Contemporary research on salesmanship

Salesmanship the Contemporary Research

One of the most effective tools that are vital to the success of any organization is communication. This is because it has helped executives to reach out to their target audience, in order to sell more of their products and services. As time went by, this has led to a change in the way a corporation is reaching out to its customers. In the article tilted the Changing Environment of Selling and Sales Management, Jones (2005) talks about how this been continuing to evolve. As he has been discussing a number of key points to most effectively adapt to the shifts that are taking place. These include: looking at customers, competitors, ethics / legal and technological influences. This is important, because the combination of them are making firms adjust with the shifts that are occurring inside the marketplace.

As far as customers are concerned, there are high expectations of the sales force. This is because, they want to deal with someone who can answer all of their questions and address their uneasiness. To meet the needs of customers, firms have been concentrating on a number of different aspects that were most important to them to include: knowledge, response time and the effectiveness of the communication. Knowledge is when the salesperson will be able to answer all of the customer's questions and they are encouraging prospects to begin work with the firm. Response time is how long it will take staff members to talk with customers about: possible issues and quickly resolve them. The effectiveness of communication is when sales personnel are establishing strong relationships with clients. These factors are significant, because they are showing how they are leading to a change in what customers are demanding from sales professionals. As a result, businesses have begun using various tools such as: email, the use of 800 numbers, chat rooms and message boards to address these different issues. (Jones 2005, pp. 105 -- 111)

When it comes to the competitors, the changing market conditions are causing them to become increasingly focused on reaching out to customers. This is because globalization, has led to a transformation in the total number of firms that are competing against each other in a particular industry. To remain competitive many corporations have begun utilizing the customer values lifetime precepts. This is telling executives how they can effectively allocate resources based upon the underlying amounts of competitive pressures. Over the course of time, this helps a company to be able to adapt to changes inside the marketplace. (Jones 2005, pp. 105 -- 111)

Ethical and legal issues can have an impact on a firm's image, as negative publicity can make the organization appear to be out of touch with their customers. At the same time, this can lead to a rise in the number of lawsuits against the company. The reason why, is because the sales force is misrepresenting the product through various claims they are making. While at the same time, there are possible amounts of undue influence that can have effect on over an individual behavior. This is occurs through various perks such as: giving gifts, making promises and allowing sales personnel to abuse expense accounts. (Jones 2005, pp. 105 -- 111)