MKTG 204 Professional Selling

1.

I am currently working as a sales employee in an Apple Store, which is one of the many outlets run by Apple for selling their products. As a sales employee at an Apple Store, I am expected to sell a range of Apple products to the customer. The Apple Store sells products like iPhones, iPads, Macbooks and so on (Apple, 2018). Usually, Apple Store employees are expected to have a college degree in a relevant course. I have had two years of expertise in sales and marketing and am in charge of customer care at the Apple Store. As part of my duties, I am expected to interact with potential customers and convince them to buy our products.

2.

Apple is a multinational technology company based in California. The company is responsible for designing, developing and selling computer software, consumer electronics and other online services. The company also sells hardware products like iPhones, iPads, iPods and Mac personal computers. The company has over 500 retail stores. Apple has flourished owing to a rapid expansion in the telecommunication and information technology industry, which is currently known as the age of digital revolution. The industry of information technology has expanded at an alarming rate and Apple brings in nearly 250 billion US dollars in revenue each year. The technology industry is an extremely volatile one (Jinjin, 2013). However, Apple follows a differentiation strategy which helps in distinguishing its products from the rest of the competitors (Khan, Alam & Alam, 2015). The chief rivals of the company include Google, Samsung and Microsoft. These companies offer similar products and services. Yet, Apple manages to maintain its niche market by following a higher pricing strategy. However, it must be mentioned that the financial crisis in the past ten years has caused customers to move away from

Apple products to cheaper alternatives, like Samsung or Microsoft.

3.

The client I will be selling the product, iPhone XS, to is Mr. John Brown. The client is a 30 year old male; he is single, and currently residing in Vancouver. He is working for a renowned IT firm in Canada and belongs to the high income group. John has been an avid photographer for more than five years, and prefers to click photographs on his phone. He has come to realize that the iPhone XS comes with a state of the art camera with unique features, which would enable him to click fantastic photographs. This is why he has chosen to meet with me, in order to discuss the features of the phone, before he makes an informed purchase. We will be meeting at the store itself, since I would be able to demonstrate the features properly.

4.

While meeting with the client, my main aim will be to ensure that I am able to answer and clarify his doubts and queries and finally move him to action. Since John is meeting with me, it can be assumed that he is now testing the waters to see which device would best suit his purpose. It can also be assumed that he has a few alternatives in mind. He must have looked up the features of the iPhone XS on the internet itself and is aware of the numerous new and improved features that the brand new phone offers. Hence, I will ensure that I speak less about the product and its features and instead focus on how buying the product will help him.

The main problem that the Apple iPhone XS addresses is the fact that it provides John with an exceptional phone camera to click pictures. The client has recently taken up photography as a hobby and prefers to click pictures using his phone. However, he lacks a phone with a decent rear camera, which would enable him to experiment with the art of photography.

The iPhone XS was launched in 2018, and comes with a hexa core processor. The phone also has 64 GB of internal storage, which may be expanded. Since the camera is the most important aspect for the client, the features related to the camera will be emphasized on. The phone comes with a dual camera which would help John enhance and experiment with his creative abilities. It also has a Smart HDR feature, which would allow one to highlight and also add shadow details to the photos. The iPhone XS, unlike the iPhone X, has bokeh features and depth control as well. This gives the photographs a more professional touch. Also, unlike most phones of this price range, the iPhone XS also provides excellent options for low light detailing, which is a delight for most photographers (Apple iPhone XS, 2018).

The client, John, is looking for a phone with a good rear camera which would help him work on his hobby. The iPhone XS comes with a 12 megapixel camera, which would help him click top notch photographs. Moreover, the phone is sleek and lightweight, which makes it portable and convenient to use. The phone camera comes with a number of in built features, which John could make use of while experimenting with colors and effects. The phone also has internal memory of 64 GB, which would enable him to download a variety of mobile applications including editing software. Moreover, the 5.80 inch display would be perfect for clicking exceptional quality photographs. In order to convince John to make the purchase, it is important to stress on the technical aspects of the camera and even provide him with samples so that he can make an informed decision. The SPIN (situation, problem, implication and need) selling methodology will be used. The first step would be to understand and highlight the client’s problems and state the problem in the form of a question (Poggi et al., 2014). I would also highlight the consequences of not coming up with a solution to the problem. The final step would be to highlight the benefits of the product and how it would help John. In order to better explain the features of the product and sell the product to the client, I would keep handy certain items like brochures and relevant information. I would present a brochure to John, so that he can look over the features himself and decide if he wants to proceed with the purchase. I would also use the following graph to convince him to buy the product:

References:

Apple iPhone XS. (2018). iPhone XS – Apple (CA). Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/ca/iphone-xs/

Apple. (2018). Apple (Canada). Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/ca/

Jinjin, T. A. N. (2013). A Strategic Analysis of Apple Computer Inc. & Recommendations for the Future Direction. Management Science and Engineering, 7(2), 94-103.

Khan, U. A., Alam, M. N., & Alam, S. (2015). A critical analysis of internal and external environment of Apple Inc. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 3(6), 955-961.

Poggi, N., Carrera, D., Gavalda, R., Ayguadé, E., & Torres, J. (2014). A methodology for the evaluation of high response time on E-commerce users and sales. Information Systems Frontiers, 16(5), 867-885.