Sales Management Strategies and British Airways Case Study

This report offers an in-depth analysis of sales management principles, focusing on their application within British Airways. It explores key concepts such as sales planning, selling methods, and sales reporting, highlighting their significance in driving revenue and achieving business objectives. The report evaluates the benefits of sales structure within the company, examining how it is organized and its impact on operational efficiency. Furthermore, it delves into the importance of selling through others, the development of effective sales strategies, and the techniques for building and managing customer relationships. Through a detailed examination of British Airways, the report provides insights into how these principles are applied in practice, offering valuable perspectives for students studying sales management and related fields. The report also touches upon the importance of sales structure, including geography, product, and market-based approaches, and their respective advantages and disadvantages.

SALES
MANAGEMENT

Executive Summary :
Sale management is known as that process of the business in which it hires, trains and
also motivates the employees of sales department. The aim of sale management is to increase the
revenue of the business with the help of cohesive sales strategy. The sales management of a
organization consists of the principles of sales management that helps the business for planning,
reporting and methods of selling. Benefits of sales management in an organization is huge as it
helps in increasing the productivity. British airways is a British aviation company that is the
second largest UK based airline organization.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Key principles of sales management relating to sales planning, selling methods and selling
reporting.......................................................................................................................................3
Benefits of sales structure and how it is organised......................................................................4
Key principles and techniques for successful selling and its impact on building and managing
customer relationships.................................................................................................................5
Importance and advantages of selling through others concept....................................................8
Importance of sales strategies development which yield the highest profitability......................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Sales management is said to be the process which is used for the development of the sales
force for coordinating sales operations. Sales management is the implementation of techniques of
sales which allows the business to constantly surpass the business and its sales targets. For the
development of revenue a sales management strategy is very important. An organization uses
sales management for the development of it business to improve the continuous process of
boosting the economy. A sales manager is the person who is responsible for maintaining the
sales team of the organization. For the achievement of the sales targets of the company it
requires talented individuals. Sales manager itself is responsible for the hiring of individuals
which can make the sales of the business of the company. For understanding the sales
management the chosen organization is British Airways. This company is the based in London,
England. It is a flag carrier airline which is the second largest UK based airline organization.
This company is owned by the British government which established this business in 1974. In
this project the key principles of sales management will be discussed with relations to the
importance of sales planning, methods of selling and also sales reporting. This project will
evaluate the benefits of the sales structure of British Airways and also show the ways in which
they are organized with the help of specific examples. This project will also talk about the
importance and advantages of the concept called selling through other. The main objective in this
project will be the analysation of the key principles and techniques of successfully selling. This
project will help in explaining the importance of development of sales strategies which has the
potential of yielding the highest profit.
MAIN BODY
Key principles of sales management relating to sales planning, selling methods and selling
reporting.
Sales management:
It is the procedure of forming sales force, coordination of sales operations, and
implementation of sales technique so that business can continuously grow and even cross its
sales target (Vasilev and Kehayova-Stoycheva, 2019). If business want to generate good revenue
then they should have sales management strategy. When company has decided to improve its
sales performance no matter what is the size of the company, then success can be achieved
through sales management processes. As sales management helps the British airways in
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achieving the sales objectives. This process helps the industry in its growth. British airways very
well know that managing sales properly is the key to success because will only help business to
run smoothly as it will bring revenue to the company.
Principles of sales management:
Consistency:
This is one of the important sales principle. Rather than the management philosophy,
company should have follow their guidelines which they had laid. Inflexibility is not the
consistency. So leaders should have give little flexibility to their employee in order to increase
their employee morale.
Delegation:
Sales manager cannot perform every activity with themselves. So it is required for the
manger to manage properly and should have gave their team independence and also little
delegation should have given to them. This will increase sales because employee thinks that her
or his manager is trusting on them so that is why they has delegated responsibility and employee
develop feeling that they will never let the trust of manager to go down.
Equality:
Sales manager must have treat equally to their every worker. They should have not
discriminated them on the basis of age, caste, gender, religion, colour, race etc. Same standards
should been applied on everyone in a fair manner. If manager will discriminate then other
employee will get demotivated while employee are judged on the basis of their performance and
not because he or she is favourite of manager, favouritism must not be applied. Demotivated
employees will never achieve sales target.
Conviction:
This is the challenge which is faced by every sales manager as they have to face difficult
choices and complex conversations. It can be to let someone go, giving criticism on the
performance of employees, giving bad sales news as sales is never the sunshine all the time
(Hase and Busch, 2018). This all require strength so that sales manager can make difficult
choices and have complex conversation in easy manner. Manager should have developed
empathy for their employees of what they are going. They can be strict with their workforce but
should have treated them fairly.
Sales planning process stage:
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Analyse: sales manager of British airways should check the market conditions. They
should have assessed that competitors carefully. So that they can take competitive advantage.
Set goals: British airways should have make goals which can be increasing sales, revenue etc.
Sales manager should ensure that the goals are attainable by adopting effective sales technique.
Smart objectives should have been made.
Develop plan: Planning should be made so that it can made clear that how goals can be achieved.
In the planning process risks and hurdles can be identified easily. So that in this process only
measures can be taken to mitigate this. British airways in the planning process decide that which
sales technique have to be adopted.
Execute: Now is the time to implement the plan. British airways with the help of experts sales
team execute plan.
Evaluate: Evaluating results in every quarter as it is ongoing process. Here British airways takes
sales reporting.
Sales technique:
Upselling technique:
This technique refers to when the upgraded product is offered by salesperson. By giving
one product free with another product can also increase sales of goods. British airways can use
this technique to increases its sales (Maeng, 2017). As this is the objective of upselling to
increase sales and give multiple options to the customers in order to satisfy their needs.
Consultative selling:
It is the sales method which give priority to the relationships and give solutions so that
customers needs can be satisfied. It concentrate on customer more than the sales (Rutkauskas,
2020). As they know that for long term growth companies are dependent on customers only so to
make them happy is essential.
Application of B2B and B2C in the sales management:
B2C means when business directly deals with customers. Here the target market is large
but the purchaser will be single only. By following single step, buying process will end. Having
short sales cycle. As British airways is directly dealing with customers so can increase sales by
targeting potential customers.
B2B means when business deals with business, there is no customer involvement.
Although the target market is niche but company can get multiple customers. Buying process
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will include multiple steps. Having longer sales cycle.
Sales reporting:
Managing the sales team is not easy (Hinson, Adeola and Amartey, 2018). Sales
reporting means where the sales manager is effective as he have knowledge of sales process and
also have created foundation for the successful sales operation and analysis. The procedure of
keeping record of the information at the step of the sales process and evaluating the data so that
can check that how company can become successful and how results can be improved. British
airways can concentrate on measuring activities which can give good results by giving value to
the company.
Principle of sales management different in response with consumer and business buying
behaviour:
British airways should treat every customer equal, as equality is the principle of sales
management. If they are giving discounts then it should have been applied on every customer.
Selected group of customers should not been always given advantages. If business will not
discriminate then company can achieve more sales then what they are expecting.
Benefits of sales structure and how it is organised.
Sales structure:
It means segmentation within the sales team with specialised groups. Organising sales team is
not easy as it is based on regions which is served by the company, number of items and services
offered, sales team size and size of the customers. Sales organisation structure is vital as it sales
so that seller can achieve success (Cuevas, 2018). Design of the sales organisation also matters.
As it will be helpful in capitalizing individual experiences while making sure that right sellers
are targeting right customers. If sellers will target wrong customers then it will be the loss of
time and efforts and no sales will be generated from that. The structure of sales workforce give
importance to the business success. In simple words sales structure is the designing of the sales
team.
Types of sales structure:
Geography structure:
Managing the sales team on the basis of geography or territory and also help salesperson to make
familiarity within the particular geographic location. In order to increase sales. Salesperson can
build relations with local business so that they can gain knowledge about regional competitors
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and can easily target customers (Zheng, Chu and Jin, 2021). By this reps can be easily evaluated
by considering the performance and potential of the market of particular geographic location.
This sales structure is considered because it make comfortable for sales reps to work in silos,
develop the ability of cross functional expertise.
Advantages
This structure is low in costs. Effective territory management can helpful in eliminating
geographic duplication. There are also chances that can get less duplication efforts with the
customers.
Disadvantages:
Sales reps will struggle more while developing market and product specialization. Territory
sizing would be challenging which will not give expected revenue.
Product or service structure:
If the organisation is selling multiple products and services then it will make align to the
salesperson in regards of those services and items. As same as geography structure, this structure
also help reps to make them expert on the particular item they sell. It is better that it value should
been communicated and cases are used for the individual clients. While implementing this
structure, reps should have concentrate on the characteristic of the products which they are
selling (Guizzardi and et.al., 2021).
Advantages:
By using this structure, product expertise are developed by the sales reps. Selling efforts can be
guided and appreciated by the management.
Disadvantages:
It may incur more costs because of duplication in the efforts with the customer accounts. If
multiple sales reps have given same location then effective coordination between them is must.
Market based structure:
It refers to when sales reps are combined by the customer of particular industry. This can be also
called customer sales force structure. It depends on business to business as every business have
different goals and have different budgets. Under this structure sales team should have given idea
that they will be facing difficulty while managing resources effectively. Continuous
communication must be there with the team if business want to be successful.
Advantages:
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As sales reps have develop idea about the needs and demands of their customers so they build
healthy relations with them (The Pros and Cons of Different Sales Structures. 2020). This will
help company in increasing their sales. Within various markets, management control can be
easily allotted.
Disadvantages:
This structure incur high costs. There are chances of happening geographic duplication.
Product sales force structure :
This structure focuses on those products of the clients which can be based on the
individual products or the types of the product. For such sales organizational structure it is
important to become more and more specialized for having all the mentioned options. Such kind
of sales structure finds itself with the more issue than advantages. This happens because the
companies sales is totally based on the products or services it presents. Such a structure is seen
successful only in the area in which there are only one industry of the company and it has only
one type of services. Such a specialization of in the sales of a company is very great for the
company however it limits the market of the company. For a business which is not into
expansion is mostly going to suffer. Having focus on the product means that the coordination of
the individuals of the company is a lot strong.
Advantages :
This sales structure is very affective for the organization which has a product based
business. For example British Airlines, this company provides the customers of the company
with only airline services. This is an advantage as the company and its management start
developing expertise in the operation of the company.
Disadvantages :
The disadvantage of such a sales structure is that their market is very limited.
Organization which has such a sales structure may face issues in entering a new industry.
Key principles and techniques for successful selling and its impact on building and managing
customer relationships
Principles of successful selling
 Selling is all about relationships
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The main focus of selling is not the products but the ability to win that sale. This leads to
building in relationship with the buyer. People have many choices to buy which is making the
competition tougher. This is must for the company to build stronger relationships with the
customers so that they believe in the products and services offered. This includes identifying the
needs, showing genuine interest, mixture of building rapport, adding value and building trust.
The customers must have many answers to choose the company among all the competitors.
British Airlines provides carriers (flights) to the customers who are keen to travel. The company
must provide such services which provides memorable journey to the travellers through the
luxurious and affordable flights.
 Sell is not about the product but the problem
The main focus of the marketers of the company must be towards the needs of the customers
which can be fulfilled by the products offered by the company. The major priority of the
company like British Airlines must be the need of the customers and then their problems must be
solved. The major reason behind the success of selling and the principle lies in the reason and
pain behind the buying decision of the consumers (Castelló and Mihelj, 2018). The major trick
which can be used by British Airways is to analyse the emotional reasons behind the buying of
the product and services because this will help in solving and removing the potential pain from
them. This can be followed by justifying the value, benefits and features of product.
 Price and value go hand in hand
This can be observed from the selling strategies of large organisations the features of the
product do not change but the prices do change. The price of the product depends on the
value created by the product and what it offers to the potential buyer. If the customers of the
company believe that the products offered are expensive then this means that the company
has not created enough value for the products. The British Airlines must focus on creating the
value instead of prices. The difference in the price is not important if the products of the
company do not have enough value. Many companies think that they are not getting the sales
and customer base because of the increased prices. But the main role is played by the value
offered by the products and services of the company. If British Airlines can create value of
its services then the customers will not feel its services expensive. This is why; the major
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principle of selling is to create a brand value of the company so that the customers do not
hesitate before accepting the services of the company (Yadav and Joseph, 2017).
 There is no sale unless it can be closed
This can be evaluated from the selling processes of the companies that they love a big
pipeline which can also helping in bragging up the amazing opportunities on which the marketers
of the company work, the big customers targeted by the company, hard work put by the company
etc. Unfortunately, one of the major principles of selling is that in order to get sales, the company
needs to sell the products. The success of the selling does not come from the hard-work of the
employees or the size of the pipeline but it actually comes from selling which presents the hard
work and the pipeline (Al-Hajj and Zraunig, 2018). This does not matter for the company that
where, what and who it sells but the thing which matters is that the company close its deals and
starts selling its products and services. British Airlines must adhere to this principle irrespective
of the customers it serves.
 Winning is relied in listening
This is the major principle of successful selling because listening efficiently helps in building
relationships. Listening is the only thing for the marketers of the companies like British Airlines
which can help in identifying the real problems and the pain of customers. This can also help in
finding the buying signals which can help in closing the sales (Lacoste, 2018). The best sales
people are those who are good listeners who have the ability to control the conversation and also
know the ways in which questions can be asked and are also aware of the ways in which
information can be listen which can help in progressing of the sales.
Techniques of successful selling
There are various techniques which are based on the principles of successful selling
which can be implemented by British Airways. This includes selling to the situation of the
buyers. The real drivers behind the behaviour of customers and customer change are the real
challenges in the situation of buyer instead of professional disposition. Another technique is to
introduce the unconsidered needs. The sales person must be able to connect the products of the
company to the needs of the customers. These messages must be completely different from the
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one which is conveyed by the competitors. The company like British Airlines must also highlight
the gap between the purchase and after the purchase which can help in creating urgency to buy
the services (Ancillai and et.al., 2019). This can be done by linking the emotions with the data
which means talking about the current problems and the ways in which lives can become better
and easier. At the time of selling, the sales person must consider the customer the hero of the
story which can add urgency and the prospect can consider them more personally responsible to
solve the problem. The sales person or the marketers must create price uncertainty during the
sales negotiations. The emotions of the prospects must also be appealed along with the data. The
existing customers must not be challenged which means the messages conveyed to the existing
customers and the potential customers must be different. This is how; British Airways must use
couple of techniques for selling successfully its products and services (Antczak and Sypniewska,
2017). Every technique used must be sharpened with situational awareness for knowing about
the time abs ways for adapting them to each situation. These techniques can help in building
stronger relationships with the customers and also attracting them to become loyal customers
from prospects.
Importance and advantages of selling through others concept
Selling through concept means making the sales with the help of a third party. This
includes the involvement of a retailer. This basically means that the business is utilizing the third
party for making their sales for their for commission. In some cases it can also be though another
business which is a retailer of the process or services. For British Airways its airline services
cannot be traded however, the company can join partnership in certain markets. Other business
which allow the business to sell their airline tickets is also a form of Selling through other
concept (Davies, 2017). This organization enjoys the following importance and advantages by
selling though others are,
Focused management partner :
The third parties though which a business is selling its business is considered as a very
focused brand management partner. This happens because the aim of the third party is to earn
from reselling or promotion of the sales of the company's product. This is the reason third parties
are very focused on the market (Purtova, 2018). For selling through a third party the organization
needs to have proper coordination with the third party. This includes them as the part of the
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