Managing Sales Force in the

Organization

Renuka Timilsena
 Meaning of Sales Force
• Sales personnel engaged in selling activities is known as
sales force
• As an element of promotion mix, the sales force is very
effective in:
– Prospecting
– Communicating
– Selling and Servicing
– Information gathering
• They work for both customer satisfaction and company’s
profit
• They try to maintain a profitable customer relationship
 Sales Force Management
• Sales force management is the management
of sales personnel
• It is the analysis, planning, implementation,
and control of sales force activities
• It includes designing sales force, recruitment
and selection, training and supervision,
motivation and compensation and sales force
evaluation
 Tasks of Sales Force Management
• The main task begins with job analysis
• Job analysis includes determining job
objectives and the output from analyzing
includes:
– Job description
– Job specification
– Job evaluation
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• Other tasks of sales force management are:
1. Designing sales force
2. Recruitment and selection
3. Training and supervision
4. Motivation and compensation
5. Sales force evaluation
 1. Designing the Sales Force
• The company needs to consider the sales
force objective, strategy, structure, size and
remuneration while designing the sales force
 1.a. Sales Force Objectives
• Companies must define the specific objectives they
expect their sales force to achieve
– The old idea : “sell, sell, and sell”

– Later, the idea : should know how to diagnose a

customer’s problem and propose a solution
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• Salespeople will have one or more of the following
specific tasks to perform :
– Prospecting : Searching for prospects, or leads
– Targeting : Deciding how to allocate their time
among prospect and customers
– Communicating : Communicating information
about the company’s products and services
– Selling : Approaching, presenting, answering
objections, and closing sales
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– Servicing : Providing various services to the
customers-consulting on problems, rendering
technical assistance, arranging financing,
expediting delivery
– Information gathering : Conducting market research
and doing intelligence work
– Allocations : Deciding which customers will get
scarce product during product shortages
 1.b. Sales Force Strategy
• Companies must deploy sales force strategically
– They call on the right customers at the right time
and in the right way
• Sales representatives work with customers in several
ways :
– Sales representative to buyer : discusses issues
with prospect or customer in person or over
the phone
– Sales representative to buyer group : gets to know
as many members of the buyer group as possible
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– Sales team to buyer group : a company sales team
works closely with the members of the customer’s
buying group
– Conference selling : brings company resource
people to discuss a major problem or opportunity
– Seminar selling : a company team conducts an
educational seminar for the customer company
about state-of-the-art development
 1.c. Sales Force Structure
• The sales force strategy has implications for the sales
force structure
• It includes:
• Territorial structure
• Product structure
• Market structure
• Complex structure
 1.d. Sales Force Size
• Once the company clarifies its strategy and
structure, it determines the size of sales force
• Depended on market size and number of
customers
• Increasing the sales person will increase both
sales and cost
• Once the company establishes the number of
customers it wants to reach, it can use a
workload approach to establish sales force size
 1.e. Sales Force
Compensation/Remuneration
• The company must next determine the four
components of sales force compensation :
– Fixed amount
– Variable amount
– Expense allowances
– Benefits
• Combination of fixed and variable compensation
plans can be :
– Straight salary
– Straight commission
– Combination salary and commission.
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• The fixed amount : A salary is intended to
satisfy the sales representative need for income
stability
• The variable amount : Might be commissions, a
bonus or profit sharing is intended to stimulate
reward and greater effort
• Expense allowances : Enable sales representative
to meet the expenses involved in travel, lodging,
dining, and entertaining
• Benefits : Such as paid vacations, sickness or
accident benefits, pensions, and life
insurance, are intended to provide security
and job satisfaction
 Combination of Fixed and Variable
Compensation Plan
• Straight-salary plans :
– Provide sales reps with a secure income
– Make them more willing to perform non-selling activities
– From the company’s perspective they provide administrative
simplicity and lower turnover
• Straight-commission plans :
– More commission to one who sells more at low cost
– Attract higher sales performers
– Provide more motivation
– Require less supervision
• Combination plans offer the benefits of both plans :
– Focus on advantages of both
2. Recruitment and Selection of Sales Force

• A successful sales force is the selection of effective

representatives
• One survey revealed that the top 27 percent of the
sales force brought in over 52 percent of the sales
• Most customers want honest, knowledgeable,
reliable, and helpful reps
Factors in Recruitment and Selection of
Sales-force
Factors in recruiting
& selection of sales
force

Select the best

qualified
applicant

Determine
Search out
actual job
applicants requirement
2.a. Determine Actual Job Requirement

• Sales manager must be clear on the job

description and job specifications
• Mayer and Greenberg noted that actual job
requirement are :
– Empathy: The ability to feel as the customer does
– Ego drive: Strong personal need to make the sale
– The details of job analysis must be clearly
mentioned in as detail form as possible
 2.b. Search Out Applicants from Several
Sources
• Sources are:
– Company’s own staff
– College and Universities students
– Employment agencies
– Newspaper advertisements
– Internet
– Other sources (Former employees, competitors,
friends, etc)
 2.c. Select the Best Qualified Applicant

• A systematic approach to selection includes:

– Application forms
– Interviews
– References
– Psychological tests
– Medical examinations
– Trial periods
Challenges in Sales Force Selection
• Determining the characteristics and skills
required
• Devising methods and procedures for
measuring the skills required
• Measuring the ability and motivation
• Finding and attracting skilled candidate
• Selecting from large number of candidates
• Socializing the new sales force
 3. Training the Sales Force
• Training refers to the process of transferring
skills, knowledge, etc through a learning
experience
• New and inexperienced sales people are
selected and they need proper training to
perform effectively
• Sales training must be carefully planned and
executed
 Factors in Developing Training Program for
Sales Force
• Building a sales training program generally
consists of five major decisions:

Factors in Developing Training Program

Defining Deciding Selecting Execution Evaluation

training training training of training of training
objectives contents method program program
 3.a. Defining Training Aims
• In general terms, the aim is to increase
productivity through training
• In specific, it must be identified what is to be
done to increase the productivity
• For this, management must perceive the training
needs from which specific training aims can be
derived
• Two types of training need:
– Initial sales training program
– Continuing sales training program
 3.b. Deciding Training Contents
• Initial training programs contain instructions
covering all important aspects of performance
of the sales person job
• Continuing training programs concentrate on
specific aspects of the job where employees
have some deficiencies
• Contain varies from company to company
because of differences in product, market,
company policy, etc
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• However, companies tend to cover the
following same general topics:
– The company’s objectives, policies
– It’s product
– It’s competitors and their products
– Selling procedures and techniques
 3.c. Selecting Training Methods
On the Job Methods Off the Job Methods

• Apprenticeship • Lectures and

• Job Instruction conferences
Training • Case studies
• Coaching and • Role play
mentoring • Visual aids
3.d.Execution of Training Program
• It requires four key organizational decisions:
– Who will be the trainees?
– Who will do the training?
– Where will be the training site?
3.e.Evaluation of Training Programs
• The evaluation process includes:
– Identify the training objective
– Setting evaluation criteria
• Reaction, learning, behavior, outcome
– Choosing the evaluation method
• Questionnaire, interview, etc
– Comparing results with the training objectives
– Feedback and control
4. Directing and Motivating the Sales Force

• Directing is the primary function of every sales

manager
• It includes assignment of jobs, explaining
procedures, offering instructions, supervising,
rectifying errors, etc
• Directing is one way communication and is
best suited with new sales people
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• Motivation is a condition which initiate, guide
and maintain behaviors usually until a goal has
been reached
• It stimulates sales person to increase efficiency
and achieve work goals
• Some ambitious sales representatives are self-starters
• Most people ,moreover, require incentives, such as
financial gain or social recognition, to operate at full
capacity
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• Sales person will be motivated to work if they
believe that
– Their effort will lead to performance (Expectancy)
– The performance will lead to outcome
(Instrumentality)
– The outcome will be valuable to the sales person
(Valence)
• Motivation = Expectancy × Instrumentality ×
Valence
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• That sales managers must be able to convince
salespeople that :
– They can sell more by working harder or by being trained to
work smarter
– The rewards for better performance are worth the extra
effort
• Most valued rewards
– Pay, promotion, personal growth, sense of accomplishment
• Least valued rewards
– Liking and respect, security, recognition
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• A good reward system, comprised of extrinsic
and intrinsic rewards
– Extrinsic rewards: External to the individual,
consists of pay, bonuses, promotions, etc
– Intrinsic rewards: Internal to the individual,
consists of satisfaction, sense of accomplishment,
freedom, etc