Cavalier, by no means, can be said established because it is unsure about the strategy it should take to penetrate into the market. The company might be thinking that it could simply shift its pattern of selling by triggering the personal buyers instead of extending the range of business buyers, but it could be a costly strategy. Firstly, what possible measures can Cavalier take to reach the personal buyers? Is Cavalier thinking of opening numerous stores around the city so that it can gain popularity in the buyers market? Well the strategy seems sound from one point but can have unpleasant consequences considering the investment Cavalier would have to make and the time it would take to recover the costs. To decide which strategy Cavalier has to come up with, it is wise for Cavalier to analyze the market and the nature of the product it is offering.
Cavalier specializes in selling office equipment which is not an everyday product. The product may get sold only once or twice in an individual buyer buying cycle. So it can easily be said that the decision is based on considering the ânature of the marketâ and the ânature of the productâ (Calvin, 2000). The product is not an FMCG and so it may not seek greater personal buyer attention if Cavalier decides to sell the products to the personal buyers. A sound strategy would therefore be to expand geographically by keeping the same set of buyers (B2B). However, it could be a handy idea to open a store in one of the most famous and popular spots of city as this would increase the general awareness of the personal buyers regarding Cavalier.
If Cavalier is smart enough to analyze the whole situation, it can identify the numerous challenges associated with the B2C approach. The sales scenario can be changed as due to competition and nature of the product the only handful of people may prefer to buy the goods from Cavalier and so it may take a longer time to recover the investments made which is simply a drawback. On the other hand, if Cavalier hires another sales team and assigns sales quotas keeping the geographical coverage in view, it is likely to expand and generate sales with lesser emphasis on the investment recovery. This could be a point encouraging B2B strategy over B2C.
As there are drawbacks, there are benefits as well. A clear plus point for Cavalier, if it decides to go with a B2C strategy in addition to its current B2B strategy, is to have greater confidence and trust of customers (businesses) in itself. To answer, we have to consider the fact that Cavalier may open a couple of stores in the market because of which the sales team may find it easy to convince the buyer (other businesses) to make a purchase as the buyers must already be aware of the exceptionally high standards of the company (seeing the stores â made for B2C). It can be said that one strategy would complement the other and the strategy comes out to be a success. However, it may not be a success as having a store in one location does not mean that everyone across the country knows Cavalier, this could mean that the results may only be short-term and limited if Cavalier decides to go with B2C. Hence it is wise to concentrate deeply on the current strategy of conducting B2B sales.
To sum up, Cavalier should consider the nature of the product (as Cavalier is not producing an FMCG) and the nature of the market (not every household is interested in buying such goods). There are pros and cons of both the strategies, but enhancing the current strategy of B2B while emphasizing on expanding it in geographical terms can be much better than putting a huge investment in opening a store which would take ages to recover the investment (again due to the nature of product and market) and yet not guarantees success.
References
Calvin, R.J. (2000). Sales Management. New York: Mc-Graw Hill.