JESUS IS LORD COLLEGES FOUNDATION, INC.

101 Bunlo, Bocaue, Bulacan

COLLEGE DEPARTMENT

MODULE IN SERVICING AND MERCHANDISING

SY 2020-2021
First Semester

Prof. Mark Kenneth L. Rafael

PRELIM

PRELIM
I. Servicing and Merchandising Introduction

What is the difference between a service and a merchandising business?

The primary difference between a merchandising and a service-based business is the presence of

inventory.

 Merchandising businesses sell goods to customer, whereas service-based businesses do not.

The companies' financial statements, including the income statements, must reflect this difference.

What is Service?

The action of helping or doing work for someone.

A system supplying a public need such as transport, communications, or utilities such as electricity and
water.

What is Merchandise?

Goods to be bought and sold.

What is a merchandising business?

A merchandising business, sometimes called merchandisers, is one of the most common types

of businesses we interact with daily.

It is a business that purchases finished products and resells them to consumers.

What does a service business mean?

A service business is an enterprise composed of a professional or team of experts that deliver work or aid
in completing a task for the benefit of its customers.
 The product a service business delivers isn't like a product you buy at the store, such as a television,
piece of clothing, or food item.

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What are merchandising costs?

The cost of merchandise sold is the cost of goods that have been sold by a wholesaler or retailer.

If there are purchase discounts, allowances, or freight costs, these items are added to
the merchandise purchases amount.

II.Types of Merchandising

What are the types of merchandise?

Following are the different types of Merchandising

 Product Merchandising
 Visual Merchandising
 Retail Merchandising
 Digital merchandising:

Following are the different types of Merchandising

#1 Product Merchandising:

 This consists of all promotional activities related to boosting the sales of a product. The definition
of product merchandising will remain the same, whether you are selling something online or in-
store.
 in-store promotional activities such as product display and online activities such as website
design are examples of product merchandising.

#2 Visual Merchandising:

 A visual merchandising can be defined as all activities used to display the product to highlight its
features. The activities used in visual merchandising can be created by making the use of space
available, lighting in the store, and using different designing.
 This can be used for selling products both online as well as in physical store. In digital space,
vibrant colors, web design, etc. used for visual merchandising.

#3 Retail Merchandising:
 Retail merchandising strictly refers to selling merchandise in a physical store or brick and mortar
store. Retailing merchandising includes all marketing and promotional activities which are
somehow used to sell products to consumers in brick and mortar store.

 However, in digital space, retail merchandising is referred to as digital merchandising

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 #4 Digital merchandising:

 Digital merchandising is a term used at the place of retail merchandising for selling products at
digital platforms. This includes all types of activities used to promote products on the internet. It is
also referred to as online merchandising or e-commerce.

 It includes all activities like website promotions, digital products display, email marketing, social
media marketing, digital marketing, etc. Digital merchandising is getting importance as more and
more retailers are taking their business online to reach a wider audience.

III. Advantage of Merchandising

#1 Merchandising can help in boosting sales:

If merchandising is used properly, then it can make a positive effect on retail sales and the revenue
generation, which is the sole goal of every business. An effective merchandising helps you make more
profit from the store without expanding your business or renovating your store.

#2 Attract passer by:

Merchandising is an effective technique to bring customers in the store who don’t come in the  market for
shopping purpose. Increased traffic increases the chances of more sales. Therefore, your merchandising
begins at the entry gate of your store.

People get attracted by the display they see outside and enter the store to look further. Your
merchandising techniques can bring people in your store but Whether they will buy something in your
store or not will depend on the pricing, packaging, and product line in your store.

#3 A well-managed and well-kept space:

Everything that you do from store layout to allotting shelf space to different merchandise is called
merchandising. An effective merchandising gives you advantages of more and flexible space, and you
can use this space to handle more traffic efficiently.

If you have kept the space in your store simple and easy to navigate your customers will like to spend
more, and they feel not find it difficult to find the products they need. In this way, you can make shopping
a pleasing experience rather than a tiring experience for your customers.

A good merchandising puts a positive impression on your customers and also build the image of
your brand.

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IV.Disadvantages of merchandising

#1 You need to keep updating your merchandising:

One of the disadvantages is that merchandising is required to be changed constantly depending on the
season, climate, and festival. You can’t be done with merchandising by doing it once.

Otherwise, it will become boring for your customers, and they can go to your competitors with better
merchandising.

Businesses with small revenue generation find it difficult and expensive to be updated with the
merchandising for two reasons one they have smaller budgets and second, they can’t afford to hire extra
employees or experts to design an effective merchandising for them.

#2 The unnecessary burden on your staff

An attractive merchandising can bring more foot traffic to your store, but the sales of your products will
depend on the price and quality of your products. With the increased traffic in your store, you would need
to have more staff members to handle those customers.

Your customers have to deal with an increased number of customers on an everyday basis. High foot
traffic can make your store look crowed, which can be the turn off for your genuine customers. Hence,
you will need to have more employees to deal with the traffic to maintain the standard of your service.

#3 Increased Expenses

It is clear that merchandising is not a cheap process. You will need to invest, and these investments are
not one time investments you will need to make changes in them from time to time.

Hiring expert staff, buying material used for merchandising can cost you a lot. However, effective
merchandising will ensure you more profit, but you will have to bear all the expenses initially.

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V. Merchandising strategies that you can use to improve sales:

Different merchandising strategies work best for a different type of retail business and the type of
merchandise. They must be used for different purposes such as increasing sales, developing customers
loyalty, increasing awareness of your brand, and increasing foot traffic in the store, etc.

Followings are the few most popular merchandising strategies that you can also use in your store:

1. Make the use of your window space and decorate in such a way that it attracts customers to your
store.
2. Be one step ahead in the game of merchandising by making the use of sounds and
motion technology to grab the attention of people.
3. Make themes to use products together, for example, school lunch, Christmas, barbeque season,
etc.
4. Samples and Giveaways will never disappoint you. People love getting gifts and free products, and
they will come to your store again and again if you indulge them with such activities.
5. Show your customers how sure you are of the quality of your product. Give them an in-store
demonstration and ask them to test your products before they buy them.
6. Your shelves space is important. Neither it should be over-crowded with products, nor it should
have empty slots. Make the use of that space smartly.
7. Don’t put merchandise wherever feel like putting them. Properly arrange them and put relevant
products besides each other.
8. Customers will not like them if they have to ask for your assistance again and again to find the
products they want to buy. Save yourself some extra running around the store and put attractive
signage in your store.

VI.SERVICES

What is Services?

Services are deeds,processes and performances.for example, the services offered by IBM are not
tangible things that can be touched,seem,and felt,but rather are intangible deeds and performances. To
be concrete IBM offers repair and maintenance service for its equipment, consulting services for IT and E-
Commerce applications,training services,web design and hosting and other services.

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Figure 1.1 Contribution of service and related industries

Services as a Products represent a wide range of intangible product offerings that customers value and
pay for in the marketplace. Services products are sold by service companies and by non-service
companies such as manufacturers and technology companies.

Customer Services is also critical aspect of what we can mean by “service”. Customer service is the
service provided in support of a company’s core products. Companies typically do not charge for
customer service.Customer service can occur on-site as when a retail employee helps a customer find a
desired item or answers a question. It can occur over the phone or via Internet. Many companies operate
customer service call centers,often staffed around the clock.

Derived Demand

What Is Derived Demand?

Derived demand is the demand for a good or service that results from the demand for a different, or
related, good or service. It is a demand for some physical or intangible thing where a market exists for
both related goods and services in question. Derived demand can have a significant impact on the
derived product's market price.

Market Trends in the Service Industry

The service industry is generally believed to require person-to-person contact in the delivery of,
sometimes, intangible products. Service industries include everything from business consulting to
health care to education. Market trends in the service industry are being impacted primarily by the use
of technology to streamline operations, provide resources to staff, and, in some cases, to replace the
need for staff.
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Service and Technology

In this section we will explore the trends in the positive and negative effect of the technology.

Potential for New service offerings

Looking to the recent past,it is apparent how technology has been the basis force behind service
innovations .

More recently,people have seen the explosion of the internet, resulting in a host of new services. Internet-
based companies like amazon.com and eBay offer services previously unheard of. And established
companies find that the Internet provides a way to offer new service as well.

New Ways to Deliver Service

In addition to providing opportunities for new service offerings,technology is providing vehicles for
delivering existing services in more accessible,convenient,productive ways. Technology facilities basic
customer function. bill payments, inquiries,checking account records,tracking orders,transactions both
retail and business to business and seeking information.

Enabling both customers and employees

Technology enables both customers and employees to be more effective in getting and providing service.

The Internet is a Service

An interesting way to look at the influence of technology is to realize that the Internet is just “one big
service.”All businesses and organizations that operate on the internet are essentially providing services
whether they are giving information,performing basic customer service functions or facilitating
transactions.

VII. Service Marketing Mix

Service Marketing Mix – 7 P’s of marketing

Service Marketing Mix – 7 P’s of marketing

The service marketing mix is also known as an extended marketing mix and is an integral part of a service blueprint
design.

The service marketing mix consists of 7 P’s as compared to the 4 P’s of a product marketing mix. Simply said, the
service marketing mix assumes the service as a product itself. However it adds 3 more P’s which are required for
optimum service delivery.

The product marketing mix consists of the 4 P’s which are Product, Pricing, Promotions and Placement.

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1) Product

The product in service marketing mix is intangible in nature. Like physical products such as a soap or a
detergent, service products cannot be measured.

2) Place

Place in case of services determine where is the service product going to be located. The best place to
open up a petrol pump is on the highway or in the city. A place where there is minimum traffic is a wrong
location to start a petrol pump. Similarly a software company will be better placed in a business hub with a
lot of companies nearby rather than being placed in a town or rural area. Read more about the role
of business locations or Place element.

3) Promotion

Promotions have become a critical factor in the service marketing mix. Services are easy to be duplicated
and hence it is generally the brand which sets a service apart from its counterpart. You will find a lot of
banks and telecom companies promoting themselves rigorously.

Why is that? It is because competition in this service sector is generally high and promotions is necessary
to survive. Thus banks, IT companies, and dotcoms place themselves above the rest by advertising or
promotions.

4) Pricing

Pricing in case of services is rather more difficult than in case of products. If you were a restaurant owner,
you can price people only for the food you are serving. But then who will pay for the nice ambiance you
have built up for your customers? Who will pay for the band you have for music?

Thus these elements have to be taken into consideration while costing. Generally service  pricing involves
taking into consideration labour, material cost and overhead costs. By adding a profit mark up you get
your final service pricing. You can also read about pricing strategies.

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5) People

People is one of the elements of service marketing mix. People define a service. If you have an IT
company, your software engineers define you. If you have a restaurant, your chef and service staff
defines you. If you are into banking, employees in your branch and their behaviour towards customers
defines you. In case of service marketing, people can make or break an organization.

Thus many companies nowadays are involved into specially getting their staff trained in
interpersonal skills and customer service with a focus towards customer satisfaction. In fact many
companies have to undergo accreditation to show that their staff is better than the rest. Definitely
a USP in case of services.

6) Process

Service process is the way in which a service is delivered to the end customer. Lets take the example of
two very good companies – Mcdonalds and Fedex. Both the companies thrive on their quick service and
the reason they can do that is their confidence on their processes.

On top of it, the demand of these services is such that they have to deliver optimally without a loss
in quality. Thus the process of a service company in delivering its product is of utmost importance. It is
also a critical component in the service blueprint, wherein before establishing the service, the company
defines exactly what should be the process of the service product reaching the end customer.

7) Physical Evidence

The last element in the service marketing mix is a very important element. As said before, services
are intangible in nature. However, to create a better customer experience tangible elements are also
delivered with the service. Take an example of a restaurant which has only chairs and tables and good
food, or a restaurant which has ambient lighting, nice music along with good seating arrangement and this
also serves good food. Which one will you prefer? The one with the nice ambience. That’s physical
evidence.

VIII. Building Customer Relationship

What is Relationship Marketing?

Relationship marketing is about forming long-term relationships with customers. Rather than trying to
encourage a one-time sale, relationship marketing tries to foster customer loyalty by providing exemplary
products and services.

Relationship marketing mainly involves the improvement of internal operations. Many customers leave a
company not because they didn't like the product, but because they were frustrated with the customer
service. If a business streamlines its internal operations to satisfy all service needs of their customers,
customers will be happier even in the face of product problems.

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 MIDTERM
I.Who employs Relationship Marketing?

Many types of companies have something to gain from developing long-term relationships with their
customers. Smaller businesses often serve a steady stream of regulars, and make little effort to draw in
new customers. Imagine a small restaurant that sees a steady stream of business from the morning
commute.Their daily presence is a large part of the business that restaurant does every day.

Examples of Relationship Marketing

 Ikea – The Swedish furniture maker has a worldwide base of intensely loyal customers. When the company changed
the font in their ubiquitous catalog, Ikea lovers took to the Internet to air their complaints. Rather than alienate their
customers for a trivial reason, Ikea changed the font back in the next catalog.
 Direct Recruitment – The direct mail marketing firm sends out handwritten birthday cards to clients and associates
every year. This simple, personal touch helps clients feel like Direct Recruitment cares about them as people rather
than simply consumers.
 American Airlines – The airline maintains a comprehensive frequent flyer program that rewards customer loyalty
with the promise of free flights, upgrades, and discounts.
 Dell – Dell computers created a special online store for high volume corporate customers. By tailoring the ordering
process to the specific customer's needs, Dell was able to expedite many of the hassles corporate technology buyers
face. Providing a higher level of service leads to increased loyalty.
 Vyvanse – The makers of the popular ADHD drug created an extensive online portal that included videos, forums,
expert articles, and mobile apps to help those who suffer from ADHD. Rather than relying on the strength of the
product alone, the drug makers created a place for users to gather and interact that was linked back to the company.

How is Relationship Marketing Plan Developed and Implemented?

Relationship marketing can involve revising major aspects of the way a company conducts business.

This can be expensive, time consuming, and have serious consequences for both customers and
employees. The only way to carry out a relationship marketing strategy in a thoughtful and effective way
is to follow a comprehensive marketing plan.

Companies must first look at demographic and historical data about their customers to understand who
they are, what they buy, and how to provide for them over the long term. The company must understand
why a consumers returns for repeate business. There is the tendency to think that customers return
because the company has served them well, but maybe they return to a store because it is the closest to
their house, or the only one in the area that stocks the product they want to buy. Analyzing the nature of
customer loyalty is the best method develop a working relationship marketing plan.

With a wealth of customer data in place, the company can begin to segment these customers and
develop unique marketing strategies for each segment. A customer who appreciates a product's value
has different qualities than one who has had a helpful customer service experience. These customers are
loyal for different reasons, and require tailored relationship marketing strategies.

Once the marketing strategy has been implemented, it requires constant evaluation to determine its
success. There are a number of hard metrics that companies can use to measure whether they are
holding onto their customers. The most obvious is repeat sales, but they can also look at whether
customers are spending more, opening up email newsletters, referring the company to friends, or
following them on social networks. All of these are indicators of various types of customer loyalty.

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 II. Careers in Relationship Marketing
Brand Manager

Brand managers organize and supervise all of the marketing that accompanies a specific brand.
They are not focused on marketing a whole company or a single product. Their focus is on brands
and their public image. Brand managers will do everything in their power to position their brand as
integral to the lives and identities of their customers.

Human resource managers

Human resource managers are responsible for recruiting, hiring, and training all of a company's
employees. A large part of relationship marketing involves training staff on the most effective ways to
interact with customers. The human resource manager will lead this training and help in still a
company culture that extends out to the customer.
Sales associates

Sales associates are the front line sales staff for a company. They will answer questions, address
concerns, and recommend other products a customer might like. Since they deal face to face with the
customer they are a key part of how that customer perceives the company. Well trained sales associates
create exemplary customer experiences that promote customer loyalty.

III.Service Development and Design

What is service development and design?

Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and
material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between
the service provider and its customers.

What are steps in service design?

The three steps involved in a service design process include:

 Analyzing customer needs.

 Planning the implementation.
 Reviewing the service to look for ways to improve and refine it.

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P’s of Service Design

There are P’s or attributes that drive the concept of IT service design. They are partner or supplier, people, product or technology,
and process.

Partner or supplier
Partner’s or supplier’s perspective takes into account the importance of the relationship between partner and external supplier. This
contributes to service delivery. People perspective includes the IT staff, customers, and other stakeholders.
For example, it involves finding out whether the IT staff has the required knowledge and skills to perform their roles.

Product or technology
Product or technology perspective takes into account IT services, technology, and tools.

Process
Process perspective relates to the end-to-end delivery of service based on process flows.. Quality IT service management ensures
that these perspectives are considered as part of the Continual Service Improvement of the IT organization.
When designing new or modified services, these perspectives are considered and catered for to ensure success in service design,
transition and eventual adoption by customers.

Major Aspects of Service Design

There are five major aspects of service design.

1.Service Solutions
These are service solutions, management information systems and tools, technology and management architectures and tools,
processes and measurement systems.
Service solutions are about including the functional requirements, resources, and capabilities needed in service design. The process
must be iterative and incremental to satisfy the customers’ changing requirements.

2.Management Information Systems

Management information systems and tools are an essential part of service design. These especially include the service portfolio for
the management and control of services throughout their lifecycle.
The service portfolio is the most critical management system for supporting all service management processes. It describes service
delivery in terms of value for the customer and must include all service information and their status.

3.Technology and Management Architectures

Technology and management architectures and tools include the preparation of blueprints for the development and deployment of
an IT infrastructure. These also include data, applications, and infrastructure that are used in the service.

4.Processes

Processes are required to design, transition, operate and improve services.

A process model helps to articulate the distinctive features of a process. By defining the activities, inputs, and outputs in the lifecycle
phases, it is possible to work in a customer-oriented way.

5.Measurement Systems
These are methods and metrics for the services, as well as their architectures, components, and processes. Measurement systems
are required to regularly assess and optimize the service quality delivered to customers.
The key aspect in the design of new or changed services is to meet the changing business needs. Every
time a new service solution is created, it needs to be checked against all aspects of existing services to
find out if it can be interfaced or integrated with the latter.

Service Design Package

The Service Design Package helps to document all aspects of an IT service. It is produced when a new IT
service is offered or a major change is expected in an IT service. It is also produced in case of IT service
retirement.

The Service Design Package should be produced during the design phase and passed to the service
transition phase. It starts with documenting the business requirements of an IT service for each phase of
the service lifecycle. It also includes service applicability and contacts such as customer contacts.
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The Service Design Package includes functional and service level requirements.
The image below illustrates a service design package.

Components of the Service Design Package

Following are the components of the Service Design Package

 Service acceptance criteria

 Service design and topology

 Service transition plan and programme

 Service operational acceptance plan

 Organizational readiness

IV.Front end planning

What is Front end planning?

Front end planning is defined as “the. process of developing sufficient strategic information with which
owners can address. risk and decide to commit resources to maximize the chance for a successful
project.
What is front end management?

The front-end phase of a project commences when the project idea is conceived—and it ends when the
final decision to finance the project is made. The main aim of front-end management is to get the strategic
perspective right.

What is new service development?

Service development is the end-to-end process of developing and launching a new service to be sold to
customers. This typically includes market research, service strategy, customer experience, marketing,
operations and launch of a new service. The following are common elements of service development.

What is idea generation?

Idea generation is described as the process of creating, developing and communicating abstract,
concrete or visual ideas.

What is idea generation and why it's important?

Idea generation is described as the process of creating, developing and communicating abstract,
concrete or visual ideas.

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It’s the front end part of the idea management funnel and it focuses on coming up with possible solutions

to perceived or actual problems and opportunities.

As mentioned, ideas are the first step towards making improvement. Us making progress as
individual human beings depends on new ideas. From the perspective of an individual, new ideas can
help you to move forward if you feel stuck with a task or are unable to solve a certain problem.

Perhaps you're looking for new ways to overcome a creative block or you're after a better solution to your
problem? 

Maybe you need new ideas so that you can fully explore a new opportunity?

When it comes to your organization, generating and collecting new ideas from your employees is the best
way to uncover creative, tacit knowledge. The ability to create and develop new ideas allows you to:

 Stay relevant
 Make positive change happen in your organization

Perhaps your organizational goal is to improve your and your team's efficiency or you need new ideas for making your product
better?

Regardless of your goals or the types of ideas you're looking for, the purpose of new ideas is to improve the way you operate.

On a larger scale, economies depend on innovation to drive growth and increase well-being. Innovation creates new technologies
and businesses, which provide new jobs for people.

So, although innovation isn’t about ideas alone, they are an important part of the equation as there wouldn’t be one without the
other.

V.Tools and techniques for generating ideas

Okay, now you need ideas. What do you do?

The odds are that you’d run a brainstorming session. It has, however, been shown that brainstorming not only takes more time and
leads to less ideas, but also worse ideas than if the same participants had just tried to come up with ideas by themselves.

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There are several other reasons why brainstorming may not be the best way to come up with ideas. Scheduling, organizing and
documenting the session in a usable format will all take up even more time.

Although there are certain ways to improve brainstorming performance, it’s beyond the point. The point is that you shouldn’t
automatically default to brainstorming.

There are, however, some other useful techniques that might be worth giving a shot to challenge conventional thinking. Because
you're going to need different ideas, it's good to have a few techniques in mind for generating them. Most of these ideation methods
can be used for more effective brainstorming but also for other type of ideation.

Idea Challenge

Idea challenge is a focused form of innovation where you raise a problem or opportunity with the hopes of coming up with creative
solutions.

The point of idea challenge is to participate in ideation and generate ideas around a pre-defined theme for a limited period of time.

Because there are two types of idea challenges, problem centric and solution centric approaches, you should first clarify whether
you’re looking to identify challenges or develop potential solutions for them.

When organizing an idea challenge, there are different parameters that you can choose to achieve the outcomes you’re looking for,
such as theme, audience, responsibilities, time, or channels.

Keep in mind that idea challenge is the best technique when you need to generate lots of new ideas. It may not be the most
effective way to generate ideas if you only involve a few experts in your ideation process as it’s proven to be more useful for
engaging large audiences.

Although idea challenge enables you to gather lots of ideas fast, careful planning takes time and might not be worth the effort if
there are no resources to execute it properly. Also, right timing is necessary for it to succeed.

SCAMPER Technique

The SCAMPER technique is created by Bob Eberle, and is a method used for problem-solving and creative thinking. It’s a holistic
way of applying critical thinking to modify ideas, concepts or processes that already exist.

The purpose of the SCAMPER is to

make adjustments to some parts of the
existing idea or process to reach
the best solution. It consists of seven
actions that can be used to
replace parts in the process:
 

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1. Substitute – Substitution technique refers to replacing a part of your product, concept or process with another to achieve even
better outcome.

2. Combine – The combine technique explores the possibility to combine two ideas into a single, more effective solution.

3. Adapt – Adaptation analyses the possibilities to make the process more flexible and focuses on other similar incremental
improvements to the idea, process, or concept.

4. Modify – Modifying the idea looks at the problem or opportunity from a bigger perspective and aims for improving the overall
results, not just the idea.

5. Put to another use – This approach focuses on finding ways to use the idea or existing solution for another purpose and
analyses the possible benefits if applied to other parts of the business.

6. Eliminate – The elimination technique is quite straightforward: it examines the possible outcomes if one or more parts of the
concept were eliminated.

7. Reverse – This action focuses on reversing the order of interchangeable elements of an idea.

Although the SCAMPER technique was originally designed for brainstorming sessions, it can be applied to your own
thought processes as well.

Often, people tend to focus on finding the next big idea. When generating new ideas, it is easy to forget that the continuous
incremental improvements are the ones that really make an impact in the long run.

Opposite Thinking

Opposite/reverse thinking is a technique that can help you question long-held assumptions related to your business. It’s a useful tool
to consider if you feel your team is stuck with the conventional mind set and coming up with those “out-of-the-box ideas” seems to
be difficult.
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Brainstorm Cards

Brainstorm cards are a useful tool created by the Board of Innovation for coming up with dozens of new ideas related to whatever
challenge or problem you are currently working with. Brainstorm cards help you consider external factors such as: societal trends,
new technologies, and regulation in the context of your business.

This approach allows you to generate a great number of ideas with little effort. Although many of the ideas won’t make sense, this
tool can still be very beneficial for getting you out of the rut if you’re suffering from a creative block.

Analogy Thinking

Analogy thinking is a technique for using information from one source to solve a problem in another context. Often one solution to a
problem or opportunity can be used to solve another problem.

Analogy thinking can, for example, be used for analyzing a successful business, identifying what makes it great, and then applying
those same principles for your business. This is an effortless method for coming up with new ideas that are pre-validated.

You’ve probably heard of the countless start-ups that are the “Uber for [insert industry here]“. This is exactly the method every one
of those companies has used. However, although this is such an easy and intuitive tool to use, the obvious combinations are likely
to be very competitive.

The aforementioned techniques are some of our favorites for generating ideas but definitely not the only ones out there. The ones
that work for you can be found by testing different options.

Managing ideas

Although generating ideas is often the easy part of innovation, collecting and managing them can be challenging without a proper
tool.

Because people often come up with new ideas then and there, they should be able collect these ideas right when they arise.
Many people use digital or physical notebooks to write down their ideas on the go. This method works well when you just want to
make notes for your own use. However, when you want to share that information with others and ask for feedback for further
improvement, this isn’t the most effective way.

If you need to involve more people in your ideation process, you might want to consider a dedicated idea management tool to make
sure all of the potential ideas are collected in one place.

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Idea Management Tool

As idea management is such a vast topic and larger companies are always going to have thousands of ideas, using a
dedicated idea management tool often makes sense for most companies.

An idea management tool serves as the backbone of your idea management process. It's where you’ll collect the ideas, discuss
them, evaluate and prioritize them, and keep track of their progress, as well as the strategic direction of your ideation activities.

Managing ideas via a dedicated tool is only as effective as the underlying process behind it. To make ideation a continuous habit,
you should build a process that makes generating and refining new ideas easy. Too complex processes will only frustrate users, so
don't try to make it too complicated.

If you’re interested in reading more about what to take into account when picking the right innovation management tool for you, you
can read our previous article about the topic.

 Succeeding with Idea Generation

Before engaging more people to use these tools and techniques for generating more ideas, there are a few more tips that can help
you get more out of your ideation methods.

 Define the problem or opportunity

Although this seems obvious, the more accurately you’re able to describe your current or perceived problem or opportunity, the
better chances you have of actually generating useful ideas.

Before you start, try to gather as much information about the problem as possible to get to the heart of the problem. Identify what
you already know about it and what information is still needed
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 Involve the right people

For your ideation to be as productive as possible, it is important to involve the right people to the process. Engage those people who
know about the topic and are genuinely interested in making a change in your organization.

If your plan is to engage a larger group of people to generate ideas, make sure your audience is relevant and well informed on the
subject.

 Set constraints

Communicating that any idea is a good idea may hinder creativity, so make sure your goals are ambitious and specific enough. One
way to get more of actually creative ideas from your audience is to set constraints.

If your general goal was to reduce costs, it’s likely that people would suggest ideas such as spending less on office equipment or
buying cheaper coffee. However, the ideas you’ll get will be a lot different if you’d ask: “What could we do to save 70% on costs?”.
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FINALS
I. Human Behavior

The Four Principles of Human Behavior

 Four Principles of Human Behavior.

 Principle One: Behavior is largely a product of its immediate environment.
 Principle Two: Behavior is strengthened or weakened by its consequences.
 Principle Three: Behavior ultimately responds better to positive than to negative consequences.

People are not rational. You can have the most logical and compelling proposal but still fail to elicit any response. If you are working hard but
seeing little to no increase in sales, this could be attributed to a lack of understanding about human behaviors. A DNA survey involving 1,056
people from 52 populations revealed that people are 99.9 percent the same. In every human brain, you find the same makeup that gives rise to our
thoughts and emotions.

Successful salespeople and marketers understand universal human behaviors well enough to use the right trigger words to get them to take action,
each and every time. Here, we explore five common human tendencies and what you can do about them.

5 Insights Into Human Behavior That Will Boost Your Sales and Marketing

1. People will do more to avoid loss than to gain pleasure.

In his book Thinking Fast and Slow, Nobel winner Daniel Kahneman asserts that we typically fear loss twice as much as we relish success. This
means price decrease has a bigger impact than price increase.

2. People are naturally inquisitive.

Curiosity is something that distinguishes us from other species. Psychologists have theorized it's something evolution has endowed
us with to propel the human race forward and to ensure its survival.
From a marketing standpoint, this is also why click baits work so well. According to Professor George Loewenstein from Carnegie
Mellon, curiosity creates an information gap. Whenever we perceive a gap between what we know and what we want to know, we
can’t help but seek to close the gap. While I am not encouraging you to create click baits, you can apply this tip in the attention-
scarce social media space. Great companies across time have made use of stories to draw people’s attention and bring their point
across. Stories work so well because, unlike blatant sales messages, it provides the impetus to continue reading/watching. The ups
and downs experienced by the protagonist in the story create an information gap that we can’t help but follow. Think about Nike’s
“Just Do It” campaign and Subway’s story about Jared. The stories have literally turned these companies into household brands.

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3. People are interested in themselves.

In his timeless classic How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie said, "You can make more friends in two months by
becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." Ancient philosophers
concur, with Plato and Socrates arguing for psychological egoism, the idea that humans are always motivated by self-interest.  

In marketing, one of the most prevalent advertising clichés is, unfortunately, “We are the best xx in town.” Businesses can’t seem to
stop talking about themselves and how good they are. 

4. People believe what they want to believe.

If you are trying to sell someone on something, the last thing you should do is go against their beliefs. Once, I helped a client selling tuition
services to parents. Their original sales message was saying something to the effect of “Your child is stupid; he needs private tuition.” We
revamped the sales message, saying, “Your child has a lot of potential, but the school is not unleashing it. We can help.” Sales took off. All
parents believe that their child has the potential to succeed. We went along with the belief, and let it flow to our offer.  

In psychology, it is known as confirmation bias. People search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms one's pre existing
beliefs or hypotheses. The closer these beliefs are to their identity, the more deeply rooted it will be. Unsurprisingly, debates surrounding religion,
race and politics typically end up in quarrels.

In a Pew internet research study, it is found that people who identify themselves as liberal are twice as likely to block or unfriend someone on
social network who posts something that they disagree with.  

5. People are naturally lazy.

Instant gratification always sells. Get-rich-quick schemes play on this nature of human beings to make them buy into the promise of becoming a
millionaire in one month with zero effort. Being aware of this principle, however, you can use it for greater good and to build a long-lasting
business. For example, we can design our sales process to make it insanely easy for people to make purchases. Take the case of Amazon. Their
one-click purchase button allows you to skip through the usually tedious checkout process. Apple’s iPod lets you play any song within three
touches.

II. Why People Buy

Why do people want to buy?

People buy products or services based on emotional needs or wants, and then justify their purchase logically. ... When you connect
with people and their emotional reasons for wanting what they desire, you have tremendous power to give them what they want,
and have them feel great about buying your product or service.

Seven Reasons Why People Really Buy

We all like to think we are in charge of the decisions we make. Yet anyone who reads up on social science, or listens to the Hidden
Brain podcast, knows there are subconscious factors influencing our decisions. While product developers and marketing experts
work to harness the right associations for a design or brand, salespeople are the ones on the front lines who really need to
“understand people” in order to close a deal.
 1. Safety

The need for self-protection is a desire that is timeless and universal.” Products that can successfully play to fear and offer a solution
that makes us less afraid, are more likely to sell. Fear of missing out can also motivate people to act quickly.

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2. Adventure

We invest in fly-fishing trips and Jeeps. We drink unblended Scotch, travel to Tierra del Fuego, dance, ride rollercoasters, and jump
out of airplanes to fulfill our desire for adventure.”

3. Significance

“People today are consumed with a desire for ‘likes,’ friends, connections, and fame. Yes, there’s actually a little Kardashian in most
of us. The average Millennial shifts among devices and apps 25 times every non-working hour in pursuit of the neurochemical high
of approval.

4. Relationships

“Research shows that people with stronger relationships have tougher immune systems, get sick less often and heal faster.

5. Health and wellness

“The popularity of spas, revitalizing creams, supplements, and you-deserve-it type products and services has increased 50 fold over
the past few years,” Levitin says. “Revitalization products promise exhausted consumers a mental, physical, and emotional uplift
they’ll happily pay big bucks for.”

6. Success/sense of purpose

“Most people lack a strong sense of purpose,” “Can your offering make them feel that they’re contributing to something larger than
themselves?” Successful socially responsible companies do this particularly well. However, if the latest Pepsi ad flop is any lesson,
you have to be careful not to play to something that isn’t inherent in the product.

7. Growth and education

It makes us better able to attract mates and excel in business. People will pay to be, look, and feel smart — even with their choice of
water if “Smart Water” is any indication”

III. Prospecting
What does prospecting mean in sales?

It is the first step in the sales process, which consists of identifying potential customers, aka prospects. The goal of prospecting is to
develop a database of likely customers and then systematically communicate with them in the hopes of converting them from
potential customer to current customer.

Steps in the Sales Process

 Unless someone has previously done business with you, it’s a guess as to whether they might be interested in your products or
services. They are potential customers at that point, falling into one of two categories: suspects or prospects. The difference
between the two groups is:

Suspects - Individuals or companies you believe may have a need for your products or services but who may not be aware of your
business or its offerings. You suspect they could become customers, but you’re not sure. To find out, you need to increase their
awareness of and familiarity with your business. Once they are aware, it’s time to determine if they might buy in the future.

Prospects - Prospects are suspects you have made contact with and who have confirmed that they might be interested in buying
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Prospecting Tactics

To make contact with sales suspects – buyers who may or may not be potential customers for your business – there are a number
of popular tools and tactics you can use, including:

 Phone calls – designed to initiate a discussion with the individual who answers the phone

 Automated voicemail messages – designed to try and persuade the listener to take action to get more information, such as by
visiting a website or making a phone call

 Email – designed to share information and entice the recipient to take an action that will identify them as a prospect

 Direct mail – sent in the mail as flyers, postcards, or catalogs, for example, designed to share information that may entice you to
consider buying

IV.Planning the Sale

What do you mean by sales planning?

Sales Planning is the process of organizing activities that are mandatory to achieve business goals. A sales plan contains a
strategic document that figures out your business targets and several resources. These can be used for some activities
which you perform to reach your desired goal.

7 Steps for Effective Sales Planning

If you want to set yourself up for sales success, your best strategy lies in being fully prepared for the all-important sales call. It’s
critical to think through every aspect of the call ahead of time. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can just wing it – you’ll get much
better results if you clearly define your goals and create a strategy you can follow to achieve them.

With careful planning, you’ll have a much clearer vision of what you need to accomplish and a roadmap for how to get there.
Unfortunately, many sales professionals have never been taught to create a comprehensive sales plan. The good news is that the
process is relatively simple. Here are seven steps you can take to create an effective sales plan:

1. Define your objective. Clearly outlining your goal should always be your first step in planning a sales call – or any other
business endeavor. Is your purpose to establish yourself as a trusted advisor? Close a specific deal? When you define your key
objective, you can plan later steps around achieving it.

2. Evaluate the current situation. Next on the list is an honest assessment of the situation, and it will relate to the goal you set in
the first step. If your objective is to expand your relationship with a customer, an evaluation of the current situation would consist of
defining your present relationship.

3. List barriers to success. This step can be one of the most critical to achieving your goals: Create a detailed account of
obstacles to your success. Knowing exactly what you’re up against can be incredibly inspirational, sparking new ideas about how
you can overcome barriers.
4. Assess your strengths and assets. Take an honest look at your resources and think about how you can apply them to achieve
your objective. Strengths and assets can include things like personal relationships, sales kits, competitive advantages like new
products and much more.

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5. Create your sales call strategy. 

Using the information you’ve compiled in steps one through four, develop your sales plan by outlining how you’ll reach your goal.
Depending on the situation, your plan might include the sale of a specific product and the steps you’ll use to persuade your
prospect.

6. Identify your needs. 

Once you have your basic strategy in place, now is the time to outline what you’ll need to get the job done. Your needs may include
items like a sales deck or demo program. Requirements could also include a list of accounts. The important thing is to identify needs
upfront.

7. Outline an action plan.

 The action plan is a companion piece to the sales call strategy described in step five: It is a to-do list of tactical steps you’ll need to
accomplish the strategy. The action plan might include items such as finalizing pricing with your company before you make the sale.
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