Sales & Pricing - 3. Sales Force Effectiveness

Flashcards for review.

Sales Force

The sales personnel operating in a manufacturing company (supplier) or those working for a distributing partner.

Sales Strategy

The company plan that outlines how to sell products and services.

Sales Process

Defines all the steps taken to close a sale, from generating leads to encouraging repeat purchases.

Sales Organization

Refers to the development of a company structure and company culture that facilitates sales.

Sales Information and Management Systems

Tools used to support sales process such as customer relationship management (CRM) tools that collect and organize all data on customer companies, customer contact partners, and completed and ongoing sales.

Sales Controlling

Key performance indicators (KPI) which are used to measure the performance of the sales force. The sales regions, sales quotas, and sales compensation are assessed as part of the process.

Key account management

A process of using an individualized approach for important customers to facilitate long-term relationships.

General Sales Force

A company's internal sales team created to work directly with customers.

Distribution partners

External organizations utilized by a company to look after one or several market segments.

Online Sales

When a company sells their products or services over the Internet. This approach requires specific planning and knowledge of the advantages and constraints of this platform.

SWOT

An analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of a business unit as well as potential threats that it faces.

Key performance indicator (KPI)

A measurable value that indicates how well a company is achieving a key business objective.

Balanced scorecard

A strategic and performance management tool.

Sales funnel

A tool that shows at which stage of the sales process potential customers are in. It can also be used to tell when the potential customers jump off and how they could potentially be retained.

Lead

A potential sales contact, either an individual or an organization that has interest in a product or service.

Prospect

A potential customer who meets certain criteria, e.g., fits into the target market, has the necessary resources to buy the product, and has the ability to make such a purchase decision.

Customer (or client)

An individual, group, or organization that has purchased a product or service.

Buying center

The buying center of a company or an organization is a group of participants involved in purchasing decisions.

Initiator

Recognizes that the company problem can be solved or avoided by acquiring a product or service

Gatekeeper

Controls information and vendor access to corporate decision-makers; determines which vendors get the chance to sell

Influencer

Has a say in whether a purchase is made and what is bought

Decider

Says yes or no to the contemplated purchase

Purchaser

Obtains the purchased product or service

User

Consumes the purchased product or service

Personal selling

The sale of products via personal interaction with sales representatives.

Chief sales officer (CSO)

The chief sales officer (CSO) in the person in the management of a company who is responsible for sales activities.

Job shop

A small manufacturing system that handles custom manufacturing processes, moving from one completed job to the next.

Product group organization

If the departments on the second highest hierarchical level are organized by product, then there is a product group organization.

Matrix organization

The matrix organization is a multi-line organization and is a combination of functional and product structures.

Outbound marketing

Aims to direct marketing efforts directly at specific target consumers.

Inbound marketing

Aims to create content that will be found or discovered by customers.

SEO

It is the optimization of a website so that it can be found by search engines.

Lead nurturing

Refers to developing a lead into a prospect.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Supports the sales process and customer relationship from the identification of a lead up to the signing of a contract.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

The integrated management of core business processes facilitated by various systems and software packages.

Customer success management (CSM)

Supports the process of optimizing customer satisfaction and retention.

Protection of data privacy

The protection against improper processing of data.

Data quality

Refers to the correctness of data in a software application.

Sales territory

Consists of existing and potential customers assigned to a sales representative or sales team.

Sales quota

The sales target assigned to each sales representative, sales team, or distribution partner.

Sales pipeline

A list of all sales prospects and where they are in the purchasing process.

Sales pipeline controlling

Involves controlling of the open sales opportunity in order to estimate the probability of achieving the sales budget.