Developing sales forecasts

In a fast-moving era of increased international competition, frontier markets must devise innovative ways to meet demanding sales targets and maintain profitability. These efforts will only succeed when local businesses abandon the concept of sales as a checklist of persuasive arguments that lead a customer to make a purchase and accept that building enduring customer relationships is the key to achieving sales goals. To understand what it means to sell successfully, sales representatives must develop a solid foundation in selling skills and an understanding of the critical elements needed to achieve sales goals.By delving into the foundational concepts related to leveraging sales as a tool for organisational profit, the authors give readers important insights into the critical elements of the sales process, including consultative selling, sales force management, qualities of effective leadership in sales, and the use of technological tools such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Force Automation (SFA) systems.This book includes insightful contributions from leading sales and marketing practitioners across the continent of Africa on characteristics of successful salespeople and how to recruit them, the crucial role of sales leadership, sales team training methods and strategies for developing customer relationship management programs. Case studies tie theory to practice and short quizzes help readers test their understanding of the material. Written in an accessible and reader-friendly format, this book is primarily aimed at undergraduate students with a secondary audience comprised of postgraduate students and business practitioners.