Field sales is the most traditional sales channel, and is quiet an influential one too given that a proper strategy and sales development plan is in existence. The most important element to consider while devising a field sales strategy is to realise that frame of mind for the customers is not the buying frame. The other important element is the mapping of territory to hit. This needs to be noted that, there are quite a few common similarities between field sales and business to business sales. The above two mentioned elements have been discussed in detail in the prior article about managing business to business sales strategy. In this article we will focus on the major differences between two sales channels and how to manage the tweak field sales offer while considering sales development.

The major difference in field sales is that the target consumers are different. In business to business as name suggests your sales team target businesses however in field sales the target consumers are normal house hold customers. The difference is important to understand as building of sales team is different, business to business may only require three to four sales representatives as business territories are much smaller then house hold mapping. This is extremely significant to understand for a sales manager that a door to door team to be successful should comprise at least around 10 to 12 sales representatives per team for a territory. The logic behind this approach is of number of contacts to be generated in a day based upon percentage of mapping. The simple equation in both of these sales channels implies more contacts leads to more presentations and high probability of sales.

The other area that needs to be addressed with regard to field sales is organizing of sales training. Sales training for door-to-door teams should cover door opening techniques, most of times a sales training is generic and as per market research does not focus on door opening techniques. The reason we emphasize on door opening techniques is that because it is the key to success in door-to-door channel. We will illustrate an example to further develop the notion; one of techniques you need to implement at doors is to stand at a shadow distance in horizontal way after knocking the door. The reason behind this approach is it offers the comfort to the person behind the door to step out and start a conversation. A successful door-to-door sales team is well developed on door opening techniques as once a customer steps out and starts the conversation then the next step is to change the non-buying frame of mind to buying frame of mind.

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The advantage of field sales is elemental as it is cost effective way of selling, and offers to cover a broader segment of market. This sales channel has existed for decades and been instrumental in success of organizations, however as discussed it is significant to understand the nature and requirements to deduce maximum efficiency of field sales.

Retail is the other most powerful sales channel, and this is widely believed that extinction from retail or a strategy of non-presence in retail might lead to an adverse impact over the brand image and a potential loss of market and revenue. As of our market research with affiliations of academics, we have established that retail is indeed one of most powerful sales channels and it is extremely essential for management to have an expert retail strategy as of the potential of this particular sales channel and significantly that it is the most expansive sales channel to maintain for any business.

The core element while designing a strategy for retail is to understand the frame of mind which we discussed in detail in prior articles. Retail is the only sales channel in face to face selling where the frame of mind for customer is a buying frame of mind. In order the illustrate the notion when a consumer approaches a shopping centre they are in the frame of mind for purchasing goods and services implying that if a customer approaches a retail outlet, they are in frame of mind to gain information relevant to product with intentions of purchasing. The important element to consider is that a precise sales process needs to be followed for converting a query in a sale, and the prime reason is that in retail world customer have lot of choices to shop around the competitor brands for acquiring information to make a rational purchasing decision

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Another significant factor that needs to be understood is that the philosophy to be successful with in competitive retail world drives from the notion that retail is a brand space that is combination of customer service, provision of solutions to customer needs and a strategy of building brand image.  At MGI we have a broad experience in retail sector globally, and we have established an expert and specialized model considering retail dynamics that ensures business development for your brand in retail.

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The second fold of selling is reputation selling. Reputation selling is directly linked with marketing strategy of business. The marketing strategy works to create USP and build good will and brand image for your product or service. The brand image and USP combines to create reputation selling for products or services.

The marketing channel is a traditional channel of reputation selling. The significance of the channel is that through use of advertisement, campaigns, and test marketing and promotional marketing it creates a certain image of the product or service in the minds of consumers. The brand perception that is carved at unconscious level leads to brand loyalty leading to enhanced goodwill of the business. The challenges with this channel is that most of businesses are not able to successfully coordinate the dynamics of marketing strategy with sales strategy resulting in two way approach in the market which have an adverse impact over both folds of selling. The concept that needs to be understood is that reputation component of marketing strategy has to be harmonized in the light of sales strategy for ensuring a uniform approach in the market.

In recent decade reputation selling has become an extremely powerful fold of selling primarily because a new channel been introduced that of online selling. According to the recent research online market is increasing with a rapid rate every year, let alone it accounts for more 100 billion USD in United States only. It has become empirical for businesses to cap on this channel as of growing nature of the online market. The important point to understand is nature of reputation selling changes significantly in spectrum of online market.

Online selling has two major components one is Adword and SEO. Adword is quiet similar to the marketing as it is paid advertisement by using different methods, however SEO is all together a different form of building reputation. This form of reputation is build with search engine robots rather than with consumers. SEO has quiet drastically changed the medium of reputation selling, as it has added an extra flavour to the dynamics of reputation selling. The most important thing as business CEO you need to understand is that SEO has offered a total new platform for building reputation implying that a 100 years old reputation of your brand would be of no appropriate nature when it comes to SEO. The advantage of SEO obviously implies a huge chunk of new online market for your business. In current times, this will be a disaster for your business not to tap on this channel as it is going to be the new face of reputation selling in coming years.

The significant point we can draw out is that as a business, your sales strategy should cover both the folds face to face selling and reputation selling. The strategy should present a detailed overview of the objective of both the folds and an approach targeting specific channels for each fold.

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