Civil Articles
A bad marketing event is an businesshazard for several business/corporation. In most cases, bad experiences cannot be fixed; they can at best be limited. When a buyer has a real ‘bad’ experience, he’ll complain about the friendship and the news will travel like wild fire to your other customers. In particularly bad promoting experiences, you stand to lose more than one existing buyer. Even if you pacify the buyer, it will be difficult to regain his trust. Bad marketing experiences can occur in different forms at different levels. They could be:
-A stock delivery not met on schedule
-A promise not kept by your sales agent
-A Discrepancy in consignment sent to the client
-Quantity Discrepancy in consignment sent to the customer
-Special bonus offer not released to a client in spite of several requests
-Withholding stock delivery because the customer has a small ‘due’ amount to pay
-Damaged consignment
-Several missed sales visits by your sales agent
-Forgetting to invite a valued purchaser for the annual dinner hosted by your marketing department
-Not thanking the client for his large order
For several business/company, a stock delivery not made on schedule is a cardinal sin because orders are the very lifelines for the company and are expected to be right away attended to. This is an embarrassing situation. You might have to call the dispatch section manager and berate him in front of your fuming client to placate his ruffled ego, and then thank him for his valuable order with the assurance that it would never happen again. This is a ‘bad’ marketing experience that should never recur.
From time to time, one of your best sales agents gets into trouble by not keeping a promise he had made to your purchaser. One fine day, the buyer meets you and comments about it in a sarcastic way. Since you are the owner of the company/business, the news is difficult for you to digest. You immediately arrange for whatever was to be given to the purchaser with profuse apologies. You would have to interrogate your sales agent and fire him if there is a past history of such incidents.
On other occasions there might be a billing discrepancy or a quantity deficit in the consignment sent to the buyer. You would then have to interrogate your office manager, and send your best product sales agent to placate the irate buyer and later follow up with an expensive complimentary gift to him.
As in other companies, you too announce a bonus offer such as 1 item free on purchase of 10 items. Subsequently, your office does not release the bonus to him in spite of several reminders. When you receive a phone call or personal visit from the irate purchaser, it would be very humbling experience to you to apologize to him in your office. Such experiences are quickly circulated in the market and are harmful to the company’s credibility and image. You would have to arrange an office meeting and take the entire office to task.
On occasions, your office staff holds up the dispatch of an order just because a purchaser has a pending bill to settle. Your buyer goes into fits. This is a ‘red’ alert. You could lose your purchaser to your competitors, who are always ready to welcome him with open arms. Once again, this is a situation in which you are expected to severely reprimand the office manager in front of the purchaser. After politely socializing with him, you might even have to drop him off in the office car with the promise to give him sufficient grace period in future.
On rare occasions, the buyer receives a damaged consignment from your office. This can be smoothed over if it happens once, but if it happens several times, you are faced with a serious situation where you may lose this customer to your competitors. It is time for you to take matters to hand and you would have to personally promise the upset customer that in future you would personally supervise delivery of undamaged product. This is embarrassing to you.
Very rarely do you forget to invite a valued purchaser to the annual dinner hosted by your product marketing department. If it does happen, it is a serious blow to your relations with the buyer. From then on, there would always be the risk of losing him to your business competitors. Then there are occasions when you or your office staff forgets to thank a customer for the large order he had placed. This is being ungrateful, and at some time in the near future, you might lose this buyer to your competitors.
Not all sales agents are sincere. Sometimes a sales agent may skip visiting a particular buyer for several months. This is a serious matter and warrants dismissal of the sales agent as such indifference to a customer would practically result in losing the client permanently.
Outsource marketing and post your project on globfreelance.com. For your search engine optimization and link building projects check out golden-way-media.com or maria-johnsen.com and outsource link building in order to get the best results and generate sales and better positioning on the search engines.
For realistic information about internet marketing – make sure to read the web page. The times have come when proper information is truly within one click, use this opportunity.
Tags: Sales
Posted in Sales · July 15th, 2010 · Comments (0)
If you look into the chronicles of great business companines today, you would come across that most of their present accomplishment and panache is founded upon the great inroads in promoting done by their sales groups in the formative years of the company. It is no overstatement to say that the sales force of a business is its backbone. Without a committed, dashing and dynamic sales team, the company would be limp and lifeless; it would never stand a chance to survive and grow in the marketing and advertising wars of today. As a result, as the owner of a small/medium business, it is of paramount importance that you choose the most excellent sales agents who are committed, trustworthy, truthful and hard-working.
The sales agent is the boundary between the company and the client/customer. He has the responsibility of not just making a sale, but of projecting the brand image of the company through smooth customer interaction and service. It is his responsibility to develop the client’s sustained trust in the business/company, bring in new clients/customers and in general, represent the growth prospects of the company.
When you are conducting an interview to select the best sales agent, the first thing you should look for in the candidate is the eagerness to succeed. Next, you should ask questions about his previous job and evaluate the genuineness of his answers. You could maintain a standard set of questions to ask each candidate so that the variation of answers would help you to compare different answers and assess the true implications and worth of different candidates. For example, to the question, “Why did you leave your last job?” one candidate may reply, “The pay was not good.” Continue with probing questions such as, “Do you consider pay as the only criteria in a sales job?” and see his reaction. A genuine candidate would answer something like, “No, sir. I am very enthusiastic about my product marketing and advertising job, but I plan to get married and wanted a raise, which was refused.” To the same question as to why he left his previous job, the second candidate may reply, “My boss was short-tempered. He was always finding fault in whatever I did.” Be wary here! The candidate may have definitely done something wrong to aggravate his boss. After all, bosses depend on their sales agents to bring home the bacon, and no boss would inherently like to annoy his sales agent! Ask further probing questions such as, “So, your boss was a tyrant?” and watch for the reaction. It is easy to spot whether the candidate is throwing the blame on his ex-boss for his own shortcomings. True, his previous boss might have been angry with him always, but it might have been for the reason that the candidate was always falling short of sales, or he was never showing up for work on time, or did not display the right initiative the boss expected. Keep this point in mind. A third candidate may say that he left his previous job as he was asked to go on a transfer. Once again, be wary here! No business/company would ask a sales agent familiar with one territory, to go to a new territory without justification. It would mean that the company would have to go through the whole tedious process of installing a fresh salesman, training him and familiarizing him with the territory, which would mean a waste of time, energy, sales and money. Continue questioning him, “Why should your company want to transfer you?” “Didn’t you perform well in your territory?” and watch and listen to his reaction.
In the next level of questions, gauge the each candidate to see whether he has the right mix of desire for earning a high income and job satisfaction. Ask questions to test whether the candidate views sales glitches as problems or as challenges. You can easily spot whether the candidate is lying or merely parroting the answer. Ask questions to gauge how responsible the candidate is regarding his job. Ask him about his attitude to customer satisfaction.
In the entire interview your questions should be framed to bring out the candidate’s enthusiasm towards his job, his determination to achieve sales, his enthusiasm to earn decent incentives through hard work, his proactive attitude towards customer satisfaction, his transparency, respect and accountability to his boss and the company, and his short and long term goals with the company. By asking all these questions during the interview and sensing strong positive signals from the candidate’s answers, you would definitely be in a position to select the best product sales agent who will be your company’s proud ambassador. Outsource your sales and marketing project to Globfreelance and find freelance sales agent. This marketplace has assumbled the best sales agents that are committed and loyal from around the world. You can also find SEO marketing at Golden Way Media ( golden-way-media.com) to sale your product in Europe.
Find out helpful info about internet marketing – make sure to go through this web site. The time has come when concise information is really within one click, use this chance.
Tags: Sales
Posted in Sales · July 14th, 2010 · Comments (0)