Sales Management – Spring 2015
You have been selected to put together a Sales Proposal for selling a high cost and a high involvement product to an organization. The proposal needs to address the following key issues:
– What are you selling (the details of the product)
– Who is selling (the details of the selling organization)
– Who is buying (the details of the buyer organization)
– Identify the needs of the buyer (now and in the future). This is critical as sometimes even buyers are not aware of their needs and hence the needs have to be clearly identified and outlined for them.
– The strengths of your organization in satisfying the needs of the buyer (i.e. the strengths of your product and organization and how these will be used in providing an effective solution to the buyer/customer).
– Comparison with your main competitor(s) to justify how your solution is better than theirs.
– The potential shortcomings of your solution compared to your competitor (i.e. weaknesses of your solution and how these can be eliminated or reduced).
– Details of the after sales support and service
You sales proposal must be about a real product and a real customer . As a suggestion, a list of suitable product and buyers could be:
a. A car pool (from Honda, Toyota etc.) for the Banking sector (such as QNB, Commercial Bank etc)
b. X-ray equipment (from Siemens, Philips etc) for healthcare sector (such as Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha Clinic Hospital, Alahli Hospital etc.)
c. Commercial aircrafts (such as Air Bus A380, Boeing 787 Dream liner etc) for Airline Industry (such as Qatar Airways, Gulf Air, Emirates etc.)
d. Air Conditioning Systems (from Zamil Air-conditioning Systems, White Westinghouse) for construction sector (such as Nakheel Property Developers, Qatari Diar Property developers etc.)
You are at total liberty to choose your own product and your own customer.
The proposal should involve a considerable amount of research where gathered data and information should give you a clear idea of what the customer wants in a product and how you can satisfy their needs. Therefore try to do some primary research by getting in touch with managers from organizations such as Qatar Airways, Hamad Hospital Corporation, Honda etc) to get the first-hand knowledge about the needs of the customer. Manager (and similar other purchasing decision makers) may give you valuable and useful information which may help you in putting together a practical and a realistic proposal.
As a framework for the proposal, you should cover the following key areas:
I. Product (basic information about the product that you are selling. Please do not copy and paste information from a brochure or a technical product description. Use your own words to describe the features/attributes of a product).
II. Organization that you represent (outline the size of the organization, key strengths of the organization, number of employees, yearly sales and profits and client list. The idea is to sell your organization in a positive light and create a good impression right from the start).
III. The customer or the buying firm (Outline the key and relevant information about the firm that you are selling to).
IV. The buyer needs ( outline the buyer needs, give details of how these needs will be satisfied with your product/solution. Remember customers buy benefits).
V. The total cost of your solution (you should present the breakdown of direct and indirect costs for the next two to five years).
VI. The sales support package (where applicable include details about product service, product training, and product repair and maintenance)
VII. The details of the selling team. Clearly define the role and responsibility of each sales team member.
You can work in a team of up to 5 students. The above mentioned list of contents is an expectation and will form the criteria in marking the project. If you feel you have other relevant information to include please do so. Proposals will be evaluated for their content, clarity, structure and logical presentation. The maximum length of the proposal should not exceed 3000 words (excluding appendices and references).
