If a business requires a boost to the bottom line maybe it is time for the management to review the sales and marketing strategies and come up with a blueprint to gain ground on the competitors. A proper way to do this is to break down the word sales and marketing into distinct and manageable components. By doing this, the management will end up with a worksheet that can be appraised in order to highlight the areas that need upgrading. The list can also serve as the basis for an operative marketing approach. Therefore, this paper intends to assess the sales and marketing strategies utilized by Autodesk and analyze how the tactics and strategies of Autodesk have evolved with respect to changing markets and buyer behaviors. Besides, the paper will also focus on how the current strategies can be developed and improved.
Sales and Marketing Strategy of Autodesk
The sales and marketing strategy of the company is to implement the time-proven practices of bulk marketing to an invention that is customarily sold at high charges directly (Angell et al 2017, p. 21). The strategy is exceptional in the CAD market and it supplements the practical paybacks of AutoCAD. Its implementation has enabled Autodesk to gain a huge market portion within a short period of time (Angell et al 2017, p. 25). Apart from embracing the bulk marketing methods, Autodesk mobilizes the sales force of PC producers, graphics peripheral producers and computer suppliers through supportive advertising, promotion, and advent in several trade shows. Moreover, the company has a diversity of groundbreaking programs that involve drilling, marketing credits and other inducements that inspire traders and producers to mutually market the merchandises of Autodesk (Angell et al 2017, p. 27).
The company also supports its advertising through aggressive public relations efforts and development of tutorials in the online platform as well as books to support the consumers while using the company products (Angell et al 2017, p. 29). To influence a large market at small charge, the firm has focused on two main networks of supply which are the manufacturers and the computer dealers. The approach of the organization in promoting the two networks has been to converse the real rewards of selling AutoCAD to both market sectors (Angell et al 2017, p. 31). The computer producers who vend AutoCAD gain admission to vertical markets formerly unused to them and gain a device which utilizes hardware to top gain. Due to the fact that AutoCAD mechanically makes use of the properties accessible by the computer structure, any competitive advantage that the structure may possess such as improved graphics resolution, larger memory, and higher presentation are effectively incorporated in the AutoCAD (Angell et al 2017, p. 36).
Autodesk has also been outstanding in their sales and marketing approach as they have spent most of their time with more significant tasks such as focusing in improving customer relations, highlighting marketing strategies and implementing new ways to expand their services (Arnett and Wittmann 2014, p 325). Being unique and standing out from the competition is another sales and marketing strategy that has been used by Autodesk. They have stood out from the competition by offering unique products that are in demand and offering guidelines on how to use these products given that it is a technology company. Building relationship with customers by creating a database of customers and contacting them on a regular basis has been part of sales and marketing strategy of the company (Arnett and Wittmann 2014, p 326).
The nature of business orientation of Autodesk has been market-oriented strategy since clients have become well-informed and require more diversity and improved quality. The organization has been more sensitive to its customers because without that they are well aware that they will lose sales to their rivals. Similarly, the company has focused on products with technological content that creates the need for the customer hence establishing business orientation (Arnett and Wittmann 2014, p 327).
Evolution of Strategies and Tactics
The sales and marketing leadership has become more precarious given that competition has over the past years intensified and the percentages of firms falling out from the top positions in their industries have risen dramatically (Arnett and Wittmann 2014, p 328). The ones strong association between effectiveness and industry is currently almost absent in some business subdivisions. As a result, most organizations including Autodesk have aimed at building competitive benefit by creating clever market setting and accumulating the right competences and capabilities for creating or distributing an offering.
Autodesk has undertaken periodic approach appraisals and set course and organizational arrangement on the base of scrutiny of their trade and projection on how to evolve it (Arnett and Wittmann 2014, p 329). Instead of focusing a specific thing, the organizations have decided to be good at learning new things. Through this, the company has been able to read and act on indications of transformation. The organization has built expertise in handling multifaceted multi-stakeholder schemes and more importantly learn to unravel their paramount resources that are the sales and marketing representatives. In order to adapt to the new market, the organization has switched on the signs of transformation from the external setting and interpret them in order to shape the information landscape of its industry (Arnett and Wittmann 2014, p 330). The organizations are in an information-saturated era where multifaceted and changing signs may be obtainable concurrently to all firms.
However, adaptive organizations must depend on the refined point of sale systems to enable them acquires the information. They must also put in place data mining approaches to identify relevant designs in it. Autodesk, in particular, is leveraging its signal reading competences to make functioning interferences in real time hence sidestepping slow moving decisions pecking order (Arnett and Wittmann 2014, p 331).
The company has also embraced the spirit of experimentation since there are business projects that cannot be construed or anticipated but can often be exposed by experimentation (Tiago et al 2014, p. 703). It is obvious that all businesses use testing to test and develop new merchandises in the market. However, traditional strategies can be overpriced and time-consuming and may load the business with the irrational burden of complication. Besides, study based on the perception of customers is frequently a poor forecaster of accomplishment. The real world has proven to be a costly medium for research and failed market experiments and pilots can endanger the brand and status of a company such as Autodesk (Tiago et al 2014, p. 704).
To get over these challenges, a rising number of entrants are utilizing a collection of new methods and know-hows, particularly in virtual surroundings to make experiment and reproduce a large number of groundbreaking concepts faster and at a lower price. Apart from changing the way they undertake experiments in the market, the company needs to widen the space of experimentation. Conventionally, the emphasis has been on the offerings of the company such as new merchandises and services. But in a progressively unsettled setting, approaches and procedures are likely to become superseded with time. An adaptive company such as Autodesk, therefore, has used experimentation broadly compared to the competitors (Tiago et al 2014, p. 705).
How Current Strategies can be Developed and Improved
The objective of marketing is to increase awareness and sells the product of any given company. To effectively improve the marketing strategy and sales of the product, it is advisable to clearly define the strategy (Tiago et al 2014, p. 706). The first step towards improving the sales and marketing strategy is to create an understanding with the buyer. The company needs to know who are they and why their product is the perfect solution that will address their challenges. The company should understand that people always buy benefits and not the products. Therefore, developing a sales and marketing strategy that defines the product or service from their perspective is essential (Tiago et al 2014, p. 707).
List of what the clients will receive by purchasing the product of the firm must be made. Identification of the customer's problems is also a better way of improving the marketing and sales approach. If the firm identifies the ideal customers correctly then they will pay the company to solve the challenges that they have in the market. Sometimes the problems of the customers are obvious but in some other instances, they are ambiguous hence it is the obligation of the firm to dig deeply. The more closely the firm is able to identify their ideal customer, the easier it becomes to target the message, the delivery channel and the solution to their problems. Similarly, understanding the needs for customers is likely to increase the overall sales (Tiago et al 2014, p. 708).
Another strategy that can enable development an improvement of the sales and marketing strategies is to offer some free classes and workshops that relates to the products and services offered by the company (Angell et al 2017, p. 51). The workshop should be held in a rented venue or through resident education organization such as public College. The class should target precise audience or events if suitable. Becoming front and center in charitable events can also be a strategy to improve sales and marketing strategy. Through this process, the company will be able to get huge amounts of press for such events which will translate to new customers (Angell et al 2017, p. 56).
Conclusion
Sales and marketing are fundamental components of companies that cannot be ignored if at all the management is focused and has a purpose for the company. Any organization that opts to succeed in this competitive industrial era needs to invest in sales and marketing approaches just like Autodesk has done. The investment should not rely simply on finance but should be broad enough to incorporate technology and the desire to continue learning new strategies. The company must also be conversant with the changes that have taken place with time and devise new approaches to deal with ever-changing buyer behaviors in the contemporary business environment. Through this Autodesk will continue to be among the top firms in its industry as it will continue offering quality products and services.
References
Angell, R.L. and Kraemer, J.R., International Business Machines Corp, 2017. Automatically generating an optimal marketing strategy for improving cross sales and upsales of items. U.S. Patent 9,685,048.
Arnett, D.B. and Wittmann, C.M., 2014. Improving marketing success: The role of tacit knowledge exchange between sales and marketing. Journal of Business Research, 67(3), pp.324-331.
Tiago, M.T.P.M.B. and Veríssimo, J.M.C., 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), pp.703-708.
