Benefits And Disadvantages Of Geographical Sales Structure In Travel Industry

Benefits of Geographical Sales Structure

A highly complex reservation system helps build a smooth network framework to connect with the suppliers and the people involved in the traveling activities. Tour operator reservation system helps improve the potential of the business operations through an effective framework designed to provide services to the travel company (Okamoto, Saito and Tojo 2022). The generic sales-type selected for the discussion is the territorial sales force structure. In this type of sales structure, each sales task is assigned to a particular geographical area to complete the sales activities. For example, an organization having clients in various countries of Europe assign teams to the respective areas according to the geographical locations for conducting the sales activities. There are some significant benefits and disadvantages of the geographical sales structure that can influence the crucial decisions of the organization while implementing the policies (Wang et al. 2022). The benefits of using a geographical sales structure are as follows:

The organized framework of dividing the sales task into different teams according to the geographical conditions helps in the growth and development of the employees undertaking the sales activities (Burke 2022). The tasks that are conducted to increase the sales of the organization help to increase the efficiency of the employees at a constant rate.

The process of conducting the sales according to the organization's geographical structure helps build a close communication framework with the local customers in the areas. It also helps to build a healthy relationship with the local customers, resulting in the successful expansion of the business in rural and remote areas (Khan et al. 2022). Dividing the work of sales into teams in the respective areas is evaluated by top management to improve the relations and communication channels with the local customers in the region.

As the teams are divided according to their geographical locations, it helps strengthen collaboration with other teams and organizations in the same industry in the respective areas. The working of teams in different world locations enables them to build a strong bond among them (Ma et al. 2022). The activities related to sales and purchases conducted jointly by the team members improve the internal relations. Moreover, the different teams performing sales activities at different locations in the world helps to improve the relations with that particular location and the people involved in it.

While conducting sales in the local area, the teams can identify The culture, languages, and preferences of the customers that help fulfill their needs at the local level. It helps to serve their needs more efficiently with the help of the goods and services offered to them in the market. The team members at the local level provide goods and services according to the approach that the local people adopt for consuming those goods and services (Chavan et al. 2022). It helps to capture the local market in a larger area along with the expansion of business in the most remote reasons of the area. The geographical sales structure helps identify the barriers that the team faces in fulfilling the needs of the local people and helps overcome them by changing the approach used to capture the local market. For example, barriers occur, such as the different language and culture of the local people that stop the region's sales activities. This communication barrier is addressed by including local people in the team and providing adequate training to the team members according to the geographical locations.

Growth and Development of Employees

There are also some significant disadvantages of using a geographical sales structure that affects the sales of the goods and services of the organization.

Developing the geographical sales structure for different regions for sales activities is a long and complex process that consumes more time. It takes more time to divide the teams according to the different geographical locations to expand the business operations in different parts of the world (Tsilionis and Wautelet 2022). The process of framing the strategies for every location and ensuring the successful completion of the activities requires a large amount of time.

Each team divided based on geographical sales structure lacks the expertise of a particular domain assigned to the team members for sales activities. Every employee in the team is from a different background and expertise, creating conflicts among the team members (Zhang, Xi and Xu 2022). The teams assigned required different kinds of expertise among the employees to complete the sales for different locations.

For every geographical location in the sales structure, all the departments are established, such as marketing, human resource, warehouse, and research. The activities at every location are conducted in the department, creating duplication and difficulties for the employees at the workplace (Burke 2022). The departments at every individual location can increase the team's efficiency, whereas the efficiency of the whole organization is decreased because of the duplication of the activities.

For every location, many resources are required by the team assigned to conducting the sales to smoothly run the business operations. Moreover, the geographical sales structure creates competition among teams, increasing the demand for resources (Zelinska et al. 2021). The increased demand for the resources required by the divided teams at different locations creates a shortage of resources in the organization.

The most suitable suggestion for adopting an efficient sales structure is the geographical sales structure in the organization. This sales structure helps to track the profits of the organization at different locations in a better way and with more accuracy. The sales performance of all the geographical locations divided among the team is analyzed to improve the process with adequate modifications. Moreover, this sales structure improves the organization's growth rate and helps efficiently increase the organization's profit. The geographical sales structure also encourages healthy competition among all the departments in the different locations that help all the employees for individual growth and development (Santisteven 2022). An organization with multiple locations for running the business operations benefits from effective territorial management. For managing the different territories, the culture and language of the geographical locations are considered. It helps maintain long-term relations with the people of the particular geographical location to sustain in the location.

The sales funnel model is used to track and evaluate the leads generated through the business activities in the B2B transactions. The sales funnel model includes some significant steps collectively used to complete the sales transactions effectively (Fontana 2021). This model is used to grow the sales figures of an organization by following the steps involved in the funnel. It is one of the most suitable models for B2B sales activities as it is used to enhance the framework of sales in the organization. 

Close Communication Framework with Customers

Figure 1: Sales Funnel Model

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000768132100032X

Some significant stages are involved in the sales funnel model used to complete the B2B transactions without any barrier. The stages in the model are as follows:

This stage in the model is the preliminary step used to create awareness about the products and services offered to the consumers in the market. The awareness stage is majorly used to identify and analyze the issues in the B2B sales process through some significant external and internal factors. The factors involved resources, education, opinions of the customers and the data collected from the suppliers and the competitors in the market. The issues are related to the suppliers of the production services and the software used in the process to complete the sales. In this particular stage, the position and value of the customer that is going to avail of the products and services of the company are quite low (Rohaan et al. 2022). It is due to the uncertainty of the customer behavior in purchasing the production services from a particular organization in the industry. Moreover, it is important to create a high level of awareness about the products and services offered in the market to attract many customers. As this stage is at the top of the sales funnel model, it demonstrates the customers' behavior and opinion about the organization's production services.

It is the second stage in the sales funnel model that focuses on the interest generated by the consumers about the products and services of the organization that are offered in the market. In this stage, the consumers in the market begin their research about the products and services that they will avail (Corsaro 2022). So the organization needs to provide accurate and wide information about the products and services to close the deal of sale with the consumer in the market. It is considered that the interest stage is the first stage in the consumer's buying process, where the quality of trust is built among the people in the market. The major focus behind this stage is to increase the organization's goodwill among the consumers in the market to sell a large number of products and services with a higher profit margin.

The third stage of the sales funnels model is the evaluation stage under which the consumer decides the organization from which they are purchasing the Products and services. This stage demonstrates this successful action of the organization in capturing the buyer's attention in the market through the attractive products and services offered to them (Pereira et al. 2022). So it is important now for the organization to represent an effective solution to the problem of the consumer through the products and services that are being offered to them. In this stage, the organization needs to display honesty and integrity while offering the products and services to the consumers for the long run.

It is the fourth stage in the sales funnel model that is responsible for demonstrating the actions of engagement with the organization's consumers for closing the deal of sale of products and services. In this particular stage, the demonstration of the products and services and effective communication with the consumer is represented for finalizing the sale (Rohaan et al. 2022). Moreover, the engagement stage helps to understand the needs and demands of the customer more clearly by listening to the customers' issues. A strong relationship is built with the customer in this state that helps finalize the sale of Products and services offered to them.

Strengthen Collaboration with Other Teams and Organizations

The last stage in the sales funnel model demonstrates the final purchase of the customer of products and services offered to them in the market by the organization. The consumer makes the final commitment under this stage, and the process of selling products and services to the consumers is finalized (Rangarajan et al. 2021). In this final stage of the sales funnel model, the exchange of money and products and services is conducted between the consumer and the organization. In this stage, the organization needs to provide accurate information about the price and quality of the products and services to avoid any conflict among them.

 It is observed that the most crucial phase in the model is the engagement stage. It is considered the most important phase because of some significant activities conducted to finalize the sale of products and services to the consumers. The activities involve pitching the products and services to the consumers and providing a demo about the products and services to the consumers. At this stage, the consumer decides to buy the production services that are important for the organization to close the deal of sale (Ma et al. 2022). Moreover, in the engagement stage, the organization has to take care of the needs and wants of the consumer to be fulfilled by the products and services offered to them. It is also important for the organization at this stage to satisfy the needs of the consumers and to build a strong relationship for closing the deal sale with them.

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