Sales Management at Coles Supermarket Australia

Introduction

The term sales management is kind of sales procedure in which the sales manager particularly provide their focal point on using some practical techniques to manage the sales of the company. The management of sales is considered to be an important activity for any company because it helps the company to earn revenue which ultimately increases the productivity of the company (Irwin, 2008). In this report we will be discussing the sale management system of Cole Supermarket and will show the management of sales helps them in managing the other functions of the company like CRM, motivation and training process and much more to discuss. Based on the study we will also provide few recommendations which will help the company to make better its sales management process.

Company Profile-Coles Supermarket

Cole’s supermarket which is officially known as Coles Supermarkets Pvt Ltd is one of the biggest superstore sequence in Australia that is possessed by Wesfarmers and was established in the year 1914. The company is also known as one of the toughest supermarket chain functioning in Australia and ranked 4^th globally.  The company deals both through online as well as by running physical stores within Australia.  The main product and service ranges of Cole include:

·         Baby care items

·         Fruits and veggies

·         Milk Products

·         Coles Cellular phone

·         Gift cards

·         Liquor

·         Meat (businesses,Coles, 2016).

The company structure- Coles Supermarket

A proper management of the organizational structure helps a company to delegate the work based on the designation and profile.  A proper management of the organizational structure helps in defining in what manner the acts like the work distribution, harmonization along with monitoring and controlling in the direction of achieving the targets and objectives of a company (Tran, 2013). In the same manner the Coles Supermarket also follow a proper organizational structure in order to delegate the works properly. The company changes its structure with each one financial year of working so that they can do modifications so as to provide better customer and employee support each time. The organizational structure of Cole’s supermarket is given below:

 

(Tian, 2012)

Thus it can be depicted from the above given diagram that the head of the Coles Supermarket is its Managing Director who is responsible for allocating task to the junior executive. After the MD the second most important position is given to the HR managers who are responsible for pulling the talent from the global market. Taking into account the HR manager, Coles have in total 10 officials who altogether make up the organizational structure of the company including g the normal staffs also (Tran, 2013).

Sales strategies of the organization

An effective sales process can be referred to as a kind of strategy which helps the company in achieving its sales target with a fair amount of profit. Each and every company follows different sales strategies based on their functioning and also based on their sales targets.  For example, the sales strategy of the Coles is somewhat different that of Woolworths because their sales targets are different. In this section, we will be discussing the different sales strategies adopted by Coles Supermarket to achieve their monthly sales target (Knox, 2015).

 

Defining the target business sector- As per the head of the marketing team of Coles Supermarket, identifying and defining the target business is one of the initial and important steps which they think is important for Coles sales strategy. In this segment, they especially look on the target customer and identify their needs and preferences and based on that they sell out their product and services to the clients.

Determination of the outreach- The second important sales strategies of Coles Supermarket is focussed on to determining the actual outreach. This segment is particularly designed for the customers who buy through Coles online. The sales representatives of the Coles online after every single purchase cold called the customers from the data to take the feedback which helps the company in creating a good brand as well as well helps in earning revenue for the company.

Identification of the sales prospective- Checking the upcoming trend sales of a company is also considered to be as one of the important sales strategy which Coles apply in order to see the upcoming trends of the sales and based on that take the further approach.

Delivering goods on time- The Company Coles is known for its on delivery especially in the segment of its online based store. In order to have proper sale of the product as an important sales strategy for its online store, Coles always deliver the goods on time to its online customer.

Monitoring the whole sales process- This is the last sales strategy used by Coles and considered to be as the most important sales strategy apart from the above mentioned four strategies. This is because the evaluation of the whole sales process helps the company to identify its main faults which they rectify in the new sales strategy after completion of every months sales targets (Pourhosseini, 2013).

Targets of the Company-Coles Supermarket

The target segment of the Coles Supermarket is providing their focal point on the segregated populace of Australia those who needs their goods and services beneath one umbrella or which can also be said as less than one shop only. The customers of the Coles Supermarket are coming from every category ranging from the high-income earning people to low income earning people. Cole has got product range for all kind of targets. Thus from the discussion it can be said the target market of the Coles supermarket doesn’t depend on the age, caste or income, all are welcome there (Keith, 2012).

CRM-Coles Supermarket

The companies who directly deals with the customers, for them one of the most important work is to maintain a cordial relationship with the clients and for this company are using a strategy which is known as CRM or Customer Relationship Management. From some reports it has been identified that most of the Australians love to shop from Coles Supermarket and as a result, the company has got a huge market there. The Coles supermarket reported having one of the most widespread practices of customer relationship management within its functioning. In order to maintain the proper relationship with the customer's Coles have created different loyalty and rewards program for its customers. Apart from this, the company has created valuable savings in the gift cards like and loyalty agenda like FlyBuys and Coles MasterCard’s etc. The loyalty programs like FlyBus is a kind of JV among the Coles and between the NAB where they provide opportunity to the Coles customers to create their daily buying counts for more than 1000 rewards choices (McRae,Alissa , 2012). Apart from this for the online customers, they give huge discounts for every single purchase so as to retain a cordial relationship with its online clients also.

Key accounts of the company-Coles Supermarket

The key account of Coles Supermarket is a type of description that is focussed on to the creation of the sustainability reiterate buying from the contractors.

 (Dalley, 2016)

From the above given diagram it can be clearly noted that the key accounts of the Coles Supermarket has got four important phases which are:

Direct Sales- In this segment the company directly deals with the customers and no third party is required to deal with the customers as result it is considered to be as one of the key account of the company.

Developmental strategy- The developmental strategy is considered to be as the second important key accounts of the company because it helps in developing the overall strategies of the company based on which important decisions are accepted.

Looking for synergy- After directly dealing with the customers and developing company strategy the next key account of the Coles Supermarket is to looking for synergy for the overall development of the company.  In order to make a proper synergy, Coles have joined hands with National Australian Bank to provide the best loyalty programs to their customers.

Joint venture-As there are different products segments of Cole’s supermarket as result to provide the best drinking water to its customer the company have started a joint venture business with Yaru  to manufacture Australia’s primary native caned water (Dalley, 2016).

Recruitment and selection process – Coles Supermarket

The candidate requirement in Coles Supermarket varies because they operate into online and also into physical retail store but the recruitment and the selection process is same in both the cases.  The recruitment and the selection process have got four important stages which are described below:

 

 ( University,Australian Catholic, 2015)

It can be depicted from the above given diagram that the first process of the recruitment is giving advertisement via online and also via different Australian magazine about the vacant position. Second is, after selecting the right candidate from the ad giving them interview call so that they can come for them. After taking interview them starts the selection process which again have again got seven important steps. Following the selection process, the select the candidate and provide them the joining and the appointment letter based in the merit ( University,Australian Catholic, 2015).

Sales Forecast- Coles Supermarket

The sales of the Coles Supermarket under the category of eatable and alcohol segment had raised up to by 5.9% as recorded in the year 2015 to $7.5 billion has assisted by the starting up the Coles new shops as well as a continuous movement of refurbishment.  Taking into account the cost devaluation of two percent since the last years still Coles has managed to gain 4.9% increase in their daily sales which made the company as a big competition for other Australian retail companies. Concerning the main frustration in the Coles, sales was an 8.9 % fall in accommodation deals, which meanly comprises of the administration stations, to $1 .4 billion. In addition to this, the sudden decrease in the volume of the fuel costs along with augmented rivalry overshadows an expansion in the general store dealings of the Coles Supermarket (California, 2004).

Sales force assessment-Coles Supermarket

The sales force evaluation process of the Coles Supermarket undergoes through the following mentioned processes:

1.      The first sales force assessment process of the Coles supermarket mainly provides it focal point on the determination of the aspects which persuade the sales fore act of the company. This considered being as an important sales performance evaluation process because it help the management to identify the factors which will work as a positive stimulator for the company’s sales.

2.      Secondly the company also has got a training team particularly for the sales executive which work on to building up of the standards of the acts within the Coles functioning.

3.      Following the above mentioned two steps next is the comparison of the sales acts. This assessment process helps the marketing team of the Coles Supermarket to identify as well as helps them locating the actual profit earning capacity of the company. In addition to this it also helps in having an idea for the upcoming sales.

4.      After the third step the company provides its focal point on the performance check in which they mainly identify the errors and the mistakes and work on them to have a stronger sales process. This particular step helps the Coles Supermarket in building self-confidence in the sales representative who works as the main sales stimulator for the company.

5.      The last step is followed by the feedback assessment process in which Coles Supermarket takes the feedback from the client on the sales service and based on the feedback they worn on those feedback and also provide training to the sales representatives (Keith, 2012).

Training and motivation process-Coles Supermarket

Training and motivation plays a very pivotal role in engaging the employees to work for the betterment of the company as well as betterment for themselves. Coles Supermarket follows a training process in which they provide training to both the new comers as well as to the experienced employees. For the new comers they have designed special training modules in which the trainer teaches the employees on how to deal with the customers. As this is an industry which directly deals with the customers thus it is core activity to understand its customers and the products first. On the other hand the motivation works as training process for the senior executives which act as twin roles. In order to motivate the employees, Coles provides a quarterly appraisal based on the performance and also provide different awards based on the excellence of the employees.  Thus it can be depicted from the discussion that both the motivation and the training process work as a stimulator in Coles (California, 2004).

Conclusion

From the above done research study on the topic of sales management of Coles Supermarket it can be depicted that, Coles follows a simple yet proficient sales strategies which helps the company to attends its target every month. On the other hand it can also be depicted from the study that the recruitment process of the Coles also follows a very straight forwards process by which they are able to identify the best talent for their store. And in addition to this a proper training and motivation module also pays a very pivotal factor in shaping up the career of its sales representatives.

Recommendation

In order to have a better sales management procedure it will be important for the top management of the Coles Supermarket to make the sales leader as coach and mentors. This will help the sales representatives make a proper relationship with their TL which will work as a motivating factor also. Secondly, it will also be required for the sales management team of Coles to create their sales target more efficient so that the employees can easily achieve the monthly sales target which will add revenue for the company and will also work as a motivating factor for the employees.

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