SALES MANAGER

FUNCTIONS
 Duties and Responsibilities of Sales Manager

1. One of the most important duties of a Sales Manager is to plan and organize market research.

2. He should establish proper sales policy based on the market research.

3. Sales manager has to advise the board of directors about the location and the layout of the sales
office, opening or closure of branch offices, the sales policy to be adopted and all other matters
relating to the business of the firm.

4. He has to assist the firm in product planning by suggesting improvements in product design,
style, size, attributes, etc.

5. He should forecast sales accurately or scientifically.

 Duties and Responsibilities of Sales Manager

6. Sales manager has to prepare sales budget.

7. He has to arrange for advertising, publicity and sales promotion.

8. Sales manager has to arrange for careful selection and appointment of the salesmen.

9. He has to arrange for the training of the sales force.

10. He has to allocate the sales territories and fix sales quotas for salesmen.

11. He has to devise the best method of remunerating the salesmen and motivating them to give their best to
the firm.

12. He must create a team of competitive and efficient salesmen by effective supervision and control.
 Duties and Responsibilities of Sales Manager

13. A sales manager must make a careful study of the competitors, products and sales policies and alter the products and the
sales policies accordingly.

14. He has to decide about the proper channels of distribution.

15. He has to be in constant search of new and profitable markets.

16. He has to define clearly the line of authority flowing from him to the heads of the various departments of the sales
organization and their respective staff.

17. Sales manager must delegate the necessary powers to the heads of various departments of the sales organization and co-
ordinate their activities.

18. He must keep in touch with the dealers and customers and ensure their continued patronage.

19. He must maintain contacts with other departments of the firm, such as the production, purchase, R&D, etc.
 Qualities of a Successful Sales Manager

• There are certain fundamental qualities which are required for a sales manager to achieve
success in his profession. The qualities required may be divided into three broad
categories as follows.

• Possession of knowledge,
• Possession of skill and
• Possession of attitudes.
 Possession of Knowledge

1. Knowledge of the external factors which affect the operations of his firm.

2. Knowledge of present and the future trends in the industry concerned.

3. Knowledge of the short-term and long-term objectives and the policies of his firm.

4. Knowledge of the products of his firm as well as the products of the rival firms.

5. Knowledge of the new theories/developments in the areas of motivation, research, data processing and inventory
control.

6. Knowledge of the qualities, strengths and weaknesses of his sales force.

7. Knowledge of selling techniques.

 Possession of Skill or Ability

• 1. Ability to work harmoniously with others and to extract work from others.

• 2. Ability to communicate his ideas to others clearly.

• 3. Ability to inspire and motivate others, i.e., his subordinates.

• 4. Ability to analyze and interpret facts correctly.

• 5. Ability to take sound decisions in the right time.

 Possession of Skill or Ability

• 6. Ability to structure various departments of the sales organization efficiently.

• 7. Ability to select the right type of salesmen.

• 8. Ability to evaluate the performance of the salesmen.

• 9. Ability to train and develop the salesmen for future growth.

• 10. Ability to understand others.

 Possession of Attitudes

1. He must have an open mind to accept new ideas and avail of the opportunities for the introduction of new products or services.

2. He must be able to look ahead and plan future course of action.

3. He must have flexibility to adapt to changing techniques, methods and practices of marketing.

4. He must have desire for continuous self-development.

5. He must have a good personality.

6. He must have high standards of ethical conduct.

 Types of Sales Manager

On the basis of the functions performed by the sales manager, he may be classified into three categories:

• Administrative sales manager

• Operating sales manager and
• Administrative-cum-operating sales manager.
 Administrative Sales Manager
• The work of the sales organization is distributed among departments.
• Ensures overall supervision and control of the entire sales organization
• The head of the sales organization called as the administrative sales manager.
• Performs administrative work of planning, directing, coordinating, guiding and controlling the activities of
the various sections or departments of the sales organization.

• Frames the sales policies and plans the sales activities of the sales organization.
• Co-ordinates the activities of the various departments of the sales organization.
• He is also responsible for the direction, guidance and control of the sales force.
• In short, he is responsible for the successful working of the entire sales organization.
 Operating Sales Manager
• Generally, found in medium and large business undertakings.

• He is, usually, subordinate to the administrative sales manager.

• Responsible for the actual execution of the sales plans prepared and the sales policies framed by the
administrative sales manager.
Administrative-cum-Operating Sales Manager

• In a small business undertaking, both the administrative and operating functions relating to sales are
entrusted to a single manager.

• Performs the functions of both the administrative and the operating sales managers (i.e., both the
administrative and operating functions relating to sales).

• An administrative-cum-operating sales manager is the chief executive of the sales organization.

• Performs all the functions relating to sales with the help of a few salesmen and a few sales assistants
in the sales office.
SALES FORECASTING
AND
SALES BUDGETS
 DEVELOPING SALES FORECASTS
• Necessary to plan the company’s operations optimally
• Production department
• Finance department
• Purchase department
• HR department
PRODUCT GEOGRAPHIC
TIME PERIOD
LEVEL AREA

Total Sales Long Term World

Industry
Mid Term Nation
Sales

Company
Short Term Region
Sales

Product Line
Territory
Sales

Product Item
Customer
Sales
 APPROACH TO FORECASTING
• Top-Down Forecasting • Bottom-Up or Build-Up Forecasting
• Done at SBU levels • Starts from the individual sales person
PESTLE Analysis

Use forecasting methods Salesperso

Combined Combined
n makes Combined into
to into
forecast regional/zonal
branch/are company
Identify company sales potential for own forecast
a forecasts forecast
territory

Finalize company forecast

Break-up company forecast to

regional, etc
 FORECASTING METHODS
• Executive Opinion Method: Average of all
executive’s opinions
Advantages:
• Less expensive method
• Done in a short time
• Normally used by SMEs
Disadvantages:
• Not based on systematic study
• Influenced by personal opinions
• Difficult to break down into sub-units
• Delphi Method: developed by Rand Corporation;
experts give individual opinions
Advantages:
• Objective forecast that is more accurate
• Useful for tech, new product sales forecasts
• Long-term and Short-term both are possible
Disadvantages:
• Difficulty in getting a panel of experts
• Difficult to break down into sub-units
 FORECASTING METHODS
Sales Force Composite Method: Sales-people estimate the • Survey of Buyer’s Intentions Method: Survey method asking
future sales potential customers about likely purchase
Advantages: Advantages:

• Done by people who are in touch with markets • Useful for new products, industrial products
• Possible to break down into customer, product, area-wise • Helps identify reasons for not buying/buying
estimates • Inexpensive and quicker (industrial products)
Disadvantages: Disadvantages:
• Either pessimistic or optimistic • Buyers might be unwilling to reveal their buying plans
• Could deliberately underestimate the demand • Buyers could be over optimistic
• Not their key area of focus • Expensive for non-durable products where customer base is larger

Test Marketing Method: Used for forecast for new consumer products
Full blown test marketing Simulated Test Marketing
Controlled Test Marketing Industrial Product Test Marketing
 FORECASTING METHODS
• Test Marketing Method: Used for forecast for
new consumer products
Advantages:
• Done by people who are in touch with markets
• Possible to break down into customer, product,
area-wise estimates
Disadvantages:
• Either pessimistic or optimistic
• Could deliberately underestimate the demand
• Not their key area of focus
• Survey of Buyer’s Intentions Method: Survey method
asking potential customers about likely purchase
Advantages:
• Useful for new products, industrial products
• Helps identify reasons for not buying/buying
• Inexpensive and quicker (industrial products)
Disadvantages:
• Buyers might be unwilling to reveal their buying plans
• Buyer’s could be over optimistic
• Expensive for non-durable products where customer
base is larger
 SALES BUDGETS
• Detailed estimates of expected volume of sales and selling expenditure
• Important to be accurate for success or failure of organization’s total budget
• Sales volume budget is broken into:
• Product-wise or model-wise quantities and thereby sales revenues required by production, finance, etc
• Territory wise quantities to be sold and hence sales revenue
needed by sales and marketing functions
• Sales-person wise sales volume targets – annual, quarterly, monthly
 SALES BUDGETS
Purpose of Sales Budget:
• Planning
• Helps other departments like marketing and sales managers to prepare plans and proposals for marketing spend
• Coordination
• Coordination amongst other departments – Production, finance, marketing, human resource
• Control
• Marks a standard of performance
• Helps control performance of a sales-person/ territory
ALLOCATION OF SALES EXPENDITURE
• Percentage of Sales
• Identify and allocate %ages to all category of expense
• Multiply sales revenue with %age of each expense
• Executive judgement
• Sales Manager uses judgement to decide budgeted expenses
• Could be based on sales and marketing plans or just judgemental
• Objective and Task
• Requires identification of tasks that are needed to achieve sales volume/revenue
• Estimation of costs of these tasks
• Identify whether these costs lead to profits or not