The Sales Process Practice of Food and Drink SMEs - A Holistic Conceptual Framework: Steps, dimensions, barriers and enablers.

Purpose –The research examines the sales process practised by SMEs, and barriers and enablers that hinder and support effective selling practices from the selling organisation’s perspective in Scottish-based Food and Drink firms. Design/methodology approach - – The paper adopts an interpretivist perspective with qualitative data gathered through face-to-face semi-structured interviews. 20 people involved in selling activities were interviewed from 15 SMEs across Scotland. Thematic analysis established key findings regarding the sales process practice. Findings – Five themes emerged that affect the operationalisation of the selling process: the owner manager has considerable involvement in the sales process, SMEs with some degree of sales knowledge take a more systematic approach, SMEs lack awareness of how CRM technology can assist them, power is tipped in favour of the buyer and, the geographic location of the SME places constraints on how SMEs conduct business Research limitation/implication – Thematic analysis was chosen over other more traditional methods due to the lack of relevant quantitative data. The phenomenon of the research and research methodology means that it will not be possible to repeat this study and replicate its findings. However, the process that has been adopted does provide a basis for future research. Originality/value - The paper identifies areas where future research is required in the field alongside suggestions where policy makers and government business agencies might focus intervention to assist SMEs improve delivery of the sales process and selling effectiveness

Achieving a strategic sales focus: contemporary issues and future challenges.

The main aim of this book is to consider how the sales function informs business strategy. Although there are a number of books available that address how to manage the sales team tactically, this text addresses how sales can help organizations to become more customer oriented. Many organizations are facing escalating costs and a growth in customer power, which makes it necessary to allocate resources more strategically. The sales function can provide critical customer and market knowledge to help inform both innovation and marketing. Sales are responsible for building customer knowledge, networking both internally and externally to help create additional customer value, as well as the more traditional role of managing customer relationships and selling. The text considers how sales organizations are responding to increasing competition, more demanding customers and a more complex selling environment. We identify many of the challenges facing organisations today and offers discussions of some of the possible solutions. This book considers the changing nature of sales and how activities can be aligned within the organization, as well as marketing sensing, creating customer focus and the role of sales leadership. The text will include illustrations (short case studies) provided by a range of successful organizations operating in a number of industries. Sales and senior management play an important role in ensuring that the sales teams' activities are aligned to business strategy and in creating an environment to allow salespeople to be more successful in developing new business opportunities and building long-term profitable business relationships. One of the objectives of this book is to consider how conventional thinking has changed in the last five years and integrate it with examples from sales practice to provide a more complete picture of the role of sales within the modern organization.

Marketing in SMEs: the sales process of SMEs on the food and drink industry.

There would appear to be varied approaches to the sales process practiced by SMEs in how they go about locating target customers, interfacing with prospects and new customers, presenting the benefits and features of their products and services, closing sales deals and building relationships, and an understanding of what the buyers needs are in the seller-buyer process. Recent research has revealed that while entrepreneurs and small business owners rely upon networking as an important source of sales, they lack marketing competencies, including personal selling skills and knowledge of what is involved in the sales process to close sales deals and build relationships. Small companies and start-ups with innovative products and services often find it difficult to persuade potential buyers of the merits of their offerings because, while the products and services may be excellent, they have not sufficiently well-developed selling skills necessary to persuade their target customers.

The challenge of sales competitions.

Universities in the United Kingdom do not make provision to deliver sales-ready graduates to the economy. One means of delivering sales education is participation in university sales competitions that bring together commercial sponsors, the higher education establishment and those students who may be interested in embarking upon a sales career. This paper explores the views of a sample of Edinburgh Napier University undergraduate students who completed a survey, with both multiple choice and open-ended questions, that detailed their experience in taking part in the Russ Berrie Institute (RBI) Sales Challenge competition between 2009-2014 at the Cotsakos Business Faculty of William Paterson University, New Jersey, in the United States. Ten categories of questions were asked relating to students' sales working experience, sales education, sales jobs, skills and knowledge, their preparation for the sales challenge competition process, observations during the event, post-competition reflection, and overall benefits of taking part in the sales competition process. The findings suggest that there are multiple benefits to students, business and universities from sales challenge competitions, which deliver an overall win-win-win outcome for all stakeholders.