Classic Cases of Winning Orders with the Brain (Marketing Wisdom 9)

Author: Sun Luhong
Publisher:
Publish Date: Not Available
Features: This is a typical example of relationship-based sales. Liu Xiangdong relied on the relationships he had previously established to complete new sales when the hotel replaced its existing product through a bidding process, leveraging his past cooperative ties. During the sales process, the salesperson did not apply effective sales techniques, ultimately leading to a sharp conflict between the customer and the supplier over pricing. If Liu Xiangdong made concessions, the company would be unable to quickly recoup the R&D costs for such advanced fully enclosed dry-cleaning equipment. Moreover, other hotels would likely reference this price level when purchasing the equipment, thereby affecting future sales prices in the region. Although Liu Xiangdong’s manager has authorized him with a 10% price control, the prices for dry-cleaning equipment purchased by hotels in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang area are still largely based on Zhijie’s selling price. If this deal is discounted, what about the others? If not, the company might lose the deal, which would give competitors successful clients in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region—a bad outcome. So, there is only one possibility: give personal benefits to Director Tian to secure the deal without offering a discount. Give 10% of the profit directly to him personally. This method has worked in the past, but the last General Affairs Director was fired by the company for this very reason and later sued, leading to a terrible outcome. Additionally, during dinner, several attempts to engage Director Tian in conversation seemed to fall flat, and he didn’t pick up the thread. How should Liu Xiangdong handle this? Currently, one of the biggest problems in industrial product sales in China is that salespeople rely too heavily on relationships. This reliance often leads to two common outcomes: first, it satisfies personal improper motives, ultimately resulting in corruption, investigation, punishment, and other negative consequences; second, suppliers face price pressure, leading to contracts with unsatisfactory profit margins. The fundamental reason for these issues is the lack of industry knowledge among salespeople. A lack of industry knowledge prevents salespeople from successfully influencing the rational thinking of customers, giving the customers an advantage in pricing. P31-32