Definition

Sales management originally referred exclusively to the direction of the sales force. Later the term took on broader significance-in addition to the management of personal selling. Sales management meant of all marketing activities, including advertising, sales promotion, lead management, marketing research, physical distribution, pricing and product merchandising. According to the definition committee of the American marketing association sales management meant “The planning, direction, and control of personal selling including recruiting, selecting equipping, assigning, routing, supervising, paying, and motivating as these tasks apply to the personal sales force”. For example, for a term life insurance rates company, sales management meaning planning of new term life insurance policies, how to promote that, who is going to promote, who is going to sell that, tools they are going to use to sell, motivating the term life insurance rates providing agents. All these act all together consider as sales management.

The strategy statement can take the form of a purely verbal description of the strategic options which have been chosen. Alternatively, and perhaps more positively, it might include a structured list of the major options chosen.

One aspect of strategy which is often overlooked is that of ‘timing’. Exactly when it is the best time for each element of the strategy to be implemented is often critical. Taking the right action at the wrong time can sometimes be almost as bad as taking the wrong action at the right time. Timing is, therefore, an essential part of any plan; and should normally appear as a schedule of planned activities.

Having completed this crucial stage of the planning process, you will need to re-check the feasibility of your objectives and strategies in terms of the market share, sales, costs, profits and so on which these demand in practice. As in the rest of the marketing discipline, you will need to employ judgement, experience, market research or anything else which helps you to look at your conclusions from all possible angles.

Price- The amount of money needed to buy products

Product- The actual product

Promotion (advertising)- Getting the product known

Placement- Where the product is located (now a day people sell products on net like a vertical blinds shop online or term life insurance rate provider or insurance software provider.)

People- Represent the business

Physical environment- The ambience, mood, or tone of the environment

Process- How do people obtain your product

In principle, these strategies describe how the objectives will be achieved. The 7 Ps are a useful framework for deciding how the company’s resources will be manipulated (strategically) to achieve the objectives. It should be noted, however, that they are not the only framework, and may divert attention from the real issues. The focus of the strategies must be the objectives to be achieved – not the process of planning itself. Only if it fits the needs of these objectives should you choose, as we have done, to use the framework of the 7 Ps.

To be most effective, objectives should be capable of measurement and therefore ‘quantifiable’. This measurement may be in terms of sales volume, money value, market share, percentage penetration of distribution outlets and so on. An example of such a measurable marketing objective might be `to enter the market with product Y and capture 10 per cent of the market by value within one year’. As it is quantified it can, within limits, be unequivocally monitored; and corrective action taken as necessary.

The marketing objectives must usually be based, above all, on the organization’s financial objectives; converting these financial measurements into the related marketing measurements.

He went on to explain his view of the role of `policies’, with which strategy is most often confused: “Policies are rules or guidelines that express the ‘limits’ within which action should occur.

’80:20 rule’. To achieve the maximum impact, the marketing plan must be clear, concise and simple. It needs to concentrate on the 20 per cent of products or services, and on the 20 per cent of customers, which will account for 80 per cent of the volume and 80 per cent of the `profit’. I was talking with one of my friend who manufacture roller shades, woven wood shades, blinds, says they follow 80:20 rule. ’7 Ps’: Product, Place, Price and Promotion, Physical Environment, People, Process. The 7 Ps can sometimes divert attention from the customer, but the framework they offer can be very useful in building the action plans. 

It is only at this stage (of deciding the marketing objectives) that the active part of the marketing planning process begins’. This next stage in marketing planning is indeed the key to the whole marketing process. The marketing objectives state just where the company intends to be; at some specific time in the future. James Quinn succinctly defined objectives in general as: “Goals (or objectives) state ‘what’ is to be achieved and ‘when’ results are to be accomplished, but they do not state ‘how’ the results are to be achieved”.

The structure of the facts book will be designed to match the specific needs of the organization, but one simple format – suggested by Malcolm McDonald – may be applicable in many cases. This splits the material into three groups:

• ‘Review of the marketing environment’. A study of the organization’s markets, customers, competitors and the overall economic, political, cultural and technical environment; covering developing trends, as well as the current situation. 
• ‘Review of the detailed marketing activity’. A study of the company’s marketing mix;
• ‘Review of the marketing system’. A study of the marketing organization, marketing research systems and the current marketing objectives and strategies.

The last of these is too frequently ignored. The marketing system itself needs to be regularly questioned, because the validity of the whole marketing plan is reliant upon the accuracy of the input from this system, and `garbage in, garbage out’ applies with a vengeance.

1. Financial data –Facts for this section will come from management accounting, costing and finance sections.
2. Product data –From production, research and development.
3. Sales and distribution data – Sales, packaging, distribution sections.
4. Advertising, sales promotion, merchandising data – Information from these departments.
5. Market data and miscellany – From market research, who would in most cases act as a source for this information.

His sources of data, however, assume the resources of a very large organization. In most organizations they would be obtained from a much smaller set of people (and not a few of them would be generated by the marketing manager alone). CRM software with lead management tools helps organizations to maintain incoming leads and marketing effort. It is apparent that a marketing audit can be a complex process, but the aim is simple: ‘it is only to identify those existing (external and internal) factors which will have a significant impact on the future plans of the company’. It is clear that the basic material to be input to the marketing audit should be comprehensive.

If the organization in general, and its chief executive in particular, has a strong vision of where its future lies, then there is a good chance that the organization will achieve a strong position in its markets (and attain that future). This will be not least because its strategies will be consistent; and will be supported by its staff at all levels. In this context, all of IBM’s marketing activities were underpinned by its philosophy of `customer service’; a vision originally promoted by the charismatic Watson dynasty.

The emphasis at this stage is on obtaining a complete and accurate picture. In a single organization, however, it is likely that only a few aspects will be sufficiently important to have any significant impact on the marketing plan; but all may need to be reviewed to determine just which ‘are’ the few.

This definition should not be too narrow, or it will constrict the development of the organization; a too rigorous concentration on the view that `We are in the business of making meat-scales’, as IBM was during the early 1900s, might have limited its subsequent development into other areas. On the other hand, it should not be too wide or it will become meaningless; `We want to make a profit’ is not too helpful in developing specific plans.

I talk with one blinds manufacturing company who make roller shades and woven wood shades, they says their objective and customer service policy is like “Our customer service department is committed to the highest quality customer satisfaction in the industry. Our customer service personnel provide expert advice and courteous service to ensure that we exceed your expectations. We achieve this by requiring that all our personnel are held to the highest standards of training and service in the industry.” For a roller shades and woven wood shades manufacturing company quality and customer satisfaction is top most priority. So, they added that part in their aim and objective.

A marketing plan may be part of an overall business plan. Solid marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan. While a marketing plan contains a list of actions, a marketing plan without a sound strategic foundation is of little use.

The marketing process model based on the publications of Philip Kotler. It consists of 5 steps, beginning with the market & environment research. After fixing the targets and setting the strategies, they will be realized by the marketing mix in step 4. The last step in the process is the marketing controlling. In most organizations, “strategic planning” is an annual process, typically covering just the year ahead. Occasionally, a few organizations may look at a practical plan which stretches three or more years ahead.

To be most effective, the plan has to be formalized, usually in written form, as a formal `marketing plan’. The essence of the process is that it moves from the general to the specific; from the overall objectives of the organization down to the individual action plan for a part of one marketing programme. It is also an interactive process, so that the draft output of each stage is checked to see what impact it has on the earlier stages – and is amended.