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Problem

When planning a sales call on a particular account in the business market, what information would you require about the buying center, the purchasing requirements, and the competition?

Step-by-step solution

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Step 1/4

Planning is the first step in the any business. Planning provides an outline of future actions that needs to be taken by the company, company’s sales strategy and the potential buyers of the products.

Before the planning, marketing manager requires information about the buying center, purchasing requirements and competition for analyzing the target market.

Step 2/4

Following information are required about the buying center, competition and the purchasing center while planning a sales call on a particular account:

Buying Center

The buying center provides information to the sales persons about the trends in consumer buying behavior of the product.

They get information about place and modes of purchasing of the product by the customer. Based on the information gathered, sales person can plan the mode and way for pitching of the product to the customer.

Step 3/4

Purchasing Requirements

From the information about purchasing requirement a person who is intending to make a call gets to know the frequency of the purchase of the product made by the customer. Based on this information sales person pitches for the product to the company.

This also provides information to the person making the sales call about the need of the product required by people. In case of recent purchase of the product the company would not buy the product and hence making a call would be a waste of time.

In case the person who is planning to make the call knows that the company is in requirement of the product, then it would help the person making the call in pitching for the product in a better way.

Step 4/4

Competition

Knowing about competition in the market is also very important for the sales people. Information about the competitors makes the sales people to make a comparison between the strength and weaknesses of the product.

Thus, sales person who knows about the strengths of the product would be able to pitch the product in a better manner as it would give the product an edge over the other.

Knowing about the weaknesses of the product would also make the sales people to be more aware about the product and this will also help the sales people to counter any questions or doubt that might arise during the process of pitching.

Thus, these are a few information points that a sales people need to have before making a call to a particular account.