Sales Force Management

Fall 1999

Outline
Role of the sales force in corporate strategy Trends in personal selling and sales management Functions of the salesperson and sales manager Course overview
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Strategic Leverage of the Sales Force

Customer focus Enhances customer loyalty Source of competitive advantage

Enhances Customer Focus

Allows a targeted market segment approach
one customer at a time customize sales calls and presentations by needs important source of market knowledge and customer needs assessment

Develops Customer Loyalty

Creates high switching costs
salesperson (knowledge, expertise, relationship) creates product/service differentiation, particularly when competitors products deliver the same basic benefits

Loyalty reduces the customers price sensitivity

Source of Competitive Advantage

Creates a barrier to entry
costs of creating a sales force market access

Creates a medium-to-long term competitive advantage

unlike advertising (medium-term) or pricing (short-term)

Trends in Personal Selling

Nature of the sales job:
Informed consultant:
knowledge of customers, industries and applications

Process (rather than event) driven Team player Customer advocate/Market feedback Integration of promotional mechanisms (e.g. DTC)
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Trends in Personal Selling

Nature of the sales managers job:
Decentralized management; greater span of control Automation Database targeting/customer data Evaluated on team performance (rather than individual performance) Reward in many ways (not just $$)
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Importance of Effective Sales Management

Expensive part of marketing strategy Cost of call:
Overall average: $157 ($239 for a value-added selling environment)

Functions of the Salesperson

Prospecting Communicating: two-way Allocating & coordinating: company resources, time Servicing Helping define marketing strategy

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Functions of the Sales Manager

Communicate expectations: tell salespeople what you expect them to do Make the work doable: an important component o the SM role here is removing obstacles to performance Evaluate and give feedback: reward successful behavior, apply corrective actions for behavior that is not acceptable
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Course Overview
Effective Personal Selling Strategic Issues Tactical Issues Industrial Settings
informed buyers discipline of repeat purchase often genuine differentiation is possible
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Course Overview (continued)

Effective Personal Selling
What is effective personal selling? Business to business selling and the Buyclass Framework (Case: Lawford Electric)

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Course Overview (continued)

Strategic Issues
Vertical Integration (Case: Jamestown) Control Systems Structuring the Sales Force(Cases: Wright Line & Siebel Systems Sales Force Allocation: Deployment & Organization (Case: Syntex) Territory Assignment & Design Strategy for Optimal Sales Productivity
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Course Overview (continued)

Tactical Issues
Sales Analysis (Case: Milford A) Performance Evaluation (Case: Milford B) Compensation (Case:Mary Kay Cosmetics) & Motivation (Case: IMAGE) Selection (Case: IDS) & Training Information Systems/Sales Force Automation (Case: Profiling at National Mutual) Sales Force Automation
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Course Overview (continued)

Putting it all together (Case: DigitalThink & Group Projects)

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Course Requirements
Class Participation 20% Group Projects 35%
DigitalThink Case Group Presentation

Mid-term Exam Final Exam

20% 25%

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Class Participation
Show up, on time. Prepare cases and reading Quality vs. quantity Contribute articles/reading/examples
http://www.salesandmarketing.com/ http://www.sellingpower.com/ http://www.decalibrary.org/
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Group Projects
DigitalThink Case
Due November 17th on or before class. 5 page limit on text w/ 3 page limit on exhibits

Group Presentation
Only presentation needs to be submitted-- no paper/write-up

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Mid-term & Final Exams

Case oriented Mid-term will focus on personal selling & strategic issues Final will be more heavily weighted on tactical issues

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Policies
Projects are due on or before class You may challenge a grade-- but only in writing

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Communicating with the Professor

E-mail is great (cain@haas.berkeley.edu) The syllabus is on the web Office hours: Wednesday 11:00am2:00pm By appointment

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