The company’s products are served every day across Canada. The leading products for the company are Stonemill, POM, Villagio, and Bon Matin, Ben’s and Vachon. The paper seeks to outline all the selling activities in the company aimed at increasing the sales of the new brand, Matin Scaler. Matin Scaler is a new type of bread that bakes to meet the changing demands for loaves of bread with less sugar and is free from gluten. Gluten is a protein family in the grains category, including rye, wheat, barley, and wheat. Gluten contains gliadin and glutenin responsible for most of the adverse health effects, for instance, celiac disease. The major selling activities include the following;
The generation of sales leads
Selling activities are tailored towards structuring a path that can help a seller obtain order by agreeing to buy a product. In most cases, the activities aim at building a long-lasting salesperson-customer relationship (Macfarland, 2021). The first step of selling is locating potential customers for your product. A possible prospect or customer is recognized as a sales lead in the selling activities. The company acknowledges a lead as an individual with critical attributes that put them in a strategic position to be a reliable customer. Canada Bread acquires sales leads via combing through its website to locate potential leads. The website is crucial because it reviews the company’s brands and suggestions for a type of bakery product that Scaler matches. Keen interest is channelled on details that customers fill out in the company website form and their responses to its advertisements.
The use of profile fitting
Another strategy that the company employs is profile fitting. The method utilizes marketing research tools such as organization profiles to situate leads founded on prospects that fit a particular profile likely to match the product in question. The company locate health-sensitive organizations that emphasize less sugar intake and gluten-free products (Alamaki & Korpela, 2021). It incorporates healthcare organizations and associations to recommend its product to their clients who require a diet with characteristics that suit Scaler bread.
The buyer profile is considered to nail potential prospects. The company targets customers with diabetes and those who prefer leading a healthy lifestyle via physical exercise. The strategy is approached via market monitoring. The company obtains leads via monitoring media channels, such as social media, news articles, corporate press releases, and online forums. Such avenues give Canada Bread an excellent platform to hunt for potential customers. The company has an online forum on which it opens discussions and reviews about the Scaler bread and customer locations. The debate helped develop a dotted customer map showing lines of best fit to determine specific regions with many customers in need of Matin Scaler bread.
Canada Bread company contacts can easily be acquired from its website. The communication contacts can also be traced from its social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. The customer care team also handles inbound calls to address any questions or concerns about Scaler. The calls are also used to generate more leads to increase the company’s customer base.
Canvassing
Under this strategy, the company uses cold calling. Cold calling entails soliciting a potential customer who had no initial interaction with sales personnel (Sobczak, 2020). It is a good form of telemarketing. The strategy can involve in-person sales visits. Canada Bread has a door-to-door sales team tasked with visiting healthcare organizations and facilities (for instance, hospitals and homecare), learning institutions, and retail outlets. As a norm, the team is trained to be persistent and be ready to endure rejections. The strategy doubles as selling and also a marketing tool.
Besides, Canada Bread uses email marketing by reaching out to potential customers via their email addresses found on its website. The conversation encompasses details about the Matin Scaler bread specifically by considering its unique nutritional value and health benefits. The description underlines the element of Less Sugar, and Gluten-free followed by discussions as dictated by the customer responses.
Data mining
The method relies on sophisticated software to evaluate data and other types of information. Corporate databases are an example of platforms that the company uses to mine previously gathered data and suit the company’s product. The company’s interest is determining customer demographics like age, gender, taste and preferences, preferred bread size, and buying ability. Choosing age brackets helps define the productive segment that may comprise professionals and business persons (Kuang et al., 2017). The method also allows it to access vast information sources and help us sieve the less reliable information. This enables Canada Bread to develop vital recommendations to improve Matin Scaler bread to suit the interests and preferences of the majority.
Professional and personal contacts
Referrals have been a priceless strategy for locating sales leads (Alamaki & Korpela, 2021). The no-paying methods that the company uses include business acquaintances like business associations and friends to generate leads to the Scaler bread. Another method worth considering is networking. The company joined both professional and local groups and associations to acquire an opportunity of marketing its product. Its main target was healthcare organizations and sports associations. It is a member of the Canada Heart Foundation and a sponsor of the Toronto Hockey team. Also, the company entices referrals by paying them a fee to appreciate their efforts. The program includes internet affiliate programs where website referrals attract a small fee of one per cent from the resultant sales.
Promotions
The strategy refers to gifts used to entice customers to buy and have a taste of the new product. Sales promotions strive to make the customers aware of the product, increase and stimulate customer demand, and escalate product availability (Ciesla, 2019). The promotions can target prospects, retailers or employees. Canada Bread uses coupons to stimulate interest and encourage consumers to try out and purchase the Matin Scaler bread. The move enables it to retain customers in the long run and hence develop customer loyalty. It also awards points to customers for purchases, including future redemptions. Apart from reducing prices, Canada Bread carries out point-of-purchase displays to enable its customers to identify the new brand and stimulate interest. The use of displays serves the company well by attracting impulse customer purchases. Its retail stores have strategically placed the Matin Scaler bread on front displays for easy spotting by customers.
Another promotion activity is the use of the Buy Three Get One Free strategy to promote the brand. A customer who buys more than three Scaler loaves of bread is appreciated by getting a loaf of bread. The strategy aims at both advertising and also increasing sales. It is also the best business technique for marketing new releases. The company intends on cushioning the new brand via trade allowances that shall be short-term. The incentive shall ignite retailers to stock up on its product. It is also trying its hand on deal loading, primarily to retailers who may seem adamant to dance to trade allowances. This will persuade retailers to buy and also display the Scaler bread so as they gain financially.
Trade contests
Traditionally, trade contests are used to reward retailers who register the highest sales of a specific brand. Canada Bread company initiates trade contests by rewarding retailers who manage to sell above over ten crates of Matin Scaler bread in a day (Ciesla, 2019). The more prominent outlets, for example, supermarkets, have a higher target in terms of units sold. Making a new product sail through the storms of the market requires dedication and determination. That is why the company strives to use any avenues at its disposal to ensure that the Matin Scaler brand gains ground to join other traditional brands in fetching revenue to the company.
References
Alamäki, A., & Korpela, P. (2021). Digital transformation and value-based selling activities: seller and buyer perspectives. Baltic Journal of Management.
Ciesla, R. (2019). Promotional Strategies. In Game Development with Ren’Py (pp. 325-337). Apress, Berkeley, CA.
Hartmann, N. N., Wieland, H., & Vargo, S. L. (2018). Converging on a new theoretical foundation for selling. Journal of Marketing, 82(2), 1-18.
Kuang, K., Jiang, M., Cui, P., Luo, H., & Yang, S. (2017). Effective promotional strategies selection in social media: A data-driven approach. IEEE transactions on big data, 4(4), 487-501.
Macfarland, H. G. (2021). B-To-B Sales Approaches. International Business Development: A Concise Textbook Focusing on International B-To-B Contexts, 177.
Singh, G. (2018). Logistics Sprawl: Spatial Patterns and Characteristics of New Warehousing Establishments in The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (Doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto (Canada).
Sobczak, A. (2020). Smart Calling: Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling. John Wiley & Sons.
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