What does the commercial department do: structure, functions and tasks

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Without delving into the general essence of the work, one might think that the commercial departments completely and completely follow the headquarters principle. He is not a single entity. The fact is that its functions are divided into autonomous components, but at the same time they have the same value. The only common goal is to get customers to buy certain products.

It is worth noting that each component in the commercial department works independently. At the same time, all aspects of the activity make a small contribution to the success of the entire enterprise as a whole.

What do the commercial departments of enterprises do?

Distinctive features in any field of activity are the presence of its directions and the organization of the main tasks to achieve the required peaks. So, what does the commercial department at the enterprise do? The purpose of the commercial department is the acquisition of legal entities exactly as well as individualsoffering goods and services on the market or exchanging them for alternative items for mutual benefit. It is interesting to note that the elements used by marketing are also operated by the division in question.

The organization of this structure is quite complex, but at the same time it gives him the ability to perform many different tasks. The main goal in this case seems to be the creation of a certain system of all kinds of activities that will be aimed at regulating the process of buying and selling, and at the same time at satisfying the main demand and making a profit.

Structure of the commercial department

The structure, along with the staffing of the department in question, is approved by the director and his deputy for commercial affairs. All kinds of structural divisions with groups of specialists and so on are directly included in the composition. The head of such an organization distributes duties among all existing employees and approves their job descriptions. Below we will review the functions and tasks of the commercial department.

Tasks

In order to understand what the sales department does, its production facilities should be indicated:

• Drawing up a long-term business strategy and financial plan for the enterprise.
• Taking part in the preparation of current and future production plans along with the sale of products.
• Using the necessary measures for the timely conclusion of economic and financial documentationwith suppliers and all kinds of consumers of products and raw materials, combined with the expansion of direct and long-term economic relations.
• Exercise control over the sale of products, material technical support of the company, economic and financial indicators of activity, and at the same time the correct use of available working capital.
• Taking part in fairs, exhibitions, auctions, an exchange for advertising and selling products.
• Analysis of market conditions for products manufactured by the enterprise.

Functions of a department in an organization

The functions of the commercial department of an enterprise are usually as follows:

• Provision of financial and economic activities of the company in the field of material and technical supply. At the same time, raw materials are stored, products are sold on the markets and under a supply contract, transport and administrative services are provided.
• Fulfillment of the contractual obligation to supply products (by nomenclature, quantity, quality, assortment, timing and other conditions of supply).
• Participate in the development of standards for commercial quality logistics along with the organization of storage and transportation of raw materials, as well as the marketing of finished products.
• Timely payment of wages to employees of the enterprise.
• Carrying out the development of measures for the integrated use of material resources.
• Improving the rationing of raw materials, working capital, materials and stocks of valuables.
• Improvement of the economic indicator and the formation of a system of enterprise performance indicators.
• Increasing production efficiency along with strengthening financial discipline, preventing the formation and destruction of excess stocks of commodity and material values, and in addition, with overspending of financial resources.

What other tasks are assigned to the commercial departments?

A wide field of various duties involves the performance of additional production work, they are as follows:

• Organization of warehouse activities along with the creation of conditions for proper storage, and at the same time the safety of finished products and material resources.
• Implementation of ensuring the rational use of all types of transport, combined with the improvement of loading and unloading operations, taking measures to maximize the equipment of this service with the necessary devices and mechanisms.
• Organization of activities for the use, and at the same time for the sale of secondary resources and by-products of production.
• Timely preparation of budget and financial documents, and in addition, all kinds of calculations, established reporting on the implementation of plans for the sale of finished products.
• Reporting on financial activities, material and technical supply.

Features

What the commercial department does is now known. However, attention should be paid tosome features of this unit:

• Commercial departments are independent structural units.
• It is created and liquidated based on the order of the director of the company.
• This element of the institution reports directly to the Associate Director for Commercial Affairs.

Manual

He is headed by a chief appointed to the position by order of the director of the company on the proposal of the deputy general. director of commercial affairs. The management of the enterprise department necessarily has its deputies.

What does the head of the commercial department do? As mentioned above, the responsibilities of the management of the unit include the distribution of responsibilities among all existing employees and the approval of their job descriptions.

Responsibilities of deputies

The duties of deputies are determined by their superiors. Deputies and heads of structural units within the department in question, as well as other employees, are appointed to positions or dismissed from them by order of the director.

Company Advertising Department

In another way, it is also called an advertising service. In this case, we are talking about a structural unit of the organization, whose task is to carry out activities in the field of marketing communication and the implementation of the chosen economic strategy. Advertising departments in many structures are often linked to the PR department.

But it is worth noting that the expediency of such a merger directly depends on the tasks set for the company, and at the same time on the business niche. Depending on this, the functions of advertising departments in commercial structures may differ. There are two common situations with the responsibilities of this share of the enterprise. In the first case, the company's advertising is carried out by its employees, and third-party specialists are invited to conduct PR events.

In the second variant, the situation is completely opposite. The organization of events and public relations are carried out by specialists of the advertising department, and the PR activity itself is entrusted to a hired agency (while it remains under the supervision of full-time employees). What the commercial department does in a factory or any other industrial enterprise is important to find out in advance.

This approach is very convenient. True, against the backdrop of business growth and the advisability of holding advertising and PR events, regular recourse to the services of foreign specialists is unreasonably expensive. Such a need creates the need to conduct an advertising policy within the framework of the company's activities, and, accordingly, to study the issue of the duties and functions of the department and its management.

What do commercial departments do in construction companies?

Typically, their job is as follows:

• Search along with attracting new volumes of engineering andconstruction services.
• Development of design, construction and other activities of the organization.
• Conducting commercial negotiations in the field of supply and marketing policy.
• Business correspondence with customers in the interests of the enterprise.
• Conducting an analysis of the competitive environment of the engineering and construction services market.
• Formation of a plan for the sale of services of a general contracting construction company and ensuring its implementation.
• Organization of activities in the framework of the preparation of tender documentation and participation in relevant events.
• Preparation and calculation of commercial proposals along with the conclusion of contracts and interaction with tender committees.
• Managing the activities of structural divisions of the enterprise along with supervision of current projects.
• Monitoring compliance with the quality standard of work, ensuring that the company fulfills its obligations.
• Control over the execution of construction and design schedules.

Rights

In order to understand what the commercial department in a construction organization does, it is necessary to indicate its powers:

• Requirement for the submission of materials, reports, applications, information necessary for the implementation of their direct activities by the company's divisions.
• Providing instructions to structural units on issues that fall within the competence of the department.
• Exercising control over the correct spending of working capital and the intended use of bankloans, as well as the cessation of production of products that have no market.
• Represent on behalf of the company in various enterprises, institutions and organizations on issues that relate to the conduct of the department.
• Monitoring compliance with discipline in the framework of the fulfillment of tasks and obligations for the supply of products and its compliance with business documents.
• Requirement from the heads of all departments to timely provide papers and materials that are necessary for normal work.
• Present various incentive proposals to management.
• Providing information on department plans and reporting on actual performance.
• Certification of employees.

In the article, we analyzed in detail what the commercial department does. They outlined the main functions, tasks and structure of such units, which are an integral part of each enterprise, allowing them to carry out the required tasks for the success of the company.