Sometimes we are asked what Corporate Governance has to do with Sales and Marketing, which creates an interesting debate when you get into the details of the responsibilities of the different functions and how it can be linked to Corporate Governance. LinkedIn Article
The business role of sales and marketing we think are well defined as sell the products at the best price possible while continuing to grow market share and build brand equity, brand recognition and loyalty.
This means the sales and marketing team are at the public forefront of the business and therefore have the potential to have the biggest impact, negative or positive, on the external image of the organisation.
If the sales team are the front of the business then their image and behaviour is pivotal to the promotion of good ethical behaviour including the following;
- Personal behaviour and respect for the customers, suppliers and competition by never degrading any of the members of the value chain. The principles of fair trade should be applied.
- Honesty and integrity to promote trust in the salesperson and the business by being open and honest about the value, features and capabilities of the product and services. Under promise and over achieve rather than overpromise to get the sale. Return business is based on trust.
- Promotions, advertisement and campaigns should be open and clear to ensure clear understanding. How many times have we entered a retail outlet during a 50 – 75% sale and found 10% of the items in the store on sale and the rest excluded. Sometime the customer misses the “on selected items” clause on the advertisement.
- Gifts or other favouritism should not be promoted within the sales environment as it creates and unfair market relationship where possible the lower quality product is passed on to an end user based on the gift the buyer received. All relationships should be based on a level playing field for all sales and procurement teams where negotiated favourable terms and conditions or quality of product or price are the decision factors. Each person needs to be aware of the Gift and Entertainment Policy of the organisation.
- Over selling or unrealistic deals to meet targets. This can occur at the end of a month where sales teams to meet targets can push additional sales on the customer with the intention of offered credit notes or other compensation. This practice costs the business money in waste and efficiency and should be eliminated.
- Branding and image, where the organisation has an image they wish to uphold either in dress, products, advertisements or quality and the sales team are not complying with this image. All employees need to comply with the Code of Conduct, Dress Code and Branding Guidelines.
- Target management, creating challenging but realistic target for all employees to ensure they are pushing themselves to achieve their monthly targets but are not under undue pressure which could lead to inappropriate behaviour or practices out of fear of not achieving.
- Trust and control, where the right degree of trust is placed on employees to ensure they behave in the expected way, control any cash transactions honestly, promote the products and services in a professional manner while putting suitable controls in place to ensure there is no miss use of the trust extended.
- Marketing messages should be aligned to the brand guidelines, values, vision and mission of the organisation where the messages at ever touch point are consistent e.g. if transparency is business value then the terms and conditions mentioned in every advertisement should be publically available with ease of access suitably worded that the average (non-lawyer) can understand them.
As with most functions within an organisation the key is to detail the expectations, train the employees on all the expectations, supervise the compliance to the requirements, create performance management process to improve effectiveness and enforce the expectations regardless of the individuals involved.
Fair trade policies and practices should be established allowing the team to know how to achieve their targets without the need to resort to bribery or other inappropriate techniques.
Training and communication are the key tools to assisting the sales team to achieve their goals where the senior supervisors and managers provide the skills and knowledge to the customer facing employee allowing them to succeed.
Finally your sales and marketing team are the face of the company review, audit and challenge them when they are not up to the expectations. Learn More