Sales Tool Research Articles

Creative Conceptions of “Electronic Business: Sales and Financial Tools” for Economic Development

Traditional businesses all over the world have experienced very severe competition in terms of electronic commerce, or virtual retailing and financial service. mobile information and communication technology. etc. This has been compounded by rapid change within the telecommunication. IT and content sectors and throughout the relevant policy environment. The term “Electronic business” has been chosen by the author as the mo,t applicable generic term to define the growing salience of information with commercial activity.
 the purpose of L. Sodžiutė and V. Sūdžius monograph “Electronic business: Sales and Financial tools” is to describe what “Electronic business” is: how it is being conducted and managed; and its major opportunities, limitations, issues and risks.
 The economic issues are associated with electronic commerce and financial tools. such as its advantages and disadvantages, types of payment’ and information transfer security, the roles of organization and security facilities, to perform an analysis, to identify a forward level of electronic business and summarize the results of the analysis, and make suggestions for electronic commerce development facilities.
 The objective of taking this perspective is to give a business-focused understanding of the main issues involved in the development of electronic business, with the aim of introducing interested business people (both students and professionals) to the commercial and strategic impact of the information economy, especially in terms of comprehending how enterprises need to adjust if they are to sustain their competitive position.

Hearth and Hotmail

Hearth and Hotmail

Special Issue Papers: Do business class air fares capture added value for airline alliance membership?

Over the past decade, international full service airlines have moved strongly towards alliances as an organisational form. This reflects, at least in part, the inability of the industry to rationalise through cross-border mergers and acquisitions, as the international traffic rights required for operation are tied to the Chicago Convention of 1949, and generally require the majority of an airline's ownership to remain in the hands of its nationals. While airline sales teams identify alliance membership as a critical sales tool, the value of this alliance membership is not always perceived as equally valuable by customers, nor is it captured by airline pricing models. This paper uses analysis of net pricing in the highly contested Sydney to London market to demonstrate that the perceived value from alliance membership is not captured in business class airfares.

Der Markenwert von Banken — Messung komplexer Sachverhalte mit modernen Verfahren

Every company, especially those with strong brands, is confronted with the question of how the value of its brand can be measured correctly and — even more importantly — how it can be translated into a price premium in the market. This article presents an innovative technique for quantifying the brand value in banking from the perspective of the customer. By using an individualised conjoint measurement approach, the complex constructs of “brand” and its resulting “value” for different customers can be measured according to the customer and segment. Based on this quantification, segment-specific brand value drivers can be identified and transformed into sales guidelines and other sales tools that fully exploit the customers’ increased willingness to pay.

EBusiness in the pump industry

Used correctly and with the right tools, the Internet can help manufacturers and buyers and sellers of pumps. However, many in the industry remain sceptical about the real cost benefits it can bring and the advantages, if any, it has over traditional business methods. Godard Abel of BigMachines.com, explores the myths surrounding this new technology and argues that the internet still has a great future as a sales tool and can bring real savings.

Sales Promotion Types and Customer Sensitivity

As markets are becoming fiercely contested, the marketers are forced to deploy sales promotion activities or tools to maintain and expand sales. There is a visible trend in favour of sales promotions. But optimum decisions cannot be taken unless correct assessment of customer sensitivity to various sales promotion tools is made. This study was undertaken to study consumer response to sales promotion activities. The key consideration was to explore how promotion sensitivity is spread. Accordingly, a scale measuring consumer sensitivity to seven promotion or deal type was administered. The data analysis revealed presence of two groups, i.e., sales promotion sensitives and insensitives. The deal sensitive group exhibited higher sensitivity to all deal types on a generalised basis. The data did not reveal presence of specific deal, sensitive groups. While the insensitives group exhibited, low sensitivity towards all promotion types.

What can direct marketing do for branding and bonding?

This paper adds to knowledge about direct marketing by focusing on what direct marketing does for brand building or for ‘bonding’ with customers. This issue is important because direct mail alone accounted for as much as £1,665m or 11.6 per cent of total advertising expenditure in 1998 in the UK. This is more than the total outdoor, radio and cinema advertising spend. The paper explores the issues from a direct marketing (DM) agency and DM brand experts' perspective. It examines to what extent there has been a shift during the past ten years from using direct mail as a tactical sales tool, to a longer-term, strategic brand-building tool. Four roles for DM in brand building emerge. Underexploited roles for DM in tailoring ‘brand relevance’ to selected consumers and in acknowledging or developing the ‘brand experience’ of existing customers are reported.

Sales force automation usage, effectiveness, and cost‐benefit in Germany, England and the United States

A 42‐question survey on usage and beliefs regarding sales force automation (SFA) was collected, along with actual sales performance data, on 1,641 sales representatives of a large international pharmaceutical company in Germany, England, and the United States. The relationships between beliefs and usage and individual sales performance were examined both within and across countries and a cost‐benefit analysis completed. Factor analysis identified five usage groupings including: Planning and territory management; Administration and external information exchange; Within company communication; Active sales tool; and Passive sales tool. Significant usage, belief, and performance differences between countries were found, with the use of SFA explaining 16.4 per cent of the variance in sales performance across countries. General findings indicated that management and representatives believed SFA to be useful. US$22.2 million in sales increases were found to be attributable to SFA usage. At the same time, non‐discounted cash flow payback periods were found to range from 6.2 to 7.4 years. Potential contributing factors and implications are discussed.

EDI in foreign trade

At this time UN/EDIFACT is best suited to companies with “tied” customers, e.g. MNCs and their subsidiaries and companies who conduct a very high proportion of their overseas business with a small number of customers. Such EDI utilisation has been found to be most effective in the transport function where the UN/EDIFACT messages are most developed. SMEs are reluctant to invest in traditional EDI at the moment mainly because of the number of participants involved in a single export/import process and the fact that it does not offer complete compatibility with paper‐based systems. Additionally, the layout keys described by UN/EDIFACT messages do not follow existing designs for paper‐based systems: the SITPRO/ADEEP project is addressing this issue. Training issues are also involved. All types of companies are making increasing use of so‐called Web‐based EDI via the Internet, particularly as a sales tool.

Producing Persuasive Proposals

James E. Vincler and Nancy Horlick Vincler are professional writing coaches who work exclusively with engineers and businesspeople. At the simplest level, a proposal might be just an oral offer to organize a company bowling league. In its most complex form, a proposal can be a SOo-page (or longer) formal offer to revamp a federal agency's electronic-mail system. Generally, a proposal is a company's offer to supply a certain service or product to a prospective buyer, within a certain time, for a set fee. Look at a proposal as a company's major sales tool. Sales is not a dirty word. If someone didn't sell your company's product or service, the doors would close and you, with your fellow engineers, would be out of a job. Luckily, through proposal writing, the engineer's usual negative view of sales takes on a more positive, sophisticated aura. Proposals give you a chance to help your company survive, prosper and grow. Your engineering expertise helps your proposal team show your company's technical superiority and sound ideas, to win contracts that keep you employed.

An exploratory study of bingo card use in consumer magazines

Reader information service cards (“bingo cards”) have been used by magazines as a positive sales tool and by advertisers to generate large numbers of prospects. A study was conducted in four stages to determine the frequency of bingo card use among consumer magazines, fulfillment performance related to information requests, and policies and opinions of advertisers and magazines regarding bingo cards. Less than 8% of all consumer magazines include bingo cards. Advertisers’ response to requests for information via bingo cards tends to be very slow, if they respond at all. Yet survey results indicate that both magazines and advertisers tend to view bingo cards quite positively.

Menu design: can menus sell

Objectives of a menu include communication of the products available for sale, providing tangible evidence and selling. Managers must consider all these elements when they create a new menu. Focuses on menus as a sales tool in a full‐service restaurant. Describes an experiment to investigate the effectiveness of using menu design techniques to sell a specific menu item. Presents the experiment′s results and four propositions that relate to the effectiveness of the menu as a selling tool.

The good, the bad and the ugly – what does your office say about your company?

Offers guidance in achieving the right design for corporate headquarters, on the basis that this can act as a highly effective sales tool. Identifies values and what sort of image the company needs to communicate to its public. Suggests that intelligent design solution must make these values real in a practical way through colour, lighting and furniture schemes for instance.

Echocardiography should be more than heart sizing

There has been a lot of interest lately in the horse industry press about heart size in racehorses. It has been suggested (and shown with some rudimentary pedigree studies) that large hearts are highly heritable. Some surveys 1 have shown that echocardiographic heart size correlates well with electrocardographic heart score, which is in turn associated with better performing racehorses. Al though there are presently no published reports on how heart efficiency correlates with racing ability, it seems to be a reasonable assumption that a large inefficient heart would not contribute as much to racing ability as a large efficient heart. Dr. Paul Mostert, who heads Equix Biomechanics, in Lexington, K e n t u c k y known for measuring horses to determine breeding and racing a b i l i t i e s was quoted in an Equix Pix article, 2 ' 'we hear a lot of talk about heart size rather than any substantive discussion about cardiac efficiency, and that's a serious distinction with a host of iraplications for the Thoroughbred breeder or owner. The article went on to say, One of the 'hot ' new sales tools introduced at sale venues--yearling, two-yearold, and breeding stock--during the past five years or so has been the cardio ultrasound machine. Basically, it's a technological innovation which takes a 'snapshot' of a Thoroughbred's heart and purports to be able to determine Measurement of the left ventricle diameter during diastole in a Thoroughbred Photo courtesy of Dr. Norman Rantanen its efficiency for the particular horse. Heart size and heart efficiency go hand in hand in a cardiac evaluation when there is any suspicion that a cardiac problem exists. It is possible to determine from an ultrasound exam ventricular diameters and other measurements which would provide information to calculate ejection fraction and cardiac output. The ultrasound computer system described in a recent JEVS 3 article was designed for the human heart which uses an assumption of the human heart morphology for calculations. These are perhaps adequate to obtain comparisons between horses, but may not accurately reflect actual stroke volumes or ejection fractions. What is needed is a special program for this equipment using assumptions about the morphology of the equine heart. The technology is available to re-program the calculations in the Classic Scanner 200, according to Classic Medica l Pres ident Steve DuMond, and change the heart calculations to fit the morphology of the horse heart. All that is required is some careful study in a number of horses with various heart sizes to determine just where and when to measure the ventricle diameters to get the most accurate calculation of ventricular volume. This could be tested with a few necropsy specimens. Once ventricular volumes can be accurately calculated from an ultrasonic diameter measurement, then stroke volume can be calculated by subtracting end systolic volume from end diastolic volume. The ejection fraction can also be calculated from these same figures. Add the heart rate to the formula and you have the cardiac output in l/rain. Ejection fractions are used commonly in human medi-

Shipping as a sales tool

The International ExecutiveVolume 32, Issue 6 p. 25-26 Article Shipping as a sales tool Henry Samuel, Henry Samuel HENRY SAMUEL is a member of the faculty at the University of California, Davis, MBA program and “The Interim Export Manager”.Search for more papers by this author Henry Samuel, Henry Samuel HENRY SAMUEL is a member of the faculty at the University of California, Davis, MBA program and “The Interim Export Manager”.Search for more papers by this author First published: May/June 1991 https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.5060320608 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume32, Issue6May/June 1991Pages 25-26 RelatedInformation

The use of survival analysis to examine sales force turnover of part-time and full-time sales employees

Part-time salespeople are becoming an important strategic sales tool for many firms and industries. There has been very little empirical work examining differences in part-time salespeople versus their full-time counterparts. It would seem intuitive that managerial strategies for the two groups must differ. Perhaps the most important variable that an organization must manage is turnover. Through the use of survival analysis, this study examines differences in turnover of an organization based on their full-time and part-time salespeople. The methodological implications of the survival analysis approach, and practical implications of analyzing full-time and part-time employees are discussed.

In Defense of Call Reports

Are your call reports cumbersome and ineffective? They can be a powerful sales tool when skillfully wielded

Color Analysis in the Marketplace

The impact of color analysis in the marketplace as perceived by managers of women's apparel in specialty and department stores was examined. Participants indicated that color analysis has been increasing in importance to specialty and department stores since 1983 and is predicted to be even more important to both types of stores by 1989. Results indicated that both specialty and department stores display and merchandise by related colors and code item on racks by color analysis groups. Sales associates use knowledge of color analysis as a sales tool.

The impact of search engines on the hotel distribution value chain

Internet is a very important sales channel for business in general, but it is becoming increasingly fundamental to the travel industry. The appearance of the Internet has increased the complexity of travel distribution and created new intermediaries and new means of distribution which in some cases have led to an increase in distribution costs. However, it has also made it much easier for suppliers to sell directly to consumers. We may say that the Internet has not only revolutionised the way that travel suppliers sell their products, but that ithas also changed the way customers plan and book their travel, stimulating thecreation of websites designed to satisfy the needs of online travellers. In this change in consumer behaviour, search engines have played, play and will continue to play a very important role. This document analyses the mass use of search engines and its impact on the value chain in travel distribution, the implications for each of the participants in the value chain, and the repercussions the changes are causing in the management of travel company websites which increasingly see search engines as their most important tool for direct sales to consumers.

The Human Life Value: An Historical Perspective

The human life value concept is one segment of the general theory of human capital. Depending upon the circumstances and the definitions used, the two may be considered to be one and the same concept. While this general area of inquiry has been under discussion and analysis for over four centuries, only in recent times has the interrelationship between human capital and life insurance been acknowledged. In the last fifty years the human life value concept has risen from an occasionally mentioned sales tool to the place of prominence which it now holds as the economic foundation of life insurance. Even so, most of the authors who have devoted attention to this topic have done so as a secondary matter, generally being interested in employing the results of their work to prove a specific point, with little time or effort being devoted to the theory behind the calculations. This article deals with the history of the human life value concept and with the history of the concept of human capital, which is closely related to it.