The X92 Press [Case Study 15.1]
Introduction
The key issues of this case are the salesperson is lack of understanding customer, lack of preparation before interview, and lack of understanding the product itself. And solutions are required to solve is problem the salesperson in order to salvage the sale.
1. What mistaken did Susan make?
2. How should she have handled this sale?
According to the case, one of the mistaken that Susan did is lack of understanding her customer. She did not know the customer’s problem and needs deeply, but she only knows how to provide specification the product as well as list out the better result of the new product comparing to the old ones. Even though she satisfied purchasing manager (Arthur Speddon), however, she did not know that George Benlake (production manager) had experienced the problem of control before. Thus, she gets declined by the production manager due to failed to satisfy him (Blythe 2005, pg.106).
Susan should have handled this sale by following enhances framework of the business to business selling process (Wilkinson, J. W. 2003, pg. 14). Thus, Susan should identify and attempting to meet customer needs and wants. Besides, Susan could also use SPIN questions which enables aware an implied need of product manager on that product, then improve the product by solving the problem that the customer feels impelled to take action (Blythe 2005, pp.106-107). For example, she understands that the control of module press is pretty complicated and it may influence the production manager’s decision. So, Susan should learn the control of the product in order to explain it to the customer to satisfy them, and enable Susan to convince the customer more possible to be successful using this method (Hisrich and Jackson, 1993, pg. 60).
Besides that, Susan is lack of preparation before appointment with the customer. Although she had showed up the product to the customer before the competitor, however she can only show the brief ideas of the
The key issues of this case are the salesperson is lack of understanding customer, lack of preparation before interview, and lack of understanding the product itself. And solutions are required to solve is problem the salesperson in order to salvage the sale.
1. What mistaken did Susan make?
2. How should she have handled this sale?
According to the case, one of the mistaken that Susan did is lack of understanding her customer. She did not know the customer’s problem and needs deeply, but she only knows how to provide specification the product as well as list out the better result of the new product comparing to the old ones. Even though she satisfied purchasing manager (Arthur Speddon), however, she did not know that George Benlake (production manager) had experienced the problem of control before. Thus, she gets declined by the production manager due to failed to satisfy him (Blythe 2005, pg.106).
Susan should have handled this sale by following enhances framework of the business to business selling process (Wilkinson, J. W. 2003, pg. 14). Thus, Susan should identify and attempting to meet customer needs and wants. Besides, Susan could also use SPIN questions which enables aware an implied need of product manager on that product, then improve the product by solving the problem that the customer feels impelled to take action (Blythe 2005, pp.106-107). For example, she understands that the control of module press is pretty complicated and it may influence the production manager’s decision. So, Susan should learn the control of the product in order to explain it to the customer to satisfy them, and enable Susan to convince the customer more possible to be successful using this method (Hisrich and Jackson, 1993, pg. 60).
Besides that, Susan is lack of preparation before appointment with the customer. Although she had showed up the product to the customer before the competitor, however she can only show the brief ideas of the
References: Blythe, Jim (2005): Sales and Key Account Management, Thomson, London, UK. Wilkinson, J. W. 2003, ‘The selling process’, unpublished. Manning, Gerald L.and Reece, Barry, L. (2001): Selling Today: Creating Customer Value (8th ed), Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Ingram, Thomas N.; LaForge, Raymond W.; Avilla, Ramon A.; Schwepker, Charles H., Jr and Willams, Michael R. (2006): Professional Selling: A Trust Approcah (3rd edition), Thomson/South Western, Mason, OH. Futrell, Charles M. (2009): Fundamental of Selling: Customer for Life Through Service (11th edition), McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Brierty, Edward G., Eckles, Robert W. and Reeder, Robert R. (1998): Business marketing (3rd edition), Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall. Rix, Peter; Buss, John and Herford, Graham (1999): Selling: A consultative approach, McGraw Hill Sydney. Hisrich; Robert D., Jackson; Ralph W. (1993): Selling and sales management, Barron’s Educational Series. Parker, G.M. 2003, Cross-functional teams: working with allies, enemies, and other strangers, John Wiley and Sons.