Focused traditional selling and trust based relationship selling

Introduction:

In the present scenario of global competition, companies are more focused on the sales strategies. Different tactics are used to improve sales, advance training being given to the sales staff and huge budgets are spent to increase sales. Thus a four-letter word “S E L L” is of vital importance for the success of a company. Selling is an art that one may inherit naturally or through a specialized training. Some focus on customer’s trust while others on the quality of their products. Most commonly companies are practicing traditional selling and relationship selling.

Buyer’s psychology may vary in accordance with their personalities, sticking on to particular sales policies will help a company in getting higher profits but adversely in some cases it might not be fruitful. Selling strategies may also vary in accordance with the product types. Considering food products, a buyer will always opt for the best quality i.e., relationship selling, as far as cosmetics are concerned, famous brands will get good sales. According to Keillor, 2013 a satisfied customer is a buyer who has a good purchasing experience with a particular supplier, but plans to buy from whichever vendor offers the best opportunity in the future.

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Trust Based Relationship Selling :-

The process by which a firm builds long-term relationships with customers for the purpose of creating mutual competitive advantages is called relationship selling (Rich, 2003). Companies focus more on buyers by producing products that meets the buyers expectation, in such process buyers feedback and opinions enhances the product’s quality. As such companies emphasize more on developing buyers trust on the company, building an impression of loyalty by offering the quality products and value added services, that will benefit both. Instead of making new customers, companies more relies on initial customers (Rich, 2013).

In the current highly competitive business environment, there is a strong movement toward relationship selling as contrasted with traditional, transaction-oriented selling (Daniel E. Better, 1996). Products success in the long run entirely depends on the buyers attitude, motivating a buyer to purchase a particular product can easily be done by developing a relationship. In a competitive market, multiple similar products but holding different brands are on display. They vary in price, weight, quality and presentation, a buyer will only opt for the product on which he has full confident and assured of a competent after sales service.

Relationship marketing developed in industrial and service marketing contexts as a reaction against the limitations of mainstream (transactional) marketing (Baker, Hart, 2008). The customer relationship management plays a leading role by keeping customer records, their feed backs, prompt replies of their comments and regular offers of new products or deals.

Transaction – Focused Traditional Selling :-

Another mode of selling is, by focusing more on the products quality rather than the buyers. Marketing the products through advertisements on different media, making it more presentable no doubt will motivate the buyers but there is no surety of regular or repeated buyers. Traditional selling efforts are transaction oriented, focusing on generating as many leads as possible, making as many presentations as possible, and closing as many sales as possible (Lamb, Hair, McDaniel, 2010). For instance a buyer may stick on to a particular brand of a product, this preference is developed after years of buying and testing other competitive products. In case the same product is not available in the market, the buyer will immediately switch to other product regardless of any concern with the company. Herewith we can also refer sales of Walmart, where products are sold in comparatively less price, without focusing on customer relationship.

Conclusion :-

Traditional selling may not be successful in attaining buyers loyalty, and will take longer period in making its product a preferred one for the buyers. Whereas relationship selling, by gaining buyers trust will gain more profits from its repeated and loyal customers.

Sales ethics and why is this topic receiving so much attention today

Marketing is the key element in the success of any business. Market is a place where many individual players meet, having their own interests. The element of competition is always present in the market either its for suppliers, buyers, products or prices. General desire to supersede, may lead to some extent of mis-conduct. Ethics are the code of conduct and policies that are to be followed to limit the market operations within a certain boundary.

In order to get the maximum market share, there’s always a chance of clashes like, hoarding, price competition, brand wars and unfair strategies, among the market players. Sales and marketing ethics are then applied to manage the market operations and restrain the players from any malpractices. Ethics are moral principals or practices; they are also professional standards of conduct (Rich, 2003).

In the global competitive market where unlimited numbers of transactions are involved, a specified code or principle is needed, making sure the smooth flow of the market operations that will benefit the end users. Many companies highlight multiple codes of ethics for selling and marketing operations, their staff also get training to follow the same. These codes are developed to distinguish between desirable and undesirable selling attitudes, developing high standards of selling practice, minimizing the risk of unfair means and motivating the staff for ethical decision making.

Given that salespeople are likely to experience ethical conflict in their jobs, it is incumbent for sales managers to design work environments that mitigate ethical conflict (Michalos, Poff, 2013). The senior management is responsible for enforcing the ethical standards expect their salesperson to follow. The sales staff must be clear with the importance of ethical codes of the company, and the same are to be followed in the best interest of the company.

In recent years, a number of well-publicized scandals resulted in public outrage about deception and fraud in business and a subsequent demand for improved business ethics and greater corporate responsibility (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2013).

In the present era of competition much priority is laid upon business ethics among the global companies. Not only in business, ethics possess a significance role even in an individual’s personal life. An individual’s attitude represents the ethics he is following.

Ethical selling is developing trust: teaching individual sales people to act rightly, to say and print the right things; to not over-promise and make sure that buyers and sellers are fully informed (Gatter, 2008).

In an organization some senior managers may act beyond the code of ethics, just to get more business. At this point an individual’s personal ethical conduct restricts him to bypass the company’s policies and discipline. Most of the markets of particular products face ethical issues in almost every aspect of selling. The sales force set aside the ethical codes and opt for malpractices, to lead the market. In such cases there should be an authority to ensure the compliance of ethical codes. Ethical issues, such as bribery and corruption, are evident throughout the world, and many national governments and international agencies are actively attempting to minimize such actions through economic sanctions and international codes of ethical behavior (Fernando, 2009).

A successful businessman, Henry Ford once said, “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business”. The statement emphasizes the need that every business operations should be in compliance with certain bye-laws. A business setup following certain ethical codes will create a positive impression among the market competitors and will also develop a sense of trust among the prospectus buyers. An individual bound to follow certain codes of ethics, gets use to it and practice the same in his personal life, thus the society is also benefitted.

Advantages and disadvantages of building customer relationships via the Internet

Advancement in the global markets has emphasized the significance of relationship with customers. Developing close, cooperative relationship with customers is more important in the current era of intense competition and demanding customers, than it has ever been before (Sheth, Parvatiyar, Shainesh, 2001). Customer relationship is a strategy that allows sales and marketing professionals to record, access, and track information related to customers and potential clients. A company can achieve vast profits by developing a successful relationship with the customers. A relationship with customers substantially boosts company profits, claiming that most companies can increase profits by almost one hundred percent through retaining only an additional five percent of their customers (Reichheld, Sarrer, 1990). One common objective of customer relationship department in a company is to develop confidence on its products and services.

The modern era of Internet has changed the conventional style of building a customer relationship by introducing fast, reliable and easy to approach source that facilitates both the company and the customer. The Internet has significantly changed customer expectations for access, control, speed and globalization that carry over to all areas of doing business (Kincaid, 2003).

Some companies might not be benefited by the Internet in their system. There are certain standards that are to be followed, in order to attain full benefits of marketing or customer relationship via Internet. The same can produce negative result if the standards are not followed properly.

Some of the factors that are to be considered in making Internet advantageous for customer relationship are;

Confidence:

A customer might not purchase a product or opt for the service that is offered in a website, unless he has full confidence on the info provided in the same. Trust has been commonly studied in the context of a buyer’s future purchase intentions, and plays a central role in influencing constructs central to building long-term relationships with customers (Doney and Cannon 1997).

Security:

Establishing an on-line relationship with customers is always encouraged by how secure is the customer with the website. Companies selling product or marketing through Internet must use related tools on its website, securing the communication done by the customers. Security is the cornerstone of an on-line relationship and is linked to that of trust, not only in the security of information but also that the purchase will meet the customer’s expectations and will be delivered punctually (Alastair Brookes, Frances Annis Hemingway, Emma Lee and David Towers).

Presentation:

Just a click and a list of companies will be displayed on the screen, only few websites that are presentable, easy surf, having detailed product info, gets buyers attention. The design of a website should be in a manner that it should maintain the users interest and should provide only the relevant information.

Correspondence:

One of the most effective elements in maintaining customer relationship is regular correspondence with the customers. Traditionally, keeping records of all customers sending them reminders or companies different sales offers via postal mail, was not easy, reliable and also time taking. Induction of Internet has made customer relationship simple and more effective.

Language :-

The language used in the website must be in accordance with the targeted users. Website having options of other languages besides English, gets more views and may also get more business.

Disadvantages of internet in Customer Relationship: –

Customer relation department is the first impression of a company. But still it may create a bad impression on the prospectus customers resulting in lose of sale. Despite its varied technical possibilities, the on-line channel still possesses disadvantages and risks from the customer’s perspective and these should not be underestimated (Heinemann, Schwarzi. 2010).

Customers might not feel comfortable buying products on-line, unless they physically examine and compare it with other competitive products. Cyber crimes have made modes of on-line payment insecure. Additional delivery or hidden charges also restricts buyers to purchase on-line. A customer, being a valuable asset of a company, might not get a satisfactory response of his complains on-line.

References :-

* Bruce D. Keillor, 2013. Marketing in the 21st Century and Beyond: Timeless Strategies for Success, USA:ABC-CLIO.

* Daniel E. Vetter, 1996. mid-american, Journal of Business, Volume 11, Number 1,

* Spiro Stanton Rich, 2003. Management of a Sales Force, Delhi:McGraww-Hill.

* Michael J Baker, Susan J Hart, 2008. The Marketing Book, GreatBritian:Elsevier.

* Charles W Lamb, Joseph F Hair, Jr Carl McDaniel, 2010, Marketing, USA:Cengage Learning.

* Spiro Stanton Rich, 2003. Managment of a Sales Force. Delhi:McGraw.

* Alex C. Michalos, Deborah C. Poff, 2013, Citation Classics from the Journal of Business Ethics, London:Springer.

* O. C. Ferrell, John Fraedrich, Linda Ferrell, Ferrell, 2013, Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases, USA:Cengage.

* Steve Gatter, 2008. Ethical Selling and Sales Management,[online], http://biznik.com/articles/ethical-selling-and-sales-management, viewed [17.02.13]

* A C Fernando, 2009, Business Ethics: An Indian Perpective, India:Kindersley.

Reichheld, F. and Sarrer, E. (1990). “Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services”, Harvard Business Review, 68, 105-111.

Judith W. Kincaid, 2003, Customer Relationship Management: Getting It Right, USA:Hewlett-Packard.

Jagdish N Sheth, Atul Parvatiyar, G Shainesh. 2001. Customer Relationship Management: Emerging Concepts, Tools, and Applications, India:McGraw Hill.

Doney, Patricia M., Joseph P. Cannon, 1997. “An Examination of the Nature of Trust in Buyer–Seller Relationships,” Journal of Marketing, 61 (2), 35–51..

Alastair Brookes, Frances Annis Hemingway, Emma Lee and David Towers, 2006. The importance of and ways to develop relationships with customers who purchase online, Services and Relationship Marketing, http://www.towers.fr/essays

Gerrit Heinemann, Christoph Schwarzl, 2010. New Online Retailing; Innovation and Transformation. Wiesbaden:Gabler.