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Companies have promoted just about every contraption, piece of junk and useless product you can imagine. Many companies don’t make much money on these products because people don’t see the immediate need for them. When customers don’t see the immediate need you are going to have to spend extra money, time and effort selling to them. Hewitt Packard has an excellent model for selling products. They believe that if the product developers can sell it to the sales force they will be able to make money. Once the sales force takes ownership of it they will be able to sell it to the customers with relative ease. The sales force will not accept a product that won’t make their numbers look good. In order for a business to successfully implement this strategy they must include the sales force in the decision making power of product development. To companies like HP their sales force knows their customers needs and will curb the manufacturing process to develop products that already have a defined market need. Businesses that want to follow this practice can either place the input of the marketing department at the front end, the back end, or anywhere within the product development process. The most effective method is to have the sales force share in the decision making processes of choosing which products to develop, how the products are developed and make strategic changes throughout the design of the product. By allowing the sales force to engage in the entire product development process the business is less likely to waste its time, money and efforts on products that don’t have strong marketability. This translates into higher rates of successful product launches, higher attraction of customers and less overall operating costs. Companies that utilize sales forces as a support function of the business aren’t as likely to be successful in the long run. They are not aware of the disconnections between operations, the sales force and the customer. Even a small disconnect could lead to a product that is outsold by its competitors due to preferred features these products don’t have. In this case the customer does know best. When it comes to sales, companies have to maintain high levels of product relevancy. Product relevancy means that the item serves both the needs and desires of the customer. When compared to other items available on the market the ones with the highest product relevancy have the highest sales. Your marketing department will help achieve market relevancy. Murad Ali, a two-time published author, writes articles and offers advertisement space for businesses. Visit http://www.thenewbusinessworld.blogspot.com and http://www.datingdesires.blogspot.com and http://www.fitnessanddietblog.blogspot.com and http://www.marketing-masters.blogspot.com
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