Sales & Distribution management

Sales & Distribution

Distribution
Sales management management

Channel
Personal Managing Design & logistics
Selling Sales force Management
Introduction to sales management
• There are two critical parameters to evaluate
an organisation’s performance :
Sales and Profits.

• Every top management closely monitor sales

figures and sales trends.
• Any business performance review begins
with analysis of sales data .
 Marketing & sales
• The purpose of an enterprise is to create
customers.
• The purpose of marketing is to understand
and identify customer needs and satisfy them.

• Sales ensures the exchange transaction

between customer’s money and an
enterprise’s product/service.
 What Is Sales Management?
• Few jobs are more crucial to the ultimate success
of a business than sales management.

• Sales management shapes and determines nearly

all the firm’s interactions with customers.

• Sales managers oversee the sales force—the

direct income producers who determine the
financial health of their organizations.
 Sales management
Effectively managing the sales function is a
prerequisite for success in business markets.

Thus, practitioners are increasingly interested

in improving the performance of their sales
function. 

"Nothing happens until someone sells

something" (Henry Ford).
 Sales management
Encompasses two broad areas:

• Managing the sales functions( selling)

• Managing the sales force

 Sales management

• Management of the personal selling task.

• Is there anything like ‘impersonal selling’ or
‘non-personal’ selling?
• Selling is an exchange transaction. Exchange of
Product or service for money
• Money is the revenue or the earnings of an
enterprise often called ‘turnover’ or ‘top line’
• Cash flow is the 'life-blood' of every business.

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 Importance of Personal Selling and Sales
Management
• The only function / department in a company that generates
revenue / income
• The financial results of a firm depend on the performance of
the sales department / management
• Many salespeople are among the best paid people in business
• It is one of the fastest and surest routes to the top management
• Sales play a key role in the building of loyalty and trust between
customer and business. Trust and loyalty are the main reasons
why a customer would choose to recommend your company to
a friend or family member or write a great review of your
product or service online.
 Do most CEOs comes from sales background?

• The nature of the job often requires that you

need to be a good salesperson because you're
constantly having to sell people on the
product, evangelize the company, sell the
people on the mission and vision and new
people to join, sell investors to gain capital
when needed, sell prospects and clients and so
forth.
• Sales happens to just go along with any role.
 Sales Management : DEFINITION

• One definition: “The management of the personal

selling part of a company’s marketing function.”

• Another definition: “The process of planning,

directing, and controlling of personal selling,
including recruiting, selecting, equipping, assigning,
supervising, paying, and motivating the personal
sales force.
 Evolution, Nature and Importance of Sales
Management
Evolution of Sales Management
• Situation before industrial revolution in U.K.
(1760AD)
• Situation after industrial revolutions in U.K., and
U.S.A.
• Marketing function splits into sales and other
functions like market research, advertising, physical
distribution
FIGURE 1.3 SALES LEADER LEVELS IN THE ORGANIZATIONAL HIERARCHY

CEO

President

Vice President of Marketing

National Sales Leader

Zone Sales Leader

Regional Sales Leader

District Sales Leader

Assistant District Sales Leader

Non-managerial Salespeople
Sales Trainee Salesperson Key Account
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 Roles and Skills of a Modern Sales Manager

Some of the important roles of the modern sales manager

are:
• A member of the strategic management team
• A member of the corporate team to achieve objectives
• A team leader, working with salespeople
• Managing multiple sales / marketing channels
• Using latest technologies (like CRM) to build superior
buyer-seller relationships
• Participate in decisions on products, marketing channels,
distribution policies, advertising, promotion & pricing .
• Coordinate & implement marketing strategies
 Skills of a Successful Sales Manager

• People skills include abilities to motivate, lead, communicate ,

coordinate, team-oriented relationship, and mentoring.
• Involve the ability to work with and through other people and to
work effectively as a group member.
Conceptual skills consist of planning, organizing, controlling and
decision making.
Refers to the cognitive ability to see the organization as a whole
and the relationships among its parts.
• Technical skills include training, selling, negotiating, problem-
solving, and use of computers.
• The ability to perform a specialized task that involves a certain
method or process.
 Objectives of sales management
• 3 general underlying objectives:
1. SALES VOLUME
2. PROFITS
3. GROWTH
Sales – cost of sales = gross margin.

Gross margin – expenses =net profit.

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Computer peripherals Pvt. Ltd.

FINANCE & OPERATIONS

ADMIN SALES
SALES

RSO 1 RSO 2 RSO 3 RSO 4 RSO 5

5 REGIONAL SALES OFFICERS
 Computer peripherals pvt ltd.
• CP is a 12 year old company. Operating in Karnataka. (late 90’s)The first SM left a few
months back. Company sales last year Rs.110 crores. Current year target- 150 crores.2
months of the current year is over. Sales are 30 % below target in the 2 months.

• Sale manager: (Ms Chandrika)10 years exp.( MCS) Joined 2 months back comes from
a large corp. Presently under probation for 1 year.
• RSO 1- BEST PERFORMER= 8 YEARS with the company—poor team player, arrogant.
• RSO 2&3- young MBA’s 1.5 years experience.1st years performance very good. Attitude
issues
• RSO 4 – 7 years with CP. Good performer, except previous year. Personal issues.
• poor attendance at work.
• RSO 5- eldest, age 45 years. 10 years with CP. Missed out on promotion.BA
• SM has 8.5 months to achieve targets.( What would you advise her or how would you
do it.)
 Selling situations
• Customer’s intention and expectation are specific. (insurance,
mobile service)
• Customer is contacted over phone ( credit cards)
• Customer is an organizational buyer
• Customer seeking service or solution
• Customer in a retail store
• Cold calling situation
• Pharmaceutical selling
• Creative selling ( ad. campaign)
• Customer buying online ( social proof , rich imagery, scarcity,
authentic reviews , demonstrate authority, expertise, upsell)
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 Types of selling
• Order creators are the salespeople who help in pulling
the customer toward the product. Missionary
salespeople are the best order creator's. Missionary
salespeople do not take purchase orders. Rather, they
are involved in dissemination of information about the
product.
• Order getters
• Business to Business sales, Trade sales, retail store
 • Varying Sales Responsibilities / Positions / Jobs
Sales Position Brief Description Examples
• Delivery salesperson • Delivery of products to business • Milk, newspapers to households
customers or households.
• Also takes orders. • Soft drinks, bread to retail stores.

• Order taker (Response selling)
• Inside order taker • Behind counter in a garment
shop
• Telemarketing salesperson takes • Pharma products’ orders from
orders over telephone nursing homes
• Outside order taker. Also • Food, clothing products’ orders
performs other tasks from retailers

• Sales support • Provide information, build • Medical reps. in pharma industry

• Missionary selling goodwill, introduce new products
• Technical selling • Technical information, assistance • Steel, Chemical industries

• Order-getter (Creative, Problem- • Getting orders from existing and • Automobiles, refrigerators,
solving, Consultative selling) new household consumers insurance policies
• Getting orders from business • Software and business solutions
customers, by solving their
business and technology problems
 Field Selling
Professional Salespeople

National account managers

Missionary Salespeople
Support Salespeople

• Help prospective customers to define their needs and

then suggest the best means of meeting those needs,
even if that requires suggesting that the prospects use
a competitive product
Dr. Rosenbloom
 Field Selling
Professional Salespeople
National account managers

Missionary Salespeople
Support Salespeople

• Highly skilled salespersons who call on key

customers’ headquarters sites, develop strategic
plans for the accounts, make formal presentations to
top-level executives, and assist with all the product
decisions at that level
Dr. Rosenbloom
 Field Selling
Professional Salespeople
National account managers
Missionary Salespeople

Support Salespeople

• They do not seek to obtain a direct order from

their customers
• Primary goal is to persuade customers to place
orders with distributors or wholesalers
Dr. Rosenbloom
 Field Selling
Professional Salespeople
National account managers
Missionary Salespeople
Support Salespeople

• Support the sales force in a number of ways

• Technical support salespeople assist with
technical aspects of sales presentations
• Merchandisers may set up product displays
Dr. Rosenbloom
Selling