Analysis of Sales Environment for International Customers

This report analyzes the nature of the sales environment, with a focus on the challenges and opportunities presented by international customers. The report examines the case of "Prestige Presentations," a UK-based retailer expanding to Stratford-upon-Avon, a location with a high volume of international tourists. It explores key components of the modern sales environment, including globalization, technology, and customer relationships. The report identifies issues encountered when selling to international customers, such as cultural differences, language barriers, and ethical considerations. It discusses the impact of these issues on staff recruitment, emphasizing the need for employees with specific skills, including language proficiency and cultural sensitivity. The report also covers performance measurement and sales control techniques, crucial for managing and optimizing sales efforts in a diverse market. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the sales environment, offering valuable insights for businesses operating in international markets.

Nature of Sales Environment
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Nature of the sales environment including the international environment .................................3
Issues encountered when selling to international customers.......................................................4
Impact of issues on the recruitment of new staff for the shop in Stratford..................................6
Special skills required by new recruits in order to sell to international customers......................8
How the measures performance of the new staff member should be measured..........................8
Techniques of sales control .........................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Sales management is the broader concept which includes functions such as managing
sales force as well as various sales activities, however, nature of sales environment is seen
different from the other sectors of economy (Robber and Lancaster, 2011). The present report
deals with the nature of the sales environment including the level of international environment
and the issues encountered when selling products to international customers. This study is based
on the case of “Prestige Presentations” which is a successful retailer of gift items in Birmingham,
UK. As per the case, the owner has opportunity to open a second retail outlet in Stratford upon
Avon. Nonetheless, customer profile in Stratford is somewhat different due to large number of
overseas visitors (tourists), hence, company requires new staff to sell products to international
customers. This assignment also showcases the issues faced by company in recruitment of new
staff for the shop in Stratford along with special skills that are required to be in new recruits in
order to sell products to international customers.
Nature of the sales environment including the international environment
Sales environment of the 21st Century is focused towards building long-term
relationships with customers and creating more nimble and adaptable sales organizational
structure. Traditionally, sales environment was only concerned towards selling a bulk of products
and attaining profits. Now days, it becomes a process to earn good revenue along with attaining
customer satisfaction (Spiro, 2003). Sales environment has become more dynamic that enables
companies to examine specific industry for the changes in regulations, globalization and
technologies. Business entities have to complete in a modern sales climate and use the market
information to distribute its sales force. Through availing sales training to the workforce as well
as instruments and resources, organizations will be able to approach sales effort in the best
possible manner. Major components of sales environment in international market are
Competitors, Customers, Technology, Mature market economies and globalization. In other
words, it can be said that modern sales environment is comprised with all such factors (Dunne,
Lusch and Carver, 2013).
Furthermore, sales environment is taken up steps for removing functional barriers within
the organization to create greater job ownership and commitment from salespeople. For a
corporate entity, it is important to keep a pace with changing business. Within UK, firms which
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are generally focused towards sales are having duty of keeping the sales personnel on-trend too
through offering sales training programs and sales management courses. This is also helpful for
sales force to mare concentrate on forthcoming changes within a business climate. Sales personal
plays an important role within a selling environment because sales process starts with a
communication between the buyer and seller. The nature of sales environment is based on the
sales management style as it has been shifted from commanding to coaching. New technological
applications are continuously leveraging so as to attain sales success (Robber and Lancaster,
2011).
Culture of diverse customer’s impact a lot on the sales environment as sales persons
have to adopt the sales tactics in accordance with the culture and specific need of people. The
major role of culture in sales environment is seen at the time of expanding business in the
international market. Culture that is possessed by people in international market is different as
compared to the home country so sales practices adopted by the company are to be changed in
accordance with the people. The major characteristic of sales environment is that company has to
arrange the practice so as to satisfying the needs of customers and in order to create long term
relations with the customers. For this reason, companies are taking initiatives towards training
their sales forces so they can attain sales targets and can contribute in improving the earning and
profits for business (Breaugh, 2014). In today's sales environment, making long term relation
with customers is the most important thing that enables companies to gain higher market shares.
In the present era of globalization, bridging the culture gap is the most important aspects of
organization. Customers are viewed in terms of ethnic core values and sales force that adopt the
perspective of country's cultures to put best efforts in selling products. Performance of sales
persons is to be evaluated and measured while incorporating all activities and outcomes.
Issues encountered when selling to international customers
According to the present case scenario, the owner has opportunity to open a second retail
outlet in Stratford upon Avon, however, it has to deal with the overseas visitors (tourists) at that
location. International customers are to be dealt by the sales force so it might possible that some
ethical, legal, cultural and other issues can arise. The major issue faced by the company to sales
its products to the international customers is related to cultural differences. International
customers have diverse cultures that are not managed by the existing workforce due to languages
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differences. There are major chances of arising misunderstanding as well as miscommunication
that will be seen as the biggest challenge which existing sales force can face with foreign
customers. Although, English is the most common language that resolves the problem of
miscommunication but it is not possible that every tourist will be highly proficient with this
language. Some tourists might not understand the subtleties so that company requires a sales
force that is strong enough in understanding of various languages. Sales force of company has to
maintain same salesmanship with the international customers as they maintain which domestic
customers (Global Retail: The Biggest Challenges to Overcome When Selling Internationally.
2015). They have to put efforts to provide information and other benefits to the prospective
buyers while motivating or persuading them to make buying decisions in favour of the seller’s
product or service. However, sellers should be known about the specific needs and wants of
customers so that needs and wants of people can be satisfied in the most effective manner (Ordiz
and et.al., 2003). There are some ethical issues that may arise at the time of selling products to
international people. Company or sales person has to be known about that how much consumers
are willing to pay for each product while concerning the profitability for businesses. There are
some most common ethical issues that are faced by the salespeople while dealing with the
people. The information is the major issues as the salesperson is responsible to provide the
accurate information in respect with the product and services that is going to be provide to the
customers (Jensen, 2013). In case, the sales person does not reveal specific information in
respect with the products, it may be seen as the most common ethical issue. On the other hand ,
the prices of product may lead to other ethical issues because company have to change the ethical
and standard prices of products. In case the prices of product are set higher as compared to the
market competitors, it must include some unique feature (Ordiz and et.al., 2003). Nonetheless,
the company can not set monopoly prices in the market as it will be against the European Union
laws. As in the present case , the company is going to open a new second retail outlet in Stratford
UK, so it has to follow the specific trade rule of the location. However, a changed promotional
champaign is to be done in Stratford for the new retail outlets. The potential customers must
provide the information that will like to benefits of products with their features.
There are some environmental issues that might be faced by the company in the process
of selling products to the international customers. The company must have the ability to pursue
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certain marketing strategies or activities that are good than the market competitors. The retail
environment of Stratford is different from Birmingham, and the mentioned entity has to adopt
the practices as per the marketing environment of Stratford as well as as per the needs and wants
of people. It has been witnessed that the environmental variables determine the ultimate success
or failure of marketing strategies. The economic environment directly affects the interactions of
buyer-seller as well as affects the real potential demand. The demand of customer for retail
products offered by Stratford is the most crucial that might be affected by the economic
environment of the country, further, it can be regarded as the most significant issues for the
company (Lo, 2015). It has been identified that global economic conditions are to be considered
as its has significant affect on selling success. Furthermore, competitive structure of the
competitive in the market place is also a environmental forces that affects business. The
company came up with uniqueness strategy and a innovative product so as to deal with the
competitive business. Other issues that are to be faced in the environment are production
capacity, location of production facilities and transportation costs as well as the ability to ensure
seamless distribution and service after the sale. The company has to be effective in terms of
designing and engineering that provides major promotional appeal (Hurrell and Cullen, 2012).
Furthermore, it can be seen that the many of the changes in society’s values reflect new laws and
new government regulations that are found be the major challenges for the company. The
mentioned entity has to follow the laws such as Antitrust, Consumer Protection and Equal
Employment Opportunity while dealing in the new market. However, it has been seen that
changes in the environment create new marketing opportunities for business that are fruitful for
company to gaining higher profits and sales (Global Retail: The Biggest Challenges to Overcome
When Selling Internationally. 2015).
Impact of issues on the recruitment of new staff for the shop in Stratford
Recruitment, selection and training are the most common activities of sale management
because sales function are to be organization by the sales force of company. To properly conduct
the sales practices the company requires effective sales force for the each locations. According to
the case scenario, the organization is going to open a new retail store at a new location hence, it
is required to have skilled people for completing sales task at the mentioned locations (Fileds,
2012). In the process of attempting to recruit and select a new sales person, the Sales Manager
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plays a unaccustomed role as instead of selling managers become the buyer (Hafeez and Aburaw,
2013). The manager of new store of “Prestige Presentations” in Stratford upon Avon, has to
recruit a the people who are to be proficient in dealing with people. For this task, a role of sales
person in the store is taken into consideration. The major issue arisen in the process of selling
product to the customers is of language issue or cultural issues. This issue will significantly
affects the recruitment processes of the sales managers of the store will look for the people from
the location itself who should be aware of the language and culture of Stratford. The another
issue is of adopting specific marketing strategies or activities that must be better then market
competitors. The retail environment of Stratford is different from Birmingham, hence, the
company have to recruit the people from the location itself who can adopt the practices as per
the marketing environment of Stratford as well as can satisfy the needs and wants of
international customers (Dunne, Lusch and Carver, 2013). The job role is designed for a sales
person at the store who will capable of understanding the needs and wants of customers and
providing effective services to the international customers. The store managers of new store will
look care that the person should be proficient in different languages so that they can be handle
the customer quarries and can satisfy the needs and wants of customers. In this way, the cultural
issue affects the recruitment of new staff for the shop in Stratford.
After recruiting people, it is witnessed that training of sales force is the most important
function that affects the operational of stores. The issue associated with the organization is of
changes in society’s values and new laws and new government regulations in the market. The
new staff should be trained enough to provide the services to the international customers in
accordance to their needs and while following rules and regulations (Regis, 2009). The staff are
to be provided training in the field of organizational norms of existing company and the culture
and values of company so they can perform effectively. The important determinants of success
are training and motivation which are dependent on the qualities of the recruit. The mentioned
company has to follow a systematic process of recruiting sales person at the new store. Firstly,
the company has to design a job description of sales person then there should construct the
person profile (ltman, 2009). The candidates are to be recruited while assessing application forms
of candidates. It is important that the candidates are to be recruited within location of new store
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i.e. Stratford. The further process of recruiting sales persona should include references checking,
psychological testing, structured interviewing and placement of successful candidates.
Special skills required by new recruits in order to sell to international customers
The case scenario indicates that company is going to deal with the international
customers as the new store at Stratford location is expecting more tourists from foreign
countries. The major responsibility of sales manager is of meeting the sales targets of the
organization through effective planning and budgeting. Furthermore, sales manager of new stores
must of proficient in devising strategies and techniques that are necessary for achieving the sales
targets. To deals with the international customers and to contribute in the success of company,
the sales force must have skills to perform the job (Spiro, 2003). The sales persons should be
enough skilled in mastering the art of consultative selling and managing a selling team approach.
They should be enough educated for knowing the customer’s business and how to add value
through service. The sales persons should have effective communication skills so that they make
customers clear with the is idea and various benefits of products. In addition to that, sales
persons must have effective interpersonal skills and they must of proficient in different languages
so they can handle the international customers. Customer loyalty is impossible to maintain
without trust element between sales person and customers, hence, the sales persona on new store
must be honest in their work (Robber and Lancaster, 2011). Long term relationships require
higher ethical standards that must be followed by new staff member. The responsibility of sales
manager of new store is to provide training to the new sales staff for distinguishing between
different products and services and putting together groups of products to form a solution. They
should be providing training in the field of handling the more educated buying population who
are from diverse market (Robber and Lancaster, 2011).
How the measures performance of the new staff member should be measured
Measuring performance is termed as one of the most crucial part of any business. It helps
organizations to identify the fact that whether employees are meeting the goals and objectives or
not. Further the concept of performance measurement is important in determining the status,
opportunities and status of employees. In order to measure performance of new staff, techniques
such Job rating checklist and critical incidents reporting can be used. In the process of Job rating
checklist, a list of questions or statements related to work of employees are prepared. The
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questions or statements are required to be answered in yes or no format. This technique is also
termed as one of the most simpler and effective technique which is used for measuring the
performance of employees. On the other side, critical incidents reporting can be also taken into
consideration (Dunne, Lusch and Carver, 2013). In this method, a list is built around specific
behaviour of an employees. In critical incidents the interpersonal skills and leaderships skills are
evaluated in situations such as critical incidents. On the basis of these skills, performance of the
employee is measured. At the time of measuring performance prestige presentations will be
required to make sure that a fair technique has been used and there has been no baisness done at
the time of measurement. Effective techniques will result in increasing the degree of employee
satisfaction and will also boost their performance (Breaugh, 2014).
Techniques of sales control
The techniques of sales control is often used by businesses to monitor and evaluate
current sales of the company. Further it is a process in which aims at ensuring the fact that sales
are recoded on time and the products and services are offered at correct prices. The techniques
which can be used to control sales is labour utilization control and making report. prestige
presentations can make report of sales on daily, weekly or monthly basis. This will help in
ensuring the fact that the sales is getting recoded on time and at correct prices (Lo, 2015). On the
other hand, the company can also use technique such as labour utilization in which rather than
focusing on measuring the effectiveness of new employees, the company can measure how well
it is utilizing its human resources. This will help the organization to become more effective and
will also support in enhancing the overall performance of the same. For the growth and
development of an organizations, effective and result oriented techniques of sales control is very
essential.
CONCLUSION
The report above presented the nature of the sales environment in United kingdom as
well as the characteristics of such. Major components of sales environment found are
Competitors, Customers, Technology, Mature market economies and globalization. It can be
concluded that company is going to face ethical and environmental issues such as cultural
barriers, language issues and so on, which are to be consider at the time of recruiting new staff
for the shop in Stratford. The new sales staff must have communication skills, interpersonal
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skills and should be proficient in different languages in order to sell products to international
customers.
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Online
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Global Retail: The Biggest Challenges to Overcome When Selling Internationally. 2015.
[Online]. Accessed through <http://www.cpcstrategy.com/blog/2015/04/global-retail-
biggest-challenges-overcome-selling-internationally/>. [Accessed on 16th December, 2015]
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