KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGEMENT

THE SALES DEPARTMENT

SELLING → Exchange of value. It’s a transactional process where a buyer sees the value in
paying a company/seller an agreed price for a product/service that they want delivered. It also
refers to the process of persuading someone to buy.

SALESPERSON → is responsible for selling products/services as representative of a company

to customers or clients. Their primary role is to engage with potential buyers, understand their
needs and preferences, and persuade them to make a purchase.

The seller’s missions are:

• Sell with profitability.

• Being a mkt man.
• Represent the company.
• Be the corporate image of the company → in some companies, salespeople must fit
the image of the company in order to represent them. E.g. Cosmetic company.

ORGANIZATION OF THE SALES DEPARTMENT

MANAGEMENT ROLES / TOP MANAGEMENT

• CEO.

• Sales Manager: leads the sales team, sets sales targets, and makes sure the team meets
its objectives.

• Mkt Manager: collaborates with the sales team to align mkt strategies with sales goals.

MIDDLE MANAGEMENT ROLES

• Regional Manager: Manages sales operations in specific geographic regions.

• Area Manager: Controls sales activities in designated areas.
• Team Manager: Leads smaller sales teams.
KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

BASE LEVEL ROLES

• Key Account Manager (KAM): focuses on building and maintaining relationships with key
clients, understanding their needs, and ensuring customer satisfaction to make the
company sales growth.
• Senior Seller.
• Junior Seller.
• Internal Seller.

The middle management and management plan, organize, lead, hire, train, supervise, involve,
give support, communicate, and evaluate the base of sales department.

Salespeople is always speaking with the clients. MKT always ask them to talk with the clients.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

GEOGRAPHICAL STRUCTURE → organizes the salesforce based on geographic regions. They

suit their strategies/products/services to the needs of their consumers of each specific
area/region.

STRENGHTS

• Simplicity
• Relatively low cost

WEAKNESSES

• Difficulty in selling a wide product range. (if you sell a lot of different types of products)
• Low understanding of the complexities of buyer behaviour (they really don’t know with
much detail the buyer behaviour)
• Poorer at reporting changes in the marketplace (they really don’t know what’s happening
in the marketplace)

PRODUCT SPECIALISATION STRUCTURE → They organize its activities according to different

product lines or categories. Each product line has its own dedicated resources, allowing to
focus the attention on each product line. Used in companies that offer a diverse range of
products/services.
KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

STRENGTHS

• Good knowledge of products and applications.

• Specialisation of selling skills (=they know how to sell, because they’re specialised in each
product according to which teams the salespeople are).
• Greater attention given to new products.
• Eliminates competition between the selling of new and existing products (allows
salespeople to concentrate on promoting specific products without distractions or
conflicts of interest)

WEAKNESSES

• The sales teams could end up trying to sell their products in the same place, increasing
travel costs.
• If a customer is approached by multiple representatives from the same seller, it can lead
to the customer to feel annoyed or confused.
• It's harder for the salespeople to reach all the places they need to, and this causes to
increase costs.
• Keep separate sales teams for each product line can be more expensive.

INDUSTRY-BASED STRUCTURE → organizes activities of a company around specific

industries/market segments. It allows targeted strategies and solutions adapted to the
characteristics of each industry.

STRENGHTS

• Good customer knowledge.

• Good for monitoring changes and trends within markets/industries.

WEAKNESSES

• Very high cost of servicing key accounts.

KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

ACCOUNT-SIZE STRUCTURE → a company organize in different teams its operations based on

the size or value of its clients/customer accounts. Used in service-based industries.

STRENGHTS

• They put more effort into the bigger customers (more €).
• Key accounts receive a significant level of attention and resources, leading this to stronger
relationships, personalized service, increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Provides career opportunities for salespeople.
• Reduces costs of servicing small accounts (clients that doesn’t give a lot of €).

WEAKNESSES

• Very high cost of servicing key accounts.

ABC COSTUMER CLASSIFICATION

• Group A: They represent 10% clients, and they represent 75% of sales.
o They must receive special attention and treatment (MOST VALUABLE
CUSTOMERS). Any time spent on email, in-person meetings, or phone calls with
them is well worth it.
• Group B: represents 20% clients, next 15% sales
o Customers should not be ignored, because they have potential to become group A
customers if it’s used the right items and resources to do.
• Group C: represents 70% clients, make the last 10% sales
o Contains all the minor transactions that generates revenue.
o Individually they don’t contribute much value to the company.

THE SALES ENVIRONMENT

• Macro environment → It has its own impact. E.g. Environmental factors, political, socio-
cultural, economic, demographic, legal and technological.
• Microenvironment → suppliers, intermediaries, customers (people who potentially can
buy my products), clients (people who BUY my products), mk media, banks, competition,
transport & logistics.
KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

The sales department is crucial to the company's success as it directly impacts on the
company’s expansion, growth and earnings too.

PERSONAL SELLING → occurs when a company representative interacts directly with a

customer or potentially customer to present information about a product/service. It’s the
most difficult way to sale. They don’t have a fix salary. It’s really used in B2B (business to
business; company to company) and it’s the most common way to sell because they represent
the double of sales (suppliers)

The development of a personal-selling philosophy includes three prescriptions:

• Adopt mkt concept

• Add value to customers
• Become a problem solver/partner

FROM SELLING CONCEPT TO CONSULTATIVE SELLING

Before, in sales, the selling concept was only about itself (starting points, key elements,
resources and objectives). Over time, it started to be united with the mkt concept (market,
consumer needs, mkt, benefit through customer satisfaction). Now, mkt uses consultative
selling to sell.

CONSULTATIVE SELLING → extension of the mkt concept. They emphasize the role of the
salesperson as someone who can listen to a potential buyer’s needs and offer solutions in a
non-manipulative way.

o Emphasizes “need identification” through two-way communication.

o Salesperson plays the role of consultant.
o Negotiation over manipulation → Customer is a person to be served.
o Emphasizes need identification, problem solving, and negotiation.
o Emphasizes service at every phase of the personal-selling process.
• Major developments that affect selling.
o Major advances in information technology and E-commerce.
o Strategic resource is information.
o Business is defined by customer relationships.
o Sales success depends on creating and adding value.
KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

CONSULTATIVE SELLING

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) → software that records in one place the
necessary information to understand a customer and their needs and expectations.

STRATEGIC SELLING → it aligns with the company’s strategic market plan and takes into
consideration the coordination of: production, mkt, finance & HR.

• Salespeople should have a strategy when they’re interacting with the costumer.
• An ideally selling will include the consultative role and strategic planning.

STRATEGIC / CONSULTATIVE SELLING MODEL

A salesperson develops a:

• Relationship strategy
• Product strategy
• Customer strategy
• Presentation strategy

RELATIONSHIP STRATEGY → well-thought plan for establishing, building, and maintaining

quality relationships and an integral dimension of relationship selling.

Prescriptions:

• Maintain high ethical standards.

• Project professional image.
• Manage the relationship process.

PRODUCT STRATEGY → plan that emphasizes becoming a product expert, selling specific
benefits, and configuring value-added solutions. This plan helps salespeople make correct
decisions concerning the selection and positioning of products to meet identified
customer needs. Knowing competitors is important.

Prescriptions:

• Become a product expert

• Sell benefits
• Configure value-added solutions
KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

CUSTOMER STRATEGY → is a plan that results in figuring out the customer’s needs.

Prescriptions:

• Understand the buying process: (need recognition,

information research, evaluation of alternatives,
purchase decision, post purchase behaviour).
• Understand buyer behavior
• Develop prospect base.

Sources of information:

• Web-based sources, catalogs, marketing-related sales support information

• Plant tours

• Internal sales and sales support team members

• Read and study publications

• Competitors, rubbish?

PRESENTATION STRATEGY → is a well-developed plan for meeting objectives for each

sales call. Prescriptions:

• Prepare sales presentation objectives

• Prepare presentation plan
• Renew commitment to customer service

Successful sales presentations create value by translating product features into benefits
that meet a specific need expressed by the customer.

• Features include data, facts, and characteristics of a product or service.

• Benefits include whatever provides a customer with a personal advantage or gain,
which can be general or specific.

SALES VS MARKETING
KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

MARKETING → is managing profitable customer relationships. The process by which

companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationship in order to
capture value from the customers in return.

DISTRIBUTION → process of making a product or service available for the consumer or

business user who needs it.

Characteristics of distribution:

• Involve L/T commitments to other firms

• Structural variable that can only be modified in long-term basis

• Critical variable to sell our product: influence in price & positioning

• Affects other mkt decisions

• Variable that difficult the control of the product: it affects the whole company

• Management must design with a future view and taking into account the present
environment

INTERMEDIARIES → distribution channel firms that help the company find customers or make
sales to them.

• Producers: make narrow varies of products in large quantities

• Consumers: want broad varies of products in small quantities
• Intermediaries: match supply and demand

Function or intermediaries:

• Physical distribution
• Financing
• Risk taking
• Bulk-breaking
• Warehousing
• Market information
• Selling and promotion
• Contact
KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

• Management service and advice

• Negotiation

Who will perform these functions?

• Flow connections
• Physical flow
• Flow of ownership
• Payment flow
• Information flow
• Promotion flow

USE OF INTERMEDIARIES:

ADVANTAGES

• Create greater efficiency in making goods available to target markets

• Usually offer the firm more that it can achieve on its own: through their contacts,
experience, specialization and scale of operation.

• Reduce the number of channel transactions

• Reduce the amount of work done by producers and consumers

DISADVANTAGES

• Time

• Price increases

• Losing control over the product and other mkt tools

• Conflicts between the producer and intermediaries

MOTIVATION OF CONSUMERS & DISTRIBUTORS

KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

PULL STRATEGY (“pull” the consumer) → manufacturer or intermediary creates tactics to

make the consumer go into the point of sales and buy. (=what should I do if I want to attract
consumer’s attention and make them bought my product. [qué hago para que el consumidor
escoja Nike])

PUSH STRATEGY → manufacturer or intermediary “push” the channel using advertising,

rappels, etc. to increase sales. (=how to make intermediates only buy our products and not
the competition’s products)

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL LENGTH

• Direct channel
o Intermediaries doesn´t exist
o Used when manufacturer and consumer are near
o Used in the service sector and B2B
• Indirect Marketing channels
o One intermediary
▪ Used if a small number of retailers exist.
▪ Used if a retailer with high power exists.
o Two intermediaries → used in convenience products.

o Three intermediaries or more:

▪ Nº of intermediaries increases

▪ Complexity increases

▪ Price increases
KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL COVERAGE

Depending on the number of retailers that want to be with our product, there are 3 strategies

INTENSIVE DISTRIBUTION Ej. Coca Cola, Huevo Kinder, …

OBJECTIVE

• Stock their product in many outlets as possible

• Typical for convenient products

ADVANTAGES

• Availability: maximum brand exposure

• Loyalty

• Create barriers to enter for competitors

DISADVANTAGES

• High costs

• If products are in inappropriate places, the brand can be damaged

• Require indirect marketing channels

KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

SELECTIVE DISTRIBUTION Ej. SEPHORA, El Corte Inglés, …

OBJECTIVE

• Select the vest points of sales for the product

ADVANTAGES

• Lower costs

DISADVANTAGES

• Deny points of sales and sales

EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTION

OBJECTIVE

• Producer gives only a limited number of dealers the exclusive rights to distribute its
products in their territories

ADVANTAGES

• Gain strong selling support

• Control over dealers' prices, promotion, credit and services

• Allows higher mar-ups

• Enhances brand image

• Use of more direct marketing channels

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL STRUCTURE

KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

VERTICAL MARKETING SYSTEM

• CORPORATE → combines successive stages of production and distribution under single

ownership
• CONTRACTUAL → independent organizations at different levels of production and
distribution who join together to obtain more economies or sales impact. FRINCHISE: most
common type of contractual VMS
o FRANCHISER
▪ Provides a brand name, marketing, start-up and accounting assistance
▪ Provides management know-how
▪ Receive an initial fee, royalty payment, fees and a share or profits
o ADVANTAGES
▪ Franchiser: secures fast expansion and distribution, without assuming full
costs
▪ Franchisee: buy an established brand name, limited capital to start the
business, reduction of costs and risks, get instant expertise.
o DISADVANTAGES:
▪ Franchiser: give up some control
▪ Franchisee: damage the brand name by no operate the right standards
KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

• ADMINISTERED: coordinate successive stages of production and distribution, through the

size and power of one or a few dominant channel members.

MULTI-CHANNEL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM → distribution system in which a single firm sets up

two or more marketing channels to reach one or more customer segments. A variety of direct
and indirect approaches are used to deliver the firm´s goods to its customers.

ADVANTAGES

• Increase sales

• Expand its market coverage

• Better opportunity to tailor its products to different segments

DISADVANTAGES

• Difficult to control

• Generate conflict among other intermediaries

OMNICHANNEL → Integration of “all” channels. Revolves around your customer and creates
a single customer experience across your brand by unifying sales and marketing that accounts
for the spillover between channels.

CONFLICTS

Conflict are common in a distribution channel. The most common are:

• Conflict between different members in a distribution channel → occurs when one

intermediary makes it difficult for another to achieve its objectives
• Multichannel conflicts: especially when different prices or discounts are negotiated

TYPES OF CONFLICTS
KEY ACCOUNT= most valuable customers

HORIZONTAL → Generated between members of the same level in the channel.

It is usually due to the natural process of competition between companies or even between
retailers, for example because their poor service damages the global brand image.

VERTICAL → It is the most frequent, disagreements at different levels of the channel.

MULTICHANNEL → Today it is common for manufacturers to use two or more channels to

reach a market. It is often due to different pricing or margin policies.

POWER → ability of a channel member to force another member to perform some

commercial action or to close some deal → Ability to influence.

MAIN CAUSES OF CONFLICTS:

• Incompatible Objectives

• Undefined roles and responsibilities

• Different business visions

• Too much dependency on the other partner

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

POWER → ability of a channel member to force another member to carry out some
commercial action or to close a deal ability to influence

Conflict Management according to the types of Power:

KEY ACCOUNT: one of your company's most valuable customers

TRADE MARKETING

Strategic alliance between the manufacturer and the distributor to strength the relationship
between them and develop tactics together (like advertising, promotions, merchandising,
etc.) to increase demand and sales

New point of view from the manufacturer to make the distribution channel members work
and collaborate with him

Objective is to increase sales by:

• Make the product rotate

• Do promotions

• Work on the merchandising

• Generate traffic building

It becomes indispensable as:

• Fierce competence in distribution

• Channel wars

• Brand evolution

• Disloyal customers