Integrating Digital Marketing to Improve Sales Management Practices

This report explores the integration of digital marketing within sales management to address challenges faced by businesses like Dick Smith, an Australian retail company that experienced significant losses due to poor marketing strategies. The report reviews literature supporting the adoption of digital marketing techniques such as SEO, social media marketing, and email marketing to improve sales and profitability. It highlights the importance of digital marketing in today's business environment, emphasizing its adaptability, measurability, and ability to level the playing field for businesses of all sizes. The report also addresses potential issues in sales team management, including the 'Star-Athlete Syndrome,' and stresses the need for focused training programs to develop critical sales management skills. Ultimately, the project aims to demonstrate how digital marketing can improve revenue generation and cash flow for businesses struggling with sales management.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 1
Integration of Digital Marketing in Sales Management
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date of Submission

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 2
Contents
1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................4
1.1. Overview of the Case Study Organization........................................................................4
1.2. Critical Literature Review.................................................................................................5
1.2.1. Digital Marketing and the Importance in Sales Management...................................5
1.2.2. Sales Management and Digital Marketing Issues......................................................7
1.2.3. Sales Management Skills and the Star-Athlete Syndrome........................................7
1.3. Research Aim....................................................................................................................9
1.4. Research Questions...........................................................................................................9
2. METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................................9
2.1. Data Collection and Analysis............................................................................................9
2.2. Presentation of Research Outcomes................................................................................10
3. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS..............................................................................................11
3.1 Findings...............................................................................................................................11
a) Success Definition.......................................................................................................11
b) Working with a Budget that is Limited.......................................................................12
c) Allocating Enough Time.............................................................................................12
3.1.1. Quantitative Data Supporting Digital Marketing....................................................13
3.2 Analysis...............................................................................................................................15
4. DISCUSSION........................................................................................................................16

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 3
5. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................17
6. REFERENCE........................................................................................................................20

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 4
1. INTRODUCTION
In the world of business, companies have adopted the concept of applying digital
marketing to advertise their products and services in the available platforms. By definition,
digital marketing is a concept or a strategy that encourages the use of internet tools and
electronic devices to market business brands or increase the customer base of a particular
organization (Chatman & Eunyoung, 2013, pg. 13). To meet the objectives of this activity, this
paper intends to use Dick Smith, an Australian retail company as the case study herein. Dick
Smith is one of the many retail companies in Australia that are faced with challenges pertaining
to sales management, particularly marketing. In the financial year 2015/2016, the company
registered significant losses due to their poor sales and marketing strategies. Since Dick Smith
had cash generation problems, it was unable to receive loans from the bank thus, reaching a point
of collapse (Calasanti & Slevin, 2017).
By comparing and contrasting the objectives of this report against the case of Dick Smith,
it is clear that marketing is an area of sales management that is technical and requires expertise to
realize the intended profits. This report, therefore, proposes the integration of digital marketing
in sales management to help organizations like Dick Smith solve marketing related issues and
increase sales. Apart from that, the paper intends to prove literature sources that uphold the
employment of digital marketing technics to improve sales management along with the general
objectives of the paper (Dawson, 2017).
1.1. Overview of the Case Study Organization
As mentioned before, the organization that will help in achieving the objectives of this
report is Dick Smith. Smith is a retail company based in Australia and sells electronics.

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 5
However, to expand its operations, the company decided to operate in New Zealand as well.
Dick Smith was initiated in 1968 and as at 2018; the company already has 3.300 workers
(Essays, 2015).
1.2. Critical Literature Review
1.2.1. Digital Marketing and the Importance in Sales Management
As mentioned before in this paper, digital marketing is a concept that encourages the use
of online tools such as social platforms and electronic devices like smartphones and computers to
manage sales and increase profitability. Many business organizations are currently adopting this
new technology to improve their sales. Some of the techniques under this concept include the “ad
per click”, the SEO (Search Engine Optimization), use of social media platforms, and the use of
emails for marketing (GWA, 2017).
Since sales management is all about adopting techniques and strategies that would
increase profitability, digital marketing would ensure that businesses increase their net sales via
the use of modern techniques that would result in profit drive for an organization. Businesses that
have not adopted this concept are trying every means to match the pace of leading corporations.
Such business organizations are either amplifying the current marketing strategies that they are
using or altering their action plans. At that time when lagging businesses are doing all it takes to
employ digital marketing techniques, they ask themselves why the use of modern marketing
tools is important for their businesses (Hofstede, 2016, pg. 18).
Some of the facts about integrating digital marketing techniques are as follows:
- About 50% of business organizations had employed digital strategies of
marketing as early as 2016.

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 6
- About 80% of business marketers believe that the use of traditional
methods of marketing is no longer sufficient and that the incorporation of digital
techniques would increase the amount of generated income.
- About 85% of corporations will increase their spending on digital
marketing strategies and related spending beyond their current IT budgets.
Back to the case of Dick, the company needs to incorporate a strategy of digital
marketing that will help the organization build an active platform that is also lucrative and
exceptionally pervasive to compete in the online market. The organization also needs to
understand that digital marketing is not just a sales management powerhouse in today’s business
world but also the fate of modern marketing and has already surpassed the traditional marketing
maneuvers. In the global village that we currently live in, individuals prefer going for digital
content, which makes it unperceivable why some business organizations do not see the essence
and opportunity in digital marketing. The fact is that the digital modes of marketing and
communication that are currently available are quicker, adaptable, result-driven, and quantifiable
(Knapp, 2016).
With the use of digital techniques of marketing, equal opportunities are created for every
kind of business. With digital marketing, the playing field is leveled thus, offering opportunities
for every kind of venture. Such means that large, medium, small, or even startups have whatever
it takes to perform marketing and sales processes that were only accessible to already established
companies earlier on (Louis, 2017). In relationship to sales management, the importance of
digital marketing also includes the ability to have several customers engaged without opting for
call center services. To make it even better, conversations associated with digital marketing are

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 7
ranked higher compared to other communication and marketing modes (Kroeber, Kluckhohn &
Untereiner, 2015).
1.2.2. Sales Management and Digital Marketing Issues
B2C and B2B companies are equally able to employ mediums of digital marketing.
However, such businesses need to pay attention to the available digital marketing trends that will
eventually lead them to success. Some of the marketing practices that are currently employed
such as SEO, SEM (Search Engine Marketing), e-Commerce SEO, Content Marketing, Social
Media Marketing, and Automation Marketing among others are recognized as the best digital
marketing techniques that B2B and B2C companies can employ (Louis, 2017). In whatever case,
the main advantage associated with conducting online or digital advertisements is the strictness
with which the entire process is tracked using marketing tools. Unlike the use of traditional
marketing methods like conducting customer research that is costly, digital marketing eases the
manner in which customer reactions can be tracked and sales as well as marketing goals
measured. However, this system is still under development and thus, businesses are required to
keep up with the latest technological advancements to ensure that they maintain their success
trails (Management, 2017a).
Before applying digital sales and marketing strategies, any business organization should
ensure that it manages its sales team because team management is one if not the most important
position in an organization (Management, 2017b). The greatest sales managers of all time are
attributed to their extensive impact on their sales teams’ productivity to ensure better sales
outcomes. On the contrary, the management of a sales team is also challenging since it requires
unique management skills. Unfortunately, the reason why most businesses cannot make profits

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 8
or carry out successful sales projects is that the managers that supervise sales teams in such
companies are ill-equipped when it comes to managing such teams (Management, 2017b).
1.2.3. Sales Management Skills and the Star-Athlete Syndrome
In most sales organizations, the word “Star-Athlete Syndrome” is frequent. This is a case
where an individual that is considered a star in sales promotion growing tired of his sales
promotion job position and then starts to aspire for a higher title like being a manager. It happens
then that at the same time, the president or vice president of sales is under pressure to have the
vacant position of a sales manager filled as soon as possible. This president or vice president, by
assuming that the leading sales representative will produce great sales management results,
appoints the representative (Management, 2017b). In such a case, the promoted representative is
unable to track his or her transition from individual contribution to team play. Before, he or she
used to achieve results via personal determination and effort as well as individual expertise.
However, when he or she becomes a sales manager, he or she cannot swiftly handle the
achievement of results via team performance. Such a problem is not associated with sales alone
but also other departments (Management, 2017a).
In as much as sales managers are required to obtain sales experience to credible and
effectively manage sales teams, an organization’s longtime success under sales management
encompasses the mastery of particular skills of sales management (Schein, 2015). To coax teams
to produce results that are exceptional, sales managers are required to excel or possess abilities
in:

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 9
- Managing the performance of sales by ensuring that they focus on behaviors that lead
to improved sales results
- Coaching of sales teams to improve the skills of sales agents as well as their
potentials.
- Building teams that are made up of sales professionals with competencies to succeed.
- Motivating and leading sales teams
- Providing returns on investment
To improve an organization’s sales team, focused training programs on sales
management is required to ensure the development of critical abilities of sales-management.
Always, the return on investment associated with the training of sales managers is enormous.
After such sales management training, a sales manager is likely to leverage improved skills of
sales management on the entire sales teams. Such means that if a sales manager that is properly
trained manages 10 sales representatives, improved effectiveness of the manager stands at an
investment return opportunity of 1:10 (Reynold, 2014, pg. 45).
1.3. Research Aim
This project’s main objective is to help businesses struggling with sales management
issues such as Dick Smith, to incorporate digital marketing strategy into their management
system to improve revenue generation and cash flow.
1.4. Research Questions
a) Why do businesses struggling with sales management issues need to adopt digital
marketing strategies or tools?
b) Which digital marketing strategies will help sales managers improve team play?

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 10
2. METHODOLOGY
2.1. Data Collection and Analysis
Processes of data collection involve the gathering of relevant information from sources
that are credible and relate to the subject matter. These sources would help in obtaining the
relevant answers to the presented problem. The same data may be used to evaluate outcomes and
test hypotheses (Pettigrew, 2015, pg. 577). Our methods of secondary data collection are:
- Collection of important information from magazines, newspapers, online portals, and
journals.
These sources contain data or information regarding my area of study thus; there is the
need to use an appropriate criterion to select such secondary sources of data. Any used criterion
is important because it would increase research reliability and validity levels. This research uses
data collection criteria such as checking publication dates, the credentials of the author,
discussion quality, reliability of the source, analysis depth, and the contribution extent towards
the development of my area of research (Rai & Panna, 2015).
2.2. Presentation of Research Outcomes
According to Research Methods (2018), some of the outcomes registered in relation to
digital marketing and sales management are:
- About 50% of business organizations had employed digital strategies of
marketing as early as 2016.
- About 80% of business marketers believe that the use of traditional
methods of marketing is no longer sufficient and that the incorporation of digital
techniques would increase the amount of generated income.

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 11
- About 85% of corporations will increase their spending on digital
marketing strategies and related spending beyond their current IT budgets.
3. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
3.1 Findings
This report has identified digital marketing as the solution to relevant sales management
issues that companies like Dick face in the current business world (Shah, 2017). On the contrary,
in as much as digital marketing is an important area of sales management that organizations tend
to adapt to clear off their sales shortcomings, organizations are still likely to face digital
marketing challenges. Such challenges may arise because the landscape of digital marketing is
still evolving thereby, displaying new threats that companies do not know how to deal with.
Some of these challenges include:
a) Success Definition
About 50% of businesses do not understand if their strategies for digital marketing are
functional or not. This figure shows that a good number of corporations spend money on
marketing strategies that they are not sure whether they would work or not. There are two ways
of solving such a challenge: an organization to take its time to determine its digital marketing
goals and determining the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that lead to the established goals
(McKenna, 2013). For instance, when an organization sets its goals to obtain more leads in a
particular year - say 2018, the organization should set its goals, and then establish a means of
measurement of things such as new potential leads, inbound traffic, conversion rates, and
qualified leads among others. In our case, Dick Smith (and the likes) need to take their time

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 12
doing the bulk work of setting KPIs and goals before embarking onto day-to-day sales
management and digital marketing campaigns (Lombardo, 2017).
b) Working with a Budget that is Limited
Most businesses invest more in other areas compared to that of sales and marketing. Such
a case is because these organizations are not sure if digital marketing strategies would work or
not and thus, investing heavily on sales and marketing would be a risk not to bear (Learning,
2017). However, there are those organizations who work with limited budgets thus face
problems associated with such (McKenna, 2013). However, there are many ways that
organizations can overcome obstacles associated with working with limited budgets. Digital
marketing will bear fruits if an organization focuses on value addition to customers. The reason
why buyers opt for one’s business is to have their consumption problems solved. In such a
manner customer learn to trust the businesses if they are provided with what they need and in an
appropriate manner. For most B2B businesses, the process of selling begins with searching.
Strategic content should be created properly to ensure that the problems of the organization are
solved (Lombardo, 2017).
c) Allocating Enough Time
Most sales and marketing managers claim that the biggest challenges associated with
marketing are finding resources and time for marketing. However, when they find such time and
resources and focus them on marketing, the resources spread thin in other areas. Solving time-
related problems might be difficult since managers still do not know the number of working
hours to add to the working hours (Learning, 2017). For such a reason, business organizations
are required to have the right agency partners. Such partners should be able to understand the
business and then focus on marketing. In such a manner, the business will be able to focus on