Chapter 17

Personal Selling and Sales Management

PowerPoint presentation prepared by:

Professor Rajiv Mehta
Associate Professor of Marketing
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, N.J.

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Chapter Learning Objectives

1. The role of interpersonal selling in

international marketing

2. The considerations in designing an

international sales force

3. The steps to recruiting three types of

international sales people
Chapter Learning Objectives

4. Selection criteria for international sales and

marketing positions

5. The special training needs of international

personnel

6. Motivation techniques for international sales

representatives
Chapter Learning Objectives

7. How to design compensation systems for an

international sales force

8. How to prepare Americans for foreign

assignments

9. The changing profile of the global sales and

marketing manager
 Introduction
• “The salesperson is the company”
• The sales representative is the final link in the
culmination of a company’s marketing and
sales effort
• Advances in information technology are
allowing coordination across advertising,
marketing research, and personal selling efforts
• In this dynamic international environment, the
tasks of designing, building, training,
motivating, and compensating an international
sales group is important
• This chapter discusses the alternatives and
problems of managing sales and marketing
personnel in foreign countries
 Designing the Sales Force
• As described in previous chapters, distribution strategies will
often vary from country to country
• Some markets may require a direct sales force, whereas others
may not

• The hard sell that may work in some countries

can be in appropriate in others
• Automobiles have been sold door to door in
Japan for years where “Personal selling as a rule
has to be localized for even the most global of
corporations and industries” (Johanson and
Nonaka 1997)
• The first step in managing a sales force is its
design, which encompasses deciding how many
expatriates, local nationals, or third-country
nationals a particular market requires
 Recruiting Marketing and Sales Personnel
• The sales force can be recruited from three sources:
(1) expatriates
(2) local nationals, and
(3) third-country nationals

• Sales and marketing executives can be recruited via the

traditional media of advertising (including newspapers,
magazines, job fairs, and the Internet), employment
agencies or executive search firms

• Some countries to restrict the number of non-nationals

allowed to work within the country citing local
management content laws over concerns of foreign
domination
 Selecting Sales and Marketing Personnel

• To select personnel for international marketing positions

effectively, management must choose individuals who have the
following traits:

1. Maturity 4. Flexibility

2. Emotional Stability 5. Cultural Empathy

3. Breadth of Knowledge 6. Energetic and

7. Enjoy Travel
 Training for International Marketing

• Selection mistakes are costly, so sales

training is important

• Training for the expatriates focuses on the

customs and the special foreign sales
problems that will be encountered

• Expatriates are also captives of their own habits and patterns.

Before any training can be effective, open-minded attitudes
must be established

• Training of local personnel require greater emphasis on the

company, its products, technical information, and selling
methods
 Motivating Sales Personnel
• Motivation is especially complicated because the firm is dealing
with different cultures, different sources, and different
philosophies
• The social and competitive contexts still require different
motivational systems.
• Individual incentives that work effectively in the United States
can fail in other cultures
• For example, with Japan’s emphasis on paternalism and
collectivism and its system of lifetime employment and
seniority, employees seem to derive the greatest satisfaction
from being members of a group; so an offer of an individual
financial reward for outstanding individual effort may not work
• Compensation in Eastern European countries typically involve a
greater emphasis on base pay than in the United States, and
performance-based incentives have been found to be less
effective
 Designing Compensation Systems
The following global sales compensation list of “do’s and don’ts” is based on IBM’s
practices:

• Do involve representatives from • Don’t design the plan centrally

key countries
• Do allow local managers to
decide the mix between base and
incentive pay
• Do use consistent performance
measures (results paid for) and
emphasis on each measure
• Do allow local countries
flexibility in implementations
• Do use consistent
communication and training
themes worldwide
and dictate to local offices
• Don’t create a similar
framework for jobs with
different responsibilities
• Don’t require consistency on
every performance measure
within the incentive plan
• Don’t assume cultural
differences can be managed
through the incentive plan
• Don’t proceed without the
support of senior sales
executives worldwide
 Preparing U.S. Personnel for Foreign Assignments

• Annual costs estimates of sending and supporting a manager in

a foreign assignment range from $300,000 to $600,000
• Several steps can be taken to successfully prepare U.S.
personnel for international assignments:

1. Proper selection, training, compensation, and career

development policies (including repatriation) should
reflect the unique problems of managing the expatriate

2. Overcoming Reluctance to Accept a Foreign Assignment

(due to family or advancement reasons)

3. Reducing the Rate of Early Returns (due to adjustment

problems)
 Successful Expatriate Repatriation
Five steps can be taken to successfully repatriate an employee
back to the home office:

Commit to reassigning expatriates to meaningful

positions
Create a mentor program, who can act as liaison
between the expatriate and various headquarters
departments
Offer a written job guarantee stating what the
company is obligated to do for the expatriate on
return
Keep the expatriate in touch with headquarters
through periodic briefings and headquarters visits

Prepare the expatriate and family for repatriation

once a return date is set
 Developing Cultural Awareness
• Cultural skills can be learned just as social skills can be learned

People with cultural skills should be able to:

1. Communicate respect and convey verbally and nonverbally a positive
regard and sincere interest in people and their culture.
2. Tolerate ambiguity and cope with cultural differences and the frustration
that frequently develops when things are different and circumstances change
3. Display empathy by understanding other people’s needs and differences
from their point of view
4. Remain nonjudgmental about the behavior of others, particularly with
reference to their own value standards
5. Recognize and control the SRC, that is, recognize their own culture and
values as an influence on their perceptions, evaluations, and judgment in a
situation
6. Laugh things off—a good sense of humor helps when frustration levels rise
and things do not work as planned