There are varied reasons that can make business people to contact their customers following the completion of the sales process. Such a case is called After Sales, and it entails seeking of information from the customers (Lane 111). For this case, the information sought has the potential of improving customer orientation to the company. One such effect is the existence of a chance that a business may collect information on the levels of satisfaction of the customers with the product or service they obtained from the company (Still, Edward & Norman 45).
This type of data has the effect of enabling the company to adjust the quality of its products proportionately to suit its market. The company may also obtain information from the customers concerning the perceptions of the customers regarding it. It means that the company will learn from such experiences, the best approaches to managing its relationship with the customers.
There are several tools that a business may use to identify new clients. For instance, the company can use market segmentation, which entails the categorization of the market according to the needs of the various categories within it. The method allows the company to determine what the potential customers require and producing just that. Using such a tool makes the company have the appeal of clients in the market and create an impression that it caters for their needs (Still, Edward & Norman 65).
In this way, the company creates a pull on a new pool of its clients. Segmentation of the market entails the collection of relevant information concerning the demographic characteristics, socio-economic features, the geographic features, and the psychographic features of the population. Such data helps the business to understand the needs of its potential market and incline the production of its products to meet the market gap. In this case, the company will strategize on the methods of addressing the needs identified through support measures such as product promotion. The methods of product promotion chosen by the corporation should be such that they meet the needs of the target market because they are based on the data collected.
A business may utilize the sense of feeling in sales as a way of improving its appeal to customers. There are many ways that the company can employ to give such an outcome. For instance, the business can have in place a customer service policy, which will drive the staff towards giving their best to customer satisfaction. In this case, the customers will develop feelings that the company cares for their needs because they will be a part of the reason why the business exists (Lane 117).
Another way of doing so is through the establishment of support systems, which have the responsibility of giving the customers a point-of-sale satisfaction. The two principles mentioned will ensure that the passion for customer satisfaction is the thematic approach of the company and in the eventual process, result in the love for customers. The company may also conduct regular checks on the customers on how they feel about the mode of services that they receive (Lane 117).
A properly crafted and resolved product design is a fundamental tool for the creation of perception about the products of a business. For instance, on a trade fair, a business may use product design as a critical element of attracting its customers. One such element involves the use of packaging and branding of its products. Such an approach is a way of helping the company to improve its brand in the market, which has the potential of making it popular among the customers. In so doing, the business improves its chances of maximization of sales in the future (Dalrymple, William & Thomas, 95).
There is a difference between sales and marketing though both are essential elements of the success of a business. In this case, there can never be sales without marketing, which means that how much a company will sell depends on the suitability of its marketing strategies. Marketing refers to the preliminary procedures undertaken by a business to ensure that it notifies its clients of the existence of its products or services in the market (Lane 114).
Therefore, the process entails all the steps that the business may use to attract potential customers, for example, such as product promotion. On the other hand, Lane proposes that the sales process entails the final step that results in the completion of a contract between a business and its clients involving the transfer of ownership of a product or the usage of the company’ services (114). The two elements are compliments of each other in ensuring the success of a business. For instance, the marketing process of the business determines the level of sales that the company makes. A business entity that invests critically in its marketing department ends up realizing a lot of success in its sales. In this way, therefore, it means that sales are dependent of the marketing proves.
The distribution mix is a critical stage of the marketing processes because it entails the geographic transfer of products and services to the points that avail them to their customers. For this case, sales entail the provision of the right products and services in their expected places and at the right time. The distribution mix will, therefore, highlight the channels of distribution of the product and the location of the business relative to the location of customers (Lane 100).
The distribution channels are those avenues that the products follow to reach their consumers. The channels may involve the all the middlemen in between the production of the products and their consumption by the customers. A longer chain of distribution has the process of slowing the process of selling because of the transportation and the storage of the products in the middlemen’s warehouses. A shorter distribution chain makes the process of selling faster because of its proximate location to the customers (Lane 100).
Works Cited
Dalrymple, Douglas J., William L. Cron, and Thomas E. DeCarlo. Sales management. Wiley, 2004. Print.
Lane, Nikala. Strategic Sales and Strategic Marketing. London: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Still, Richard Ralph, Edward W. Cundiff, and Norman AP Govoni. Sales management: decisions, strategies, and cases. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1988. Print.