Impact on Customer Orientation Process †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Impact on Customer Orientation Process. Answer: Introduction: Smiths Snackfood Company is facing some really daunting challenges. Firstly, there is an increasing trend of eating a wider spectrum of snack products plus healthier snacks. This has heightened competition in the wider macro snacking marketplace. With growing competition in the healthy snack segment as well, Smiths is faced with the challenge of competing for the already small shelf spaces in the retail stores. It is highly critical to managing relationships with retailers and with the intensifying rivalry, this becomes harder and harder. Identifying whitespace prospects which match the marketplace dynamics, taste preferences and culture take a detailed and critical analysis of the retail landscape plus the customer trends which drive buying habits. Processing so much amount of information and filtering only the one required is another major challenge faced by the company. The challenge is to gather information from different markets and assimilating it into one so that all members o f the sales force are equipped with the necessary information about every store (Solomon et al., 2013). Moreover, with rising competition in the macro snacking market, the company faces the challenge of deciding the type and amount of information required by its sales force to be effective. Although the company has a knowledge management portal which offers a central point of access to the database, however, with the changing consumer trends and buying habits, plus rising competition, there is a need for more sturdy knowledge management. It takes more than a hearty crunch and great flavours to sell a Snack. It is evident through the case that capturing the corporate information and industry best practices have helped the Smiths management earlier in providing employees something they could use for efficient sales. Below mentioned strategies are recommended to manage the issues highlighted above: Employing a sales-oriented CRM system An efficient CRM system with a sales focus can help Smiths salesforce in staying focused and organized. With properties like automatic reminders, lead prioritization, and customer specific data, the sales team is likely to receive only that information which is critical in increasing sales. With help of such system, Smiths can expect to experience a rise in its salesforce closing ratio together with greater productivity (Hung et al., 2015). Arming the sales team with collaboration and mobile communication tools The companys salesforce is likely to spend most part of their time on the field, hence they require remote and easy access to critical and timely sales and consumer information via a mobile CRM app or solution. This will enable them to perform with real-time data and to modify a prospects information instantly, instead of waiting till they come back to the office. This will also enable managers to track data efficiently through the sales funnel (Tseng and Pin-Hong, 2014). Smiths must also make it convenient for its salesforce to have immediate access to the up-to-date product specs and contracts from a device phone, laptop or tablet. Moreover, as they will be needing to edit or draw documents, for e.g. a contract to finalize a deal at the quarter end, the company must make sure that they can do so easily without having to jump across multiple devices and apps (Fu, 2015). Using an advanced search engine As there is no advanced search engine being used at Smiths currently, the company can choose from different advanced search engines available. These will enable the users (salespeople) to find information spread in various repositories like spreadsheets, PPTs and intranet websites. It will help the members of the sales team to reach all the varied data sets by one view thereby refining the search and saving time (Rodriguez, Robert and Haya 2015). In order to implement the above recommendations, several decisions need to be made. These include: Company-wide communication app - Having a company-wide communication app together with privacy and data security will result in improved customer and sales experiences and lesser mistakes (Arnett and Michael, 2014). Qualify leads Smiths will have to define its target audience and acknowledge that people beyond this definition are likely to be wasting time than leading to sales. 3rd party behavioural and demographic data needs to be attached to inquiries in real time to swiftly assess how much prospective buyers match the defined target profile. It is only counterproductive to give leads to sales if these prospects are not willing to have a sales talk. Hence, it is crucial to comprehend the buyers journey, give them helpful content, and then extend them to sales only when they show they are willing to have a sales conversation (Khodakarami and Yolande, 2014). Obtain an advanced search engine For starters, the company can outsource this to a company which can build a prototype in small time employing technologies previously permitted by Smiths IS division (Garrido-Moreno, Aurora, and Vctor, 2014). Offering constant training and chances for sharing best practices The company needs to start focusing more on the development of its sales team. From technical training on services and products to training on the sales process, or bringing regional salesforces together every year to exchange best practices, an extensive development and training program gives a measurable ROI (Babin and William, 2015). When implementing the CRM, the company should get its requirements and specifications meticulously mapped out. The more detailed these requirements are, the better-positioned companies are to give firm pricing. Firm pricing will enable Smiths to recognize the capabilities it can do without. Moreover, a careful requirement specification will help the organization in identifying the functionality which it does and does not require. Through this, Smiths can find lower cost brands that can meet its needs. In addition to this, unless there is a pressing requirement to use technology in a specific way, it is advised to have an open mind between on-premise and hosted options (Filieri, 2013). Besides this, prior to choosing the TD program, Smiths is advised to not make assumptions regarding its employees abilities and instead survey them directly. Once feedback is received on this, the company will be in a much better position to structure the TD program. References Arnett, Dennis B., and C. Michael Wittmann. 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