Sales and Strategy 1 What strategy decisions are needed in the personal selling area? Why should the marketing manager make these strategy decisions?

The strategy decisions needed in the personal selling area (a) how to motivate, (b) how to maintain order and structure, (c) how to incorporate sales technology support into the process, (d) how to select and train the right sales team, and (e) how to ensure fair and appropriate compensation for all. The marketing manager must make these strategy decisions because as the head of marketing, he oversees the process of moving products. The sales team has to be organized in such a way that product movement is maximized. Likewise, the use of resources has to be efficiently and effectively applied. As the different customer types will vary, the implementation of sales technology support may vary as well from sales person to sales person depending upon the type of clientele the team members are tasked with selling to. In some cases, tech support is more likely to be impactful than in others, and allocating the right resources to the right sales persons can help to ensure that a cost effective approach is taken.

Personal selling requires teams to meet face-to-face with clients and developed personalized sales pitches that speak directly to the clients. Generic sales pitches are not effective—the client wants to know how the company’s products and services will affect him personally, not buyers in general (Jerpi, 2018). That means the sales team has to know the client’s needs in advance. By knowing everything there is to know about the client, the sales person can be better enabled to motivate the client to buy and thereby close the sale. The sales person can also know whether tech support would be of interest to the client: some clients appreciate this approach, but not all do. It is the sales person’s job to know ahead of time how best to prepare for each pitch. As Robertson (2006) notes, a failure to conduct the pre-meeting research will ultimately lead to a failure to close the sale.

The marketing manager must make strategy decisions in the same way a film director makes decisions when shooting on set. Various options will be available—whether to shoot with maximum light or minimum, whether to use a filter or not, whether to reshoot a scene or leave it as is, whether a script change is required or whether a casting decision has to be rethought. The marketing manager faces similar questions. Every sales person will have scripts to be memorized but they will also have to know how to respond on the fly and improvise when necessary. That is why managers have to select and train the right staff. Poor sales people can result in lost sales, lost clients, lost contracts and poor movement of product. Attracting talent is a strategy marketing managers have to be very conscious of—and part of that strategy is to entice and incentivize with good compensation packages. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivators help move people in the right direction (Gerhart & Fang, 2015).

Training plays a part in developing a strategy as well, and the onboarding process can be especially helpful in making sure that new hirers have all the support they need. The onboarding process can be comprised of including mentors to help the new hire learn the ropes and answer questions. It can also include bringing the new hire into the fold more effectively so that he or she feels part of the team and knows exactly what is expected (Hamburg & Harris-Thompson, 2017). Onboarding can be one of the most effective strategies that a marketing manager can utilize to ensure that the new hire is trained effectively and that turnover rates are reduced.

Onboarding also facilitates the maintenance of order and structure within the team, which then filters out to the sale. The more ordered and structured the sales team is, the more ordered and structured the pitch is going to be. A personal sales pitch that has no order will appear sloppy and confused to the client, who will suspect that the sales person has no idea what he is talking about. A client wants professionalism and knowledge—he does not want to feel like his time is being wasted by a sales person who is not prepared. The more prepared and professional the sales person is, the more likely a sale is to be closed. Thus, the...

Culture can impact motivation and work ethic more than any other factor in the workplace (Raz & Fadlon, 2006). If the manager cannot maintain a healthy and positive workplace culture, no strategy on earth is likely to save the company because in the end, sales thrive on supportive management policies and effecting a strategic workplace culture is one of the best ways to support a sales team. A company like Keller Williams, for instance, thrives by creating a positive and supportive workplace culture in which all agents facilitate one another’s development by assisting in mentoring and training, and answering any and all questions. The company attracts new talent by fostering a reputation of putting family first.
The marketing manager has to think about all of these strategies as part of one big strategy to promote sales because they all line up together like dominos or link up like tracks in a train track system. One strategy connects to another—but unless they are all in place, the train will not run all the way to its destination. For this reason, the marketing manager has to be completely mindful of how strategies work together to create a holistic approach to personal selling.

2 Discuss the role of the manufacturing agent in a marketing manager’s promotion plans. What kind of salesperson is a manufacturing agent? What type of compensation plan is used for a manufacturing agent?

The manufacturing agent in a marketing manager’s promotion plans plays a substantial role in a marketing manager’s promotion plans. The manufacturing agent is typically a self-employed individual who represents manufacturers and works for commissions. The manufacturing agent will pitch the company’s products to retailers or directly to customers.

The marketing manager’s promotion plans will have to take into consideration the manufacturing agent’s ability to canvas a particular population or to target a particular demographic over a given period of time. For that reason, the promotional plan should be conceived around the ability of the manufacturing agent to get in front of businesses or consumers, depending on the producer’s target market, making pitches and closing sales. If a team of agents are on the beat, the marketing manager can develop a larger promotion plan, but if the number of agents is relatively low, the promotion plan may be more narrowed, focused and implemented over a longer duration.

At the same time, marketing promotion plans can be personalized with direct marketing being used by manufacturing agents who use the marketing manager’s promotion to pitch sales to specific types of clients. One particular group may be targeted by the manufacture, and the agent will have to research this group, understand its needs and how the manufacturer’s product can satisfy those needs, train in making the sale and closing the sale, and then go out and make the sale. The marketing manager has to oversee this process as it ties in completely with what he is doing on the back end of the sales strategy.

The manufacturing agent is a self-employed salesperson or a sales representative who presents himself on behalf of a company—for instance, a company selling copy machines. The agent will go from one business to another, like a door to door sales person, making pitches and explaining why the business should buy a copier from the company the sales rep is representing. The manufacturing agent is important in a marketing manager’s promotion plans because he is out there on the front lines, working the doors and phones, chasing down leads, prospecting for clients and making the actual pitches. Without the manufacturing agent, the marketing manager’s promotion plans are not going to be worth much at all, because it is the sales rep who takes the promotion out into the streets and delivers it in face-to-face meetings with the customers and clients who need to be incentivized to make the purchase. The manufacturing agent is like the hook, reel, and rod all in one while the promotion plan is…