Sales Call strategy Report

Sales Call Strategy: Shadow Experience Report

Luis Rodriguez

AEB3341

Kelly Davidson

11/04/17

Sales Project: Source Information Sheet

AEB 3341 Selling Strategically

Value: 5% of your Sales Project Grade

Due Date: Week 4

Document Submission: Submit via “Assignments” in Canvas

Instructions: Each part of this information sheet must be completed to receive full credit. A business card of your contact will be included with the sales call strategy report to receive full credit. Please remember that the University of Florida assumes no liability or responsibility for this component of the Sales Project. Contact your Teaching Assistant or instructor if the person you are shadowing wants you to sign a waiver of liability.

Student Name: Luis Rodriguez Location: ___Gainesville____

UF ID: 66785050

Major: Food & Resource Economics

Sales Person Contact Name: Diego Briceno

Is the sales professional a relative of yours? NO

If this person is a relative, did you obtain permission from your instructor to shadow? : N/A

Contact Company: Vida Social Productions

Contact Address: 1000 SW 16th Ave

Gainesville, FL 32601

Contact Phone: 786-448-3590

Product/Service: Event Service

Geographic Territory:

Scheduled shadow Date: 10/12/17

Please describe the typical customer for this product or service.

The typical costumers for my product are college undergraduates/graduates; my market is based upon young people.

How did you come to learn of this contact?

I found out online about this production company that plans events all over Gainesville. They do any type of events, and they also bring singers and throw concerts. I was interested in them so I called them, and they did a really good job.

Are you potentially interested in this contact for a career or internship? Yes

Introduction

Based on my current course Food and Resource Economics, my interest in the hospitality industry, especially event organization has intensified. My motivation arises from my personal goal of establishing a world-class organization that is able not only to stage successful events across the globe but to trains and develop an excellent team of professionals. Consequently, the objective of this sales call strategy report is to explore my experience at Vida Social Production relevant to my career development through the acquisition of first-hand professional experience. The company is involved in the planning of events over Gainesville. The choice of the event organization company is based on its growth history, stability and expansion progress as captured from online details and information gathered during the telephone interview requesting for attachment. The preferred learning method was ‘shadowing’ of the sales manager Mr. Diego Briceno who was kind enough to allow a mixture of mentorship and on-the-job training methods.

Pre-Day Briefing

Briceno did not hesitate in requesting my strict adherence to appointments regarding timekeeping. He asked me not to bother attending the shadowing experience if I could not be with him at the start of the day. I reported two hours before the formal opening time of the offices, and to my surprise, the office was already half-filled. Briceno, a lively and welcoming person, led me into his office for a thirty-minute briefing. Some of the aspects of the briefing included;

· Calls: Briceno handles everyone that makes a call through the official lines as a customer, including his peers. He maintains professionalism and often wants to find out how much the caller knows about Vida Social Production and their latest development. Case in hand was my phone call requesting for the attachment in which he made sure some information about the company was relayed. He finishes all his peers’ telephone conversation by asking about any new customer leads or acquisition, and what he can do to help. His strongest selling point is the ability to let everyone he contacts feel his presence and readiness to assist in accessing Vida Social Production’s services/ products.

· Preparing the day's sales contact schedule containing sales leads that were established during the previous day. The leads are contacts of potential customers identified during previous events, walk-in customers or referrals by previous customers. The list should also include contacts extracted from online inquiries and activities. A clear distinction should be made between customers that have an upcoming event and those that must be exposed to details of the company’s products/ services.

· Strategic Selling: This is defined as the ability to increase or multiply the traffic within the sales department (Miller, Heiman, Sanchez, & Tuleja, 2004). However, Briceno added intensity to this definition based on the preparation of the day’s sales contact schedule. Strategic selling is the ability to narrow down on the sales leads that become successful from the overall sales traffic. Briceno perceives an excellent salesperson as a person that will spend the least time to distinguish between a potential sales lead and a courtesy referral. A courtesy referral is a sales contract that only shows interest in the product/ service details but has no indication of an actual intent to acquire the same.

Sales Strategy

In the Events Organization business according to Briceno’s experience, courtesy referrals; often avoid financial discussions, do not provide a tentative time-frame, and, generalize their query in terms of location and size of the crowd. As much as reaching out to many potential diverse customers’s is advised, Vida Social Production backbone is hinged on return customers and referrals from the same. The strength of this approach lies in establishing brand loyalty from a small circle of satisfied customers that define diversity based on the details of the attendants of a previous event (Knani, 2014). The company will thus source for business as defined by the channels proposed or presented through attendees of successful events of the past because price negotiations are easy to execute and justify through comparative analysis with the past events. Briceno reiterates that successful conversion of sales leads must reflect the correct price to ensure business viability. Many event organizers succumb to pressure from competition to engage in taking on projects at low prices that affect the quality of service and products that are offered (Shank, & Lyberger, 2014). A sales strategy must not consider competition as its main focus but identify unique elements that work in promoting the organization’s long-term goals. An example is; growth and expansion to develop and absolutely own Vida Social Production’s supply chain that will attract talented youth in various fields of service for employment.

Sales Call Strategy Worksheet Components

I shared with Briceno my Sales Call Strategy Worksheet to enable him to understand my interests and reactions during the shadowing experience. The components include;

1. My customer’s most likely problem or need that I can help with is providing quality products and services that are affordable to them all year round, and most importantly should be easily accessible.

2. I can help them meet that need by providing exclusive company vouchers that enable them to get express deliveries on goods bought online. The products will be delivered on the same day of order; this will reduce the waiting times since they are express customers.

3. An additional problem I expect to have is customers complaining of long waiting times because of other express clients. I will handle this by assuring the customers of the quality guarantee of the products to be delivered. Also, I will include a gift hamper for new and repeat customers.

4. The customer’s characteristics I need to consider are a desire for quality and timely delivery of services and goods. I will handle this by ensuring I get the best quality materials that will be used to make the products or deliver the service. I will also ensure products are delivered on time, and any foreseeable lateness is explained to the customer beforehand.

5. Important characteristics of the customer’s operations are their need to express their feedback about the products; I should handle this by providing them a feedback program where they can suggest how we can improve our services.

6. Current suppliers are too comfortable and do not offer complimentary services to their clients, my advantage over these suppliers is that I often provide discounts to my customers and I ensure personal relations are created between the delivery people and the clients. I can prove it by the increased positive reviews and increased sales of both new and repeat customers.

7. I can build rapport by stating that the needs of customers come first and that our existence is because of them.

8. I can arouse interest in my company by creative campaigns on social media and offer free trial samples of our products for testing.

9. My behavioral/communication style should be assertive as I should be open with my clients about our services, this will create a lasting relationship.

10. My sales call objective is to attract and retain 15 new customers per week and ensures they seek our services more than once through excellent customer service.

ANALYSIS

	THE MARKETING MIX
	PRODUCT	PRICE	PLACE	PROMOTION
Generic Market Strategy	Product differentiation	Cost leadership	Presence all over the world	Discount and promotional campaigns
Market Segmentation	Product development	Price discounts and price per location	Market development	Different prices for different markets
Product Differentiation	Product development	Product diversification in quantity with different prices.	All the products are found everywhere.	Different products have different promotions
Brand Positioning	Unique packaging and logo.	Their prices are low and affordable	The brand is recognized everywhere	The use of various brand ambassadors.

An analysis of the marketing mix as presented in the above table is important in customizing the details of the Sales Call Strategy Worksheet Components. The shadowing experience was meant to validate and add substance to the identified worksheet components from practical experience at Vida Social Production.

The Morning Huddle

I was ushered into the conference room soon after the Pre-Day briefing where all employees of the company were gathered. The meeting was started with a word of prayer then an employee was randomly selected to lead in the morning energizer; a brief interactive song & dance activity to invigorate everyone in readiness for the day. The morning huddle is a daily session at the company that allows everyone to be updated on progress and any new information from all departments. This is an important meeting for the sales team at Vida Social Production because they provide feedback to colleagues on the status of sales leads they forwarded. Furthermore, successfully converted sales leads are announced and the ‘referring’ non-sale colleagues respectively rewarded through cash bonuses and company gift vouchers. I witnessed the practical influence of extrinsic motivation towards engaging everyone in sales. Every company employee irrespective of their designation and department were interested in growing the company’s portfolio. The huddle was then broken down into small team-meetings after announcing the various sales team performances and whether they were on target with regards to the weekly, monthly and quarterly sales targets. Constant monitoring and assessment of performance trigger internal competition that sustains productivity in both the short and long run (Bowie, Buttle, Brookes, & Mariussen, 2016). Every team manager was either praised for keeping in stride with their sales commissions, or, cautioned for lagging.

There are four sales teams in total defined through geographical jurisdictions within and around the city. Briceno’s team had maintained the top position among the sales teams throughout the current and previous quarter. Practical lessons learned during the team meeting;

· Intrinsic motivation: Selling must be guided through both external (extrinsic) and internal (intrinsic) motivation. Briceno and his team not only pursued extrinsic motivation as provided by the company but he always made the team meetings about intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation in the company included; cash bonuses, gift vouchers, job promotions, and salary increment. However, Briceno spends his time to tap into the intrinsic motivational needs of his team and himself. These are self-driven motivations that arise within an individual and provide fulfillment in their entirety. An example includes providing autonomy of working to an individual thus making them personally responsible for their performance (Hardré, & Reeve, 2009). The only assessment factor is performance, a factor that is easy to determine and measure. Consequently, Briceno and his team were highly engaged and fulfilled that they approached selling with enthusiasm.

· Always remember who the target customers are. Briceno never assumes the power of reminding his team the need to clarify the definition of their customers during every meeting. A customer as defined yesterday may not necessarily fit the same position today. Briceno made it a point to review the customer schedule of every team member regarding; those currently acquiring Vida’s services, those with a need but unaware of Vida’s products/ services, and, whether the customer was an individual or a body corporate. The essence of clarity in defining a customer affects pricing, budgeting, staffing, and procurement exercises, among other activities (Neirotti, Raguseo, & Paolucci, 2016). Customer satisfaction arises from the Sales department ability to seamlessly link the customer needs to all the other departments within the company in a timely manner. The accuracy of profiling the customer determines the efficiency of converting the sales lead into an actual sale.

Defining the Call Strategy

Once the team meetings ended and everyone reported to their workstations/ desks, Briceno started reviewing the team’s sales leads schedule to develop the team’s call strategy. It is vital to use each and every sales call to assist the target customer to draw closer to the final purchasing decision to satisfy their need as identified (Lastner, Rast, & Andzulis, 2016). The salesperson must identify each customer’s least number of sales calls necessary to close a deal. Briceno had designed and displayed in his office a flowchart to guide both experienced and new sales recruits into determining the number of sales calls as follows;

The assumption of the flowchart is the user is a marketer that is focused on strategic selling that only narrows down on productive sales leads. That is the main reason why customers’ lacking enough information is the only reason for the negative response at the first stage. Any other reasons provided at this stage should act as a red-light to carefully pursue the sales lead so as not to waste unnecessary time and resources on the same. Furthermore, such pursuits must not be prioritized over a sales-lead that provides a negative response at the first stage based on the highlighted reason. The same interpretation of the flow-charts decision junctions is made up to the third call. However, the genius in this three call strategy as applied by Briceno entails the fact that experience ensures an effective salesperson reverses the sequence of the sales-calls from the third to the first to quickly close a deal. Everyone in the team is introduced to the front-to-back flow of decisions, but they are expected to use creativity and experience to apply the backward flow of the arrows, over time. Therefore;

· The first call: requires establishing physical contact/ meeting with the client either through getting an appointment to visit their office/ premises or inviting them to Vida Social production.

· The second call: product/ service demonstration and exploration

· The third call: help customer makes a purchase decision based on quality, quantity, and price.

This framework proposes a Three-Call Sale strategy as the system that determines the minimum number of sales calls to a client. However, efficient salespeople will constantly endeavor to eliminate some elements from the strategy until they frequently succeed at making only a single call. Briceno spends more time with team members that apply more than three sales calls on a single customer and often takes over the customer upon sensing some form of agitation or lapsing of the reasonable time period from the first call made.

An excellent salesperson must be wary of a target customer’s inability to make the buying decision. Thus, they must be quick to identify at which point of the sales call strategy the client began to falter or get confused (Schurr, Stone, & Beller, 1985). Making quick and specific references calmly helps the client to air their hidden reservations. It helps when the salesperson empathizes with the client and assumes the role of an advisor from the role of a salesperson. I observed Briceno’s reaction during several stalemates with customers that he successfully turned around. He categorized customers’ vague reactions to four issues as follows;

· They never understood everything you communicated: provide a brief and precise recap of the service or product taking note of areas that will attract the customer’s attention. Probe for questions in these areas.

· The customer did not believe what you said: provide verifiable examples from satisfied customers that the customer can easily access.

· The customer has doubts of a potential problem after engagement: provide some form of warranty or quality assurance plan implemented by the company. It helps to avail a list of references from previous clients that share a similar profile with the target client.

· There exist actual problems or risks in purchasing the service/ product: Present a compensation plan set for emergency cases. Also provide a definition of the problem/ risk from the industry’s perspective and not specifically for your organization.

‘Not Today’ and the Sales Call Strategy

Irrespective of the sales call strategy applied the above phrase that indicates a customer’s indecisiveness has to be understood. According to Kadic-Maglajlic, Micevski, Arslanagic-Kalajdzic, and Lee (2017), when a customer states their inability to make a straight purchase at the end of the sales call, one of the following popular reasons explains the response;

· They do not have the finances to cover the cost

· A lease or existing agreement with another service provider is set to expire.

· Does not have a final approving authority.

· They are not satisfied or convinced with the presentation or demonstration.

Instead of getting worked up from disappointment and struggling to grope for a convincing pitch to make the deal, the salesperson must immediately shift focus to seeking clarification. This situation extends the call strategy to the fourth level that may require escalation of the case to an experienced or superior colleague. Alternatively, the call may focus on setting another appointment to make room for references and providing missing information. Briceno’s fourth call was centered on asking the customer if their hesitation meant they would make purchases in the future. Improvising sales call content at this point is important and must continue until the customer gives a clear answer for rejecting the sale or sets a future purchase date. The most important lesson learned upon meeting difficult customers under a stalemate reached in sales is always to maintain respect and professionalism. The other lesson was to maintain patience, especially when learning or when in a difficult situation such as an angry customer.

Most of the morning hours were spent exhausting the list of names under the sales call schedule of the day while walk-in customers or those handed over the phone or Internet-based communication were attended to as soon as they made contact/ appearance. Otherwise, I gained the upper hand in experiencing how to undertake various tasks in the same office whereby I was designated to design the layouts and schedules of the successful sales leads the event. Briceno taught me how to commission the production of the event guides, tickets, and pamphlets. More knowledge was gained through my involvement in marketing activities for the purposes of promoting events services with the guidance of the PR professionals and the marketing executives. Finally, I gained practical experience pertaining the structuring of the budget. I observed Briceno carry out the market research from both online sources and previous event records, making presentations to the clients and identification of the business opportunities that would help the company to win new contracts.

Synergistic Sales Calls

These are the dream of every salesperson because they provide the highest probability of a successful sale. During such calls, the customer portrays genuine excitement and is receptive to all the prepositions, recommendations and advice (Miao, & Evans, 2013). Consequently, the customer actively participates in further stages of the sales procedure while asking many questions, a sign of enthusiasm. For a salesperson to establish this type of calls with clients, they must connect with the customer through four states of reception that are different from each other;

· Personal receptive state: establishing common interests with the customer that are personal in nature such as a shared hobby and gradually connecting the service to the recreational activity. This is possible through a quick observation of their clothing preferences, photos in their office, and objects displayed in their office, among other alternatives. Some act as simple as speaking in the customer’s unique language such as slang could establish an instantly deep connection.

· Technical receptive state: Using the technical terms and industry related coin words can greatly authenticate experience and quality of the services/ products offered. Always stay relevant.

· Business receptive state: A salesperson should be able to portray a team relationship with the customer and show interest in the success of their business. Therefore, whatever product or service rendered, the customer will accept based on the implied partnership.

· Political receptive state: directly refers to establishing a competitive advantage over business rivals in a manner that the customer prefers your services because they feel absolutely satisfied.

Just as the practice in the Law school mock trials, Vida Social Production carries out mock sales interactions every Friday afternoon. The intention is to mimic difficult customer interactions experienced during the week and challenge random staff members into determining workable solutions. The highest points are awarded based on how creative an employee handles the situation through establishing synergistic sales calls.

General Lessons from the Shadowing Experience

Success in sales within the event organization industry results from strictly observing deadlines and planning schedules ahead of time. Proper execution of tasks allows one to create room for more activities because they finish earlier than provided for in the time schedules. Observing the workplace policies and office rules helps to control the employee and cover them from professional liabilities. I was able to utilize the working hours to tackle all activities which an Events Service provider is supposed to handle. Despite the fact that the department is tasked with voluminous work, I was able to stick to the routine of my duties and ensured that I referred to superiors when I met challenges. It was refreshing to see the conversion of the office work into real-life events during the weekends.

The implementation of planned schedules shaded some light on some things that Briceno had been explaining in the office. I realized event organization needs one to have a positive and outstanding personality to succeed. With this in mind, there is a need for me to scrap off some elements with my attitude. There are some customers who are very rough and make you feel intimidated to serve them. I need to understand that customers have to be handled differently and improve my attitude. By understanding that the events management industry is fierce, I will be able to move into more senior roles and gain a good reputation with my clients.

Another area I need to improve is the avoidance of the external destructors while at work. It is well known that the events management department has more work with strict schedules as presented by the clients. However, I was sometimes destructed by social media messages which could slow done my pace at work. Briceno has a way of imparting maximum concentration on details of events from the planning at the office up to the actual event.

Conclusion

Although the experience was not directly connected to the course, it was able to analyze the economics of consumer behavior. Besides, the experience created a memorable lesson that adds value to my area of profession, due to the relevant interaction with the customers as well the programs that are widely available in the company. The course requires students to be equipped with skills in foods and resource economics. Similarly, the work experience addressed the manner in which services can be marketed to the customers and the observation of their trends in consumption. Most of the events that were marketed by the company involved in venue identification and provision provide food services, event programming, coordinating audio-visual basic and issuance of tickets. In respect to the expectation of the course profession, the workplace was able to give me an opportunity to carry out the related policy assignments. The course mandates the collaboration of the natural science and the social science, therefore, the program helped me in the achievement of the research and academic goals through close interaction with a company that provides the academic grounds for learning. Furthermore, social knowledge is a key are of the course, and therefore the experience gained there especially with customers improved my capability in regards to academic skills.

Thank You Letter

Luis Rodriguez,

UF ID: 66785050,

Major: Food& Resource Economics,

10/15/2017.

Diego Briceno,

Event Service Provider,

Vidal Social Productions,

1000SW 16th Ave

Gainesville, FL 32601.

Phone: 786-448-3590.

Dear Mr. Diego,

I at this moment write to appreciate the time taken to provide me with a meaningful job shadowing opportunity at your Event Service office on 10/12/2017. I was very impressed with the guidance you provide to your organization and very excited at the prospect of working with you.

This experience was unique and has been able to provide me with a diversified first – hand look at the area of food and resources economics. Besides, I was able to gain all the various skills that are required for a person in the same profession as mine, to be successful. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to feel the impact of the Sales Service Office at Vidal social Productions.

I was particularly thrilled to see that I could complete an event Registration form which would then be created online. Besides, I was overwhelmed to have a practical skill for development of the management plan for an event which gave me the competence for performing tasks on my own with a sense of self-drive motivation. I was satisfied to see that I could create and successfully submit the floor plan along with the management plan for the designated venues. The fact that I could approve some important facts such as ensuring that the events complied with foods and safety regulations was a real motivation to me. I want to give you credit for various guidance and corrections especially in the manner for completing an event checklist as an added advantage to my experience. Finally, I admire your leadership skills that effectively motivated your team and molds top performers. As a leader, you have excellent communication skills thus ensure unity of purpose and command within the team.

Thanks once more for your generosity and support with this project.

Sincerely,

Luis Rodriguez,

UF ID: 66785050,

Major: Food& Resource Economics.

References

Bowie, D., Buttle, F., Brookes, M., & Mariussen, A. (2016). Hospitality marketing. Taylor & Francis.

Hardré, P. L., & Reeve, J. (2009). Training corporate managers to adopt a more autonomy‐supportive motivating style toward employees: an intervention study. International Journal of Training and Development, 13(3), 165-184.

Kadic-Maglajlic, S., Micevski, M., Arslanagic-Kalajdzic, M., & Lee, N. (2017). Customer and selling orientations of retail salespeople and the sales manager's ability-to-perceive-emotions: A multi-level approach. Journal of Business Research, 80, 53-62.

Knani, M. (2014). Ethics in the hospitality industry: Review and research agenda. International Journal of Business and Management, 9(3), 1.

Lastner, M. M., Rast, R., & Andzulis, J. (2016). Creating Win-Win Collaborations for Students: An Immersive Learning Project for Advanced Sales Courses. Journal for Advancement of Marketing Education, 24.

Miao, C. F., & Evans, K. R. (2013). The interactive effects of sales control systems on salesperson performance: a job demands-resources perspective. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(1), 73-90.

Miller, R. B., Heiman, S. E., Sanchez, D., & Tuleja, T. (2004). The new strategic selling: the unique sales system proven successful by the world's best companies. Kogan Page Publishers.

Neirotti, P., Raguseo, E., & Paolucci, E. (2016). Are customers’ reviews creating value in the hospitality industry? Exploring the moderating effects of market positioning. International Journal of Information Management, 36(6), 1133-1143.

Schurr, P. H., Stone, L. H., & Beller, L. A. (1985). Effective selling approaches to buyers' objections. Industrial Marketing Management, 14(3), 195-202.

Shank, M. D., & Lyberger, M. R. (2014). Sports marketing: A strategic perspective. Routledge.

Profile customer

Can I approach customer right away and request them to buy product/ service?

Make a one-call sale

No

Yes

Can’t buy due to insufficient product knowledge

Make a third sale-call

Can you go and demonstrate right away?

No

Because you have to schedule appointment or customer has to come to our office

Make a second sale-call

Yes