Integrate Six sigma in Marketing and Sales

Many marketing and sales managers may be unfamiliar with Six Sigma and why it is important in marketing and sales.

Since most sales and marketing work processes also follow some very basic rules, it would not be difficult to implement Six Sigma and derive the associated benefits.

However, before we discuss these, let us first list some of the main challenges associated with sales and marketing.

Sales and Marketing Problems
The basic concept underlining sales and marketing stresses influencing customers in such a way that it would motivate them to opt for the offered products or services. Doing things that might force customers to reject the offer is fairly easy, but when it comes to getting the desired response from customers, it becomes difficult to define what exactly needs to be done.

This is obviously because customer buying behavior is quite complex and more importantly what works for a customer does not necessary work the same for others.

Given below are some of the most common sales and marketing issues that need to be resolved in order to get the right response from customers.

•How to predict customer buying tendencies
•How to attract new customers
•How to retain existing customers
•How to create more value than that offered by the nearest competitor
•How to augment the brand image and corporate identity
•How to set the most appropriate price for goods and services
•How to increase the perceived value offered by an existing product or service
•How to create the desired market for a new product or service offering
•How much to invest in sales and marketing so as to make it cost-effective
How Does Six Sigma Help?
All the above stated problems do seem quite complex, but even then Six Sigma easily overcomes most of them. It manages to do so because it concentrates on eliminating the root cause rather than just suggest alternatives, something that often creates more problems.

In the first phase of Six Sigma implementations, input, feedback and suggestions are sourced from both existing and potential customers, creating a valuable database of customer tastes and preferences.

After this, the available information is sorted out, analyzed and categorized in order to make some definitive conclusions and to identify some new possibilities, if present. The former is then used for making the necessary changes in existing products or services whereas the latter is used for designing and developing completely new products and services from scratch.

Results derived therein are quite satisfactory most of the time, because in each case, customer tastes and preferences are properly accounted for.

When this is done, it makes it much easier for the sales and marketing department to motivate customers in the desired manner. Products and services that are designed according to customer tastes and preferences prove to be a success a majority of the time, and this is why Six Sigma focuses on this vital aspect.

It is no wonder, then, that Six Sigma has proved so very successful for most businesses that have implemented it to get the desired results from their sales and marketing initiatives.