MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY
NAME :TATENDA MUKASI
REG NO :R11318N
LEVEL :2;1 VISITING
PROGRAMME : MARKETING MANAGEMENT
MODULE :MM202
LECTURE :MRS NGWENYA
QUESTION: WITH AID OF EXAMPLES, DISCUSS NOW THE MACRO AND MICRO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS HAVE AFFECTED SALES FORCE MANAGEMENT FROM 2000 TO DATE IN ZIMBABWE
Personal selling and sales management are undergoing a technological revolution with the integration of sales force automation into customer relationship management processes. In fact, the convergence of computer, information,communication,and internet or web technologies has transformed the sales function in many companies and made the promise of customer relationship management a reality. Sales force automation is the use of these technology to make the sales function more effective and efficient. Sales force automation applies to a wide range of activities,including each stage in the personal selling process and management of the sales force itself.
Computer technology has become an integral part of field selling, for example salespeople use their laptops computers to process orders,plan time usage,focust forecast sales, and communicate with personnel and customers.
Sales force automation has even changed the way salespeople communicate to their customers,other sales people and also communication tosales support personnel and the management. All these would make sales more efficiently and effective[t1]
The internal forces(macro environmental factors)are factors that affects the sales force management in Zimbabwe and it includes the economic factors that is inflation,interest rates in Zimbabwe. Sales force needs to know which stage in Zimbabwe of the business cycle the economy currently is in because a company’s marketing programs usually must be changed from one stage of the business cycle to another. From 2004–09
Zimbabwe suffered from the second worst recordedhyperinflationin history, second only to Hungary in 1946. In order for a country and its currency to qualify forhyperinflation, the inflation rate In the Zimbabwean hyperinflationary case, money printing has assumed an important role as far as financing government’s expenditure activities in recent years. Given the absenceof central bank independence (in practice), growth of money has therefore played a significant role in the upward inflationary trend.1mark[t2]
Another important contributory factor is foreign currency black market exchange rate (mainly US dollars) and its resultant blackmarket premium. Although nominal interest rates, imported inflation and external debt have also propagated hyperinflation, their influence is however minimal must be at a minimum of 50% per month Zimbabwe reached this mark in February 2007 and inflation continued to grow.
During the height of inflation from 2008–09, it was difficult to accurately account and monitor for Zimbabwe's hyperinflation because the government of Zimbabwestopped filing official inflation statistics. This cessation in filing made it difficult to accurately observe how severe inflation was in the country. In 2009 Zimbabwe?abandoned its currency; at present in 20111mark.therefore this affected the sales force management in Zimbabwe, most of the people were buying from abroad therefore there had been a sales decline in Zimbabwe???.
In 2007zimbabwe tried to declare inflation illegal. Anyone who raised the prices for goods and services was subject to arrest. During this period of price freezes Zimbabwean officials arrested numerous corporate
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executives for changing their prices. Usually measures such as price freezes do not work in halting inflation.
In December 2008 the use of foreign currency in Zimbabwe was expanded. Citizens were increasingly using foreign currency as a medium for daily exchanges. This led to suppliers to offer fewer and fewer goods and services available in the local currency, and due to this, local businesses were suffering from chronic shortages of foreign currency that they used to import foreign goods. The Central Bank of Zimbabwe recognized this problem and licensed around 1,000 shops to officially deal in foreign currency. Even though only licensed businesses were allowed to accept foreign currencies, non-licensed businesses and even street vendors were using foreign currency. Many businesses had already illegally adopted this practice.1mak
?????bridge as inflation grew at an almost exponential rate, the need to exchange Zimbabwean dollars as soon as they were acquired was a necessity. In addition to foreign exchange transfers, the black market existed to serve the demand for daily goods such as soap or even bread and grocery. Store owners were no longer interested in selling items whose prices were strictly controlled. If a store did have items, common practice was to charge customers a higher price if they were paying in Zimbabwean dollars as opposed to another currency[t3]. 1mark
At one point period a loaf of bread was $Z550 million in the regular market, but there was no guaranteethat the grocery stores would have bread, so the black market or driving hundreds of miles to another country were the only options. Due to this high demand and low supply, the black market rate for a loaf of bread was around $Z10 billion. In Zimbabwe, the source for almost all goods became the black market.?1mark[t4]
A rise in prices of products in Zimbabwe caused low sales, when price rise at a faster rate than personal incomes ,consumer buying power declines inflation rate-affecting the government policies,consumer psychology and also marketing programs deflation present challenges for firms to raise prices because of consumer resistance as a result, they need to cut their costs or else profits will evaporates,to do so the sales force management must take steps as redesigning products to pare production costs and cutting back on coupons and other promotions that in effect lower prices..
Interest rates-another external economic factor that influenced marketing programs, when interest rates are high e.g. consumers tend not to make long term purchases such as housing.the management sometimes offer below market interest rates form of price cut as a promotional device to increase sales of the business?
Another factor is demographics which refers to characteristics of population, including size,distribution, growth. Some aspects of demographics related to consumer buying behavior will be considered,family life cycle-various forms families can take overtime,are major determinants of behaviors.A single parent family, divorced widowed with
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dependent children faces social and economic problemquite different from those of two parent family.
All these led to no profits and sales to the organizations in the economy[t5]. Competition also came in from the other countries i.e. the Japanese who offers cheaper goods and services
References
McGraw-hill series in marketing the core ? Jobber.D (2004) Sales Force Management. Pearson Education : Lancaster_
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[t1]Application to assignment
[t2]How did this affect sales force management?
[t3]evidence
[t4]implication?
[t5]In which economy