Sales Force Management

Fall 1999

1
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

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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

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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

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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)

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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 manager’s 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)

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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 20%
Final Exam 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 11:00am-
2:00pm
By appointment

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