Recognize teamwork
Is your sales team truly a “team” or just an assortment of individuals? Good sales teams should have a spirit
of friendly competition, but everyone needs to understand that the real competition is outside the organization.
They’re ultimately not competing against each other—they’re helping each other compete against your
company’s competitors. Look for ways to reward sales reps that exhibit and promote good teamwork, whether
that means filling in for someone on a client meeting, or helping a teammate close a big deal.
5. Think about the next deal
We talk a lot about building relationships with potential customers, but what does it really mean? Making a
sale is huge, but what about when it comes time to renew or upgrade? And are your customers likely to refer
you to someone else?
Another important part of the sale is how your customer feels about it afterward. Aggressive salespeople who
will do anything to close the deal can be a huge asset to your team, but if they over promise or disappear
after the sale, it can leave customers unsatisfied. Tracking and monitoring your progress by
repeating customer satisfaction ratings six or 12 months after the sale can be another great way to tell
whether your team is building successful long-term relationships—or just padding short term numbers.
• Intermediaries function
The channel conflict can be classified majorly into the following four categories depending upon its flow and
the parties involved:
1 Vertical Level Conflict
In the vertical level conflict, the channel partner belonging to a higher level enters into a dispute with the
channel member of a lower level or vice-versa.
For instance, channel conflict between dealers and retailers or wholesalers and retailers.
The conflict among the channel partners belonging to the same level, i.e., issues between two or more
stockists or retailers of different territories, on the grounds of pricing or manufacturer’s biases, is termed as
horizontal level conflict.
These type of conflicts commonly arise in scrambled merchandising, where the large retailers go out of their
way to enter a product line different from their usual product range, to challenge the small and concentrated
retailers.
When the manufacturer uses multiple channels for selling the products, it may face multi-channel level conflict
where the channel partners involved in a particular distribution channel encounters an issue with the other
channel.
Conflict Magnitude
The level to which the conflict is considered critical or needs the attention of the channel leader, i.e.,
manufacturer, is known as its magnitude.
The magnitude of conflict can be determined through the proper analysis of the change in market share and
the company’s sales volume in a particular area or region.
Following are some of the key reasons for which the organizations need to face channel conflict:
o Role Ambiguity: The uncertain act of an intermediary in a multi-channel arrangement may lead to
disturbance in the channel of distribution and cause conflict among the intermediaries.
o Incompatible Goals: When the manufacturer and the intermediaries do not share the same objectives,
both work in different directions to meet their ends, this results in channel conflict.
o Difference in Market Perception: The manufacturer’s understanding of the potential market and
penetration into a specific region or territory, may vary from the perception of the intermediaries, which
can create conflict and reduce the intermediary’s interest in capturing that particular market.
o Change Resistant: When the channel leader plans to modify the distribution channel, the intermediaries
may or may not accept this change. Thus, it may result in a condition of discord or non-cooperation.
o Improper Geographic or Demographic Distribution: If the sales territory has a narrow consumer base,
and the channel leader allows many selling partners, they tend to lose interest soon because of low profit
and limited sales.
Now that we know about the causes of such conflicts, we must also understand how dangerous these may
prove to be for an organization.
o Price Wars: Due to channel conflict, the partners compete with each other on the grounds of price, and
therefore, the consumer may defer the purchase searching for the best deal.
o Customer Dissatisfaction: If there exists a channel conflict, then the distributors or retailers may show
much interest in the company’s products and resist to assist the consumers, which results into their
resentment towards the brand.
o Sales Deterioration: Conflicts can adversely affect the sales of the products due to the decline in
distributors’ interest and an increasing number of consumers shifting to competitors’ products.
o Distributors Exit: For the manufacturers, it is essential to retain the distributors or partners to increase
product sales. When there is a channel conflict, the chances of various distributors leaving the channel
increases.
o Poor Public Relations: The unsatisfied distributors may negatively publicize the brand and its products
as a result of manufacturer’s unhealthy public relations with them.
Channel Conflict Management
It is a universal fact that the conflicts cannot be eliminated, though these can be handled smartly to reduce
its negative impact on business.
To resolve a dispute, the manufacturer can adopt the strategy of intervention where a third person intervenes
to create harmony. The other option is arbitration, where an arbitrator listens to the argument of the parties
involved in a conflict and declares a decision. Or, the parties can resort to diplomacy where the
representatives of both the parties conversate and find a solution.
Co-optation
The manufacturer should hire an expert who has already gained experience in managing the channel conflicts
in other organizations, as a member of the grievance redressal committee or board of directors, for
addressing such conflicts.
To handle the horizontal or vertical conflicts, the manufacturer forms a dealer council where the dealers can
unanimously put up their problems and grievances in front of the channel leader. To bring in unity among the
channel partners or intermediaries, they can be added as members in trade association which safeguards
their interest.
Superior Goals
Establishing a supreme goal of the organization and aligning it with the individual goals or objectives of the
channel partners, may reduce the channel conflicts.
Regular Communication
The channel leader should take regular feedback from the channel partners through formal and informal
meetings to know about market trends and dynamics. Also, the channel partner’s issues and conflicts can be
addressed through frequent interactions.
Legal Procedure
When the conflict is critical and uncontrollable by the channel leader, the aggrieved party can seek legal
action, by filing a lawsuit against the accused party.
Fair Pricing
Most of the channel conflicts are a result of the price war, and therefore, these can be resolved by ensuring
that products are equally priced in all the territories and a fair margin is provided to the channel partners.
• Logistics management,
What Does Logistics Management Mean?
Logistics management is a supply chain management component that is used to meet customer demands
through the planning, control and implementation of the effective movement and storage of related
information, goods and services from origin to destination. Logistics management helps companies reduce
expenses and enhance customer service.
The logistics management process begins with raw material accumulation to the final stage of delivering
goods to the destination.
By adhering to customer needs and industry standards, logistics management facilitates process strategy,
planning and implementation.
Logistics management is the governance of functions that helps organizations plan, manage and implement
processes to move and store goods.
Logistics management activities typically include inbound and outbound transportation management, fleet
management, warehousing, materials handling, , logistics network design, inventory control, supply/demand
planning and management of third-party logistics services providers.
Logistics management functions
To varying degrees, logistics management functions include customer service, sourcing and procurement,
production planning and scheduling, packaging, and assembly. Logistics management is part of all the levels
of planning and execution, including strategic, operational and tactical.
Further, it coordinates all the activities, and it integrates logistics activities with other functions, including
marketing, sales, manufacturing, finance and information technology.
1. Logistics Management :
Logistics Management, as name suggests, is a part of that helps business or companies to deliver better
service to their customer and help them to properly manage flow of goods as well as control over inbound
freight.
2. Distribution Management :
Distribution Management, as name suggests, is a management that mainly focuses distribution of products
and stream line supply chain to ensure optimum utilization of resources and materials required for production
at lowest price.
Difference between Logistic Management and Distribution Management :
It mainly focuses on control and management of It mainly focuses on activities related to movement of end
flow and storage of goods and services or product at each and every step starting from production
products into and out of company. line to customer.
Logistic management is more efficient and is Transport management is less efficient and is responsible
responsible for fulfilling customer demands. for maintaining stable prices.
Types of logistic includes supply, distribution. Types of distribution includes supplying distribution,
production and reverse logistics. carriers, cargo planes, sales and distribution, etc.
• reverse logistics.
Reverse logistics is the process of moving goods from their final destination back to the supplier. It
can be used for products that are defective, surplus, or returned by customers. Reverse logistics
helps companies reduce costs, recover lost revenue, and improve customer service.
For instance, In the beverage industry, companies are using reverse logistics to keep their tap
containers from being wasted. The process starts with producing beverages in bulk and then bottling
or canning them for retail sale when they’re ready. This requires many steps, including planning
transportation, managing shipping loads, and cleaning the containers.
• Process the Return: When a consumer wants to return an item, they should be able with a
process that includes providing identification and signing for the package. The company will
then authorize your refund or replace any faulty goods in order of what’s been ordered from
them before being sent back out again.
• Deal with Returns: To ensure that your products are both returned and recycled efficiently,
you should consider using a centralized processing center. The first step in returning an item
is inspecting it for any damage or stains on the exterior of whichever container was used
when shipping
• Keep Returns Moving: Sending repairable products to the repair department might help you
reduce your daily waste.
• Repair: After inspecting the returned item/equipment and assessing whether or not it can be
fixed, it should be moved to the repair area.
Successful Example
Apple
When it comes to an effective reverse logistics system, Apple is a shining example. Consumers who return
to an Apple shop to purchase the most recent model are offered discounts on the new product in exchange
for the return of their previous model.
Apple then takes the old models and returns them to their respective manufacturing facilities. Using this
approach, Apple is able to reuse components from earlier models in future products, allowing the company
to be more environmentally responsible while also saving money on manufacturing expenses.