The case is about International travel agency and talks about the sales force inability and lack of motivation to increase sales revenue. The CEO is apprehended and deeply concerned about the declining sales volume and inactive sales people. The sales force has been divided into two categories; the consultants and travel counselors. The people entitled as sales consultants work outdoor and the counselors work indoor. There is no quota assigned to people of either group and no remedial actions are taken in case of any failure to meet the sales target. Agency organizes trips for the sales people to get familiar with the destinations whereas the purpose behind these trips is to give a thorough insight to sales force about the package and offers of the agency. The CEO wants to maximize sales by encouraging the sales force to sell complete product mix instead of just selling the tickets from one destination to other.
Identification of Problem
The sales department of the agency is not acting in a proactive manner to attract new and potential customers and also to facilitate current customers in a ravishing way. The representatives simply sell tickets and do not follow up with clients on their needs and demands. About 85% of the revenue comes from selling tickets and the need is to capitalize on rest of 15% by offering other services to ease customers. The sales force does not possess interpersonal skills and require enhancement in their level of motivation to build profitable relationship with clients. CEO wants to increase sales by actively engaging the sales force to offer complete product mix than just to focus on selling tickets. The main issue faced by the agency is lack of defined set of rules and strategies for sales force. Furthermore, the level of motivation and dedication is very low in sales staff to promote the agency sales by putting in extra efforts.
Possible Solutions
The agency first needs to build understanding with its task force by providing them training and assistance in carrying out their duties in an effective manner. Clearly defined rules and sales targets should be communicated to representatives. Company should tactfully design attractive compensation plans that would ensure regular income to representatives, rewards for extra efforts to serves clients, and justified payment scales for more experienced representatives. The compensation package should be designed according to prevailing market and according to job description and specifications. Compensation should be of two parts; one should be fixed to give job security and other should be variable according to the performance of the representative whereas other fringe benefits should also be made part of compensation. Commission should be given on the basis of efforts, time and strategies used by the sales representatives to fully cater a client, ensuring complete satisfaction and positive feedback from client’s end. Sales representatives should be honest with the clients, possessing thorough knowledge of the company and its travel packages and offers, and should be helpful to customers.
Training of the task force should be aimed at inculcating few key characteristics like; ability to solve unanticipated problems, ability to take calculated risks, successful planning, empathy and a powerful inner drive to sell. These tactics will help them in dealing effectively with clients. The training should also cover the technical areas of the job and different tools can be used for this purpose like an interactive session of video lecture or learning through internet. The sales managers should constantly monitor the sales team and take corrective measures by providing suggestions and feedback on the progress to achieve set targets. Few representatives are self-motivated and find selling as their biggest passion but others need assistance and attractive incentives to perform well. Regular meeting sessions of the higher management with sales force will help to understand their critical roles in the overall success of the agency. Management should constantly guide the representatives according to the required set of objectives and should set certain quotas for every sales representative to achieve in a defined duration. Management should calculate the sales of a particular region and set the quota accordingly. Increasingly busy schedules of the potential customers are making troubles for sales representative to make effective calls. Therefore new strategies should be made to contact customers according to their available time slot by keeping a track record.
Conclusion
The hospitality sector possesses great potential and organizations can harvest layers of revenue by implementing effective strategies. Management and the task force should work together to ensure superior customer services. This industry is mainly based on long term profitable relations so it is very important to run customer service department flawlessly and actively. Improved and highly integrated strategies can help the agency to prosper in an unprecedented manner. Managers should convince their task force to achieve higher targets by working hard and getting trained to work in a smart way. Compensation linked to extra hard work will motivate the sales representatives to work beyond just selling tickets. Customer oriented approach will be helpful to achieve long lasting relations. Apart from monetary value of job; the training is fun creating and representatives may get a chance to visit and explore new destinations side by side gaining opportunities to move up in management hierarchy.
References
Kotler. (2008). Marketing For Hospitality And Tourism, 4/E. New Delhi: Pearson Education India.
