Sales Management & Personal Selling

This article discusses the marketing mix strategy of TransSprech, whether the focus should be on personal selling or advertising, and recommendations for relationship-based selling. The company's limited product offering, premium pricing strategy, and combination of retail and online sales are analyzed. The article recommends adopting a CRM tool, social media marketing, and opening company-owned retail and service centers to build a strong customer base.

Running Head: Sales Management & Personal Selling
Sales Management & Personal Selling
TransSprech

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Table of Content
Question 1: What is the strategy of the company with respect to the four elements of its
marketing Mix?................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Question 2: Based on the current marketing strategy of the company, should the company’s
promotion mix focus be on personal selling or advertising...........................................................................2
Question 3: What further questions might you ask Mr. Wursching to help his company move
toward a more relationship-based business? What recommendations would you like to offer to
Mr. Wursching to make relationship-based selling a focal point of TransSprech’s organizational
policy and culture?.......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Recommendation............................................................................................................................................................. 4
References.......................................................................................................................................................................... 6

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Question 1: What is the strategy of the company with respect to the four elements
of its marketing Mix?
The company TransSprech is a newly formed cellular phone service and a phone
provider based out of Germany and is headed by Mr Hans Wursching. The company has
already acquired more than 1000 customer and it is on the mission to acquire 10,000
customers. The strategy of the company with respect to its marketing mix is:
Product-The Company has a limited offering which includes five different cost plans for
its cellular service and provides customers with the five options to choose the mobile
handset. The products of the company are less differentiated, however the satellite of
the company is fairly advanced. The company’s vision for its future products is to
provide value and quality products to its customers.
Price-The Company adopts a premium pricing strategy and charges premium for the
value and quality it adds to its offering. The company offers five different cost plans as a
part of its pricing strategy to its customers.
Distribution-The distribution strategy of the company is a combination of both retail
and online sales through its website. The company sells its products through licensed
electronic retailers, as it does not have its own customer service or retail locations. The
company focuses mostly on the corporate clients because of the volume sales.
Promotion-In order to acquire 10,000 customers at the earliest, the company has
roped in a Berlin Based advertising and PR firm to create its worldwide advertising
campaign. The company is leveraging mostly the traditional form of advertising such as
TV and Print to create a name in the market and establish the brand amongst its target
audience.
Question 2: Based on the current marketing strategy of the company, should the
company’s promotion mix focus be on personal selling or advertising.
Personal selling as the name suggests is the process where the organization uses its
sales force to sell the product to the customers after having a face to face interaction

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with the customers (Cummins, Peltier & Dixon, 2016). The sellers here push and
promote the product through their attitude, appearance and the knowledge of sales
specialist (FIxson & Jobber, 2015). The underlying aim here is to encourage the
customers to buy the product (Sharma, 2016). The company’s target audience is mostly
B2B customers as it targets corporate, who are the biggest buyers of company’s
offering. Thus, in order to focus on B2B marketing strategy, personal selling is more
beneficial, as the sales force can better tackle the objection of the customers and push
the product to them.
However, advertising is beneficial in creating awareness about the product in the mass
audience. But, the company’s prime customers is corporate, thus advertising will not
make much of a sense. But on the flip side, in order to acquire more customers, the
company has to strike a balance between corporate and mass customers. However,
specific to the case and based on the marketing strategy of the company, personal
selling is the best possible strategy for the firm.
Question 3: What further questions might you ask Mr. Wursching to
help his company move toward a more relationship-based business?
What recommendations would you like to offer to Mr. Wursching to
make relationship-based selling a focal point of TransSprech’s
organizational policy and culture?
The company is right now focussed on selling products mostly to corporate customers
while paying less attention to mass customers. At the same point in time, the company
does not have its own customer service centres, which adds to the troubles of the
organization. As the organization is fairly young, there is an inherent need of company
owned service outlets to build a strong customer base in the market. The set of question
which will help me in creating a comprehensive sales management plan are:
 Where do you see the company 5 years down the line?
 What is your view and opinion on opening company owned service outlets, and
its own retail outlets.

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 Who will dominate the sales of the company, will the focus still be on B2B or will
the company even focus on B2C segment.
 How do you see the organization building a strong connect with its customers?
 Ideally, I would like to really understand how you think of providing value to the
customer through relationship marketing, advertising and promotional
activities.
 Are you interested in creating strong loyalty programs for your esteemed
customers?
The current situation demands for a relationship building model as it has been found
that the company spends more in acquiring a new customer than to retain an existing
customers. Thus the need of the hour is to build relationship with the existing
customers and adopt a customer relationship management tool to expedite its efforts.
Recommendation
Adopting CRM tool, preferably Salesforce
Salesforce is a fantastic tool when it comes to tracking the sales figures, the highest
selling phones, customer data base, customer query, feedback and other such
information. The tool will help the organization to focus on its customers and analyse
the data to better create the product customers desire the most. Moreover, the CRM tool
will help in creating a strong bond with the customers, as the organization can greet and
wish them on their important days. Further to it, the tool will allow for accumulation of
customer data which can be further used in tracking their feedback and resolving their
concerns (Bilgihan & Bujisic, 2015).
Social Media Marketing
In the age of Globalization and tech disruption, it is extremely futile if the organization
does not spend some of its marketing budget towards social media advertising and
promotions. The company is still focussing on the traditional means of advertising, this
way the company is missing out on one of the most important segment. Millennial is the
part of the generation which is driving the mobile industry across the globe, thus in
order to tap the millennial the company has to focus on social media marketing

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(Peppers & Rogers, 2016). The company can also build a relationship with the
customers easily on the social media platform by engaging with its customers and
potential customers and make them interested in the company’s offering (Pearson,
2016). Also, email marketing can be used to build relationship with the customers.
Sending across personalized and tailored content will help the customers in developing
a feeling of trust and respect towards the customers. This would eventually help in
building a loyal customer base, thus eliminating the program of retaining the customers
(Huang & Sarigollu, 2014).
Company owned retail and service centres
It is extremely essential for the company to open its own retail stores and service
centres, as it helps in building trust with the customers. The customers value the
organization and trust them if they are certain that they are dealing directly with the
company and not with some third party. Also, the company by virtue of this will be able
to create its own culture, and communicate the same to its customers.

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References
Bilgihan, A. and Bujisic, M., 2015. The effect of website features in online relationship
marketing: A case of online hotel booking. Electronic Commerce Research and
Applications, 14(4), pp.222-232.
Cummins, S., Peltier, J.W. and Dixon, A., 2016. Omni-channel research framework in the
context of personal selling and sales management: A review and research
extensions. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 10(1), pp.2-16.
Fixson, S. and Jobber, D., 2015. Personal Selling. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management,
pp.1-2.
Huang, R. and Sarigöllü, E., 2014. How brand awareness relates to market outcome,
brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp.
113-132). Springer, New York, NY.
Pearson, S., 2016. Building brands directly: creating business value from customer
relationships. Springer.
Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2016. Managing customer experience and relationships: A
strategic framework. John Wiley & Sons.
Sharma, A., 2016. What personal selling and sales management recommendations from
developed markets are relevant in emerging markets?. Journal of Personal Selling &
Sales Management, 36(2), pp.89-104.