CH. 17 Personal Selling and Sales Management

Happy Shopper

The art of Selling, to a consumer, is based on the relationship between the company and the consumers individual demographics, specifically their interactions with the company's products and services. In order to successfully sell products and services to consumers, the sales person has to build a relationship with the buyer. One form of selling is called Relationship selling, for example: Martha Stewart has carefully spent 15 years teaching her consumers how to incorporate more meaningful, functional, beautiful lives with her line of products and services. Consumers want to enrich their lives, and the lives of their family and friends, therefore Martha Stewart designs her products and services as an intricate need to celebrate special moments. She establishes connections, a special bond between consumers and all the happy celebrations in their lives.

The Martha Stewart company can build successful relationships with the potential buyers by collecting consumer information. Consumer information contains valuable details about each consumer that can help the company with future product developments. When a consumer interacts with a company's associate, the consumer is in need of guidance or assistance purchasing or inquiring about the products or services. This is an important opportunity to gain information about the buyer and how they view the company's products and services. More importantly, the consumer at times is interested in the over all experience they will receive rather than just the products and services. As the company continues to gather buyers purchasing information the need to capture the important data pertaining to sales process leading to closing the sale is called Knowledge Management. This process compiles consumer information and records it in order to learn about the relationship between the consume and sales associate.

Consumers leave information in various places in a store or on-line. When consumers create registries, complete warranty, or inquiring for a product's information they are leaving Touch Points.  Touch Points are all areas of a company that consumers have had contact with. Information Kiosks, price scanners, and on-line commentary are additional Touch Points used to gather useful information. JC Penny is developing a new kiosks system exclusively for Martha Stewart products, this will enable her company to directly educate consumers about her products, and consumers will gain valuable design information as we'll as in-store product quantities and availability. Please click on the link below for more information. 

Martha Stewart Products will be sold in small Kiosk machines featured above in JC Penny

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2013/03/02/Store-within-a-store-concept-goes-to-court/UPI-36211362239481/

Technology can offer innovation and details on how a company can research their target market by connecting and establishing a Pre-approach "homework" on all consumers interacting with their company. The sales team in JC Penny should be trained to offer product knowledge to ensure and secure the consumer buying process is happening. A sales associate should engage the consumer in a conversations and suggest items pertaining to the consumers present desire. To further explain this, imagine a consumer entering the store and their main concern is a house warming gift for their niece, a sales associate should approach the consumer and ask if any assistance is needed. Once the consumer admits to needing assistance, the sales associate should be open to listening to the consumers present need, more over what they are looking for. The sales associate should under stand the need and proceed to the items closely relating to that product line, or event. The sales associate can quickly begin Negotiating with the potential buyer and entice them by in-store sales, rebates, and coupons to seal the deal.

Martha Stewarts product line, at first, captures consumers with her creative innovative design , however, without a great sales team, products and services will not sell themselves. As a young retail associate for Speedo, I was asked to educate myself on the product line, materials, and durability of the products. Speedo's consumers were active people, swimming, running, and biking. It was my job to inform myself and to stay connected in order to successfully complete a sale and increase profit for the company.