One Clock: Principles and Techniques for Successful Selling

Sales Management

Executive Summary

The report was based on the recently designed stylish analog alarm clock by One clock company. They have partnered with Kickstarter for funding. Principles and Techniques that One clock could use to successfully sell the clock were defined in the report. It was identified that the principles and techniques of successful selling can give many benefits to One clock. These can contribute effectively in making the company's relations healthy with its customers. The concept of selling through others was defined in the report along with its importance. It was identified that this concept can foster creativity and generate more revenue. Different sales structures were defined and discussed in the report among which it was identified that One clock can adapt customer or account size structure. It was discussed that the structure if effectively get implemented, can give a strategic and competitive advantage to One clock.

Introduction

This report is based on the product of One Clock. The company believes that sleep is great but waking up well is much better. It is because love starts with waking up. The company works so that people wake up, live, breathe, and think better (One clock, 2020). The company aims to provide better sound alarm clocks with soothing music.

This report will discuss the product of One clock which is supported by Kickstarter. The key principles and techniques of selling successfully will be described in the report. A critical analysis of the contribution of principles and techniques in managing the relationship with customers. The concept of selling through others and its importance along with the examples will be described in the report as well. The sales structure of the product of One clock will be evaluated. Implementation of different sales structures, sales strategies will be discussed. Recommendations for improving the efficiency of sales structure for taking competitive advantage will also be given in the report.

Principles and Techniques

Key principles and Techniques

One Clock has started a few years ago. They have designed an alarm clock with so many features which they want to sell successfully to their target customers. The company has named the product on the name of their company i.e., one clock. The clock has features like stylish analog design, swiss designed movement of the clock, touch-sensitive night light, 20+ year warranty, the music of the clock composed by Grammy-winning artists, etc. The sales department of the company needs to follow some principles and techniques for successfully selling (Danielson and Vonasch, 2020). These principles are:

• Build positive sales culture: It all starts with the company itself. So, one clock should build a positive culture of sales in the company if they want to become successful in selling. Effective leadership in the sales department is essential for this. It is because sales people count in those who help One clock to get success. A Healthy and positive sales culture help the sales professionals of the company to understand their roles, responsibilities, and values in selling successfully. Effective sales leaders and managers identify ways to grab opportunities to strengthen the sales team and to reduce their weaknesses. This all is to sell the product successfully and effectively (Gustafson, Pomirleanu and John, 2018).

• Utilize the technology well: Effectively utilizing the technology contributes a lot in selling successfully for One Clock who is the manufacturer of the clock and the supporting organization Kickstarter. Sales methods of the company can be made more effective by adding a touch of technology in it. The tools which can be included to make sales more effective are CRM solutions, electronic signing applications, software, etc. Accessing the data of customers is an important aspect of successful selling.

• Analyzing the data: It is not enough to just collect customer data with the help of technology. But it is also necessary to analyze the data well so that it makes sense. The sales professionals of the company need to have correct information about customers. To analyze it effectively, they need to look at the records of customers, analyze their needs and then decide on sales strategy. The professionals of one clock also need to learn the good interpretation of sales figure of the company as well.

• Connect with customers: For successful selling, prioritizing the customers and successfully reaching them is a must (Lindsey and Borin, 2017). One clock needs to find out the platforms with which they can promote their clock successfully and reach out to the targeted customers. The company can use social media platforms as these are effective in promoting sales. Good and effective content can be created for these platforms which can engage the readers and can convert them into customers.

• Learn to retain the customers: Only reaching to the customers is not enough. One clock needs to retain these customers to ensure successful selling in the future as well. The sales professionals of the company need to understand that it is easy to keep the current customers happy than finding out new customers. So, they better learn to do that. For successful sales, it is necessary to build a healthy and loyal customer base, going above and beyond them (Singh et al, 2018). The customers can be kept engaged by providing them the bonus, referrals, and discounts. It is necessary to make them feel valuable to ensure that they stay with the company.

Critical analysis of how principles and techniques contribute

The above-discussed principles and techniques contribute to build and maintain good relationships with customers in the following ways:

• Positive sales culture helps to motivate and inspire the sales professionals to give their 100% in the job role which can lead to better sales of One clock. Effective leadership for sales professionals can provide them a clear path for achieving success

• The use of technology will help to make the sales process smoother and faster. This leads to improvement in the functioning of the company and can enhance sales

• Gathering data about customers and analyzing it well helps to know them better which leads to satisfying them in a better way. Customer satisfaction means success and more sales

• Promoting the brand online will help One clock to generate more customers and increase its customer base. This will ultimately lead to making the company successfully sell more and generate higher revenue(Jovita and Chibuzor, 2018)

• Higher customer retention shows that One clock can be successful in making them engaged for a longer period. Rewarding the customers will not even generate more sales but also help in generating the brand values among customers

For example, one clock is using the above principle of analyzing the customers' wants well and featuring the product accordingly. The company has found out that their customers find harsh sounds very disturbing and it wakes them up but it does not keep them fresh all day. So, the company worked hard, gathered the best soothing tones, frequencies, and tempo so that the customers can wake up well and have a stress-free day.

Selling through others

Concept of “selling through others”

The concept of selling through the others is not completely dependent on the others it is just a simple concept whereas this can be tougher to apply in a real workplace. Sell through the others measures the inventory amount which could be sold by the company in the given time. In the other words, the meaning of selling through others is to estimates how the company quickly sells its products with covering higher revenues from it (Salonen et al, 2020). For knowing this concept in a better way, the One clock product has been chosen that is based on minimalist anal sigh time that provides convenience to humans for waking up in the morning with good music. The main purpose for designing this product is to disconnect the bedroom and this product is also composed by artists of Grammy Winning. For developing this kind of product, the company mainly focuses on developing the features of this product that useful to attract maximum customers for its products. For designing this product, it mainly featured by designing to disconnect where the thoughts are a significant match with humans, feline and canine.

Importance and advantages to using this sale technique

• Useful to solve the problems and fulfill the needs: This helps the company to sell its products by resolving the problems about use, design, quality, price, and features of the products. The main purpose of using One clock is to ensure the method is based on a set of test patterns and also provides the shortest TPG run times.

• Development of creativity: The creative and innovative products are provided higher advantages to the company about develop the profits of the business. The One clock product is designed for many purposes such as take back the bedroom, sonic science to start the day, music generator, multi-functional waking knob, swiss designed to clock movement development of speaker, attractive look of the clock face, screen-free, night light and alarm indicator features (Hoffeld, 2016). These are the main features that would be designed for providing a better mood to humans for their waking.

• Provide immediate feedback from the customers: This sales technique is also useful for the company to gain immediate feedback from the customer concerning their innovative products. The One clock is designed for providing a fresh method to humans for their waking. By concerning this the company is designed this product with developing the features of music.

• Generates higher revenues: The innovative and creative products are also played the role about develop higher revenues from them. If the features are effectively developed by the company so it will help the company to sell its higher quantity of the products and developing the profitability ratio of the company.

• Communicate with its customers: The advertisement and promotion channels strategies are also worked effectively in this concept where the company can promote its One clock product ineffective way (Ali and Aslam, 2016). This will help the company to communicate with the customers effectively by sharing the advanced features of this product.

Sales Structure

Sales structure of One clock

There are various sales structures to sell different kinds of products. One clock needs to choose their sales structure from geography structure, product line structure, customer size structure, industry structure (Beeler, Zablah and Johnston, 2017). All four sales structure has different features, pros, and cons. As one clock is a unique product with lots of features, the company needs to choose an effective sales structure for its successful selling.

Figure 1: Customer/Account size sales structure

Source: Brudner, 2020

To sell one clock, customer, or account size sales structure will be the most relevant one. It is because the company, one clock has only one major product to sell currently i.e., the clock. They can make divide different account sizes, assign sales managers to each account or customer base, and assign sales representatives to all divisions. As depicted above in the figure, one clock can divide three different accounts and make the sales department function accordingly. Deciding upon the correct structure is important for One clock because structuring the sales department helps to give clarity to sales people regarding their roles and responsibility. It will help in making the communication and coordination among different in sales department of one clock and with the other departments of the company as well (Ogawara, Tsubaki and Takashima, 2018). Implementing the account size structure to sell one clock will help to improve transparency in the decision-making of the sales department and the whole organization. It also increases the engagement of sales people for achieving company goals.

Assessment of different sales structures

• Geography Structure: This sales structure organizes the sales team by geography or territory. This allows the sales people to be familiar with a particular geographical location. Every sales person can build relations with local customers, know competitors of the region, and track targeted customers in that specific region. For example, usually, multi-national companies use this kind of structure as they have various regional offices. Organizations like Unilever, Microsoft, Google, etc. use this sales structure.

• Product line structure: This structure applies to the companies which have a large chain of products and services. The structure helps to align all the products to a relevant sales person (Bharadwaj and Shipley, 2020). The sales person who is assigned with a particular product or service able to better communicate its features to the client. For example, small companies like fast-food chains, retailers, use product or service line structure.

• Customer size sales structure: This refers to organize the sales structure based on different customers or account size. For all the customer base and account size, the company makes a different budget for sales, set different goals, and allocate different resources. The sales representatives are different for each account in this kind of sales structure. This structure needs to be carefully monitored to ensure that all the customers receive a quality product and their wants get satisfied well. For example, supermarkets, hotels, restaurants use this structure to make their sales organized.

• Industry structure: This is one of the most expensive sales structures. This is also called a vertical sales structure in which the company makes various verticals to organize the sales team and sell products in different ways in different verticals. For example, education institutes, real estate companies, manufacturing companies, etc. use this structure.

Sales strategies within the defined sales structure

As described-above, the customer/account size sales structure is suitable for one clock. The company can use different sales strategies under this structure to increase sales and maximize profits. These strategies include:

• Targeting: After implementing the structure well, if effective targeting gets done, it can increase the sales of One clock. It is just that they need to adopt this strategy. For targeting the customers well, one clock needs to decide the value of its clock then analyze the preferences of customers it wants to target (Barraza et al, 2019). The company just needs to target the segment which is profitable for it.

• Pricing: The pricing strategy is important in increasing sales for One clock. The company can use a price skimming strategy. In this, One clock can keep the prices of a clock high in starting to target the high-income segment of customers. The clock has such features which customers would feel worth paying high price for. After achieving high profits, then the company may lower the prices a little bit (AlJazzazen, 2019).

Evaluation and Recommendations over sales structure

The customer sales structure that One clock can use is described above as customer sales structure. This structure if gets used efficiently, can improve the financial condition of the company and help them to have a competitive advantage. Some recommendations for One clock to use the sales structure efficiently are:

• It is recommended for the company to first define the goals and objectives of the sales department and make it clear to them. Then only the structure needs to be implemented because until and unless they would not know goals and objectives, the structure would not be able to work efficiently

• The company is recommended to implement the structure in a way so that One clock can make sales consistently with the same structure (Nwabueze and Mileski, 2018)

• One clock is recommended to train their sales people in advance before implementing the sales structure. It is necessary to make them understand everything about it and to ensure that everyone is on the same page

• The recommendation for the company is to ensure that the sales managers have the capabilities to lead the accounts well. Good leadership is a must in sales structure to make it work efficiently and to gain a competitive advantage with it

Conclusion

The report is based on the product of One clock, a unique and stylish design clock to make the mornings of people fresh. The techniques which a company can use to sell successfully include building a positive sales structure, analyzing the data, and connecting with customers well. The company can use a customer sales structure to maximize sales and profitability. One clock can use effective targeting and price skimming strategy under customer or account size sales structure. Recommendations given to the company have identified as effective training to staff members, defining goals and objectives, make sales consistently with the same structure, to gain strategic and competitive advantage.

References

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