Balancing Customer Potential and Cost of Sales


At the same time, a salesperson has to take into account what their internal customers are looking for. Customers who may be looking for a salesperson to advise their decisions throughout the phases may only represent a very small opportunity for the business. In such cases, it may make sense for the salesperson to look for ways to more efficiently deliver value (e.g., delivering newsletters as opposed to in-depth financial reviews) to the client without overinvesting their limited resources.

When we looked across the organizations in our study, we found that, in general, transactional customers were served by inside sales teams and distributor networks or were given incentives to use self-service channels, such as e-commerce. Face-to- face sales teams, as well as some groups of inside sales resources, were reserved for customers with whom a consultative relationship was desired. The goal in these instances was to preserve the investment in a direct sales force for those segments and opportunities that had the highest potential. That is not to say that face-to-face sales teams never engaged in transactional sales or that inside sales resources could not have consultative relationships with clients. Just the opposite may occur, depending on what the buyer and seller are looking for in the relationship. But in general, the highest valued resources were deployed for those customers who valued a consultative approach and who were considered key to the selling organization.




Strategies That Win Sales. Best Practices of the World's Leading Organizations
Strategies That Win Sales: Best Practices of the Worlds Leading Organizations
ISBN: 0793188601
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 98

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net