Personal Selling and Sales Promotion MBA Marketing (Masters Level) Essay

Personal Selling and Sales Promotion MBA Marketing (Masters Level) - Essay Example Ingraining is a process by which people at work develop norms and beliefs (Kerin et al 2005). Certain ways of thinking and doing become taken for granted even though they have not been explicitly stated. In the main aspect of value communication, direct two-way information transfer between customer and firm, service businesses enjoy an edge, because the customer is in the system. Their needs are therefore not remote and to be inferred but right here and given expression to. The likelihood of a firm being able to match customer needs exactly is correspondingly higher, provided the firm can customize its services (Kerin et al 2005). An interactive relationship with customers often develops in many service arenas while the service is being rendered. The customer could explain his/her needs, air travel routing with stopover, variations on a dinner order, advice from a securities analyst--and often receive service in real time. Again feedback could also be instant, resulting in high commu nicated value, provided responsiveness, flexibility, and learning ability are incorporated into the system. These strategies make the assumption that the company intends to persist in a concentration mode, that is, limit its horizons to a single product/service or achieve a predominant portion of its sales in one industry. Few large or medium size firms confine their product horizons (Kerin et al 2005). Following Kotler and Armstrong (2008) customer relationship management has a great impact on sales and value creation. "Winning and keeping accounts requires more than making good products and sales. It requires listening to customers, understanding their needs and coordinating the company's efforts to create a customer value" (p. 468). Typically it is small businesses that start with such a focus. With success and growth generally comes a desire to reduce dependence on any one product/market. Diversified firms have more stable sales and earnings. Risk reduction unquestionably helps enhance shareholder value. For instance, in such companies as DuPont or McDonald's this emphasizes the high priority that must be attached to cohesiveness and unity in the high-value organization, not just as a means to an end but intrinsically and for its own sake (Kerin et al 2005). The strengthening of linkages within and among the value creation demands a cooperative endeavor as does the need to brid ge hierarchic gaps. A main value that seems critical to the value-seeking firm is a mutuality of respect. The relevance and importance of others to the aims and purposes of the firm have to be acknowledged. Mutual respect strikes to the very heart of the issue of the dignity of the individual and the absolute conviction that the success of the enterprise depends upon each one's contribution. This applies not only to employees but to every other stakeholder, particularly customers and suppliers. In spite of complexity and global nature of business, such giants as Wal-Mart and Toyota strive toward meeting the needs of customers, which is a pervasive, ever-present consciousness of the centrality of value to a firm's mission. In addition to customer value is an ideal to strive for in the relationship among employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.