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Changing World of Sales Management

Sales management: activities related to the planning, implementation and control of the sales
management process. Is the management of an organization’s personal selling function.

Sales manager: they are involved in both the strategy (planning), people (implementation),
evaluating and controlling personal selling activities. His role is sales management, they must
be able to deal e ectively with people:
- in the personal selling function
- in other functional areas in the organization
- outside the organization, specially customers.

Sales management process: ( 3 ) ( PS-PC IG MCT ( 4 ) ( PS A SP P ) )

- Personal selling is personal communication with an audience through paid personnel of an
organization or its agents in such a way that the audience perceives the communicator’s
organization as being the source of the message.
- The audience may be an individual or a group.
- Marketing communication tools: ( 4 ) ( PS A SP P )
- Personal selling → the audience perceives the organization as the source of the message.
Personal.
- Advertising → non-personal communication.
- Sales promotion → non-personal communication.
- Publicity → the audience perceives the medium as the source of the message.

Describing the personal selling function: ( 3 ) ( EY CDESS DSA )

- It has evolved through the years.
- It has contributed to the development of our economic and social systems.
- There are di erent selling approaches.

The strategic role of sales function: ( 4 ) ( K-T CBL-G SD-T DD-P )

- Key strategic decisions are taken at the corporate, business, marketing, and sales, and these
are translated to the personal selling and sales management function.
- Corporate- and business-level strategic decisions typically provide guidelines within
which sales managers and salespeople must operate.
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 - Strategic decisions at the corporate business, and marketing levels must be translated into
strategies for individual accounts or groups.
- Di erent decisions in any of these areas produce di erent sales organization structures.
The appropriate structure for a rm depends on the speci c characteristics of a given selling
situation.
Ex: from geographical divisions to business units.

Developing the sales force: ( 5 ) ( BS EAD LEI STP CT )

a. The sales strategy, sales organization, and salesforce deployment decisions produce the
basic structure for personal selling e orts and can be considered similar to the “machine”
decisions in a production operation.
b. Managers must also make a number of “people” decisions to ensure that the right types of
salespeople are available and have the skills to operate the “machine” structure e ectively
and e ciently. These activities include determining the type of salespeople desired, and
identifying and evaluating candidates to ensure that the best are hired.
c. Legal and ethical issues are important considerations in the recruitment and selection
process.
d. The sales training process consists of assessing training needs, developing objectives,
evaluating alternatives, designing the training program, carrying it out, and evaluating it.
e. And once a sales team has been selected, there is the need of continuous training.
Before that, training needs have to be detected and the objectives settled.

Directing the sales force:

Is about directing the e orts of the salespeople to meet the sales organization goals
and objectives. Sales managers spend a great deal of their time in motivating, managing,
supervising, and leading members of the salesforce. And each activity is di erent. ( 3 ) ( L M S )
- Leadership activities focus on in uencing salespeople through communication processes
to attain speci c goals and objectives.
- Management activities include all aspects of the sales management process, such as
recruiting, selecting, and training salespeople.
- Supervisory activities are concerned with day-to-day control of the salesforce.
Theories of motivation:
Sales managers sometimes use several content and process theories of motivation that
attempt to explain how individuals decide to spend e ort on speci c activities over extended
periods of time. Those theories provide the basis for speci c salesforce reward systems.
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 Determining salesforce e ectiveness and performance:
Sales managers must continually monitor the progress of the salesforce, according to
objectives and targets. This is a di cult task because these evaluations should address the
e ectiveness of units and the performance of individual salespeople.

Method for evaluating the e ectiveness of units:

- Sales organization audit → evaluates the e ectiveness of the organization as a whole. Does
an analysis by territories/districts/regions and zones.

Method for assessing the e ectiveness of sales organization units with regard to sales, costs,
pro tability and productivity:
- These are speci c methods and speci c criteria and evaluation is examined. The use of this
information in a diagnostic and problem-solving manner is described.

Method for measuring salesperson job satisfaction: is also studied.

Sales management trends: ( 7 ) ( GC PF D M P CCOF MOC ( 3 ) ( CCC MS OAC ) )

• Fierce global competition in home and international markets.
• The purchasing function to lower costs and increase pro ts.
• Buyers are more demanding, better prepared, and highly skilled.
• The costs of maintaining salespeople are escalating.
• At the same time pressure to increase sales, but decrease costs.
• Sales organizations challenged by competitors, customers, and even their own rms.
• Market oriented companies develop:
- Customer centric culture.
- Market segmentation.
- Organizations around customers rather than products.

+++++++

• From transactions to relationships → ( 3 ) ( DLTR LTS KDATR )

• Salespeople are being required to develop long-term relationships by solving customer
problems, providing opportunities, and adding value to customer businesses over an
extended period of time.
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 • Sellers have realize that their long-term success depends on having long-term customers.
Helping customers improve their business operations is the best way to develop the long-
term customer relationships that will lead to long-term success.
• The key sales management task is determining the appropriate type of relationship to
pursue with speci c customers because that type of relationship a ects all other aspects of
sales management.

• From individuals to teams → ( 3 ) ( F TW DP )

• The focus changes on selling products, to solve needs and nd solutions for the
customers.
• Team work is needed.
• Di erent pro les within the company take part in the process.

• From sales volume to sales productivity → ( 4 ) ( SNE PS SP E ( 3 ) ( PMS DTE FHL )

• Although sales volume is important, many companies are nding that all sales are not
equal.
• Some sales are more pro table than others.
• Sales productivity includes the costs associated with generating sales and customers.
• A sales productivity orientation emphasizes:
• Producing more sales for a given level of costs.
• Doing things more e ectively or more e ciently.
• Focusing on high level pro table sales.

• From management to leadership → ( 4 ) ( RPETC RCE PLR ( 4 ) ( C C E SI ) AIS )

• Sales managers are responsible for the performance of these sales people and exercise
various types of control to get salespeople to produce desired results.
• Many sales organizations realize that this approach makes it di cult for them to be
responsive in a rapidly changing environment. So they have to change the role of sales
managers and their relationship with salespeople.
• Sales managers are playing more of a leadership role by emphasizing:
• Collaboration rather than control.
• Coaching instead of criticism.
• Salesperson empowerment rather than domination.
• Sharing information rather than withholding it.
• Adapting to individual salespeople rather than treating everyone the same.
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 • From administrative to entrepreneurial → ( 5 ) ( SLT 3D C DOT TGIS )
• Sales managers wanted to spend less of their time on administrative tasks and internal,
non sales functions and much more time with customers in selling and market development
activities.
• An entrepreneurial organization consists of three basic dimensions: proactiveness, risk-
taking, and innovation.
• These sales leaders function more like coaches than bosses, and spend most of their time
guiding, directing, and encouraging salespeople through face-to-face communication.
• Sales associates develop their own territories and sales forecasts, and then discuss them
with their sales leaders.
• The teams within each division are encouraged to generate their own ideas and strategies.

• From local to global → ( 5 ) ( G PSPM CC GO HD )

• The market is now global.
• Products and services are produced and marketed throughout the world.
• Even companies that do business only in the domestic market have to compete agains
rms from other countries, use international suppliers, work with international partners, be
a ected by international events, serve customers from other countries regardless of where
the customers are currently located, and/or have employees from other countries and
cultures.
• The most obvious need for a global orientation occurs when a company moves into
unfamiliar international markets.
• Markets and sales organizations are becoming more heterogeneous and diverse.

E ective sales managers: ( 3 ) ( FC AKDST LT )

- focuses on customers; which means bringing a customer focus to the development of
organizational strategies and creating sales strategies to meet the needs of di erent
customers in a pro table manner.
- are able to attract, keep, and develop sales talent; hiring the best salespeople, making sure
they stay with the sales organization, and helping them perform at their highest levels are
some of the most important accomplishments of e ective sales managers.
- and leverage technology; Technologies can help salespeople and sales managers perform
their jobs more e ectively and e ciently.
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Best sales organizations: ( 6 ) ( CDC ASM RH FKSI RBM T )
- Create a customer-driven culture.
- Align sales & marketing.
- Recruit & hire the best sales talent.
- Focus on key strategic issues: segmenting accounts and providing di erentiated o erings.
- Relationship-building model.
- Technology to learn about customers.

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 2
Describing the personal selling function

Evolution:
- 18th or early 19th century: salespeople with samples of producers, traveling all over, selling
and receiving market information.
- 1850+ sales becomes a business practice in England and specially the USA.
- Traveling salespeople organized by territories.
- In 1912 author Charles Hoyt talks about “the two types of salesperson”. And was an
indicator that sales historians noted the changes occurring in personal selling.
- The reduction of costs becomes an issue.
- It is not hiring low cost salespeople, but controlling costs.
- The 305 of the XXth Century:
- Mkt, ads, canned sales presentations are popular concepts.
- Mass production coexist until the arrival of the depression era.
- In between 1915-45 companies starve for sales volume and hire aggressive salespeople.
- Around 1945: starts the professionalization of the personal selling job. Towards a less
aggressive approach:
- Sales people better informed.
- Eager to listen.
- Customer oriented.
- Adopting professional selling skills.
- 1990: the canned sales presentation, by John Patterson. Which was a clear indication that
selling was becoming a more structured activity.

Contributions of personal selling:

For many companies, personal selling is the most important part of mkt
communications. Specially for B2B companies. In this rms most money is spent on personal
selling than any other form of mkt communications. This investment is justi ed in reviewing the
contributions of personal selling to society, employing rm and customers.
Salespeople and society: ( 2 ) ( ES DI )
- Salespeople as economic stimuli → they are a key force in executing the appropriate
strategies and tactics for growth and survival.
- Salespeople and di usion of Innovation → refers to the process whereby new products,
services, and ideas are distributed to members of society. The make a positive contribution
to society by encouraging the adoption of innovation products and services.
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 Salespeople and the employing rm angle: ( 3 ) ( RP MRF FM )
- Salespeople as revenue producers → they feel the pressure of achieving a healthy “top line”.
They are responsible for achieving pro tability and by improving the productivity of their
actions.
- Market research and feedback → since salespeople spend so much time in direct contact
with customers, they do market research and provide feedback to their rms.
- Sales people as future managers → recognizing the need for a top management trained in
sales, many rms use the sales job as an entry-level position that provides a foundation for
future assignments.

Salespeople and the customer: ( 3 ) ( HC K CS )

- Salespeople have to be honest, candid, and able to demonstrate knowledge of their
products and services.
- Customers also expect salespeople to be knowledgeable about market opportunities and
relevant business trends that may a ect a customer’s business.
- Lastly, buyers expect salespeople to contribute to the success of the buyer’s rm.

Classi cation of personal selling approaches: Key-points: ( 2 ) ( ASE T-R )

- Adaptive selling element: personal selling di ers from other forms of mkt communications
because it is a personal communication delivered by employees or agents of the sales
organization. Because the personal element is present, salespeople have the opportunity to
alter their sales messages and behaviors during a sales presentation or as they encounter
unique sales situations and customers.

- From transaction methods to relationship-based methods: this means that they focus on
solving customer problems, proving opportunities, and adding value to the customer’s
business over an extended period.

Approaches to selling: ( 5 ) ( SR MS NS PS C )
a. Stimulus response → various stimuli elicit predictable responses. Isn’t valid with
experienced buyers.
a.1) Salesperson provides stimuli; statements, questions, actions, audio/visual aids,
demonstrations.
a.2) Buyer responses sought; favorable reactions and eventual purchase.
a.3) Continue process until purchase decision.
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b. Mental states → the buying process for most buyers is essentially identical and is led
through AIDA mental steps: attention, interest, desire, and action. Is focused on mental
states rather than consumer needs. A well prepared presentation is necessary.

c. Need satisfaction → the customer buys to satisfy a particular need or set of needs. The
sales-person’s task is to identify the need to be meet and help the buyer to meet it. ( 3 )
( UCBN PO S )
c.1) Uncover and con rm buyer needs.
c.2) Present o ering to satisfy buyer needs.
c.3) Continue selling until purchase decision.

d. Problem-solving → is based on developing an alternative solution for satisfying customer

needs. It requires educating the customer about the full impact of the existing problem and
clearly communicating how the solution delivers signi cant customer value. ( 4 ) ( DP G E
CS )
d.1) De ne problem.
d.2) Generate alternative solutions.
d.3) Evaluate alternative solutions.
d.4) Continue selling until purchase decision.

e. Consultative → helping customers reach their strategic goals by using the products,
services, and expertise of the sales organization.

Sales process: non-selling activities on which most salespeople spend a majority of their time
they are essential for the successful execution of the sales process.

Sales careers

Characteristics: ( 7 ) ( JS AO IF P JV I C )
- Job security (( they are usually the last group to be negatively a ected by personnel
cutbacks ))
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 - Advancement opportunities (( the business world continues to become more competitive
and the advancement opportunities will continue to be an attractive dimension of sales
careers ))
- Immediate feedback (( they receive constant feedback of their performance specially from
customers ))
- Prestige (( the prestige of selling is improving and they are frequently seen as
knowledgeable, well trained, educated, and capable of solving customer problems ))
- Job variety (( is a multifaceted and dynamic job ))
- Independence (( allows independence of action and freedom to make decisions ))
- Compensation (( pay is closely tied to performance, especially if commissions and bonuses
are part of the pay package ))

Classi cation of personal selling jobs: ( 6 ) ( SS NB EB IS DCS CSJ )

- Sales support (( their responsibility is dissemination of information and performance of other
activities designed to stimulate sales ))
- New business ((is generated for the selling rm by adding new customers or introducing new
products to the marketplace ))
- Existing business (( their primary responsibility is to maintain relationships with existing
customers ))
- Inside sales (( refers to non-retail salespeople who remain in their employer’s place of
business while dealing with customers ))
- Direct-to-consumer sales
- Combination sales job (( is the person who performs multiple types of sales jobs within the
framework of a single position ))

Quali cations and skills required: empathy, ego-drive, ego-strength, interpersonal

communication skills, and enthusiasm.
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 3
Organizational Strategies and the Sales Function

• Key strategy levels for multi-business and multi-product companies: key decision
makers are usually from higher management levels outside the sales function.

a. Corporate strategy level and the sales function → the corporate strategy has direct and
indirect impacts on personal selling and sales management, and is determined by the
strategic decisions made at the topmost level of multi-business multi-product rms, they
provide direction and guidance for activities at all organizational levels.

• Steps for developing a corporate strategy: ( 4 ) ( A DMO DBU SO )

1. Analyze corporate performance and identify future opportunities and threats.
2. Determine corporate mission and objectives.
3. De ne business units.
4. Setting objectives for each business unit.
• Once is developed, management implements, evaluates and controls the plan.

Key decision areas: ( 3 ) ( CM SBUD SBUO )

- Corporate mission → the development of it provides direction for strategy development and
execution throughout the organization. The most successful CM are simple, complete, and
communicated directly to salespeople.
- Strategic business unit de nition → it purpose is to divide the corporation into parts to
facilitate strategic analysis and planning.
- Strategic business unit objectives → speci c strategic objectives should be determined for
each SBU.
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 b. Business strategy and the sales function → a separate strategy must be designed for
each SBU. The essence of business strategy is developing a competitive advantage. Each
SBU has to be unique and has to compete successfully against competitors.

c. Mkt strategies and the sales function → separate mkt strategies are often developed for
each SBU’s Target markets. These mkt strategies must be consistent with the business
strategy.

Integrated mkt communication tools (IMC): strategic integration of multiple mkt communication
tools in the most e ective and e cient manner. The objective is to use the most cost-e ective
tool to achieve a desired communication objective and to ensure a consistent message is
communicated to the market. Ex: adv, sales promotion, personal selling, sponsorships, public
relations, social media mkt, mobile mkt, direct mkt.

d. Organizational buyer behavior → refers to the purchasing behavior of organizations and

evolves around: the buying situation, the buying center, the buying process, and the buying
needs.

e. Sales strategy → determines: ( 4 ) ( A R S C )

- The account targeting strategy (( classi cation of accounts within a target market into
categories for the purpose of developing strategic approaches for selling to each account or
account group. ))
- The relationships strategy (( determination of type of relationship to be developed with
di erent account groups; transaction, solutions, partnership, collaborative)).
- The selling strategy (( planned selling approach for each relationship strategy; stimulus,
mental state…)).
- The channel strategy (( ensures that accounts receive selling e ort coverage in an e ective
and e cient manner )).
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 4
Sales organization structures, sales development, forecast

Sales organization concepts → the Corporate, Business, Marketing and Sales strategies
require structures to accomplish objectives. The organization structure must ensure that all
required selling and management activities are performed. ( 3 ) ( D DT C )
- Developing a sales organization structure is di cult.
- Many di erent types of structures might be used, and many variations are possible within
each basic type.
- Often the resultant structure is complex, with many boxes and arrows.

Types of structure: ( 7 ) ( S G C SC ML L M )
- Specialization → concentrating on a limited number of activities so individuals can become
experts on those tasks and lead to better performance for the entire organization.
- Generalist → selling all activities & products to customers.
- Centralization → key decisions & tasks performed at higher levels in the management
hierarchy. Responsibility & authority is placed at higher management levels.

- Span of control → number of individuals who report to each sales manager.

- Management levels → number of hierarchical levels of sales managers within the
organization.
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 - Line sales management positions → are positions that are part of the direct management
hierarchy within the sales organization.
- Sta sales management positions → they are responsible for certain functions and have
more specialized positions, they don’t manage people.

Selling situation contingencies → when a selling situation changes the type of sales
organization structure may also need to change. Ex: an ice cream factory evolution from mass
market processed ice creams to premium ice creams for restaurants. ( 3 ) ( SN SKOE D )
- Specialization or not is the rst question.
- Selling skills or selling e orts on number of contacts?
- Decisions concerning centralization, span of control VS management levels, and line.

Guidelines for selling situation factors and organizational structure:

Organization
Environmental characteristics Task performance Performance objective
structure

Specialization High environmental uncertainty Non routine Adaptiveness

Centralization Low environmental uncertainty Repetitive E ectiveness

Two of the most important factors in determining the appropriate type of specialization
are the similarity of customer needs and the complexity of products o ered by the rm.
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Salesforce specialization determinants: customer and product

Ex of the Ice cream factory:

Sales organization structures → ( 6 ) ( G P M F H MA )

- Geographic driven → the least specialized. Salespeople are typically assigned a geographic
area and are responsible for all selling activities to all accounts within the assigned area.
There is no attempt to specialize by product, market, or function.

Advantages: ( 4 ) ( LC NGD NCD FML )

- Low cost
- No geographic duplication
- No customer duplication
- Fewer management levels
 Disadvantages: ( 2 ) ( LE LM )
- Limited specialization
- Lack of management control over product and over customer

- Product driven → the objective for salespeople is to become experts in the assigned product
categories.

Advantages: ( 2 ) ( E MC )
- Salespeople are experts in products & applications
- Management control over selling e ort

Disadvantages: ( 3 ) ( HC GD CD )
- High cost
- Geographic duplication
- Customer duplication

- Market driven → salespeople are assigned to speci c types of customers and are required
to satisfy all needs of these customers.

Advantages: ( 2 ) ( UCN MC )
- Salespeople understand unique customer needs
- Management control over selling allocated to di erent markets

Disadvantages: ( 2 ) ( HC GD )
- High cost
- Geographic duplication

- Function driven → rms using salesforce to generate leads, qualify prospects, monitor
shipments, and so forth, while the outside salesforce concentrates on sales-generating
activities.

Advantages: ( 1 ) ( E )
- E ciency in performing selling activities

Disadvantages: ( 3 ) ( GD CD NC )
- Geographic duplication
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 - Customer duplication
- Need for coordination

- Hybrid sales driven → they incorporate market, product, geographic and functional
specialization. The objective is to capitalize on the advantages of each type while minimizing
the disadvantages.

- Major account organization → many rms receive a large percentage of their total sales from
relatively few accounts. It’s based on the account size and complexity. Characteristics: ( 5 )
( PFC TM MPI RSP PCP )
- Its purchasing function is centralized.
- Top management heavily in uences its purchasing decisions.
- It has multisite purchasing in uences.
- Ir requires special price concessions and services.
- It purchases customized products.

Sales force deployment → decisions involved in: ( 3 ) ( ASE DSS DT )

• Allocating selling e ort → is the company e ort needed to serve each of the account. It’s
the need of analyzing accounts and sales by account to understand how to allocate the
selling e ort.
There are 3 approaches:
a. Single factor model: classify all accounts on one factor, such as market potential, and then
to assign all accounts in the same category the same number of sales calls.
b. Portfolio model: each account served by a rm is considered as part of an overall portfolio
of accounts. Thus, accounts within the portfolio represent di erent situations and receive
di erent levels of selling e ort attention.
c. Decision models: are the most rigorous and comprehensive method for determining an
account e ort allocation strategy. Because of their complexity, decision models are
somewhat di cult to develop and use. Research results have consistently supported the
value of decision models in improving e ort allocation and salesforce productivity.

• Determining salesforce size → for this is required to understand key considerations as well
as a familiarity with the analytical approaches that might be used.
There are 3 approaches: ( I B W )
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 √ Incremental approach: is the most rigorous approach for calculating salesforce size. This is
the basic concept to compare the marginal pro t contribution with the marginal selling costs
for each incremental salesperson.

Key considerations:
- Productivity
- Turnover

• Designing territories →( 2 ) ( DST TC )

a. Development of sales territories: each salesperson is assigned to speci c territory. All
accounts are assigned to salesforce.
b. Territory considerations: trading areas, present e ort, recommended e ort, and cultural
di erences.

Procedure to design territories: ( 5 ) ( PCU A FIT ATW FTD )

1. Select the planning and control of the unit that will be used in the analysis, the smallest
one. Accounts are the preferred planning and control unit.
2. Analyze: determine the amount of opportunity available from each planning and control
unit. Market potential is the most used measure of opportunity.
3. Form initial territories; rst territories can be selected.
4. Assess territory workload: the workload of each territory should be evaluated by: ( 4 ) ( NSC
ATT TNA F )
- The number of sales calls required to cover the accounts in the territory.
- The amount of travel time in the territory.
- The total of number of accounts.
- Any other factors that measure the amount of work required by a salesperson assigned to
the territory.
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 5. Finalize territory design: the nal step is to adjust the initial territories to achieve equal
workloads for each salesperson. The objective is to achieve the best possible balance
between equal opportunity and equal workload for each territory.
→ assigning salespeople to territories → once territories have been design, salespeople must
be assigned to them. Salespeople are not equal in abilities and will perform di erently with
di erent types of accounts or prospects.

Final territory design:

People considerations → no model can incorporate all the people factors that are important
in any salesforce decision. Accordingly, while using the appropriate analytical approaches,
sales managers, should temper the analytical results with people considerations before making
nal deployment decisions.
Sales managers should integrate the results from salesforce deployment analysis with
people considerations before implementing changes in sales call allocations, salesforce size, or
territory design.
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 Developing forecasts → all sales management decisions are based on some type of forecast.
The sales manager decides on a certain action because he or she thinks that it will produce a
certain result which is a forecast. They provide basis for the following decisions: ( 7 ) ( ASE DSS
DT ESQ&B DSCL ESP EPA )
- Allocating selling e ort
- Determining salesforce size
- Designing territories
- Establishing sales quotas&budget
- Determining sales compensation levels
- Evaluating salesperson performance
- Evaluation of prospect accounts

Forecast: act of predicting business activity for a future period of time. Is a projection based on
assumptions: targeted prospects, de ning sales strategy, market conditions, and organization
strategy.

Factors to be de ned when referring to a forecast/elements: ( 3 ) ( PL GA TP )

a. Product level: industry sales, company sales, product line sales, product item sales.
b. Geographic area: world, region, country.
c. Time period: long term, medium term, short term.

Types of forecasts: there are four di erent that can emerge depending for what is needed:
a. Market & sales potential: provide an assessment of overall demand opportunity available to
all rms in an industry. Adjusts market potential to re ect industry competition and this
represents a better assessment of demand opportunity for individual rm.
b. Market & sales forecast: predict the expected results, set sell quotas and budgets on a
given strategy, for a speci c period, in a given territory. They are used to predict the
expected results from various sales management decisions.
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Perspectives for developing forecasts/classi cation: ( 2 ) ( TD BU )
- Top down approach → forecast made at the business unit level then broke down by zone,
region, district, territory, and account forecast. Methods to develop the forecast: ( 3 ) ( MA
ES DM )
a. Moving averages: is by calculating the average company sales from previous years.
Thus, the company sales forecast for next year is the average of actual company sales
for some past number of years.

b. Exponential smoothing: is a type of moving averages method, except that company

sales in the most recent year are weighted di erently from company sales in past years.

c. Decomposition method: involve trend, cycle, seasonal, and erratic events that break
down and then are reincorporated to produce the sales forecast.

- Bottom up approach → forecast made for individual accounts. Then combine the account
forecast into territory, district, region, zone, and company forecasts. Methods: ( 4 ) ( SBI JEO
DM SC )
a. The survey of buyer intentions → any procedure that asks individual accounts about
their purchasing plans for a future period and translates these responses into account
forecasts. The intended purchases by accounts might be obtained through mail
surveys, telephone surveys, personal interviews, or other approaches.
b. The jury of executive opinion → involves any approach In which executives of the rm
use their expert knowledge to forecast sales to individual accounts. Separate forecasts
might be obtained from managers in di erent functional areas. These forecasts are then
averaged or discussed by the managers until a consensus forecast for each account is
reached. Team-based approaches such as this are believed to result in more accurate
long-range industry level forecasts than individually based approaches.
c. The Delphi method → is a structured type of jury of executive opinion method. The
basic procedure involves selection of a panel of managers from within the rm. Each
member of the panel submits anonymous forecasts for each account. These forecasts
are summarized into a report that is sent to each panel member.
The report presents descriptive statistics concerning the submitted forecasts with
reasons for the lowest and highest forecasts. Panel members review this information and then
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 again submit anonymous individual forecasts. The same procedure Is repeated until the
forecasts for individual accounts converge into a consensus.
d. The salesforce composite → involves various procedures by which salespeople provide
forecasts for their assigned accounts.

- Market factor methods → once sales managers receive a company forecast, they can use
di erent market factor methods to break it down to the desire levels; they involve identifying
one or more factors that are related to sales at the zone, region, district, territory, or account
levels and using these factors to break down the overall company forecast into forecasts at
these levels.

A typical approach is to use the BPI (buying power index) supplied by Sales & mkt
management. The BPI is a market factor calculated for di erent areas in the following manner:

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