Sales Planning and Operations

In this, owners of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon have to make sure that they use relevant hashtags on different networking sites so as to make services visible to the audience. Further, management can also develop a brand by constantly using hashtags to promote different contests, new products, etc. However, with sites like Facebook, saloons can take advantage of targeting options. Along with this, highlight with the help of posting real products and user reviews that available products can solve various problems related to hair and other services (Roesler, 2013). There are customers that consider price as the major concern show them with the help of social media that Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon is offering different services at affordable prices.

Benefits of social media:

• It helps in increasing the brand awareness of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon quickly as compared to face-to-face selling.
• Social media provide a platform to sell smartly rather than selling harder.
• It provides another benefit of easily handling the customer's feedback. With the help of email and telephone numbers shared on social media customers are free to share their views and complaints which indeed assists company in improving its performance (Hendricks, 2013).

Limitations of social media:

• Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon has to indulge the cost of resources in managing its social media presence, responding to feedback, and posting new and creative content.
• It poses the risk of unwanted and inappropriate behavior on the official site of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon which consists of bullying and harassment (Smith, 2014).

Distinction One

Currently, the percentage of people using online sources to buy products and services is increasing constantly. In this regard, personal selling has been affected the most. Personal selling can be defined as the process by which businesses use human resources to sell products and services to customers by meeting them face to face. The main purpose of personal selling is to it encourage or influence customers to buy products by sharing their information (Brassington and Pettitt, 2003). However, in the marketing strategy of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon personal selling will play a significant role because salespersons are the ones who are in the market always therefore they understand the needs and wants of the market effectively which indeed helps the company to offer products and services as per the needs. In terms of pricing, sales representatives can help in determining the price of the product in numerous ways as on the basis of market dynamics they can provide fruitful information to the management of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon on the basis of which they can set the price of varied services in the salon. Further, personal selling ensures that the product is available for the customers in the market and lastly, salespersons understand the way in which the customer requires the information therefore helping cited firms to develop appropriate marketing strategies (Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell, 2006). There are several businesses that will be affected adversely if personal selling is taken out form the equation of marketing such as Banking and financial institutions, hospitality firms, and automobile companies. Therefore, these are some of the companies and sectors that will be affected mostly if they stop interacting with customers directly.

Qualitative and quantitative are the two most significant techniques of sales management which are used by several companies to gather data regarding the target market so that accordingly different sales strategies can be framed. Herein, the senior authority of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon can make use of both approaches as they both provide a great deal of support in making smart and effective decisions regarding sales strategies. Through the help of qualitative technique, the management of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon can collect data related to the past sales performance of competitors in terms of sales figures so that demand for the products and services can be identified (Waarden, Benavent, and Castéran, 2013). The main advantage of this approach is that a researcher can easily gather a wide range of valuable information on the basis of which smart decisions can be made. Thereafter, with the help of a quantitative approach, the market researcher focuses on recording the responses of consumers with the help of questionnaires and collects a wide range of reliable and valuable information regarding the products and services. Therefore, with the help of both approaches to sales management, top-level management of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon can gather a wide range of data or information regarding demand, revenues sales performance, etc. of the industry and accordingly indulge different strategies to sell the Medicare and Pedicure services (Adcock, 2001).

Skills and abilities are the most important aspect that management of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon has to focus on while recruiting the individual as a sales personnel. However, sales is considered as the most difficult operation to carry out therefore, skills and attributes required by the individual should be fulfilling the expectations. The following are the skills required for a salesperson of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon:

• Individuals should have better communication skills so as interacting with varied customers in appropriate way (Sejin, and Stoel, 2012).
• Should possess influence power to encourage and motivate the target audience to buy the Medicare and pedicure services of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon.
• Better grasping power so that understanding of products and services can be developed effectively.
• Listening habits so that can listen to customer expectations and needs and accordingly satisfy them.
• Should be a creative thinker so as to sell such intangible services in creative and innovative ways.

The skills that a mobile salesperson and a salon salesperson have common in are:

• Both require appropriate communication skills so that different types of customers can be handled in appropriate way.
• Having grasping power helps salespeople in both sectors to understand the attributes of products and services so that they can frame the approach to sell them (Cheung and Prendergast, 2006).
• Influencing power is common to all sectors and especially for sales person is important to have these skills to encourage and motivate the target audience to buy the products and services.

Virgin Atlantic is one of the leading companies in the airline industry because of its highly satisfied workforce. The strategies employed by management are effective in terms of motivating the employees and retaining them for the long run. Following is the recruitment process of Virgin Atlantic:

Group interview scenario: It is the first part of the entire interview that an individual has to face in order to get selected for the Virgin Atlantic. Under this, the individual has to go through group discussions with a batch of 10 people for 15 minutes. The main purpose of this section is to understand the basic skills and attributes of the person in a contemporary scenario (Virgin Atlantic Assessment Criteria, 2015).

Face-to-face interview: This is the second and final stage in which the recruitment panel takes a face-to-face interview with those individuals who come through the first stage. In this, on the basis of the resume and attributes of the individual entire process is conducted and the decision is made.

There are several ways with the help of which Virgin Atlantic has improved its employee retention such as:

Assessment centre: This is the method with the help of which management of Virgin Atlantic assesses to strengths and development needs of employees so that various training and development sessions are being organised in order to enhance the expected skills and attributes of the individual.

Group discussions: The main purpose behind this approach of the cited firm is that, according to them group discussion is a useful tool to help them understand how to relate to employees of different departments in order to work in a team and generate positive outcomes (Venugopal, 2008).

Ability Tests: Through this, the abilities and aptitudes of employees are measured so that gaps and lacking areas can be identified and accordingly strategies and tactics can be developed to enhance the skills.

Distinction Three

There are several prominent trade exhibitions/trade fairs based in Europe that can be useful for the top-level management of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon in marketing and promoting its products and services around the whole country.

Beauty Trade Special: It is the trade fair for Beauticians, Pedicures, and Manicurists in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands is one of the biggest trades where top-level management of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon can enter and showcase their products and services to a large number of people around the globe attend this fair.

Beauty Show Krasnodar: It is the Exhibition of Perfumery and Cosmetics, Equipment and Accessories for Hair-Dresser, Nail Centres, Fitness Clubs, and Beauty Shops in Krasnodar, Russia which also attracts a large number of people.

Trends of Beauty: It is the fair for the Cosmetics sector in Graz, Austria, and will be another good opportunity for the owner of Michel's Manicure & Pedicure Salon to market and promote the products and services (Trends of Beauty Trade Fair for the Cosmetics Sector, 2016).

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References

• Adcock, D., 2001. Marketing Principles and Practice. Pitman.
• Blythe. J., 2009. Principles and Practice of Marketing. Prentice Hall.
• Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S., 2003. Principles of Marketing. Prentice Hall.
• Cheung, W. L. and Prendergast, G., 2006. Buyers' perceptions of pirated products in India. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
• Pedler, M., Burgoyne, J. and Boydell, T., 2006. A Manager's Guide to Self Development. McGraw-Hill Professional.

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