Principles and practice of selling

Introduction

Selling is a very important duty and responsibility too sensitive to be left in the hands of a few groups of salespersons. The most important thing for any company or organization is to make sure that it produces goods and services that can sale instead of producing such that the salespeople will struggle to sell. Therefore, the selling practices should be deeply founded on the very basics of marketing. Marketing within and outside the company is very crucial in determining the welfare of the product and service in the market (Trobe 2001, pp. 181-192). Such practices that would make a product and/or service sale in the market include a process of total quality management, customer care and maintaining a marketing culture within all company departments. The product life cycle is very important and should be monitored from within the company if it has to excel in the selling process.

Customer Care in the Selling Process

The services offered to the customers are a crucial tool to the ever ongoing company success. The needs of the customers, their attitudes and wants have a tendency of changing abruptly. It is therefore imperative for companies and organizations to continually change as well as evaluate their service to the customers for the reason of meeting these trends which are ever changing. All the same, customer service cannot only be regarded as customer relations alone or how good sales workers are to their buyers but instead, is providing satisfaction and also delighting buyers; this must be the main goal of an effective customer service (Brown and Layne 2005, pp.6-7). Buyers for various service types have distinct needs and therefore the strategies of customer service will also different and should be tailored to the prospected buyer.

The operations of any business should be centered on the consumer or the customer because he or she is the key reason of the business existence (Alan and Jack 2009, pp.185-202). Through this, the business makes an effort to offer what it can sell to the customer and not struggling to sell what it can produce. This is what really seems to be affecting the position at which the business stands at the moment. This is because business is all about making sales and profits. Therefore, providing what can sale is a very prudent decision that a business can embark on. It is indeed for the marketing department to be on the alert to enhance the utility of the buyers.

Communicating Customer Experiences

Well, freely communicating the information concerning the successes and the failures of the experiences of customers while selling to them across all functions of the business has been greatly embraced. The importance of such an effort to customer service is that all members of the organizations align their production procedures with the customer in mind. This is what service or goods production requires. Offering value for free in the market where the customer will feel indebted to reciprocate the same by parting with his or her money in purchasing the product or getting the services being offered. If this is not done, there is a likelihood that the customer will be sent away due to lack of good coordination in the services which are being offered (Brown and Layne 2005, pp.6-7). Therefore, this information is a very important tool in promoting the success of all through dissemination of the same ideas and expectations in serving the customer right during selling.

Understanding Customer’s Needs

Understanding the needs of the customers is a very important thing which helps any form of business to make sales with ease. It is all about offering what the customers need and not what a business organization can produce.The business’ provision of whatever thing it wants to offer should be duly focused on the customer’s needs (Brown and Layne 2005, pp.6-7). This is the only way that a competitive advantage will be sustained by the organization in the market. This will certainly win the customer’s desire to buy hence more sales will be realized.

Measuring Customers’ Satisfaction

It is always a prudent effort in measuring the satisfaction of customers for time to time once sales have been made to them. The fact that customers will be content with what is being produced in the first time does not necessarily mean that they will ever be satisfied with what the business will continually offer. Customers often get bored with what is offered from time to time. Their preferences and tastes, therefore, will often change. If these tastes change, that means that the business organization must have another think coming. It is, therefore, a wise idea to make sure that customers are referred to from time to time to in the process of providing goods and services to them (Evenson 2005, pp. 34-56).

Business Focus

It is a very strong principle and worthy of emulating when a business focus shifts away from the competitors to the customers. This is a very striking effort utilized by the business in delivering its services or goods. Focusing on the competitors is never a good principle of making sustainable sales. Competition is dealt with well when a business organization clearly commits itself in knowing and establishing the needs of the customers (Trobe 2001, pp. 181-192). At the end of the day, what the business wants is to make more sales and have a bigger percentage in the market. It is not really being ahead of the rest in production or having goods which have slashed prices. It is all in the effort of making sure that customer satisfaction is realized. It is therefore very important that business organizations concern themselves much with the customers instead of competitors. The way in giving competition to the other business outlets is achieved by first laying a focus on what the customer needs and making the work of the sales workers less difficult.

Customer service indeed is the ability of providing products or services in a manner that has really been promised (Evenson 2005, pp. 34-56). This is to say that there is no need to let the sales workers say good of the products unless it stands a chance of being done. This has been the norm of many outlets of business. Customers have from time to time received false hope which has been given to them by salespeople who are even convinced that the promises they give are just empty. Each person has in a way been in a condition of this nature. Be it a cable salesperson promising free channels of movie for a given period or a restaurant worker offering a free meal when a customer visits another time. There are therefore various ways of sustaining customer and giving competition to other competitors in the market without having to be worried about what those competitors do.

Total quality management

Total Quality Management (TQM) is basically the techniques that are utilized by organizations to make an improvement on quality as well as the level of production. This technique takes into account teamwork and is utilized horizontally across the entire organization. TQM involves all employees and their respective departments. Outside the organization, customers/clients and suppliers also form part of TQM. The chief aim of TQM is to establish effective productivity and quality plans that will increase profits and ensure a competitive boost in the entire organization (Addey 2001, pp. 849-854). TQM forms a companywide emphasis on quality, putting together the development of a corporate culture that is oriented to quality with intensive utilization of management together with tools of statistics that are used in the designing and production of quality goods and products to the esteemed customers. An efficient TQM system incorporates management in a commitment of culture and behaviour towards enhancing the utility of the customer.

The product life cycle

A product goes through four stages in the market which the management should oversee well: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Building shared values, fostering innovation and creativity, creating positive work environments, transcending traditional modalities in the management of modern organizations requires the initial definition of the prevailing product situation. Gathering information then follows and the looking out for the sense of what is at hand as far as the decision is concerned. At this point, managers would be in a position to re-evaluate the need formerly defined and/or make clarifications which lead to gathering information again. If what has been arrived at makes some sense, then the management can point out leverage points and identify positive results to be reinforced. The negative points at this level can be disputed. This however cannot be the end of it all. There is an importance of designing searches and the actions together with the interventions to be mad (Bamford and Greatbanks 2005, pp. 376-392)e. The response can again be assessed. The results at this stage can either be clarified further or implemented, whichever is found more efficacious.

This continuous process improvement model in promoting quality and sales generally would require the organization to pump in resources which would go a long way in saving a lot of finances and promoting high profit margins in sales. Total quality management is a proactive model that aims at maximizing the productivity of the organization. It does not only concentrate on the salespeople but also all departments including human resources. All members of the organization are expected to own it and understand its basic concepts and applications. The needs in the organization should be handled in a standard procedure that ensures checks and balances at every stage. A continuous quality improvement model helps in ensuring consistency which is a very important aspect of promoting sales (Bamford and Greatbanks 2005, pp. 376-392). Being in a position to deliver value for money is a prudent effort in marketing procedures and generally in the process involved in the transfer of goods and services from the organization to the esteemed customers.

Quality Assessment

Providing services in the right quality is a subject that is not debatable in any business selling principles and practices. Quality assessment from time to time is therefore very essential in surviving the market competition of modern times. In very rare cases will a business be found enjoying monopoly. Businesses must compete to win the customers in a given market platform. Therefore a business organization should be aware of the opportunities which enable it to grow as well as reduce costs through the process of total quality management (TQM). TQM assists a business in creating new products, ensuring quality standards together with the satisfaction of the client as well as offering services which are good (Addey 2001, pp. 849-854). Moreover, quality assessment is important in enhancing the bottom line profits of the business organization through increased efficiencies of operation, waste elimination together with the creation of good conditions of work promoting growth and productivity in general.

The marketing culture

Employees including the salespeople are expected to work in environments which are healthy. This promotes their efficiencies and puts them in a position to perform at their best. The process of quality improvement often pushes the business organization from various angles to attain strategic goals together with plans for the business. It should therefore not be felt that quality assessment is an optional thing (Goodman 2000, pp. 23-32). It must indeed be one of the core activities of the business organization in its selling principles and practices. Customer service is the ability of the business to supply the needs of the customers. One of these needs is the quality that brings the customer’s satisfaction (Trobe 2001, pp. 181-192). In fact, every customer needs satisfaction and satisfaction comes from quality services or goods being offered by any business organization.

The customer makes his way to the business with a lot of expectations. Customers are not ready to listen to any reason as to why their satisfaction has not been met. They will simply quit the business and go out to search for other places which where they can get satisfaction. The most crucial thing is whether the customer will return after having all the experience that he or she will meet after visiting the business. The business organization should therefore make sure that the customer will return. When customers enjoy the quality of the services or goods, regardless of whether is from face to face, a call from the phone, or even technical assistance offered online, the business will therefore have achieved their main purpose in serving the customer. These services should therefore be tracked and assessed frequently to enhance the utility of the customers. Generally, the information concerning the customer experiences and satisfaction should be disseminated through all levels of production and delivery in the business (Goodman 2000, pp. 23-32). If the efficacy of the customers is not felt, then the business should simply know that it is failing. Therefore, the necessary steps in selling products and services must be taken to ensure that the things are done right.

The sales force should not regard any part of the customer service as less important. All are equally important; when one section fails, then the whole system is threatened (Trobe 2001, pp. 181-192). Therefore, customer service should be sustained well. Firstly, any business organizations should answer phones by making sure that calls are picked when a person calls the business. It is also a very prudent idea not to make promises not unless they will be kept. Reliability is indeed one of the major things useful in promoting making sustainable sells.

Conclusion

Customer service includes listening to customers. Let the customer talk while the salespeople give an impression that what they are saying is being considered through making of suitable responses like having suggestions of the way of solving any problems that emerge. The complaints of the customers must be dealt with and therefore winning the customers will eventually come automatically. Moreover, it is also useful to be of assistance to the customer even when there is no immediate return as profit. This helps because the customer will all the time remember the graciousness which was given. It is also good to train the staff of the business organization in how they can be of help, courteous, and knowledgeable. The employees need to know what good customer service implies. Therefore, marketing and selling is a duty that requires all in the business to function.