SALES FORCE MANAGEMENT
UNIT 12 PART 1
Introduction
Although selling is an extremely important function in most organizations it
does have something of a bad reputation.
This has mainly come about from the kind of hard selling associated with
door-to-door selling.
This image is quite far removed from the majority of selling that takes place
especially in the business-to-business sector.
Much of a salesperson’s time is not actually taken up by selling but with a
variety of other tasks that they have to undertake in order to achieve the sale.
UNIT 12 PART 1
Sales organization
Sales force organization refers to the type and size of the sales force.
The type determines the degree of controllability while the size has profit
implications. If the sales force is large the organization has to decide
about the kind of specialization and co-ordination to use.
UNIT 12 PART 1
Sales Force Management
⚫ Efforts put forth to attain a company’s sales objectives.
⚫ Sales management can involve any of the following activities:
(1) formulation of sales strategy through development of account
management policies, sales force compensation policies, sales revenue
forecasts, and sales plan.
(2) implementation of sales strategy through selecting, training, motivating,
and supporting the sales force, setting sales revenue targets.
(3) sales force management through development and implementation of
sales performance, monitoring, and evaluation methods, and analysis of
associated behavioral patterns and costs
UNIT 12 PART 1
Sales Force Objectives
A Sales Force will have one or more of the following tasks.
⚫ Prospecting – search for leads
⚫ Targeting – allocation of time between prospects and customers
⚫ Communicating – info about company and products
⚫ Selling – Approach, presentation, answering objections, closing sales
⚫ Servicing – consulting, technical, financing, etc.
⚫ Info gathering – market research
⚫ Allocating – scarce products to customers.
UNIT 12 PART 1
Sales Force Strategy
Ways sales reps work with customers to maintain company
competitive edge:
⚫ Rep to buyer – discuss issues with a prospect or customer
⚫ Rep to buyer group – rep gets to know as many members of buyer group as possible
⚫ Sales team to buyer group –
⚫ Conference selling – company sales rep and resource group to customer to talk big
problems or opportunities
⚫ Selling Seminar – Company team to group of buyers/customers
⚫ Once company has strategy can go with direct sales force or contractual force. Direct sales
force is standard sales force with office and field reps, while contractual reps are purely
commission sales forces.
UNIT 12 PART 1
Sales Force Structure
⚫ Territorial – each rep gets own piece of land to work equally divided by
workload or potential – result is no customer confusion as to who the
rep is
⚫ Product –Sales force sells along product lines
⚫ Customer – Sales force sells along Customer/Industry lines
⚫ Complex – combination of both
UNIT 12 PART 1
Sales Force Size
Depends upon the number of customers you want to reach then:
⚫ Group customers into classes by annual sales volume
⚫ Establish desired call frequency-The number of calls to be made per
year on each account in a size class
⚫ Classes size time freq. = workload
⚫ Determine number of calls a rep can make a year
⚫ Workload divided by rep calls per year = number of reps needed
UNIT 12 PART 1
Sales Force Management
UNIT 12 PART 1
Recruitment
It is the process of finding out candidates, who are encouraged to apply.
Selection is the process of choosing some out of many candidates.
Therefore, we can say that selection is recruitment, but recruitment is not
selection.
Selection is the process of rejection of unfits.
Recruitment precedes the selection process.
UNIT 12 PART 1
Selection
The process of selecting differs from one place to another. Each firm has it’s
own method of selecting people. The qualities expected must match with the
job description and the person should be qualified enough too. The steps
followed for selection is the same in all the places.
⚫ Application Blank
⚫ Screening
⚫ Reference
⚫ Personal Interview
⚫ Test
⚫ Medical examination
⚫ Final interview
UNIT 12 PART 1
Training
Training is the continuation of selection. After selection, the sales
manager
will have two options.
⚫ Send him to the work field directly
⚫ Send him for training program
It is always advisable to train a person before sending him to the work
floor.
Training means the process of perfecting the salesmen for their work.
It is the organized procedure through which knowledge as well as skill,
for a particular purpose, is acquired.
UNIT 12 PART 1
Training Methods
⚫ There are five training methods.
1. Class Room / Conference Training
2. Behavioral Learning / Simulations
3. Online Training
4. Absorption / Self learning Training
5. On-The-Job Training
UNIT 12 PART 1
Supervising
⚫ Directing the sales force
⚫ Identify customer targets and set call norms
⚫ Develop prospect targets
⚫ Ensure efficient use of time and assets
UNIT 12 PART 1
Motivation
⚫ Mostly believed that the higher the salesperson’s motivation, the
greater the effort and the resulting performance, rewards, and
satisfaction-and thus further motivation.
⚫ Sales managers must be able to convince salespeople that they can sell
more by working harder or by begun trained to work smarter
⚫ Sales managers must be able to convince salespeople that the rewards
for better performance are worth the extra effort.
UNIT 12 PART 1
Motivation
⚫ In this stage organization identify the attributes that motivates the sales
executive to perform well.
⚫ There are two types of incentives given by the organizations
⚫ They are
INCENTIVES
FINANCIAL NON-FINANCIAL
UNIT 12 PART 1
Types of Incentives
⚫ FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
* Salary package
* Flexible expenses
* Fringe benefits…etc…
⚫ NON-FINANCIAL BENEFITS
* Promotion
* Recognition
* Awards
UNIT 12 PART 1
Evaluating
⚫ To know whether the sales executives are achieving the quotas set for them
i.e sales plans, the reports of their performances are compared against the set
standards.
⚫ On the basis of the information, the conclusions are drawn and accordingly
incentives are announced.
⚫ If required the sales executives are motivated and trained.
UNIT 12 PART 1
Compensation
⚫ COMPENSATION is made in three ways.
Direct salary
Direct
Commission
Combined
plans
UNIT 12 PART 1
Compensation
⚫ Direct salary:
In this method sales executives are given fixed salary per month.
⚫ Direct commission:
In this case the executives will be working on commission basis…Eg : Life
insurance agents.
⚫ Combined Plans:
It is a mixture of straight salary and straight commission plans. In this
method the sales executives are paid their regular salary plus their commission
on the sales they make.
Eg. BMTC pays their conductors a fixed salary + 2% Commission on the sale
of tickets.
UNIT 12 PART 1
THANK YOU…
UNIT 12 PART 1