We shall first look at one of the most important aspects of sales plans being personal selling.

Personal selling is an important mode of communication between a company and its customers.
To achieve some degree of success the company should be able to answer the following
questions:

• How important is personal selling to my business?

•

What is the role of personal selling in the marketing mix?

• How many sales people are required to achieve sales objectives?

• What should be the personal selling objectives?
• How should the personal selling staff be managed?

How important is personal selling to my business?

Most organizations that do not have a proper marketing function have a sales force. However,
this sales force management has been traditionally been managed well. There are several reasons
including top management not appreciating the influence of the sales person. As a result the
managers often underestimate the importance of the sales force

Another possible problem is that sales staffs sometimes make a distinction between sales and
marketing when actually there is no great difference at all – this perception problem might
become an issue in setting sales objectives.

The sales call that is made should be made effectively so as to ensure that the sales objectives are
achieved. A good deal of marketing planning will go into this.

The distinction between marketing theory and sales practice is further voided when it is realized
profitable sales come not from individual customers or products but on groups of customers (i.e.
market segments) and on the supportive relationship of the products to each other (i.e. a carefully
planned product portfolio)

What is the role of personal selling in the marketing mix?

In order to determine the precise role of personal selling in the communications mix, the
company must identify the major influencers in each purchase decision and find out the
information they are likely to need at the different stages of the buying process.

How many sales people are required to achieve the sales objectives?
The organization should begin its consideration of how many sales people it needs by finding out
exactly how the work is allocated at present. Start by listing all the things the current sales force
actually dos. These might include opening new accounts, servicing existing accounts,
demonstrating new products, taking repeat orders and collecting debts.

Basically all sales force activities can be categorized under three headings. A salesperson:

• Makes calls
• Travels
• Performs administrative functions

It is best to arrive at a breakdown of how a typical salesperson spends the time based on the
headings shown above.

What should be the personal selling objectives?

Based on practical work routine of a salesperson - the actual time available for sales is strictly
limited - in this situation the company should know exactly what it wants the sales force to
achieve.

Quantitative Objectives

Principal qualitative objectives are as follows:

• How much to sell - the value of unit sales volume

• What to sell - the mix of product lines to sell
• Where to sell - which markets to sell to so as to achieve marketing objectives
• Desired profit contribution - where relevant
• Selling costs - in compensation, expenses, supervision and so on

There are many other types of quantitative objectives which can be set for the sales force:

• Number of point-of-sales displays

• Numbers of letter to prospects
• Number of telephone call to prospects
• Number of trade meetings held
• Use of sales aides in presentations
• Number of service calls made
• Number of customer complaints
• Safety record
• Collections made
• Training meetings conducted

Qualitative objectives
Qualitative objectives have been a source of problems if measures such as 'good performance'
'enthusiasm' and loyalty are used since these are very difficult to measure. In seeking to measure
qualitative performance managers resort to highly subjective interpretations.

However, managers can set and measure qualitative objectives which actually relate to the
performance of the sales force on the job. It is possible to measure the person's knowledge of the
product and how it is used in sales performance. This can be seen how it is used to overcome
objections during sales interviews.

How should the personal selling staff be managed?

If a sales managers job is to ensure high performance of the sales force and if performance is a
function of incentives minus disincentives, then the more the disincentives can be reduced and
incentives increased the better will be the performance.

It has been shown that sales force motivation increases when the sales people have a sense of
doing a worthwhile job. In other words the desire for praise and recognition, the avoidance of
boredom and monotony, the enhancement of self-image, freedom from fear and worry.

It should also be noted that remuneration should be a important part of of motivation. This does
not mean paying the most amount of money although the company will have to have a
considerable remuneration package to retain staff. In drawing up a remuneration plan, this would
normally include a basic salary plus some element for special effort, such as a bonus or
commission the following should be considered:

• To attract and keep effective sales people

• To remain competitive
• To reward sales people in accordance with their individual performance
• To provide a guaranteed income plus a orderly individual growth rate
• To generate individual sales initiative
• To encourage teamwork
• To encourage the performance of essential non-selling tasks
• To ensure that management can fairly administer and adjust compensation levels as a
means of achieving sales objectives

A key concept in sales force motivation is that the individual salesperson will exert more effort if
these are led to concentrate on:

1. Their expectations of accomplishing their sales objectives

2. The personal benefits derived from accomplishing those objectives

The motivational functions of the sales manager consists of increasing personal benefits to sales
people for work goal attainment, making the path to these pay-offs easier.
Preparing the sales plan

No sales plan will be identical to another. However certain general guidelines can be given and
they are set out in the table below:

Task
1. To achieve personal sales
targets
2. To sell the required range
and quantity to individual
customers
3. To plan journeys and call frequency on individual
frequencies to achieve minimalcustomers. Number of live
practicable selling cost
4. To acquire new customers
5. To make a sales approach of
the required quality
The standard
Sales target per period of time potential, individual customers Comparison of individual
for individual groups and or potential. Discussion and
products
Achievement of specified
range and quantity of sales to a
particular customer or group of
customers within a time period
To achieve appropriate call
customer calls during a given and agreement between
time period
Number of prospect calls
during a time period. Selling
new products to existing
customers.
To exercise the necessary
skills and techniques required
to achieve the identified
objective. Continuous use of
sales material.
How to set the standard Performance measurement What to check
Analysis of territorial
Significant shortfall between
salesperson's product sales target and achievement over
agreement between against targets meaningful period of time
salesperson and manager.
Analysis of individual
Failure to achieve agreed
customer record of potential Scrutiny of individual
objectives. Complacency within
and present sales. Discussion customer records. Observation
range of sales made to
and agreement between of selling in the field.
individual customers.
salesperson and manager.
High ratio of calls to an
Analysis of individual
Scrutiny of individual individual customer relative to
customers potential. Analysis
customer records. Analysis of that customers yield. Shortfall
of order/call ratios. Discussion
order/ call ratio. Examination on agreed total number of calls
of call reports. made over an agreed period of
salesperson and manager.
time.
Identify total number of
Examination of call reports, Shortfall in number of prospect
potential and actual customers
records of new accounts call from agreed standard. Low
that could produce results.
opened, ratio of existing to ratio of existing to potential
Identify opportunity areas for
potential customers. customers.
prospecting.
Regular observations of field Failure to identify objectives of
Standard to be agreed in
selling using a systematic each stage of sales approach,
discussion between manager
analysis of performance in identify specific areas of skill
and salesperson related to
each stage of the sales weakness, use of support
company standards.
approach. material.

All companies set themselves overall objectives, which in turn imply the development of specific
marketing objectives. In this article we have discussed personal selling in the context of overall
marketing activity.

The benefit to sales force management of following our approach can be summarized as follows:

1. Co-ordination of corporate and marketing objectives with actual sales effort.

2. Establishment of a circular relationship between corporate objectives and customer
wants.
3. Improvement of sales effectiveness through an understanding of the corporate and
marketing implications of sales decisions.