Page 516 - Foundations of Marketing

Personal Selling and Sales Promotion | Chapter 17 483

E ntrepreneurship in Marketing

Tastefully Simple: From Gift Baskets to Multi-Million-Dollar Gourmet Food Firm

Jill Blashack Strahan, founder and CEO of Tastefully its founding, the company has come to be one of the
Simple, is recognized for her entrepreneurial leadership top 100 direct selling companies in the world. Today
and vision that created a multi-million-dollar company. Tastefully Simply has grown to net sales of over
Before starting Tastefully Simple, Strahan had a small $ 110 million.
gift-basket business. However, when the gourmet foods Tastefully Simple, which consists mainly of sales-
she provided with her baskets proved more profit- persons, has continually received recognition for being
able than the baskets themselves, she shifted focus. In ranked in the top 5 percent of companies nationwide in
1995 Tastefully Simple was conceived with the idea of employee satisfaction. The empowering vision Strahan
providing easy-to-prepare foods with a gourmet twist. has provided for potential entrepreneurs, many of them
The company’s products are offered through indepen- women, has made it a favorite among those with an
dent sales consultants across the United States. Since interest in entrepreneurship.
a

© iStockphoto.com/CRTd

5
as professional sales associations develop and enforce ethical codes of conduct. Developing
ongoing customer relationships today requires sales personnel with high levels of profession-
6
alism as well as technical and interpersonal skills.
Personal selling goals vary from one firm to another. However, they usually involve find-
ing prospects, determining their needs, persuading prospects to buy, following up on the sale,
and keeping customers satisfied. Identifying potential buyers interested in the organization’s
products is critical. Because most potential buyers seek information before making purchases,
salespeople can ascertain prospects’ informational needs and then provide relevant informa-
tion. To do so, sales personnel must be well trained regarding both their products and the
selling process in general.
Salespeople must be aware of their competitors. They must monitor the development of
new products and keep abreast of competitors’ sales efforts in their sales territories, how
often and when the competition calls on their accounts, and what the competition is say-
ing about their product in relation to its own. Salespeople must emphasize the benefits their
products provide, especially when competitors’ products do not offer those specific benefits.
Salespeople often function as knowledge experts for the firm and provide key information for
7
marketing decisions.
Personal selling is changing today based on new technology, how customers gain informa-
tion about products, and the way customers make purchase decisions. Customer information
sharing through social media, mobile and Web applications, and electronic sales presentations
are impacting the nature of personal selling. Some firms are adopting social media technology
to reach business customers. “Social CRM” (customer relationship management) provides
8
opportunities to manage data in discovering and engaging customers. For instance, the cloud-
computing models provided by Salesforce.com to enable firms to manage relationships with
their customers can assist in personal selling sales management.
Few businesses survive solely on profits from one-time customers. For long-run survival,
most marketers depend on repeat sales and thus need to keep their customers satisfied. In
addition, satisfied customers provide favorable word of mouth and other communications,
thereby attracting new customers. Although the whole organization is responsible for achiev-
ing customer satisfaction, much of the burden falls on salespeople, because they are almost
always closer to customers than anyone else in the company and often provide buyers with
information and service after the sale. Indeed, a firm’s market orientation has a positive influ-
ence on salespeople’s attitudes, commitment, and influence on customer purchasing inten-
9
tions. Additionally, collaboration between sales and other marketing areas is positively
related to market orientation that puts customers first, which positively impacts organizational

Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.