The diverse nature of the buying situation means that there are many different types and functions of selling. In the case of Gardnov Ltd., the sales efforts and practises do not seem to be in place and functioning effectively.
The problems seem to begin with the advertising of the businesses products and the distribution of its' catalogues. The present system involves mailing the catalogue out to garden centres and retail outlets "throughout the UK regardless of whether or not they are existing customers"(1). This may well cause problems with customers; new customers should be receiving the catalogue and existing customers should perhaps be receiving a courtesy phone-call or visit to take any orders. Sending out catalogues to existing customers is an additional unnecessary expense and reflects badly on the business. The sales orientated firm focuses all its efforts on not how to produce the product, but how to ensure that the product is sold in a way that revolves around the customer. This is achieved by the sales team in Gardnov travelling to customers and promoting Gardnov. Jobber and Lancaster define the type of selling that the sales team adopt: Order getters (these are the front-line salespeople), New business salespeople (the selling task is to win new business) and finally Organisational salespeople (they have the job of maintaining close links with existing customers). It appears that the task of each salesperson is so varied that perhaps a system where the team are separated into one of the three ways would make the sales function more effective. Furthermore, the team are "all male". For a customer, perhaps an "all male" team may seem slightly imposing and daunting - a female presence should be experimented with.
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