Question

According to research, the characteristics of the best sales organizations are:

1.     Create a customer-driven culture throughout the sales organization and firm.
2.     Recruit and hire the best sales talent.
3.     Train and coach the right skill set.
4.     Focus on key strategic issues by segmenting accounts in meaningful ways and providing differentiated offerings to find, win, and retain customers.
5.     Implement formal sales and relationship-building processes.
6.     Use information technology effectively to learn about customers.
7.     Integrate sales with other business functions, especially marketing.

Discuss a recent shopping experience in which you observed the presence or lack of these seven characteristics. Give specific examples that relate to what this organization did effectively or needs to improve.

Make it at least 250 words.

Answer 1

The example is of my shopping experience at a garments store that I frequently visit for buying my daily wear clothes. It was before summer and I needed clothes to go with the hot season coming up. As I entered the store, I was greeted warmly by the gateman who handed me over the shopping bag and asked me my need to guide the direction I should move to. On telling him my need I knew exactly which way I had to go to the large store through his guidance. The beginning of the shopping experience itself was a pleasant one. As I was going through the stuff in the aisle, a salesman politely reached to me to ask if he can help me. I asked him to suggest some collection of summer wear and he guided me to the exact place where cotton and summer clothes were displayed. It becomes very time effective for me to select clothes from that particular lot than wandering in all the aisles of the garments section. The sales staff of the store was very helpful and cooperating which made my shopping experience very pleasant. When I reached the payment counter, as I was a regular customer there, the counter staff derived my details from his customer records and on seeing my buying history informed me about a discount offer that I can avail from my shopping bill. I was delighted to hear this and immediately took the offer which made my bill amount decrease.

This shopping experience of mine showed the efficiency of the sales organization and the customer-driven practices followed there. The sales staff present in the store focused on one objective that is leaving the customer with the best of experience. They all acted with this objective which made it a team effort and gave effective results. They seemed to be the right staff for customer service jobs which was so because of the training and mentoring they got form their leader or manager of the floor. They followed the customer relationship building theory by connecting with regular customers and offering them discounts. Thy kept customer details recorded in their systems and this use of technology helped them to make the connection with customers more efficient. The approach carried by the sales team in the store resulted in the best customer experience after which a customer will be satisfied and persuaded to buy from them again in future. This is the main objective of a sales organization and was efficiently fulfilled by this sales firm.