ParT II PLANNING THE SALES TEAM’S EFFORTS SALES MANAGERS are involved in planning, organizing, setting sales ob- jectives, forecasting market demand, budgets, sales quotas, and overseeing the operation of individual sales territories. These activities form the bases of sales planning. Part II includes Chapter 3, “Building Relationships through Strategic Planning?” Chapter 4,"The Market-Driven Sales Organization; Chapter 5, “Forecasting Market Demand and Sales Budgets” Chapter 6, “Design and Size of Sales Territories? and Chapter 7,“Sales Objectives and Quotas”BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH STRATEGIC PLANNING Cuarrer OvTLINE IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE PLANNING ‘Waar Is MARKETING? MARKETING’S IMPORTANCE TO THE FIRM, ESSENTIALS OF A FIRM’S MARKETING EFFORT RELATIONSHIP MARKETING TECHNOLOGY BUILDS RELATIONSHIPS AND PARTNERS RELATIONSHIP MARKETING AND THE SALES FORCE STRATEGIC PLANNING AND THE SALES MANAGEMENT PROCESS LEARNING OnyEcTIVES Strategic planning helps an organization build longterm relationships with its customers. This chapter will help you better understand: The importance of corporate strategy. I How strategic planning differs from tactical operational planning. i The relationship between marketing and sales force strategies. The role of personal selling in the firm's masketing relationship efforts.Xerox noticed that it was missing out on a large amount of business when some of its largest users of high-end printers went to other companies for mid-range and low- end printers.They knew that they needed to develop a methodological plan to help them manage customer relationships across multiple products, often with different selling processes. Many office managers do not prefer to buy low-end equipment through a direct sales force, and Xerox did not work with dealers and distributors. Because of this, Xe- 10x had to allow its sales reps to deal with indirect sales channels in order to help ‘customers buy the way that they desire most-The company made the transition from 4 purely direct sales model to one that mixes direct and indirect sales. ‘Using this strategy, Xerox sales reps are able to refer an account to a dealer for a lowerend product. Their sales quota and compensation are then both properly ad- justed. In this way, Xerox is formalizing its policy of encouraging the crossselling of ‘one product line against another, even when these lines are distributed through con- flicting channels ‘A wellinformed sales force can dramatically improve crossselling techniques, en- bling the company to realize the full potential of its customers, as in the case of Xe- 10x. Cross selling is one of the best ways to increase customer's profitability but the organization of this selling effort is usually a problem for most companies. This is not dificult to imagine considering the divisions formed by croseselling, where separate entities rarely communicate with each other or share customer information. ‘To prevent this, here must be a method to the madness. As in the case of Xerox, a little organization and planning went a long way in the terms of sales. By informing their sales force and making the transformations needed, their crossselling efforts hhave definitely allowed them to realize the fall selling capability of their sales force and the proit potential oftheir customers.’ il sa