By Andy Booth CareerHow management accountants lead their organisations towards success22 Nov 2016 Ever wondered how organisations sell products or services?I don’t mean what is the physical process behind the transaction itself or how the organisation advertises products or uses discounts to shift more units: these are operational concerns. What I’m looking at is the strategic approach to selling products – the mindset or ‘philosophy’ behind the organisation’s whole approach to selling – and how an AAT qualified management accountant could help to deliver/implement different approaches.In traditional management theory there are four approaches – or ‘orientations’ to choose from:1. Product orientationHere, the organisation focuses all its energy on the design, features and functionality of the product itself. The belief is: ‘if we make the best product customers will buy it’. Organisations adopting this approach tend not to follow market trends – they are not particularly interested in market research or what competitors’ products look like. They believe in an inside-out approach of “we will show you what you need”.Think of innovators like Apple or Dyson – their products seem to come out of the blue and look unlike anything else around at the time. Steve Jobs used the term “leapfrog products” and Tim Cook has said “we make products people didn’t know they wanted”.Management accountants in these organisations will be focused more internally on research costs, appraising design investments, mark-ups and valuing patents, trademarks and licenses.2. Production orientationSome businesses care less about the product and more about the way it is made – the efficiencies and production techniques which allow customers to get the product/service quickly, when they want it and how they want it. There isn’t much focus on the customer – it is the organisation that decides what will be made, how it will be made and where it will be on sale.IKEA thrive on their ‘buy it, build it and use it today’ approach which is only possible because of their clever, unique and innovative flatpack mass-production methods and efficient warehousing techniques. The products themselves are not that different – but the way you get one and construct one certainly is.Management accountants in these organisations will be looking internally at efficiency variances, materials costs, machinery capacity, production yields, throughput calculations, bottleneck accounting and kaizen costing.3. Sales orientationOther businesses focus on the hard-sell. They don’t care much for the product itself or the way it is made – in fact production is probably outsourced. These are the organisations which try to convince you to buy – they accost you in shopping centres, knock on your front door, call your mobile and try to push the product onto you. The focus is on the selling not the product or production.Double glazing anyone? How about a three year ‘protection policy’ for your new £20 toaster? Had an accident recently and need to make a claim?Management accountants here will be looking at selling ratios for their call centre/sales staff – numbers of calls per hour, number of conversions per employee, time taken per call and a million other metrics designed to monitor the performance of the selling army.4. Marketing orientationThis approach is a little different. Instead of making something and then trying to sell it to the world, these organisations use market research to find out what customers want and then make what they will ‘know’ will sell. The irony with this approach is that the organisation may even end up making something they don’t like, don’t know how to make and don’t even want to make.McDonald’s is built on burgers, fries and milkshake sales – this is their heritage. But if market research shows them you want healthier options then they will quickly adapt and sell you salads, water, milk in Happy Meals and low-fat wraps. If you’ve seen the Tarantino film Pulp Fiction you’ll know they call a Quarterpounder a “Royale with Cheese” in France because they don’t understand imperial weight measurements – just to make sure that they are tailoring what they do to each customer group.The message here is not “this is what we’re selling” but “we’ll sell whatever you want”.Management accountants here will be looking more externally – benchmarking pricing against rivals, market research data, market share and sales trends, and patterns in the marketplace.In summaryThere is no “best” way to sell your products of course, but management accountants have plenty of room to adapt and pivot in whichever approach your company adopts.Read more on management accounting;Career profile: management accountantWhat I wish I’d known before I became a management accountantThe challenges of Big Data for management accountants Andy Booth is a trainer for AAT Mastercourses on Financial Performance, Management Reporting, and Budgeting topics.