International Sales
Part 1: INTRODUCTION
Challenges for sales organisations
Three major observations:
• The Market Shift more technological
• The Sales Environment changes
• Research indicates a shift in decision-making
As a consequence:
• The Role of Sales changes
The challenge becomes:
• What can WE do about it?
The Market Shift
• The shift: From mainly caring about selling
as much as possible to customer
orientation.
Evolution in Sales
1. Product orientation
2. Sales orientation: “hard-selling”
3. Market orientation: “relationship selling”
1st: Based on production
2nd: Based on what the market needs
1
, Shift 2: Market evolution:
• Pressure on the mid-market
segment from two
directions
Middle point: more good
products at low prices & people
tend to show more that they
can afford expensive products.
Ex: in stores: Primark (low) – H&M (middle) – Louboutin (top)
Shift 3: Increasing segmentation
• Ongoing segmentation in ALL market levels in order to survive competition
• Strategic choices become (low-cost vs. differentation) inevitable
• Marketing mix has to be adopted to each segment
• More and more: 1 to 1 marketing
Nowadays: there isn’t 1 homogenous market. Markets can be
divided in small sections, because a lot of data is available (micro
segmentation)
Ex: Google selling data to Booking
The Sales Environment changes
Change 1: Environmental changes
1. Technological (r)evolution
2. Information (management) has become a strategic “resource”
3. Succes is defined by the quality of customer relations
4. Succes depends on the level of “added value” offered
Technological influences
• Automation of the sales function
• Virtual sales offices
• Electronical sales channels (internet)
2
Part 1: INTRODUCTION
Challenges for sales organisations
Three major observations:
• The Market Shift more technological
• The Sales Environment changes
• Research indicates a shift in decision-making
As a consequence:
• The Role of Sales changes
The challenge becomes:
• What can WE do about it?
The Market Shift
• The shift: From mainly caring about selling
as much as possible to customer
orientation.
Evolution in Sales
1. Product orientation
2. Sales orientation: “hard-selling”
3. Market orientation: “relationship selling”
1st: Based on production
2nd: Based on what the market needs
1
, Shift 2: Market evolution:
• Pressure on the mid-market
segment from two
directions
Middle point: more good
products at low prices & people
tend to show more that they
can afford expensive products.
Ex: in stores: Primark (low) – H&M (middle) – Louboutin (top)
Shift 3: Increasing segmentation
• Ongoing segmentation in ALL market levels in order to survive competition
• Strategic choices become (low-cost vs. differentation) inevitable
• Marketing mix has to be adopted to each segment
• More and more: 1 to 1 marketing
Nowadays: there isn’t 1 homogenous market. Markets can be
divided in small sections, because a lot of data is available (micro
segmentation)
Ex: Google selling data to Booking
The Sales Environment changes
Change 1: Environmental changes
1. Technological (r)evolution
2. Information (management) has become a strategic “resource”
3. Succes is defined by the quality of customer relations
4. Succes depends on the level of “added value” offered
Technological influences
• Automation of the sales function
• Virtual sales offices
• Electronical sales channels (internet)
2
