Understanding importance of keeping accurate, updated & analyzing sales records.

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Unit 03 – Principles and Practices of Selling
Major Assignment Two
To: The Management, Peppina’s Foods Limited
From: Andre’ Psaila, Assistant Market Researcher
Subject: Understanding importance of keeping accurate, updated & analyzing sales records
Date: Monday 19th
January, 2015
1; Outline of the attributes of sales information
Information files or data files contains structured information which is intended to be used in the
future to produce a meaningful output.
Pre Purchase Information Information to be collected prior the purchase are:
 Customer’s name and surname
 Customer’s address
 Customer’s telephone number and/or fax number
 Customer’s e-mail address, and
 Their job title, if the customer is an employee of the
buying company
Post Purchase Information Information to be collected after the purchase are:
 Buying patterns which means, what type of products
were bought (ambient, frozen, chilled) and when they
were bought
 Type of payment for example by credit card or cash
 If the sale was made either online, from the retail outlet
or telephone
 Who served the customers
 Competitor activity with the customer
 Customer’s background
 If the customer filled any surveys related to customer
service.

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 The number of the bill of sale
 If the customer used any vouchers to make the sale
 A customer market profile which includes their market
share and promotional profile, and
 Any non-sales interaction with the customer
 Customer sales list of frozen, ambient and chilled items.
Product Information Information to be collected about the product are:
 Temperature it was stored in
 Location of the product, example; warehouses
 Type of products, ambient, frozen or chilled
 Levels of stock
 Type of package used and amount in package
 Who checked the orders and the order status, and
 Delivery time and date. (Jobber and Lancaster, 2012).
2: Discussion of the importance of keeping updated records
Up-to-date sales records will be of support to build an efficient supply chain. The support will
ensure that both retailers and suppliers make sure that the needed products are available in
correct quantities and when they are needed, so as to meet customer needs and expectations
accurately. They are important so that sales will increase, out of stock products will be decreased
and lower stocks will be required across the whole supply chain. Keeping up-to-date records
through scanner systems will provide the retailer with higher negotiating power, for example, to
check whether a certain product is making a profit. Updated sales records will allow modified
merchandising schemes, such as custom-made product sorting, allocation of space, high or low
prices and promotions, such as advertising. (Jobber and Lancaster, 2012).
Keeping accurate records will be of great contribution to a business’s success. It will help the
business to prepare sales statements quickly and as needed, it will provide information to enable
cash control in the organization, it will help decision making people (DMUs) to take the
appropriate and necessary decisions, it will measure the organizations’ performance when

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compared to targets prepared beforehand, it will detect low sales on certain product, whether
they are ambient, frozen or chilled so the management will be able to act immediately, it will
help the business to identify any theft or shoplifting within the organization, it will provide the
business with records for the future sale of the organization (if required) and it will enable the
business to screen sales situation, for example, when a product is selling at a loss or when a
product require higher stock levels.
When keeping records, it is almost like a football game, where it is necessary that the score is
kept by someone. By keeping the ‘score’ you will be able to work out whether you are winning
or losing. It is known that certain businesses do not know their ‘current score’ because they
didn’t realize that keeping updated and accurate sales records was very important. Record
keeping is essential for as regards to meeting sales records, and will also provide information on
which future decisions will be based on. These records are also important because of certain
duties under the value added tax act and also other taxation laws. (Queensland Government, n.d).
If the sales records are not kept updated, there will be a lot of time spent to calculate sales
records. Since there will be a lot of time wasted, this may result in calculating value added tax
late and therefore administrative fines will be enforced, whereas this may lead to hefty fines
under Maltese laws. This means that keeping up-to-date sales information also avoids
unnecessary money wasting. (Department of Information, 1999).
3. Discussion of the importance of analyzing sales information
It is of utmost importance for a business to analyse the sales information within the organization.
The retailers will analyse, sales rate, levels of stock, stock turnover, prices and margins. Apart
from this, they will analyse information about demographics, socio-economic and lifestyle of
customers. Retailers can also analyse the impact of different variables, such as, promotions,
advertising, position in the outlet, position of the shelf etc. Several retailers may use loyalty
schemes to grab data and behavioural patterns which will be analysed by the said retailers. This
will allow the retailer to conduct one2one marketing schemes, e.g providing information on
offers or new products to existing customers. It is very important to analyse the information, so
that retailers will have a greater choice on product mix, allocation of shelf space and other
promotional tactics. (Jobber and Lancaster, 2012).

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When analyzing sales information, the analyst must keep in mind the following:
 Changes in price, if it’s increasing or decreasing
 Competitors entering or leaving the market
 The launch of new products, that may lead to growing sales
 New products effecting the sales of existing products
 Customers moving between products
 Changes in demand; whether it’s increasing or decreasing
 The segments in which the business operates, and
 The distribution channels used by the said business.
Manufacturers may add information to their knowledge and analyse it accordingly to make
certain recommendations to the retailer, as regards to, merchandising, products and other
promotions. This might increase profitability of the respective categories.
The analysis of sales over time will enable the business to identify sales patterns, this will help
the organization to set sales budgets for future references. It is also important when it comes to
developing the marketing plan yearly. Sales analysis will help the business to identify strengths
and weakness lie within the product range. This will also be of great assistance when it comes to
Sales & Marketing events, whereas the business will allocate these events accordingly to gain
profitability growth. It will allow the business to identify any warning signs before it would be
too late, on which the business can act on.
Analyzing sales, will enable the business to make comparison on sales performance with its
market. This is because, while the business might see an increase in sales, the market may see a
greater increase. This means that competitor or competitors have greater market share than the
business’ share, in which competitors will be able to capture more potential customers. (M4B
Marketing, n.d).
4. Identification of the importance of accurate information to Peppina’s Foods Ltd and
supermarkets selling food items

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Information will flow from the final customer to the manufacturer throughout the supply chain.
Figure 4.1: Information Flow in the Supply Chain. (Morgan, 2010)
Accurate information is important because it will lead to the following:
 Improvement in stock management and levels which will in the end result in cost
management, decrease in waste, decrease in expenses, less overdraft required and also
less interest.
 Better stock availability, in which stock will be managed with the ample help of accurate
information and records.
 Higher customer levels, where the customers number will increase.
 The business will understand better customer needs by the help of loyalty cards etc.
 Accurate sales information will be needed to satisfy market needs in the future.
 Communication and promotion will be targeted to the correct market, better called
affinity market.
 It is important, so no wrong information will be given to anybody. (Jobber and Lancaster,
2012; Dogger, 2005).
The entering of accurate information takes time, however Peppina’s Foods Ltd, must keep in
mind that such information will be needed from the management to take decisions on. Therefore
the entering of accurate information is important for the management as well. Accurate
information is what Peppina’s need to take good decisions and also to take the correct decision
when the business will be in a crisis, such as, nearing bankruptcy.

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Accurate information is also important, because it will assist the business to be on the right track
towards efficiency and productivity.
Accurate information will help Peppina’s to raise or lower prices of products as required, expand
or deduct product variety, change locations of sale, work more hours and also to outsource
certain tasks, such as advertising etc. Such information will help the business to have an increase
in sales and may also lead to higher profits. (Jackson, 2012).
It is important for Peppina’s to maintain accurate customer information, 5 different ways to do so
are listed below:
1. Maintain complete information; entering incomplete information in the CRM account is
not a good sign therefore, the sales person should take time and complete mandatory
information cells.
2. Entry of Double contacts should be avoided; double contacts will take unnecessary time
wasting and may lead to unwanted expenses when it comes to contacting a customer for
something.
3. Merge existing multiple records; it is important that any multiple records with different
information be merged in order to save time.
4. Maintain a style when entering data; this is used for example when dealing with
information related to abbreviations for example QRM is used once and in another cell it
is written as Qormi. Therefore the company should use abbreviations to avoid confusion.
5. Restrict data access; it is important to restrict persons able to access the CRM records in
order to deduct risk of information leakage etc. (Kane, 2014; Pavitra, 2013)
Businesses should follow these five simple steps in order to keep accurate information, this is
required for a business to be efficient when making decisions as indicated in the first bulleted
format sentences. (Chennavasin, 2011).
References
Chennavasin, P. 2011. Hi! Manager: Importance of Accurate and Timely Information [online]
Available at: < http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Hi!-Manager-Importance-of-
accurate-and-timely-info-30172293.html>[Accessed 12 January 2015]

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Dogger, D. 2005. The Importance of Data Accuracy [online] Available at:
<http://www.insideselfstorage.com/articles/2005/05/the-importance-of-data-
accuracy.aspx>[Accessed 12 January 2015]
Jackson, L. 2012. Why it is important for organisations and businesses to store
accurate and up to date information as well as keeping it safe [online] Available at:
<http://09eljackson.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/why-it-is-important-for-organisations-
and-businesses-to-store-accurate-and-up-to-date-information-as-well-as-keeping-it-
safe>[Accessed 12 January 2015]
Jobber, D. and Lancaster, G., 2012. Selling and Sales Management. 9th
Edition. Pearson
Kane, N. 2014. Reporting – The Importance of Accurate and Meaningful Data [online]
Available at: < http://www.thewebsitecenter.net/blog/item/81-reporting-the-importance-of-
accurate-> [Accessed 12 January 2015]
M4B Marketing, n.d. Why Sales Analysis is Important. [online] Available at: <
http://www.m4bmarketing.com/sales-analysis/> [Accessed 11 January 2015]
Morgan, J. 2010. What is Supply Chain Management? [online] Available at: <
http://www.cloudave.com/8663/what-is-social-supply-chain-management/>[Accessed 12
January 2015]
Pavitra, ?. 2013. 5 Ways to Maintain Clean and Accurate Customer Information [online]
Available at: < https://www.zoho.com/crm/blog/5-ways-maintain-clean-accurate-data.html>
[Accessed 12 January 2015]
Queensland Government, n.d. The Importance of Record Keeping. [pdf] Queensland
Government Available at:<http://www.ajml.com.au/downloads/resource-
centre/references/operational-
management/The%20importance%20of%20record%20keeping.pdf> [Accessed 9 January
2015]
Value Added Tax Act 1999 (c.406). Valletta: Department of Information.

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