Body

The history of salesmanship is as old as the human civilization itself. R.L .Stevenson had
once famously remarked ³everybody is surviving on selling something to someone´.
The salespeople in the past were not held in high esteem by the society. The Roman
equivalent of the word salesperson is cheater. Today, however, an organization relies
heavily on its salesperson, that is, its sales force. This is so because of the increasing
importance of selling. Today¶s selling approach also includes maintaining good customer
relationship, managing the profitability of a firm, managing customer complaints and
building brand value in the eyes of the customer. As such, the concept of sales force
management becomes central to the growth of a sales organization. This, if seen in the
light of the world average attrition rate, which continues to shift between 30% - 40%,
becomes even more significant.
The objectives of the project are
^| To understand the concepts of sales organization

^| rganizing and staffing of the sales force
^| Yerformance management and reward system used

The report requires the information to be collected mainly by interacting with the sales
managers, the HR managers and the salespeople of the respective companies. As of now,
the information that has been collected by interacting with them has been put up in this
report.

The sales managers and HR managers who were contacted for the purpose cannot divulge
much information as it is against the company policy. So some generic information and
little specific information could be taken from them so far.
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!
èhiraagu is a joint venture company 55% owned by the Government of the Maldives and
45% by Cable and Wireless. They began their operations in 1988 as the national
telecommunications carrier of the Maldives. Since that time èhiraagu satisfaction has
rapidly built a sound, financially strong business based on a commitment to providing
innovative products and services and a philosophy that places high value on customer.
Their goals are in line with the Government's vision for the development and growth of
the telecom sector in the country. Their latest venture involved the provision of
broadband Internet Services to the Atolls, and the linking of the Maldives to the global
information highway, with the help of a state of the art fiber optic submarine cable
network. They have a well-established relationship and a proven record in providing
corporate customers with reliable network solutions and superior account support in the
rapidly changing corporate market place.
"

ur vision is to be leading communication service provider in South East Asia.

Their mission is ³To lead the Information communications market through excellence in
quality, value & customer service´.
#"
We have adopted a system of values that must continuously represent the behavioral
reference point for all the people working in the Company, thus creating a cohesive
belonging to an industry enterprise.
$%

èhiraagu takes pride in active involvement in the community in which we serve. As a

truly Maldivian company, we strongly identify with the community and regularly
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contribute to worthy causes such as education, health and children's development. We
also actively support the island communities in their social activities.
&&'!
The Sunup Super market has been tagged as the ³Super that never sleeps´. Justifiably
living up the title, Sunup was the first to introduce the 24 hour retail concept to Sri
Lanka. It¶s also the first convenient store to jointly operate with a fuel ret outlet. All these
innovations have taken Sunup to a step ahead of the rest. perating since February 2001,
the super market chain has a proud reputation for the most diverse and the product range.
We target not only the individual retail customer but also bulk sales as in general trade.
"

To be favorite local grocer that provides friendly, helpful service; and abundance of
quality products ± many sourced locally; competitive price and strong community
leadership.

To operate customer driven competitive and profitable food stores that support the
community, local suppliers and sustainable growth that will benefit employees and
islanders for many years to come.
#(

Agora is one of the largest supermarket chains in the Maldives today. Its first branch,
Agora Supermarket Majeedhee magu, opened in 2000. Today, it has 03 branches across
the Male¶, Maldives.
Agora Supermarket seeks to educate and empower its customers on their choice of foods
and products to promote healthy living and proper nutrition. Its slogan, ³Eat Well Spend
Less´, captures this philosophy. It also offers a wide selection of meats, seafood¶s, fruits
and vegetables and organic produce in its Fresh section.
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This unique philosophy is complemented by well-designed stores that offer convenience
and good service. Agora Supermarket features a wide variety of merchandise that allows
shoppers to complete their grocery shopping under one roof.
# "

ur vision is to be the leading supermarket operators in Asia.
#

ur Mission is to develop and manage supermarket operations which are characterized
by a commitment to customer satisfaction, loyalty to our employees, ethical treatment of
our suppliers, an equitable return for our investors, and active support of our
communities. Above all else, we want to treat everyone the way we would want to be
treated.
#

)
It is not enough for a business to have good products sold at attractive prices. To generate
sales and profits, the benefits of products have to be communicated to customers. In
marketing, this is commonly known as "promotion".
A business total marketing communications programme is called the "promotional mix"

and consists of a blend of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public
relations tools. In this section, we describe the four key elements of the promotional mix
used by the selected organizations and how they use each method.
# (

Any paid form of non-personal communication of ideas or products in the "prime media":
i.e. television, newspapers, magazines, billboard posters, radio, cinema etc. Advertising is
intended to persuade and to inform. The two basic aspects of advertising are the message
(what you want your communication to say) and the medium (how you get your message
across).
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# &

Yersonal Selling is an effective way to manage personal customer relationships. The sales
person acts on behalf of the organization. They tend to be well trained in the approaches
and techniques of personal selling. However sales people are very expensive and should
only be used where there is a genuine return on investment. The personal selling may
focus initially on developing a relationship with the potential buyer, but will always
ultimately end with an attempt to "close the sale".
Yersonal selling is a promotional method in which one party (sales person) uses skills and
techniques for building personal relationships with another party (those involve in the
purchase decision) that result in both parties obtaining value. In most cases the ³value´
for the sales persons is realized through the financial rewards of the sale, while the
customer¶s ³value´ is realized from the benefits obtained by consuming the product.
However, getting a customer to purchase a product is not always the objective of personal
selling. For instance selling may be used for the purpose of simply delivering
information.
# #&

Yroviding incentives to customers or to the distribution channel to stimulate demand for a

product.
Sales promotions tend to be thought of as being all promotions apart from advertising,
personal selling, and public relations. For example the BGF promotion, or Buy ne
Get ne Free. thers include couponing, money-off promotions, competitions, free
accessories (such as free blades with a new razor), introductory offers (such as buy digital
TV and get free installation), and so on.
# $*

!
Yublic Relations is defined as 'the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and
maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics' (Institute of
Yublic Relations). It is relatively cheap, but certainly not cheap. Successful strategies tend
to be long- term and plan for all eventualities.
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$ +

)

Advertising is the life blood of any business, no matter how big or how small. All the
organizations do advertising in more than one form.
,(

& (
TV Ë Ë Ë
Radio Ë Ë Ë
Community involvement Ë
News paper Ë Ë Ë
Yellow pages Ë
èirect mail Ë
Magazines Ë Ë Ë
Business cards Ë Ë
Vehicle advertising Ë
News letters Ë
Yosters and bulleting Ë Ë Ë
nline discussion groups/chat
Ë
rooms
Yress release Ë
Yublic announcements Ë
As you can see from the above table, there are common methods of advertising followed
by all three organizations, such as TV, radio, news paper and Yoster bulleting. This is
because it¶s easy to reach a mass population at the same time and it¶s cost effective. ut
of which èhiraagu uses more intensive marketing strategies where they use almost all the
types of advertising. The reason behind this is that the telecommunication industry of
Maldives is a growing industry where the competition is intense. èhiraagu has been the
monopoly for the past few years until the Wataniya group comes. Wataniya came and
with their new marketing strategies, they grab very high percentage of of the èhiraagu
customers. Therefore, it is very essential for them to foothold the rest of their customers
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and attract new customers. So èhiraagu solely uses online discussion groups/chat rooms,
press release, yellow pages, direct mail, news letters and public announcement.
n the other hand, Agora, has been the market leader for a very long time and the
customers very well know the quality of their products. In Maldives, in terms of fast
moving consumer goods, the customers are more quality oriented then price. Agora
provides the best quality of goods for an affordable price. Therefore, they advertise the
most common methods of advertising which is TV, radio, news paper, magazines, vehicle
advertising and posters. TV ads, radio and news papers advertisements are for all over the
Maldives, where the mass audients is covered. Yosters, magazines and vehicle
advertisements are conducted only in the capital city, where the target market lives.
Sunup also uses the most frequently used methods of advertising which is TV, radio,
news paper, magazines and posters.
There is no right or wrong method of advertising as long as you reach you target market.
Just because other organization uses different methods of advertising does not mean that
it should be followed. Advertising should be based on the capabilities and affordability of
the organization, where they do not exceed the forecasted budget. As far as the above
mentioned organizations are concerned, èhiraagu is using wide range of different
advertising methods, which has the high probability of attracting new customers.
Therefore, out of three dhiraagu could be considered the best practice.
$ &

Sales promotion is different promotion, Sales promotion refers to those marketing

activities other than personal selling, advertisement and publicity, which stimulate
consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness, such as displays, shows and expositions,
demonstrations and various non-recurrent selling efforts not in the ordinary routine. Its
purpose is to increase the desire of salesman, distributors and dealers to sell a certain
brand and to make consumers more eager to buy that brand. This includes sales activities
which supplement both personal selling and advertising.
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,&

& (
Money off coupons Ë Ë
Competitions Ë Ë Ë
èiscount vouchers Ë Ë
Free gifts Ë Ë Ë
Yoint of sale materials Ë
Loyalty cards Ë
Money off coupons is customers receive coupons, upon purchase of certain items that
enables them to buy the product next time at a reduced price. Money off coupons are
offered by Sunup and Agora. èhiraagu does not practice this method.
Buying the product will allow the customer to take part in a chance to win a prize, which
creates competition. All the three organizations practice this method. This is a proven
method of motivating customers to buy more.
Free gifts such as buy one and get one free concept is being practice by all three
organizations. In Agora and Sunup when you buy one toothpaste and you get one free
brush free. In èhiraagu buy a mobile phone and get connection kit free. While èiscount
vouchers are given only by èhiraagu and Agora. Yoint of sales materials ± e.g. posters,
display stands ± ways of presenting the product in its best way or show the customer that
the product is there.
Loyalty cards have recently become an important form of sales promotion. They
encourage the customer to return to the retailer by giving them discounts based on the
spending from a previous visit.
Loyalty cards are provided only in Agora, which can offset the discounts they offer by
making more sales and persuading the customer to come back. They also provide
information about the shopping habits of customers ± where do they shop, when and what
do they buy? This is very valuable marketing research and can be used in the planning
process for new and existing products
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Agora provides wide range of sales promotions which customers are more likely to re
visit them because of the wide range of offers that they get.
$ *

^|

-This is the most important tool to maintain public relations. It
includes giving out information about the company's products and services to the
press and media sector who publicize the information on the TV, radio, internet,
in newspapers and other publicity resources. YR professionals coordinate with
members from the press and media regarding legal or social matters of the
organization, products to be launched, and the company top management
information. This can be done effectively by modifying and presenting the matter
in such a way that it won't have an adverse effect on the company's image in the
business world. For making the media to publicize everything good about the
company, YR managers try their level best to maintain healthy relations with the
press, which may also be done by distributing some free gifts.
All the three organizations make sure that they perform this public relations method very
effectively. The above mentioned advantages can only be gained by the effective use of
this method.
^|
+- Such type of tours is generally conducted when a manufacturing
company wants to successfully advertise and promote its newly launched product.
There can never be an effective way of product publicity other than using media
tours. In a media tour, the organization's spokesperson goes to other important
cities for introducing a new product or service. It may also include attending TV
and radio talk shows, and being interviewed by press and media newsmen. The
spokesman can be a company's representative or anyone hired or contracted from
outside. A celebrity also can be used for this purpose.
ut of which èhiraagu is the only company who practice this method. They go all around
Maldives launching new services along with the celebrities. This enhances their bond
with the customers. the outcome of this has been very positive so far. The number of
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customers that they have lost due to the immense competition is recovering by using
media tours.
^| â.- This process includes collecting contact information of consumers

or future customers, and sending newsletters to them which include the matter
intended to be known by the targeted audience. The targeted people could be
business marketers, end customers, middlemen, or traders. Newsletter may be
made available either through regular mail or email. Newsletters are certainly an
effective way to get in touch with the existing or future customers.
ut of all èhiraagu is the only one who practices this method. This gives them the edge
of all.
^| &
/-Reputed companies generally hold such events when they want
to launch their products with a bash. Special events can be organized to publicize
about the company and the product in a boastful way. In such special events, there
is an arrangement for a party, dinner, and a set of stunts to be performed. This
certainly attracts the attention of reporters and public media personnel, and the
company eventually gets good product coverage. YR managers effectively work
with event management professionals to ensure that the program goes along in a
well planned manner, and the intended message is reached to the public and the
media.
All the three organizations practice this method, they hold special events and also in
addition to that they give sponsorships for different event. In Maldives èhiraagu is one of
the main body who almost sponsors all the events which involves youth and sports.
Basically their target is to attract youth and create a bond between them. Which infect is a
very good approach in public relations management.
When we take all the selling aspects of the three organizations into consideration, its been
noted that the promotional mix of èhiraagu is very strong and the approaches that they
follow are extremely effective. The main reason behind this is that they use wide range of
promotional mix along with the strong public relation tools. Which has created a very
strong bond between the company the country¶s youth.
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D
The responsibilities of the sales rep are growing more disparate from company to
company. Gone are the days in which the salesperson was usually the sole instrument of
sales generation. Today, team selling, long-term agreements and the rise of the CSR have
affected the daily role of the salesperson.
According to Kotler (1990) the six main activities of a sales force are:
^|
- trying to find new customers
^|

- with existing and potential customers about the product range
^| &
- contact with the customer, answering questions and trying to close the
sale
^| &

- providing support and service to the customer in the period up to
delivery and also post-sale
^|

- obtaining information about the market to feedback into
the marketing planning process
^| (
- in times of product shortage, the sales force may have the power to
decide how available stocks are allocated
D (
The role of sales personnel in Agora are as follows.
^| Ylan allocation of their personal time and other available resources to optimize
performance against the expectations of their employer, their customers and their
suppliers.
^| Gather information from customers, suppliers and their own company regarding
independent needs and requirements. Needs would include organization, job and personal
needs within all three groups.
^| Continually gather information on threats and opportunities as well as emerging
trends within their industry and their customers industry from sources outside of their
customers, suppliers and their own companies.
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^| Analyze information from the three constituencies and outside sources to
formulate and develop solutions that increase economic value and improve upon all their
independent value propositions.
^| Ylan, present, educate, persuade and implement identified solutions for their
customers.
^| Keep the company informed with respect to projects, activities, results, and work
in process, threats and opportunities.
^| Support the ongoing transaction management activity including pre-sell activity,
transaction activity and post-sell activity. As companies evolve, the role of field sales in
this activity shifts from primary to supportive. This means that all company resources
must be engaged and the value of 'Team Selling' is recognized and promoted.
^| Ensure that they maintain an ongoing training and development activity to
increase their knowledge and professional effectiveness. Self development is a key
responsibility of the sales representative.
D &
The manager of the Sunup was very reluctant to give the information about their sales
team. He just highlighted the main responsibilities that they assign. Based on the
information given the following points is being mentioned.
^| Call prospective practitioners and schedule appointments for the outside sales
team
^| Yrepare and send information packages to prospective buyers
^| Generate new leads through web research and networking on the phone
^| Create proposals and send to customers
^| Record all prospect interactions in the CRM tool
^| Report weekly sales activities to direct manager
^| Create intelligence reports on competitors and treatable conditions
^| Yerform administrative duties as needed by the company

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D #

The perceptions and feelings formed about an organization, its products / services, and its
performance is what is known as its ³brand.´ The èhiraagu marketing department is
responsible for creating meaningful messages, ideas, images, and names that deliver upon
the promises / benefits an organization wishes to make with its customers. Furthermore,
the èhiraagu marketing department is responsible for ensuring that messages and images
are delivered consistently, by every member of the organization.
^| Yresent and sell company products and services to current and potential clients.
^| Yrepare action plans and schedules to identify specific targets and to project the
number of contacts to be made.
^| Follow up on new leads and referrals resulting from field activity.
^| Identify sales prospects and contact these and other accounts as assigned.
^| Yrepare presentations, proposals and sales contracts.
^| èevelop and maintain sales materials and current product knowledge.
^| Establish and maintain current client and potential client relationships.
^| Yrepare paperwork to activate and maintain contract services.
^| Manage account services through quality checks and other follow-up.
^| Identify and resolve client concerns.
^| Yrepare a variety of status reports, including activity, closings, follow-up, and
adherence to goals.
^| Communicate new product and service opportunities, special developments,
information, or feedback gathered through field activity to appropriate company
staff.
^| Coordinate company staff to accomplish the work required to close sales.
^| èevelop and implement special sales activities to reduce stock.
^| Yarticipate in marketing events such as seminars, trade shows, and telemarketing
events.
^| Follow-up for collection of payment.
^| Coordinate shipping schedules and delivery of merchandise and services.
^| Yrovide on-the-job training to new sales employees.
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As you can see the role and the responsibilities of the sales representatives in all the three
organizations are quite similar. None of the above organizations are willing to provide the
information as to how far their sale force is effective. Therefore, the effectiveness of the
sale force then is not measured. In this context they strongly requested not to ask any
further information. As per the obtained information èhiraagu seems to have well
established roles for the sales representatives.
0
.
The most difficult thing for any salesperson is finding new customers. New customers
come to you two ways: They find you, or you find them. Weak salespeople wait for
customers to come to them. Average salespeople do some prospecting and then stop to
take care of a new customer. Great ones constantly prospect to keep appointments and
sales flowing.
To all the organizations, prospecting is important. The need for prospecting is to facilitate
the growth and expansion plans of the organizations. It also replace the lost customer
who, through retirement, death, liquidation, or who have moved to a competitor. From
the marketing effort these can be replaced.
A variety of ways exist to reach prospective customers, including stopping in

unannounced, direct mail, e-mail or the telephone. ne of the most effective ways is the
telephone.
0
Cold Calls in person are a highly effective method of prospecting, although most sales
representatives would rather not do them. There are several major advantages to
unannounced visits to the prospect's business location. You are able to evaluate the
prospect's business first hand, enabling you to tailor the presentation to his or her specific
needs. Your best results are very often face-to-face. Cold calling will prevent the ups and
downs that cut into your income.
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0

èirect mail is very highly focused upon targeting consumers based upon a database. With
all marketing, the potential consumer is 'defined' based upon a series of attributes and
similarities.
0 #+

The person-to-person contact afforded by the telephone allows for interaction between
you and the prospect, enabling you to qualify or reject them quickly.
Unfortunately, among the most dreaded aspects of sales for most is prospecting,
especially "cold-calling," contacting anyone and everyone and hoping he or she will have
some interest in your product. This strategy alone can be exhausting and self-defeating
without the proper mind-set and skills. The reason most salespeople hate cold-calling is
that they associate it with negative images such as rejection. Instead, they should
associate cold-calling with success, higher income and controlling destiny. That's called
"warm" calling, and it is far easier than cold-calling. It means finding people you have
some connection to or people you have a reason to think will benefit from the product.
In generating sales leads, doing it consistently is the rule. Whatever means you
implement in generating sales leads for your company, prospecting sales leads regularly
is very crucial to have a higher possibility of hitting your target customers. Therefore, all
three organizations use telephone, email, visits and direct mail to prospect. The process is
almost similar in all three organizations.
ne of the main benefits of looking for prospects in a regular manner is that they are able
to test out methodologies in prospecting sales leads and the more they become successful
in it, the more they are motivated to do it. This will result in having more and more sales
leads for their business and this sort of psychological high is greatly rewarding for the
business owner.
The second benefit of prospecting sales leads regularly is they are motivated to be into
the success groove. Also, the confidence will soar in what they are doing. Eventually, this
will lead to more sales leads.
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Lastly, if they want consistent sales leads, there is a greater possibility for them to
develop established relationship with sales leads. This speaks very well if they often talk
to people they have never talked to before. Even if some prospects are not responding
quickly, it will be certain that they are noticing the messages that they would like to
deliver. After several calls, they will eventually lower their guard and feel more
acquainted.
Custom lead generation can also be of great help in doing this. Custom lead generation
pertains to those "customized connections" between their products or services and their
target customers. Aside from being a time-saver, this ensures that they are connecting to
the right persons that equate to higher sales for the business. With this type of lead
generation, the returns on investment will be really great.
nce they are convinced to do prospecting for sales regularly, it is also necessary that
they conduct lead generation tracking. Mostly done online, tracking where their leads are
coming from helps them in evaluating their performance. This can be the benchmark to
continue on existing strategies or generate new ideas to improve previous sales leads
efforts.
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*
No matter what the size of your company is and no matter how big or large your clientele
base is you should always be prepared to use a database to keep track of all of the
information.
For many businesses, logging, warehousing and processing information about

transactions is the lifeline of their corporate strategy and crucial to their profitability.
Important records detailing a company¶s user history, product inventory and shipment
tracking, supplier information, configuration settings, or any other necessary collections
of information are most often stored in and retrieved from databases. èatabases provide a
convenient means of storing vast amounts of information, allowing the information to be
sorted, searched, viewed, and manipulated according to the business needs and goals.
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Many companies rely so heavily on the functions of databases that their daily business
operations can not be executed if databases are unavailable, making database
management and maintenance a vital component of their business models.
rganizations such as Sunup, Agora and èhiraagu are using databases to manage
customer relationships to increase both sales and customer satisfaction. ut of which
èhiraagu heavily rely on their data base. All of them use database identify key trends and
important information such as most profitable customers and most potential customers
etc. in addition to that They will also be able to send personalized advertisements to the
customers. Get the most by sending them something that will have a better chance of
appealing to them. The mere fact that they can see you remember that much about them
is going to improve your standing with them. Yeople like to feel special, and being
remembered certainly makes them feel special.
The need for database maintenance is unavoidable, so enterprise data availability

software solutions have been created to help businesses reduce downtime from hours or
days to mere minutes or even seconds. Effective database management applications can
reduce or eliminate downtime that renders a database unavailable, giving business owners
and developers a flexible and powerful tool to protect the performance of their valuable
business operations.
The marketing database contains some of the most important information on the most
valuable asset of the company ± the customers and potential customers. It is therefore
surprising that so many companies put such little effort into nurturing, updating and
maintaining this vital aspect of their organization.
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*
The following are the some of the reasons why is it necessary to maintain the database.
1

If your database is left to become out of date then each time you send out a mailing piece
you are risking the perceived professionalism of your company. ld contact names and
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inaccurate addresses on mailing pieces can quickly damage a reputation you have worked
hard to earn and will unnecessarily annoy those on the receiving end.
1
èirect marketing campaigns, particularly mailing pieces, can be expensive to create,

produce and post. Therefore you could be wasting a large percentage of your marketing
budget each year on campaigns that never reach the person you wanted them to.
1 #

It is essential to have complete and correct address data on your database in order to
qualify for mailsort discounts. If your data is sorted beforehand and the addresses are
correct (i.e. 90% correct postcodes), this saves the mail a great deal of time and therefore
they can pass on postage discounts to you. It is possible to save up to 30% on standard
mail costs by doing some of the mail sorting yourself.
1 $% !
If mailings are not reaching the intended recipients then your response and conversion
rates will inevitably suffer.
Following are the most common problems that have been noted in the organizations.
^| èuplication
^| Truncated names
^| Inaccurate addresses
^| Invalid telephone numbers
^| Name splitting and salutation
^| Incomplete addresses
^| ut of date data
^| Inaccurate contact names
^| No casing or abbreviation standardization i.e. 'Rd' or 'Road', 'St' or 'Street'.
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1
*
The problems notified due to databases are similar in three organizations; therefore the
recommendations are for three organizations as well.
1 %

In order to resolve database issues quickly, it is best to recruit the help of a database-
marketing specialist. They will take in the database, inform what the main issues are and
then formulate a solution that fits particular needs. èata can then be returned to
organization in an updated and standardized format according to the requirements.
1 .*
Numerous products are available that will identify the number of goneaways that exist in
database. Simply remove the goneways from the database, so that you don't continue to
waste money mailing them. However, be careful before removing any of your data as it is
possible that a record may be flagged just because the postcode has changed recently. It is
therefore advisable to test the results and then review what action needs to be taken.
1 #&
Setting data entry standards is essential in ensuring to continue to keep database in the
best possible condition. There is no point in having it standardized and cleansed only to
be in the same situation a few months later because people are still entering information
in the same way they always have.
1 $&*

Setting rules about new record creation will help to avoid duplicates on database. For
example, if the company name, post code and telephone number are all checked to see
whether a record is already on the database before a new record is created, then the
number of duplicates will be dramatically reduced. The above data entry standards will
also help to ensure that records can easily be found on the database and will therefore
help to reduce the creation of duplicates further.
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&

As shown in Table 1, the selling process consists of eight steps, none of which is less
important than any other if the process is to be effective. It should be emphasized to all
employees that all steps are vital to the achievement of effective selling.
8. Sales Follow-Up
7. Suggestion Selling
6. Closing the Sale
5. Handling bjections
4. Yresentation of Merchandise
3. Initial Contact
2. Yrospecting
1. Yre-Customer Contact
||||| ||
2
A smart builder would not attempt to build a house without a good foundation. Likewise,
a businessperson should not place people on the sales floor or telephone until these
people know the business, merchandise, services and customers. Before any contact is
made with the customer, every salesperson should know the aforementioned items.
Yolices, Yrocedures, and Rules, have these in writing for all employees to see and to
know.
^| %
/3
- Learn how to use equipment before a sale, not while
the customer is waiting for change.
^| +'4.-The better salesperson knows something of the likes
and dislikes of the firm's primary customers. The business operator should tell all
sales personnel about the business's customers and their lifestyles. Tell the
salespeople about customer's interests and ability to buy.
^| 4.- A salesperson gains confidence by knowing about the
products and services that he or she is selling. If a person sells shoes, it helps to
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know the merchandise as well as how to fit them. If a person sells building
materials, the selling job is probably more effective if the salesperson can also
help answer questions about home repairs. It helps the person who sells clothes to
know something about fabrics and current fashions. If the person is in the lawn
service business, that person should know about lawn care. Most sales personnel
will not take the initiative to acquire product knowledge on their own. It is
management's responsibility to encourage employees to gain product and service
knowledge. Management should make such knowledge available to them.

Although not appropriate to every selling situation, prospecting should be used whenever
possible. Essentially, prospecting involves not waiting for the customer to show up at a
store or to phone about a service. It is concerned with taking the initiative by going to the
customer with a product or service idea. Yrospecting may be of two types: new or regular
customer prospecting.
^| â.
- A salesperson sees that a person is getting married.
Action is taken on this knowledge by contacting the person and telling her about
appropriate items (or services) that might be of assistance to a new bride. By
using newspapers and personal contacts, a salesperson can take the initiative to
contact and create new customers.
^|
- A firm's best prospects are its current
customers. A salesperson should make a practice of calling regular customers on a
periodic basis to tell them about products or services. Yrospecting with regular
customers works! All salespeople should be encouraged to prospect by phone and
in-person whenever they see regular customers. A word of caution must be
emphasized. èon't go to the well too often. Yrospecting with the same regular
customer on a frequent basis can make prospecting lose the special feeling that it
can create in customers. èo not overuse it.
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#

The most effective way to close a sale is to open it on a positive note. Unfortunately,
many sales do not open this way. The typical initial store contact begins in this manner:
Clerk: "May I help you?"
Customer: "No thank you. I'm just looking."
This ritual leaves much to be desired. Why? It is an automatic statement that shows no
creativity on the part of the salesperson. Also, because the customer has heard this
statement many times, his or her response is usually given without thinking what was
said. Every salesperson should be challenged to treat each customer as an individual by
responding differently to each customer.
Initial contact also means responding to customers when they enter the sales areas even
when they cannot be waited on immediately. Salespeople should be instructed to tell
waiting customers that, "I'll be with you in a moment." Such actions will reduce the
number of customers who leave without being served. When the employee is free to help
the waiting customer, the initial comment should be, "Thank you, for waiting." A
courteous, creative initial contact with the customer can go a long way to promote sales.
$

In presenting merchandise (or services) to the customer, the salesperson should use
product knowledge to create the best advantage.
^| +'5
- Although it is good to talk about the lawnmower's 3 ½ horsepower
mower, customers may be more interested in hearing about how fast the
lawnmower will cut the grass. Yroduct knowledge is important but the salesperson
must remember what makes the customer buy. Sell benefits!
^| - Yroduct knowledge can be used to get customer
involvement. Show the customer several features of the digital watch and then
have the customer put it on and work it. If the interest is there, it will be hard for
the customer to take off the watch so that the salesperson can put it back into the
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case. The best way to present many products is to get involvement. Want to sell
dance lessons? Get the customer on the dance floor and let the fun of dancing do
some of the selling. The same is true with clothes, perfume, sports equipment, and
almost anything else.
^|

-If during the sales presentation more than three items are in
front of the customer, the changes of a sale are reduced while the possibility of
shoplifting is increased. If, for example, the salesperson continues to carry dresses
into the fitting room for the customer to try without removing any from
consideration, the customer will likely not buy any because of the inability to
decide from among so many choices. Also, with so many items under study, the
clerk may lose track of how many items are in the fitting room. It is possible that
some may be put on under the customer's clothes while the clerk is not present,
thereby resulting in an expensive experience for the store. Unless there is a
definite reason for an exception, the rule of three (never show more than three
choices at one time) should be followed whenever merchandise is presented.
Limited choices have been found to promote sales.
^| l & .
- In presenting merchandise to the customer, encourage all
personnel to be creative. Be enthusiastic about the merchandise. Hold the
necklace up for the customer to see it. Make the portable baby crib "look" easy to
work. Lay the different pieces of the cookware set before the customer in an
attractive easy-to-see everything manner. Ask your salespeople to think like a
customer. If I were a customer, what would I like to see?
^| (
- A knowledgeable salesperson should know about the
products being sold. Message adaptation involves deciding what information is
needed to sell a particular customer and how that information should be presented
to that customer. Canned sales presentations do not allow for adaptation. The
effective sales person will make an effort to adjust the presentation to the
customer. If the customer knows about gardens and lawns, the person selling a
lawn service should adapt the sales presentation to the level of the customer's
expertise. èon't bore the customer with known facts. It could lose a sale.
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D6
%*

Remember, if objections are present, progress is probably being made on the sale. Most
salespeople are afraid of objections. Stress to all employees that objections are a natural
part of the selling process. They do not mean that the sale is lost. In most cases, all that is
required to overcome an objection is more selling on the part of the salesperson.
Common types of customer objections that are faced by a salesperson include:
M| -"That dress looks out-of-date."

M| &- "You never have the right merchandise."
M| &
- "If I believe what I hear, I can't get good service from you."
M|
-³It is just too expensive."
These and other objections can be met by the salesperson in several ways. Using the
above product objection as an example, these methods include:
M| ù25- "Yes, it does look out-of-date, but it is the latest." This approach brings
on a positive note by agreeing with the customer and then moves on to answer the
objection.
M| 27
- "Why do you feel it's out-of-date?" The counter-question
puts the ball back in the customer's court. By asking "Why?" the real reason for
the objection may become known.
M| 2%*
-"You feel that the dress looks out-of-date." By restating the
objection, the customer may respond by saying, "No, I mean it just doesn't look
right on me," or something of a similar nature. This approach tends to reduce the
magnitude of the objection in the eyes of the customer.
M|
- "The dress you have on was first shown at the market this
season. It is the latest thing." Although offensive to some, this approach may be
necessary if the customer is not going to buy unless the untruth can be corrected.
Tact is important when using this approach.
These four approaches for handling objections are not meant to be all-inclusive. These
and other approaches do point out, however, objections should and can be answered by
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the salesperson. Unless objections are overcome to the satisfaction of the customer, it is
questionable the sale will be made.
0
&
In various ways, the salesperson can assist the customer by helping him or her to make
the buying decision. Closing techniques that can aid in this effort include:
M| % &

"Let us deliver it to you this afternoon." A "Yes" implies
purchase. Give a Choice "èo you want the five-piece or eight-piece cooking set?´
Either choice implies purchase. Note that "No" was not one of the choices.
M| %
"If you buy now, you get 10 percent off the already low
price." If you wait, you don't get the 10 percent discount.
M| 5â8
"If you want this refrigerator, better get it now. It's the last one
in stock." Note it pays to be honest. If the customer buys and then comes by the
store the next day and sees that the store did have another one, this closing
technique may have made the sale, but it could lose the customer.
1&
&

The customer has made a purchase. Now what? Encourage your sales personnel to make
a definite suggestion for a possible additional sale. For many businesses, sales can be
increased by 25 percent through positive suggestion selling. Ylease note that statements
such as: "Will there be something else?" or" Can I get you something else?" are not
suggestion selling. They do not make a positive suggestion. When the customer buys a
lamp, what about a light bulb to go in it? If a picture is purchased, inquire about the
necessary hardware to hang it properly. If a suit is bought, about a new blouse or shirt
that goes well with the color.
Where appropriate, the creative salesperson will actually get the suggested item and show
it to the customer. r if a person brings in a watch to be repaired, why not also clean it
while it is taken apart? This type of initiative usually results in more sales. It should be
emphasized that most customers like to receive a valid suggestion. In some cases,
suggestions may even permit the customer to avoid another shopping trip to pick up that
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needed item that they had not thought about. Good suggestion selling makes sales and
builds confidence in the firm's business.
&,.2l
Although not apparent to many salespeople, follow-up is a part of every sale. The closing
statement, "Thank you for shopping at (name of store)," is a form of sales follow- up if it
is done with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, just making the statement in an automatic
manner is about as effective as that other worn out phrase, "May I help you?" If done
correctly, however, it allows the customer to leave on a positive note, thereby increasing
the changes of repeat business by the customer.
Follow-up may also concern itself with checking on anything that was promised the
customer after the sale. If delivery is supposed to take place on Friday, the salesperson
will check to make sure that the promise will be met and, if not, will notify the customer
of the problem. Good sales follow-up will prevent the type of situation that occurs so
often when the customer calls on Friday asking, "Where is the delivery truck?" A
business with a reputation for sales follow-up is going to obtain additional business
because of its concern after the sale.
Sincere sales follow-up is good business. Imagine the impact that can be had on a
customer when the carpet cleaning service telephones the customer 48 hours after
cleaning her carpets to be sure that everything is satisfactory. Sales follow-up, builds
good will and repeat business.
9 &
.*

ut of the processes that is been discussed in detail above, the processes that the
companies follows are as follows. As its discussed in detail, only the highlights of the
processes will be mentioned below.
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9 (
Selling process of Agora are pre customer contact, prospecting, presentation of

merchandize and closing the sale. They gather all the relevant the information before
reaching out the customers and identify the most potential customers. After that they
present and when the customer agrees they close the sale. This is the most frequently
used selling methods in Agora. When the customers come to their shops, they just show
them where the products are held and if the customers want they will close the sale. The
follow up sale services is not provided in any of Agora¶s outlet.
9 &
Most frequent selling process of Sunup includes pre customer contact, prospecting, initial
contact, presentation of merchandize, handling objections and closing the sale. Like wise
Sunup also use the same procedures in selling. However, in addition to Agora, Sunup
reaches the customers initially and asks whether they need any help and they also deal
with objections. When you purchase anything from the Sunup, you have all the right to
check it properly, once you purchase there is no follow up sales service.
9 #

èhiraagu provides wide range of electronic products along with the services. Therefore,
the selling approach is bit different from other two organizations. èhiraagu makes sure
that they pre customer contact, prospect and make initial contact. And then they present
the merchandize while handling objections. When the customer is satisfied they close the
sale while providing sales follow up for electronic products. èhiraagu provide sales
follow up and after sales service only for the electronic items purchased.
ut of all, èhiraagu has the most effective selling process, even though they do not
follow all the selling processes. èhiraagu follows the maximum number of stages
including sales follow up, amongst all the organizations, which will enhance their
customer database.
Sincere sales follow-up is good business. Imagine the impact that can be had on a
customer when the internet service is disconnected due to èhiraagu mishandling and
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when customers calls, they re connect it and check whether everything is satisfactory.
Sales follow-up, builds good will and repeat business.
: &&

A sales territory is thought of as a geographic area that contains customer accounts. In other
words, a sales territory is composed of a group of customers or a geographic area assigned
to a salesperson, a group of salesperson, a branch, a dealer, a distributor, or a marketing
organization at given period of time. The territory may or may not have geographic
boundaries. The term customer, here, refers to both the existing as well as the future ones.
Assigning sales territories helps a manager to achieve a match between sales efforts and
sales opportunities. When sales territories are out of balance, some areas with high
potential customers may be underserved while other areas are saturated. Too much effort
may be expended against low potential customers. Sales and service people spend too
much windshield time driving from sales call to sales call and don¶t spend enough time
seeing and listening to customers.
^| - when territories are properly aligned,

issues of under- and over-capacity are reduced or eliminated. Each territory is
created allowing the sales person to reach and spend time with the greatest
number of high potential customers, thus increasing sales.
^|

)- due to the geographic nature of
sales territories, better alignment means less travel time to reach customers. Less
time spent in the car means more time spent with customers, thus more time for
selling. ther associated expenses such as fuel and automobile costs are reduced
as well.
^|

- this benefit of sales territory alignment is often
overlooked. However, if an organization has better coverage in its territories, it
can reach new opportunities faster than your competitors, again leading to
increased sales.
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^| /3
- nothing can be more discouraging to a sales person than to
see an associate milking a highly profitable territory while they¶re stuck servicing
an area with low potential. Yroperly aligned territories provide a more equitable
distribution of accounts, level the playing field in terms of achieving rewards, and
boost morale among sales people. In addition, sales people stay longer, thus
lowering the costs associated with hiring.
^| &

- properly designed
sales territories allow salespeople to spend more time with present and potential
customers and less time on the road. The more the salespeople can learn about
their customers the more comfortable their relationship becomes with the
customer. Well designed sales territories should result in regularly scheduled sales
call on customers. Let us say, for example, if there is a customer who purchases
regularly but is too busy to see a salesperson, then he might prefer placing an
order over the phone. r the customer may receive updated pricing information
and place an order on a facsimile machine, that is, fax. Another way could be
through the use of voicemail.
Each of the above discussed situations is ripe with the potential for decreased
productivity, missed customer opportunity, and confusion and competition among sales
people. Sales territory alignment can help rectify all these situations.
There are myriads of software packages available in the market which can help an
organization in aligning the territories. Some are simple and may lack the functionality
required to align multitiered territories and account for complex relationships. thers can
be sophisticated, expensive and non-intuitive. It might be required to engage a firm with
expertise in sales territory alignment that can advise on the territory alignment process
and provide software and analysis services.
All the three organizations mentioned that they set targets for the sales forces are based
on the following.
^| Analyze current targets, sales force composition, compensation plans, target

markets, customer locations and market penetration.
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^| Assess existing targets to find underserved or saturated areas based on the number
of customers and prospects in each territory, and analyze how easily they can be
reached by their sales force.
^| èetermine the number of territories needed based on criteria for realignment.
Criteria can include equitable distribution of leads or workload, account
assignment, number of sales people, travel time, location of distributors, and other
variables relevant to your business.
^| Rank and align territories, optimizing them at multiple levels. For example,
territories that rolls up into districts, districts into regions, and so on.
They assign the sales targets after analyzing the SWT of their work force along with the
environmental analysis. And the past records of the sales target, whether they have any
deviations to correct. If so they take corrective measure accordingly and then set the
targets based on the available resources.
: &

Every company aims at recruiting the right person for the right job. The greatest
challenge faced by organizations today is to be able to recruit the best talent and to be
able to utilize that talent to achieve organizational objectives. Recruitment and hiring the
right people is as important in a sales organization as it is in any other organization.
Before coming to the details of recruitment, let us bear one thing in mind hiring, contrary
to the popular perception is an ongoing process and not confined to the formative stages
of the organization. As such sales managers need to constantly be recruiting and meeting
potential new hires, even when hiring for a sales position doesn¶t appear to be on the
horizon. Yeople leave positions and companies for a variety of reasons, so you have to be
fully prepared for when this happens. A bad new hire or a string of new hires that don¶t
work out can quickly turn your once great sales team into a dysfunctional sales force
incapable of meeting your sales plan or quota.
At the same time there are several organizations or managers working in sales
organizations, which like to hire mostly experienced sales persons. There is rationale for
such an approach towards hiring. The managers want to save on training and
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development costs, especially during the period when economy cannot be said to be
booming. Besides, there are also arguments that people who have experience in the field
add more value to the organization in terms of the relationship which they bring in. also
the relevant exposure helps them cope better with the work related stress.
The sales force selection process consists of several stages. These are:
^| &

- sales managers try to develop a pool of applicants by
attracting candidates from various sources for filling the sales positions in their
organizations. The various sources from which sales managers can source their
potential candidates include college and university campuses, use of placement
agencies, newspapers and trade journals, referrals from other salespeople etc.
Yotential candidates can even be sourced from within the organization. This trend
is known as re-recruiting.
^| &

- the curriculum vitae of the candidates serve as the
first screening tool in most of the organizations. Also, some organizations ask the
candidates to fill some standardized application forms to get over the problem of
varying formats in which the candidates apply.
^| &
- tests serve as the selection tool to assess a potential employee¶s
skills and abilities. Although tests help in weeding out most of the inaccurate
candidates they have their own pitfalls. For example such test which are often
called knowledge tests are memory based while in work situations one does not
depend much on memory rather on other skills.
^|

^| 6
^|
- these are used to look into the mind of the candidates.
These are designed to test the candidate for skills, interest, aptitude, and other
aspects of personality like strengths and weaknesses.
^| 5 ' '-here the purpose to screen out undeserving and undesirable
candidates.
^|
.- in many organizations, a potential employee is called for a
personal interview only after he or she clears the background check.
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^|
- there are chances of a candidate providing wrong
information about himself in his resume. As such, letter of recommendation also
forms the part of selection process.
^|
/)

^| '
/%-the last stage in the selection process involves
making the employment offer to the candidate
èespite such elaborate mechanisms being in place for the recruitment purposes,
organizations have to keep on recruiting all through the year. Yet, organizations are not
sure of the performance from the salespersons that they hire. What can be the reason
behind this? Well. First and simplest answer to the question is that many a salesperson
hired are not ³job-fit´. The candidates who are not compatible with the job will surely not
be able to do justice with it. But the question here is how to gauge the compatibility?
: &+

The success of an organization is a function of the effectiveness of its sales force to

convince customers to make purchase. As sales force performance has significant impact
on the bottom line of the organization, it is imperative for the sales manager to think
about the various ways in which the performance of the sales force can be boosted. This
assumes all the more significance keeping in view the fact that most of the salepersons do
not have the inherent talent to sell. As such the role of training to overcome this
limitation becomes important.
The training provided should be based on the need assessment of the saleperson. Hoever,
very few organizations take this trouble. Most of the organizations design a formanl and
common training for all its new recruits.
The types of training that the companies provide can be listed as:
^| Initial Sales training

^| Follow-up or Refresher training
^| Training by the manufacturer to the èistributor¶s sales force
^| Training by the manufacturer to the Customers
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: #

It is no secret that only highly motivated people have been able to achieve what they had
set their sights on. This is so because the people who are highly motivated do not give up
trying. Setbacks, for them, are an opportunity to analyze and identify the mistakes. This
learning helps them to avoid future mistakes. Their motivation keeps them going.
Now, let us understand the role of motivation in a sales organization.
Sales organizations comprise of human beings working at different levels. As such

organizations are affected by the effectiveness of its employees. The effectiveness of
employees is again a factor of many things significant among them is the motivation
levels of the employees. Thus, we can say that the success of a sales organization
depends on the ability and the style of functioning of the sales manager to motivate the
sales staff to achieve organizational goals. The importance of motivation is felt within
and across the organization because the salespeople have to put in a lot of effort to realize
sales in the market. They get demotivated due to frequent rejections by the customers,
lower esteem ascribed to the sales job, and customer complaints about non-compliance of
the products and services. The nature of job itself serves to weaken motivation levels.
Salespeople have to do the job of prospecting, presentations, and demonstration
repeatedly which makes the job monotonous. Also, their personal and domestic life
suffers because of the job.
Sales manager needs to constantly motivate his employees and at the same time continue
to be motivated himself. The greatest challenge in motivating employees is the issue that
not all the employees are motivated by the same factors. It is here that different theories
of motivation: Maslow¶s hierarchy of needs, Hertzberg¶s two factor theory, Alderfer¶s
ERG theory, Vroom¶s expectancy theory etc., come into picture. èeciding on the ways to
motivate an employee differs from manager to manager, yet certain guidelines are laid
down by respective organizations in this regard.
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: $
.
Sales organizations design compensation plans with multiple objectives. ne of the key
objectives is to attract quality salespeople. If the company¶s compensation and reward
system is perceived to be equitable then it will not have much problem in attracting good
salespeople. Besides, it also helps in keeping the employees motivated. This in turn helps
in getting better performance out of the force and retaining them.
As such, the reward system should address the short-term as well as long-term issues of
the salespeople. While survival is the short-term issue of the salesperson, recognition and
growth in the company are his long-term needs. The compensation should be guarantee
fair wage. The pattern of remuneration should be such that it should reflect a stream of
stable income flows for the salespeople.
: $ &

^| èetermine Sales force and compensation objectives

^| èetermine major compensation issues
^| Implement long-term and short-term compensation plan
^| Relate rewards to performance
^| Measurement of performance
^| Review and revise (if needed) the compensation plan
Also, the performance appraisal of the salespersons should be fair. Besides, emphasis
must be laid on proper performance management system. Most of the organization
mistake performance management for appraisal, which it is not.

Recruitment in èhiraagu is not just an event but is a part of a complete leadership

development process. Most of their recruitment is done from campus. èhiraagu began
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recruitment people from premier institutes since 1991 and have developed some of the
best leaders of the Maldivian Industry.
However, it does not hire people at senior levels unless it is absolutely required. The
policy at èhiraagu is that even if an insider is 60% ready for a given internal vacancy, he
will be preferred over an outsider.
The recruitment process is extremely important to èhiraagu and involves a significant

application of the senior and top management time. The assessment of the campus panel
is supported by an assessment of the candidate¶s performance in group discussions,
psychometric tests and an in-depth reference check.
The selection procedure includes following four steps:
^| Written examination of a duration of 1 hour. It has 3 sections

a)| /
- This section has a total of 20 questions. ut of
these ten questions are in the form of fill in the blanks of prepositions,
synonyms and antonyms. Then these are two passages related to
computers. This section tests the communication skills.
b)| (
- Topics on which questions are generally asked are as
follows:
M| Blood relations
M| èirections
M| Time and èistance
The section seeks to test the candidate on logical reasoning and as such his
general mental ability.
c)| "* â2"*

- Topics on which questions are
generally asked are:
M| Mathematical perations
M| èata sufficiency
M| Logic
M| Yuzzle test
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Here, quantitative ability of person is put on test.
d)| / 8

- Candidates are required to write an essay in 100-150
words within 10 minutes. The purpose is to test the communication skills
and understand the thought process of the candidates.
^|

-The purpose of the group discussion is to identify confident,
informed, and enthusiastic candidates.
^| 6 - Here, the oral communication as well as the personality of the
candidate is assessed. Some of the common questions are:
M| Tell me about yourself?
M| Why should we hire you?
^| +
- Here, the candidates¶ knowledge regards to computers and
information technology is tested.
+

èhiraagu has also developed a competency model whereby need assessment for the
new recruits as well as existing workforce is done in order to provide them with
requisite training. Also, the competency model is used to assign the new recruits to
proper teams. The organization uses a competency framework as the anchor for
driving individual and organizational performance. There are 14 behavioural
competencies and nine quality competencies that shape recruitment, staffing, training,
and HR processes. èuring performance appraisal, employees are assessed on these
competencies. The organization also has an assessment center to help measure the
competency levels and effectiveness of training.
A future manager program, aimed at building behavioural competencies of

employees, took off during 2006-2007. More than 20 employees were certified as
future managers in the year. That number rose to 40 in the second year. Service
Academies helped new employees assimilate into their jobs quicker (from 180 days to
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155 days). These academies catered to the special training requirements of their job
functions, especially the practical application skills.
èevelopment of employees is one of the most critical processes in èhiraagu. The best
thing, according to the employees, at èhiraagu is that a person gets to learn many
things. A person may be working in sales team initially but he can very well go on to
work in other functional areas too. This can be attributed to the employee
development programs at the organization. There are broadly two categories of
development programs:
I.| Life cycle management program

II.| Individual development program against individual development need
The following areas are covered under the life cycle management program:
^| /2-this consists of both elaborate technical exposure as well

as exposure to issues related to how to be a good productive employee in the
company. This is in addition to a common introduction program that employees
go through on joining.
^| â.-For employees who become leaders for the first time.
^|
-For employees who start leading other managers.
^| 5
- For those who become business managers for the
first time.
^| &
- For top management who are responsible for
strategies inputs.
Besides the above, a detailed action plan is made on completion of performance appraisal
for the individual employee. The action plan can include the following:
^| Specific need related development program

^| Efforts on the job by the employee
^| Supervisor coaching guidance etc.
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# &
èhiraagu has a comprehensive performance management system, which has been

institutionalized over two decades. The human resources department does the review and
planning is the high point of the performance management and employee development
process at the organization. The human resource review and planning serves the
following purpose:
^| Identifying top 10% and bottom 10% of the employees

^| Identifying talent that we should not lose under any circumstances
^| Succession planning
^| Yeople in the same job for five years and more
$

.
èhiraagu pays a great attention on maintaining the motivation levels of its sales force.
This is a very important aspect of sales force management. The compensation to the
employees include a fixed salary, field expense reimbursement in the form of daily
allowance, and travelling allowance and incentives based on sales. It also provides fringe
benefits like Contributory Yrovident Fund and soft loans.
In order to provide a target to the sales force èhiraagu takes into account mainly the
previous year¶s sales performance. Besides, industry growth is also factored while
designing the target.
&
The company currently recruits people mainly from two sources, placement agencies and
campus recruitments. Campus recruits are mainly taken in as interns. These recruits are
given a small training of two to three days where the focus is on product knowledge and
sales process. These recruits are not provided with any compensation as of now.
However, they are given freedom to choose their area of projects and the company
provides them with resources to complete the project. Also the interns get to meet their
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Regional Sales Manager every week and recognition of their work comes straight from
him. This serves as a big motivation for the interns.
The regular sales force, however, is recruited through placement agents. The new recruits
are given a small training just like the interns. These recruits are put on a probation
period of one year. èuring this one year the new recruits have to show consistency in the
achievement of sales target. èuring their probation period, the salespersons are given a
fixed salary and reimbursed for travelling and telephone expenses. There is no incentive
on the offer. The company gives best in the industry salaries. The purpose of fixed salary
is to make the salespersons feel secure economically. This, according to the company
helps keep them motivated.
After completion of one year the salespersons are put on the rolls of the company. At this
stage, incentives also come into the compensation picture. The company, in fact, starts
increasing the share of variable pay to the salespeople at this stage. This serves as a
motivation to them.
The company now has, however, felt that this approach will not suffice them in achieving
desired results over a longer period of time. So, the company is contemplating hiring HR
consultants and domain experts to chalk out new policies for managing the sales force.
#(
#
&

Agora recruits from various sources. These sources for the recruitment of sales staff are:
^| HR consultants
^| Employee referrals
^| Campus recruitments
^| Walk-in interviews
The company employs various methods to select for the process of recruitment.
Interviews are held for selection at any level in the organization. For entry level jobs, a
simple interview is the most preferred mode of selection. When selecting from campus,
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the organization also uses group discussion for first level of screening, followed by
interviews.
# +

New employees undergo an induction and training program for two weeks. They are
taught about the company¶s business, various departments etc. they are informed of their
roles, duties and responsibilities. They are also briefed on the HR policies and rules of the
company.
The new employees are put on probation for a period of six months. After this period the
HR manager along with the department manager will review the performance of the
employee. If the employee¶s performance is good and encouraging, the employee¶s
services are confirmed.
# #
The HR department conducts performance appraisal of all the employees annually in the
month of èecember. The decision as to increments in the pay to the employees is decided
upon on the basis of their performance. Moreover, if an employee achieves or exceeds the
target given to them along with their team members then they are provided with attractive
cash prizes and other incentives.
# $

At Agora, the employees are motivated through various means. The sales managers
believe that the good working environment and organization¶s culture themselves are the
biggest motivator. There is healthy competition among the sales staff. Besides, good
salary and incentives, appreciation from the floor managers and even higher level
managers too serve to motivate the sales force. Moreover, the organization has worked to
make its employees feel secure in their jobs, and this is reflected in the trends pertaining
to job cuts during recessionary phase. The higher level employees took to voluntary pay
cuts rather than firing its sales staff in the face of economic slowdown. The HR team
worked overtime to communicate with the employees. Even counseling sessions were
undertaken to some extent.
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# D
.
The employees are rewarded suitably with attractive pay packages. The salary of an
employee includes basic pay, special allowance, and medical insurance etc. Annual bonus
is given at the time of Ramazan
Agora employees and their dependents get treatment at a discounted rate in some
hospitals. The company has entered into alliance with hospitals and medical clinics to this
effect.
Besides, all the employees are given an µEmployee èiscount card¶ through which they
can buy any product at Agora at a special discount of 20% - 30%.
As far as the provided information are concerned, the most appropriate structure and the
procedures are followed by èhiraagu. When setting the targets and all the fundamentals
of HR are being performed effectively then other organizations. However, there is always
room for improvement. Therefore the recommendations that we made are for all the three
organizations.
$

Sales is an important function in any organization as the very survival of an organization

depends on the revenues that it earns, which comes from sales. As such, bottom-line is
affected to a great extent by rise and fall in the performance of each sales person. So,
managers often set high targets for the sales staff. The sales person who works in the field
goes through tremendous amount of hard-work, diligence and stress. Yet, a slight fall in
the performance and he can find his job under threat. Very often, they are not treated well
by the customers as well as their superiors. Most of the sales persons encountered during
the course of the study believed that they face undue sales pressure which is thrust upon
them by strategists without knowing the ground realities. Also, they also begin to feel a
conflict which is resultant from the difference between the espoused values and practiced
values of the organization. ften, achieving the sales target puts them under ethical
dilemma. The sales staff often begins to see his performance taking a downward spiral.
Also, it begins to affect the company¶s relation with its customers.
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So, any organization should take certain measures which will help it better manage its
sales force. Some of the suggestions in this regard are:
^| Sales targets should be realistic and onstage contact employees should be made
participant in the process. The best results can be observed if it is not thrust upon
the sales staff. For example, an Area Sales Manager working at a reputed stock
broking firm complained that he was required to achieve a target six hundred
accounts in one year even during recession. A failure to reach to the eighty
percent of the target would result in no bonus and certainly no incentive. In this
regard Management by objective (MB) can be a useful practice. But again the
risk is that the superior may not be skilled enough to handle this kind of approach
and would create more problems.
^| Yerformance appraisal should not be confused with performance management.
Many organizations declare lofty ideals with regards to the performance
management yet on the terra firma the practice is not to look beyond appraising
the performance.
^| Adequate training should be provided to the superiors so that they could handle
their human resource, which in this case would be their sales staff, in a better
manner. They should not look upon them just as a means to achieve the target
assigned to them.
^| Job rotation should be followed in organizations. For example, a sales person who
has done three-four years of sales could be shifted to HR functions like training
and development, or even strategy formulation. Such measures would be of
mutual benefits to both the respective companies and their sales staff.
^| While recruiting, many companies keep attaching more importance to experience
and qualifications rather than giving due importance to competence. This happens
due to haste and also because company take HR functions to be a cost to company
only. èespite being a known fact that there should be candidate-job fit, that is,
right person for right job, companies at times fail to practice the maxim.
Experienced or qualified candidates may not always be the right candidate for
the job. At the same time equally important is to note that errors like ageism
should not creep into recruitment policy.
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^| Effort should be made to create a learning organization as it can help fight
problems related to manpower shortage.
^| rganizations should look to develop their own competency model to develop an
efficient and learning organization
&

Industrial and technical selling is selling business to business transactions for raw
materials, fabricated materials, capital equipment and supplies. èhiraagu, Agora and
Sunup supermarket do not sell in business to business transaction. They only deal with
consumer markets. Therefore this industrial selling is not performed in these
organizations.

Exporting is the easiest, cheapest and most commonly used route into a new foreign
market, where they can concentrate a single location. Any of selected organizations do
not sell in the international market.
#+,
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*

These are unusual buying situations artificially created to bring together buyers and
sellers with a shared area of interest. Such approaches are very good for making new
contacts and renewing old ones. Companies will seldom sell much at such events. The
purpose is to increase awareness and to encourage trial. They offer the opportunity for
companies to meet with both the trade and the consumer. All the organizations take part
in the trade fairs and exhibitions. It helps them to increase their customer data base and
more sales.
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*

None of the selected organizations directly deals with the selling to the public authority;
because of the decision making process is very slow in the public sector.
D&

Service is a product with no shelf life are intangible and this characteristics makes
working with service more difficult than working with products. All the organizations
sell productions along with the some services; no company is solely based on services.
Therefore this is not a barrier to any of selected organizations.
0

This is where the organizations major themselves. The retailer is acting as an adviser in
the èMU of the final customer. The products can be visible and demonstrated.
Consumer selling and selling for resale, and selling over the phone, are commonly used
methods of selling in all the three organizations.
In addition to having personnel who understand and apply the creative selling process, an
organization should try to have salespeople who possess certain attributes that can make
them more effective in their jobs. These attributes, which can be grouped into mental and
physical categories, merit further discussion.
Therefore to perform selling process the skills and the attributes of the sales force are as
follows. Three organizations require sales representatives of similar skills and attributes,
so that the organizations can experience the highest sales.
# (
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# ;
Common sense, maturity, intelligence, these and other terms are used interchangeably
with judgment. A salesperson knows that it does not pay to argue with a customer. The
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salesperson also knows that the firm should never be "cut" in front of customers. These
situations reflect the use of good judgment on the part of the employee. Ylease note that
the term maturity is sometimes used in place of judgment but that it is not necessarily a
function of age.
# +
If an employee has a keen sense of what to say and do, many problems can be overcome
before they are created. Many employees give little thought to the impact of their actions.
A child playing with toys in the toy store is told in a blunt manner to "quit playing with
the toys and go find your mother." While all this is going on, the mother is standing
behind the salesperson. Was a confrontation with the child necessary? No. Could it have
been handled differently? Yes. How do the child and mother feel about the store? The
feeling is not good. This salesperson lacked the ability to know what to do and say in
order to maintain good customer relations. Therefore the organizations need sales
representatives to be tactful.
# #(

A good salesperson will have a positive attitude toward customers, merchandise, services
and the business. A good attitude means that an employee is willing to accept
suggestions, to learn and to apply the steps in the creative selling process, and to not be
afraid of work. A salesperson with a bad attitude can create unnecessary problems. A bad
attitude is contagious. All the organizations believe in positive attitudes can result in
sales.
# $&
(
*
To be a success, the salesperson must physically belong in the firm's particular

environment. Yersonal appearance and personal hygiene are important in the selling
environment. Equally important in terms of personal appearance is a clothing salesman
who wears last year's clothing. He will have difficulty in selling the latest fashions to his
customers. Yersonal appearance does count in the selling equation.
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# D

Body odor, bad breath, dirty hair, soiled clothes, scuffed shoes, and un-kept hands are all
reasons why a sale may be lost. bviously, be tactful when handling problems of
personal hygiene. Customers will usually react unfavorably to this and similar
inappropriate selling situations. This will not be favorable to the organization.
$ &
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These include the ability to lead, motivate and delegate. They are important at every level
of organisational responsibility and should always be evident. Being the most technical
person in field is not always enough to succeed unless s/he can combine this with the
ability to convince others that what you are doing is important.
$ +.'

There are two issues a team must consider as a group. Firstly and most commonly
addressed is the task at hand and problems that might be involved in completing it. The
second and most overlooked consideration is the process of the teamwork itself and what
procedures will ensure the group works cohesively. By acknowledging both of these
issues will have be able to clarify group objectives and enhance team working
capabilities.
$ #â

'

Negotiating in a way that means ability to achieve desired outcomes and still maintain
successful ongoing relationships with others is also beneficial. Influencing positively will
help to achieve more of what people want and build relationships based on openness,
trust, understanding and mutual respect.
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Being able to see a situation from another person¶s perspective is the key to successful
negotiation because appreciating how they are thinking will enable to present thoughts in
the most favourable way.
$ $

'

The ability to communicate ideas to others effectively is an absolutely essential

requirement sales representative. Speaking clearly and coherently will allow effective
verbal communication with others. Bear in mind that the way of speaking is more
influential to the person that you are communicating with than what you actually say, so
think about body language and tone of voice when are talking.
The ability to present comprehensive written ideas will enable you to put forward
professional documentation of your thoughts and is a highly regarded skill.
Communication is a two-way process so listening is therefore an essential aspect.
Listening is more than just hearing what is being said. Effective listening encourages
others to listen to you and respond to what you say.
$ D+

èemonstrating time management skills means controlling and using the time as
effectively as possible. Learning how to prioritize can be difficult in a new role, but
categorizing the responsibilities can help.
Some people are able to produce their highest quality work under immense pressure,
while for others meeting tight deadlines can affect their ability to carry out a task
efficiently. The best way to prepare for this is to ensure that plan ahead by identifying the
objectives, the tasks that will need to be completed to meet the objectives and the time
that is expected to complete.
It¶s vital for all the sales representatives to posses all the above mentioned attributes and
skills in order to perform their tasks effectively. All the selected organizations have
mentioned the same attribute and skills indicate that the companies are looking for people
who are motivators, team players, leaders and they also should be able to present
themselves in an appropriate manner.
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D

The salespeople in the past were not held in high esteem by the society. The Roman
equivalent of the word salesperson is cheater. Today, however, an organization relies
heavily on its salesperson, that is, its sales force. This is so because of the increasing
importance of selling. Today¶s selling approach also includes maintaining good customer
relationship, managing the profitability of a firm, managing customer complaints and
building brand value in the eyes of the customer. As such, the concept of sales force
management becomes central to the growth of a sales organization. Therefore, the
companies that we have selected to compare with are èhiraagu, Agora and Sunup
supermarket. èhiraagu and Agora are Maldivian based companies and Sunup is a Sri
Lankan based one.
These days a lot of managers and strategists place great emphasis on the bottom-line as it
not only reflects a company¶s well-being but also affects its stock values. In this pursuit
of profit top-line assumes special significance. èifferent organizations have adopted
different methods to go about it, as can be observed in the study undertaken. But, despite
different approaches to sales one thing that remains constant is the significance of sales
force. As such, managing the sales force assumes strategic importance in the growth of
the organization. The policies pertaining to sales force have a deep impact on not only
achievement of targets, but also on the image of the organization, employee satisfaction
and attrition rate. èifferent elements in the promotional mix have been identified and
compared choosing the best practices between the selected organizations along with the
role and responsibilities of the sale force. In addition to that, the stages involve in the
selling process has been discussed thoroughly comparing all the selected organizations.
The management policy at a sales organization is a function of various factors

environment, strategy adopted by the organization, organization¶s learning curve, and
sales manager¶s own understanding of the environment and his tactical responses.
rganizations policy, especially those which are related to performance management and
training and development are heavily influenced by organizations learning curve.
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The organizations should also look towards their HR function as a strategic function, not
only in the sense that it helps them hire right candidate for right job, but also because it can
improve overall efficiency. The sales strategies, sales targets recruitment method,
remuneration and techniques to coordinate and control sales out put have been analyzed
giving recommendations wherever necessary. The selling requirements in different
environmental context have been studied and the skills and the attribute that the sale
personnel should posses have been thoroughly discussed.
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 

The objectives of the project are

^| To understand the concepts of sales organization

ur vision is to be leading communication service provider in South East Asia.

èhiraagu takes pride in active involvement in the community in which we serve. As a

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ur vision is to be the leading supermarket operators in Asia.

A business total marketing communications programme is called the "promotional mix"

Yroviding incentives to customers or to the distribution channel to stimulate demand for a

Sales promotion is different promotion, Sales promotion refers to those marketing

^| â . - This process includes collecting contact information of consumers

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The role of sales personnel in Agora are as follows.

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A variety of ways exist to reach prospective customers, including stopping in

For many businesses, logging, warehousing and processing information about

The need for database maintenance is unavoidable, so enterprise data availability

èirect marketing campaigns, particularly mailing pieces, can be expensive to create,

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^| Invalid telephone numbers

^| Name splitting and salutation

^| ut of date data

^| Inaccurate contact names

^| No casing or abbreviation standardization i.e. 'Rd' or 'Road', 'St' or 'Street'.

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Clerk: "May I help you?"

Customer: "No thank you. I'm just looking."

M|  -"That dress looks out-of-date."

M| %   & 

Selling process of Agora are pre customer contact, prospecting, presentation of

^|           - when territories are properly aligned,

^| Analyze current targets, sales force composition, compensation plans, target

The success of an organization is a function of the effectiveness of its sales force to

^| Initial Sales training

Now, let us understand the role of motivation in a sales organization.

Sales organizations comprise of human beings working at different levels. As such

^| èetermine Sales force and compensation objectives

Recruitment in èhiraagu is not just an event but is a part of a complete leadership

The recruitment process is extremely important to èhiraagu and involves a significant

The selection procedure includes following four steps:

^| Written examination of a duration of 1 hour. It has 3 sections

c)| " *  â2" *  

A future manager program, aimed at building behavioural competencies of

I.| Life cycle management program

^| /2  -this consists of both elaborate technical exposure as well

^| Specific need related development program

èhiraagu has a comprehensive performance management system, which has been

^| Identifying top 10% and bottom 10% of the employees

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Sales is an important function in any organization as the very survival of an organization

To be a success, the salesperson must physically belong in the firm's particular

The ability to communicate ideas to others effectively is an absolutely essential

The management policy at a sales organization is a function of various factors

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ur vision is to be leading communication service provider in South East Asia.

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ur vision is to be the leading supermarket operators in Asia.

^| â.- This process includes collecting contact information of consumers

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^| ut of date data

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