1. Introduction

Apple is a multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California. The company designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Apple's products and services include the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Music.

Apple has been active in Macau since 2009. The company has two retail stores in Macau, located at Galaxy Macau and Cotai Strip. Apple also has a number of authorized resellers in Macau.

Apple's products and services are popular in Macau. The company's products are seen as being innovative, stylish, and user-friendly. Apple's services are also popular, as they offer a convenient and integrated way for users to manage their devices and content.

2. Navigating the High-Tech Landscape: Apple's Strategic Excellence

2.1. Apple Corporation: Multinational Companies in Macau and North America

Apple Corporation, formerly known as Apple Computer Company, is the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer, the world's largest PC manufacturer, the world's largest listed company by market value, and the world's most valuable brand. It is known for its innovation in the industry. Against the backdrop of intense competition in the high-tech market, Apple has been able to maintain a leading position in the industry. Every time it launches a new product, it can always influence market changes. Apple's ability to become a leader in the high-tech market is inseparable from its correct corporate strategic management.

As a sales manager, conducting corresponding sales business in North America requires clear corporate strategic management. Enterprises must recognize the importance of strategic management and be able to make correct judgments and reactions based on market changes in order to fully utilize their human, financial, material and other resources, optimize management, and improve economic benefits at both macro and micro levels through analysis, prediction, planning, control, and other means.

2.2. Apple's North American corporate external environment

High market share: Apple's market share in the North American market has always maintained a high level, especially in the US market, where Apple holds one of the top three market shares.

Continuous product innovation: Apple has always focused on product innovation as its core competitiveness, continuously launching new products and technologies, such as iPhone, iPad, MacBook, etc., to meet the constantly changing needs of consumers.

Flexible pricing strategy: Apple's pricing strategy in the North American market is relatively flexible, adjusted according to market demand and competition, such as launching more lower priced iPhone models to attract more consumers.

Strong brand influence: Apple's brand influence in the North American market is very strong, regarded as a representative of high-end and fashion, and highly sought after by many consumers.

2.3. Apple's Internal Environment in North America

Having an innovative culture: Apple has always regarded innovation as its core competitiveness, promoting an innovative culture within the company, encouraging employees to propose new ideas and innovative solutions to promote the company's development.

Emphasis on design: Apple attaches great importance to product design, integrating the appearance, functionality, and user experience of products, pursuing simplicity, fashion, and ease of use, which is also a major advantage of Apple in the market.Subtitle

3. Conduct an overall analysis of Apple through SWOT

Advantages: technological innovation and design innovation; A good ecosystem; User experience and good after-sales service

Disadvantages: instability in system upgrades; The patentability of technology; Product selectivity; Limitations of cooperative operators.

Opportunity: High brand awareness; Excellent product appearance design; Some software Apple products from Hong Kong and Macao are easy to use; Economic development has led to the pursuit of Apple products; Good safety;

Threat: More mobile phone manufacturers and intensified competition. The emergence of counterfeit, imitation, and refurbishment machines.

Through the above analysis, Apple's brand value and product awareness are very high, which has laid a good foundation for Apple. Many people in the market are consumers of Apple products, and they have great trust in the brand influence and product quality of Apple. Their main pursuit is the Apple ecosystem created by Apple and Apple's product services. As sales managers, they should design strategic management in this direction. Affiliations

3.1. Optimizing supply chain management

Apple's product production and sales rely on complex supply chains, so it is necessary to strengthen supply chain management, optimize supplier selection and management, and improve the efficiency and quality of the supply chain.

3.2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Providing high-quality customer service. Apple has always focused on providing high-quality customer service, which is one of the important reasons for our success. We will further strengthen our customer service team and provide more channels and ways for customers to contact us to help them better use and enjoy our products.

Customer service teams can be strengthened through team empowerment and rewards:

3.2.1. Provide training and resources

Provide necessary training, tools, and resources for the customer service team to better understand customer needs and provide appropriate solutions.

3.2.2. Establish clear goals and indicators

Set clear performance goals and indicators, such as customer satisfaction, speed and accuracy of problem-solving, so that all members are aware of their tasks and expectations.

3.2.3. Assign responsibility and authority

Encourage team members to independently handle customer issues and give them appropriate authority and responsibility to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction.

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3.2.4. Provide feedback and rewards

Based on team performance, provide timely feedback and rewards, such as praise, bonuses, or promotion opportunities, to motivate members to work actively and promote team cooperation and cohesion.

3.2.5. Optimize processes and technologies

Continuously optimize customer service processes and introduce advanced technologies and tools to improve efficiency and quality, while reducing team workload and pressure.

Through these empowerment measures and reward mechanisms, customer service teams can more independently solve problems, improve performance and satisfaction, and thus bring more value to the enterprise.

3.3. Multi channel sales

We need to sell through multiple channels, such as retail stores, online stores, and third-party distributors. This can increase our sales and reduce risks.

3.4. Continuous innovation and improvement

Apple has become a globally renowned brand through continuous innovation and improvement. We will continue to strengthen research and development investment, launch more innovative products and services to meet customer needs and create new market demands.

Apple encourages employees to collaborate and empower their teams, and as sales managers, We can Encourage teamwork, promote exchange of ideas and knowledge sharing, thereby promoting innovation and improvement, and rewarding their performance in collaboration. Apply team empowerment and performance reward mechanisms to sales, broaden the thinking and methods of sales personnel, and improve sales performance.

3.5. Establishing an ecosystem

Apple has established a complete product ecosystem, including hardware, software, and services. We will continue to improve this ecosystem and provide more services and products so that users can connect and connect between different devices and platforms.

3.6. Strengthening digital marketing

With the rise of digital marketing, Apple needs to pay more attention to the construction and promotion of digital marketing channels. We will invest more resources and workforce to strengthen digital marketing, including social media promotion, search engine optimization, and email marketing.

4. Sales Manager Team Required Capabilities

4.1. Clarify goals and expectations

Clearly define what the team goals are and what each goal is. The role of the individual is to achieve the company's goals. There is something for everyone. Understanding what is expected of them and how they work contributes to overall success. Given this, managers are likely to appreciate Apple's reputation for excellence and its rigorous hiring and training processes.[1]

4.2. Personal qualification record

Apple's sales managers are the teams that oversee sales in different regions or markets and ensure that sales targets are met. They are expected to have a deep understanding of Apple's product line and the company's sales strategy, as well as excellent leadership, communication and analysis skills. Apple's sales managers typically have college degrees, and other degrees with years of experience in sales management or related roles. They may also have industry certifications such as the Certified Sales Professional (CSP)

4.3. Apple corporate culture characteristics: paranoid innovation

Apple's sales management at all levels, from the senior vice president down, has three key leadership characteristics: deep expertise, which allows them to participate meaningfully in all the work going on in their functional area; focus on functional details; Collaborate with other functions in the decision-making process. Let the person with the most expertise and experience in a certain area have the decision-making authority. Therefore, as sales managers, they must also have relevant knowledge to manage employees better.

4.4. Apple sales manager team composition conditions

Apple puts a lot of emphasis on training and developing its employees, including sales managers. They receive extensive training in Apple's sales strategy, as well as customer service best practices. This training is designed to ensure sales managers have the knowledge and skills they need to train and develop employees, including sales managers.[2] They receive extensive training to be successful in their roles. Overall, Apple's competitive sales managers are likely to be high in anticipation that they will be meeting high performance standards and building a successful sales force.Here are seven things that make up a team of sales managers at Apple:

Hire the right people.

Set clear expectations.

Provide training and development.

Create a positive team culture.

Establish performance indicators.

Provide feedback and guidance.

Build strong customer relationships.

Having leaders who are experts in their fields and can delve into the details has had a profound effect on the way Apple operates. Leaders can push, probe and "feel" problems. They know which details are important and where to focus. Many people at Apple believe that working for experts is liberating and even exciting, and that professionals provide better guidance than managers. Experts lead experts, allowing everyone to make the most of their expertise.

5. How to realize the team empowerment of the sales manager team

5.1. Set clear goals and expectations

Apple sales managers set clear goals and expectations for their sales force. This helps team members understand what is expected of them and what needs to be done in order to be successful.

5.2. Provide ongoing training and the work needed to succeed

Equipped with the latest technology to be effective. Apple's sales managers provide ongoing training and development opportunities to help their teams stayup-to-date with industry trends and best practices.

5.3. Promote open communication

Encourage open and honest communication among team members and between the sales team and other departments within the company. This helps everyone stay on track. Encourage open communication among team members and between the sales team and other departments within the company. This can help keep everyone on the same page and avoid misunderstandings or conflicts.[3]

5.4. Recognize and reward success.

Celebrate success and recognize outstanding performance. This is very helpful in motivating team members to keep striving for success

5.5. Provide access to technology

Sales teams need access to the latest technology and tools to be effective. Apple sales managers make sure their teams have access to the technology they need to do their jobs and this is enabled through mobile device CRM systems or other tools.

5.6. Foster a positive team culture

Encourages cooperation, teamwork and a positive attitude among team members. This can help create a supportive and productive work environment where everyone feels valued and motivated. Everyone feels valued and motivated.

5.7. Provide autonomy and flexibility

Empower sales team members to make decisions and take ownership of their work. Givethem the autonomy and flexibility needed to succeed, while providing the guidance and support needed. By implementing these strategies Apple sales managers can empower their sales teams to be more efficient and achieve better results.

5.8. Willingness to engage in cooperative discussions.

Apple has hundreds of professional teams, and a key component of a new product may require the cooperation of dozens of teams to develop. For example, portrait mode dual-lens require the cooperation of no less than 40 professional teams: chip design, camera software, reliability engineering, motion sensor hardware, video engineering, gyroscope, camera sensor design, etc. How does Apple develop and ship these highly coordinated products? The answer is collaborative discussion. Since no single function can be solely responsible for a product or service, cross-functional collaboration is critical.[4]

6. Performance management

As the world's largest IT technology company, Apple attaches great importance to innovation and reform capabilities. The success of Apple is inseparable from the great contribution of former CEO Steve Jobs (Steve Paul Jobs) to the company. Jobs believed that quality is more important than quantity. So, he chose to form a small team of top talents in the industry to complete the task. Therefore, at Apple, performance appraisal is implemented by the industry's most advanced appraisal team. A well-managed sales force will be more productive and profitable than one that is unmanaged, or that simply allows the salesperson to develop freely. Managers are constantly clarifying expectations to employees, providing effective feedback and meaningful recognition, and ensuring that salespersons have the right tools and the necessary support, all of which will help salesperson improve their job competency and gain the commitment of the team to achieve excellent sales targets.[5]

6.1. What should be paid attention to in the performance diagnosis of multinational enterprises?

First of all, we need to clarify what Apple needs to pay attention to when conducting performance diagnosis as a multinational company.

The sales manager diagnoses whether employees are suitable for their positions, makes adjustments and selections, helps employees formulate performance improvement plans, and summarizes future application criteria from them. Apple sales managers emphasize employee attitudes, innovation, and skill development. The company holds an all-employee survey every two years. The survey results will reflect the gap between the actual level of employees and the level required to achieve corporate strategy, thereby helping employees improve their work and adjust corporate strategy.[6]

Attention should be paid to the problem of ethnocentrism in performance diagnosis. Since ethnocentrism is usually an unconscious behavior, it is difficult to prevent it in advance. When confronted with a different culture, individuals judge it against their own standards and do not attempt to evaluate the new culture from the perspective of the host country. This behavior was also characterized by selective listening and value judgments, which seriously affected the quality of communication. American culture advocates individual will more. They hope to be respected and liked by others from the bottom of their hearts, and their individuality is more prominent. This is all caused by this kind of nation.

Therefore, Apple as a multinational company, should pay more attention to evaluating them objectively and understanding the culture and religion of employees in different countries, understanding cultural values, flexible culture, understanding communication styles, accepting ambiguity, developing correct capabilities, and reducing ethnocentrism. It is more convenient to manage during performance management. In addition, you can also evaluate which one of the domestic employees, local employees, or third-country sales representatives has the highest performance contribution, so as to conclude which side you need to apply for in the future.[7]

The few studies that have been conducted on the hiring of global salespersons suggest that selection criteria should be localized. Therefore, in order to adapt to the Chinese market, Apple has made a series of improvements to the existing business model that are suitable for the Chinese consumer market.

6.2. Establish performance indicators

Apple's sales manager assessment looks at three areas: cost, time, and quality. Cost assessment refers to the process of investigating, verifying and evaluating the cost of recruitment against the budget. Time assessment, also known as timeliness assessment, refers to the time between when a recruitment demand is put forward and when a newly recruited employee actually arrives at the post, that is, the vacancy time. Quality evaluation is the evaluation of the job performance, turnover rate, and job potential of the hired employees after they enter the job.[8]

After our on-the-spot inspection of salesperson Leo in Macau, we learned that Apple’s performance appraisal indicators are focused on the realization of corporate strategies. Most of Apple’s sales performance is linked to service and customer satisfaction, rather than focusing on the company’s gross profit, return on equity and market share. The sales manager requires the performance appraisal team to be very familiar with the company's corporate strategy, and determine the aspects that the company should evaluate and the performance indicators of customer satisfaction according to the company's strategy. The code of conduct must be above good.

Customer satisfaction is an assessment indicator newly developed by Apple. Historically, Apple has focused on technology and products, and has won customers by designing better products. However, with the development of society, more and more attention has been paid to customer service, and Apple has also realized this. The customer satisfaction assessment index is designed to arouse employees' attention to customer service. The transformation of the customer-driven company. In terms of internal processes, Apple emphasizes core competencies. For example, Apple has strengthened the assessment of the company's core capabilities, including user-friendly interface design capabilities, strong software construction capabilities, and effective sales system development capabilities, and is committed to quantifying these assessment indicators.[9]

6.3. Apple's performance evaluation indicators

Apple's sales managers assess sales personnel not only in terms of performance, but also in terms of customer satisfaction and corporate culture. Apple's assessment purpose is not to control, but to lay the foundation for business transformation; Apple's indicators can mostly penetrate into each department in both horizontal and vertical directions, and their scientific nature is extremely strong. Through detailed calculation and evaluation, the indicators are ultimately confirmed.

Apple's performance evaluation adopts the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) performance evaluation method. BSC is a set of scoring cards that comprehensively evaluate the performance of the company's strategic management from four aspects (finance, customers, internal operations, employee learning and growth), both financial and non-financial. It not only effectively overcomes the shortcomings of traditional financial evaluation methods, such as lagging behind, emphasizing short-term and internal benefits, and neglecting intangible asset returns, And it is a scientific management system that integrates company strategic management control and performance evaluation of strategic management. And Apple's BSC application is shown below.[10]

6.3.1. Financial perspective

From a financial perspective, Apple emphasizes shareholder value. Shareholder value is the overall shareholder value of Apple. This indicator can help senior managers measure the impact of their activities on the overall shareholder value of the company. Shareholder value does not have a driving effect on the achievement of corporate strategy, and it is only a performance indicator. This indicator is evaluated because it quantifies the potential negative impact of investing to promote business growth. The establishment of shareholder value indicators can help eliminate people's preference for gross profit and business growth rate and neglect the idea of investing in future corporate growth.

6.3.2. Customer perspective

From a customer perspective, Apple emphasizes market share and customer satisfaction. Market share is an indicator that senior managers value. Because it is not only a guarantee of corporate sales, but more importantly, it can help Apple attract and secure software developers. Therefore, it can be said that market share is the key to a company's operational development, while customer satisfaction is a newly developed assessment indicator by Apple. In history, Apple has focused on technology and products, winning customers by designing better products. However, with the development of society, customer service is increasingly valued, and Apple has also realized this. Customer satisfaction assessment indicators are designed to arouse employees' attention to customer service. The assessment of this indicator has accelerated Apple's transformation into a customer driven company.

6.3.3. Internal processes

In terms of internal processes, Apple emphasizes core competencies. For example, Apple has strengthened its assessment of its core competencies, including user friendly interface design capabilities, strong software construction capabilities, and effective sales system development capabilities, and is committed to quantifying these assessment indicators.

6.3.4. Learning and Growth

In terms of learning and growth, Apple emphasizes the improvement of employees' attitudes, innovation, and skills. The company holds a survey of all Employee surveys every two years. The survey includes employees' recognition of the company's strategy and their work performance for the realization of the company's strategy. The survey results will reflect the gap between the actual level of employees and the level of achievement of corporate strategic requirements, thereby helping employees improve their work and adjust corporate strategy.

BSC's performance management method not only provides a precise path for employees' personal self-improvement, but also provides reasonable management methods for empowering sales teams.

6.4. Performance standards motivate employees to promote the company's strategic goals

Performance, as an assessment standard linked to employee salaries, is a strong constraint on employees and a strong driving force for their subjective initiative. Therefore, it is quite important to reflect on the promotion of corporate culture and motivation for the company's strategic goals in performance.

From a strategic perspective, Apple managers are more able to leverage sales personnel's responsibilities throughout the entire supply chain by using BSC.

As is well known, Apple's product quality has always been at the top of the industry, both as a pioneer and at the top of the industry, not only accumulating market share but also establishing considerable customer loyalty. In other words, whether customers buy Apple's products or not depends not only on the clever and persuasive words of sales personnel, but also on the quality of the products themselves. So what role can sales personnel play?

Based on the current situation of Apple, sales personnel should provide better service rather than trying to persuade customers to purchase products, in order to make customers feel good about themselves and Apple through positive customer contact. So the BSC performance evaluation model is more suitable for Apple's sales personnel. Based on my on-site investigation, sales personnel will send a questionnaire to customers via email after service. The number of questionnaires filled out by customers and the quality of their evaluations determine the performance of sales personnel. In addition, in order to align with the company's strategic deployment, Apple sales personnel have also promoted the "Today at Apple" activity offline, which is a course to learn about the use of Apple devices. It is aimed at all age groups and helps customers who switch from other phones to Apple phones transition faster to the adaptation period of changing phone systems and integrate more quickly into the Apple universe.

7. Conclusion

Apple's sales strategy in Macau revolves around two key pillars: product innovation and customer-centric service. The company's relentless focus on research and development has earned it a reputation for producing high-quality products that appeal to discerning consumers in Macau. This, in turn, has fostered customer loyalty and paved the way for sustained sales growth.

To complement its product prowess, Apple emphasizes providing exceptional service to its Macau customers. This includes the comprehensive Apple Care program, which offers a wide range of support services, and the company's signature warm and welcoming customer interactions.

Empowerment of the sales team is another key aspect of Apple's sales management in Macau. Clear and well-defined objectives are set within the team, providing direction and focus for individual sales representatives. This fosters a sense of ownership and accountability within the team, driving them to achieve their sales targets.

By combining product innovation, customer-centric service, effective performance management, and empowerment of the sales team, Apple has established itself as a dominant force in the Macau market. The company's commitment to delivering exceptional products and services has earned it the trust and loyalty of Macau consumers, ensuring its continued success in the region.