IN.K.A.M.S. OER 3 Analysing the market, Sales knowledge & Leveraging IT in sales

1. IN.K.A.M.S.OER 3Analysing the market, Sales knowledge & Leveraging IT in sales

2. Content Index • NEED TO CAPTURE INFORMATION• MARKET ANALYSIS• CUSTOMER ANALYSIS AND DATA INTEGRATION• SALES FORECASTING : METHODS AND TECHNIQUES • INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY : CRM & SFA • SOCIAL SELLING

3. NEED TO CAPTURE INFORMATION It allows companies to make correct assumptions and forecasting: • Overestimation could cause excessive production & overinvestment in unnecessary distribution channels; • Underestimation brings danger of competition entering the market to satisfy the needs.

4. MARKET ANALYSIS • Marketing intelligence includes market knowledge & the ability to identify value-creating opportunities. • Market sensibility is related with good awareness of market changes. • To limit risks and create opportunities they have to pay attention how customers change and how markets evolve. • It‘s wrong to focus only on existing customers, use only publicly available data, rely only on qualitative data or to have a fragmented approach.

5. MARKET ANALYSIS • Market sensingis the internal process of the company which facilitates the understanding of the external environment. • Market researchincludes techniques enabling collection of data and reports describing the external environment (surveys, case studies, market experiments).

6. CUSTOMER ANALYSIS AND DATA INTEGRATION • Customer knowledge competence means the ability to collect, analyse and effectively use knowledge about customers. • To develop such competence requires the integration of the customers‘ data collected by different departments. • Customer data integration is not only the software, but also a set of rules how to acquire information, render data and make it available and usable. • Other departments form their decisions based on data from sales department.

7. SALES FORECASTING • Complex process that aims at providing the demand estimation for particular products at particular prices. • The forecasting process: thanks to sales forecasting the company makes decisions about the volume of production also considering the expected reaction of competition. • Steps of sales forecasting process: analysis of internal and external competitive factors; estimate the sales potential (reachable & realistic market share); external and internal data is used to assess the sales forecast

8. SALES FORECASTING : METHODS AND TECHNIQUES Most common methods include the time series methods (i.e. sales over past few years) like: • trend analysis, • naive forecasting, • the moving average, • method of leading indicators. The forecasting quality depends on the quality of data used for the anticipation of future. The dynamics of the marketshould also be included.

9. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) Is a pillar of sales evolution. New technologies made an important impact on salesforce productivity and management. • The move towards the wireless and mobile technology was one of the most significant trends, allowing more time on field with customers, while CRM and automation systems support the sales process and help to share and integrate information with the company. • Using social media to support the selling process is the next issue. • Social selllingis a sales strategy where salespeople interact with prospect customers using social media.

10. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SFA (Sales Forca Automation) • CRM concerns company contact with individual customers. • CRM software support these processes. • All employees have access to real-time information. • In the CRM base you can find data about products customers buy, when they buy them, where goods are sent. • SFA could be part of CRM system. • SFA is a software to automate the business tasks of sales (order processing, contact management, information sharing, inventory…)

11. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SFA (Sales Forca Automation) SFA has two core elements: • a content management system (tracks customers, activities, forecasting, contacts, sales history, analytics). • sales lead tracking system tracks leads and opportunities pipeline data.

12. CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENT CRM AND SFA • Once the CRM is installed, many company employees can contact customers besides salesperson. • Technology makes slaes force more productive, but it also makes them feel their job is less secure. • How much information should be available, to whom, for what use? • Challenge how to make salesforce adopt the technology.

13. SOCIAL SELLING • Refers to a selling approach which leverages social and digital channels to understand, connect with and engage influencers, prospect and existing customers to build valuable business relationships. • The aim is to cultivate one-on-one relationships. • Techniques: sharing relevant content, interacting directly with potential customers, personal branding, social listening. • Social selling is already used in B2B selling or highly considered consumer purchases.