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1-Introduction To Sales Management

This chapter introduces sales management by discussing its objectives, evolution, and trends. It aims to help students understand the concept of sales management, discuss how it has evolved historically, and explain the sales management process and current trends. Specifically, it provides an overview of how personal selling strategies have developed over the last 150 years from a focus on persuasion to more consultative and relationship-based approaches. It also examines the changing role and increasing complexity of sales management compared to the past.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
89 views16 pages

1-Introduction To Sales Management

This chapter introduces sales management by discussing its objectives, evolution, and trends. It aims to help students understand the concept of sales management, discuss how it has evolved historically, and explain the sales management process and current trends. Specifically, it provides an overview of how personal selling strategies have developed over the last 150 years from a focus on persuasion to more consultative and relationship-based approaches. It also examines the changing role and increasing complexity of sales management compared to the past.

Uploaded by

Corolla Sedan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 16

Dr Zain Yusufzai Introduction to Sales Management Chapter # 1(Page 3-43 )

Course objectives:

The basic objectives of this course are to:


(1) Increase students' awareness of, appreciation for and insight into
decision making in sales management;
(2) Enhance students' abilities to cope with problems faced by sales
managers;
(3) Sharpen students' analytical skills; and
(4) Afford students opportunity to read and synthesize literature
pertaining to sales management.

Chapter objectives:

To understand the concept of sales management


To discuss the evolution and history of sales management
To explain the importance the function of sales management
To understand the sales management process
To get an overall idea of the current trends in sales
management

1.1 Introduction

This chapter will help the student to understand about the sales
management, its evaluation, importance, sales management process
and overall idea of the current trends in sales management.
Not only that but also it will provide information to understand the
basic principles of designing sales organization, of the process of
fixing quota and allocating territories and forecasting further
demand.
The chapter is a preliminary stage of knowing about all the
managerial skill, the process and procedure fairly suitable for the
firm’s situations and the prevalent marketing environment.
Organization large of small are into selling something or the other for
their survival and growth it may be a product such as (shampoo,
toothpaste) or service like (airline, insurance idea (patriotism) concept
(family Planning) destination (India, Brazil) or person (politician).

Mr., .N. McMurry has classified a salesperson‘s position in the


following ways.

Positions where a salesperson‘s job is predominantly to deliver


a product e.g. Milk.
Positions where a salesperson is predominantly an internal
order taker e.g. the counter sales clerk

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Positions where a salesperson is also predominantly an order


taker but works in the field as pizza boy, soap seller or spice
seller.
Positions where a salesperson is not expected to educate an
actual or potential user e.g. medical representative
Positions where a salesperson is place enhanced with technical
knowledge e.g.
Salespeople selling engineering or computer equipment
Positions where a salesperson which demand the creative sale
of tangible products such as vacuum cleaners refrigerators
Positions requiring the creative sale of intangibles such as
insurance advertising and education
1.2 Evolution of sales management

Personal selling strategies have evolved only in the last 150 years or
so. In the 19th century persuasion was the primary skill used by the
salespeople. The peddlers carried their inventory with themselves
and their goal was to persuade buyers to buy their. The evolution of
was first started just after the system of batter in which good were
interchanged with each other soon after this system was started and
India was a good place where traders and resellers in the medieval
age for the spices, carpets, jewelry, etc. Many diverse races and
religions entered our country with the traveling salespeople. Even the
colonial rulers of India the British came to India for purpose of
expanding their business and the trade though subsequently they
satisfied their political interest. They ruled this country to protect
their own business interests. The first salespeople in the US were the
Yankee Peddlers who carried clothing spices and household articles
from one part of the country to another part. In India they are called
pheriwallahs. The peddlers in India traded with the tribal Indians and
exchanged knives beads and ornaments for furs, spices .salt and
handicrafts. They started the business of storing goods such as
furniture, weapons, ammunitions, foods etc. Wholesalers were hiring
the drummers to play drums and invite the visitors all these products.
There were 1000 traveling salespeople before 1860 in US who were
basically credit investigators and told orders for goods. Their
numbers increased as the pace and reach of industrial revolutions
spread across continents.
Compare to past the domain of the sales management has become
multidisciplinary in which lies managers have to manage a diverse
workforce and complex technologies. Sales managers have to perform
duties such as recruiting, training, selecting, motivating, forecasting,
controlling and administering salespeople while performing the
primary responsibility of revenue generation fro the firms.

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1.3 The evolution of personal selling strategies

Personal selling strategies have evolved only in 150 years or. The first
strategy which was used by the peddlers was persuasion just
encouraging the customers to buy the product till late 19th s. Later
the customer had to be told about the price, quality and quantity of a
product so for this negotiation was more important than the
persuasion. In 1970s salespeople were told to deal customers just like
clients and consult them regarding any problem or issue which was
just like consulting them so that was the sage where consultative
selling was important and accustomed. In the 1980 and early 1990 a
lot of emphasis was put on the management of territories and
accounts as profit center as business men had the knowledge to
mange a territory as profit center.
In 1990 it was felt to have close relationship for generating profits and
retaining customers.
Selling Strategy There was a time when the problems of selling
were simpler than they are today. Recent years have produced a
variety of changes in the selling strategies of businesses. The
complexities involved in selling as we approach the next century are
different from those in the past. As an example, today a high-
principled style of selling that favors a close; trusting, long-term
relationship over a quick sell is recommended. The philosophy is to
serve the customer as a consultant, not as a peddler. Discussed below
are objectives and strategic matters pertaining to selling strategies.
Objectives: Selling objectives should be derived from overall
marketing objectives and should be properly linked with promotional
objectives. For example, if the marketing goal is to raise the current 35
percent market share in a product line to 40 percent, the sales
manager may stipulate the objective to increase sales of specific
products by different percentage points in various sales regions
under his or her control. Selling objectives are usually defined in
terms of sales volume. Objectives, however, may also be defined for
(a) Gross margin targets,
(b) Maximum expenditure levels, and
(c) Fulfillment of specific activities, such as converting a stated
number of competitors’ customers into company customers. The sales
strategist should also specify the role of selling in terms of personal
selling push (vis-à-vis advertising pull). Selling strategies depend on
the consumer decision process, the influence of different
communication alternatives and the cost of these alternatives. The
flexibility associated with personal selling allows sales presentations
to be tailored to individual customers. Further, personal selling offers

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an opportunity to develop a tangible personal rapport with customers


that can go far toward building long-term relationships. Finally,
personal selling is the only method that secures immediate feedback.
Feedback helps in taking timely corrective action and in avoiding
mistakes. The benefits of personal selling, however, must be
considered in relation to its costs. For example, according to the
research department of the McGraw-Hill Publications Company, per
call personal selling expenditures for all types of personal selling in
1994 came to $205.40, up 15.4 percent from 1991.
Sales Motivation and Supervision Strategy To ensure that
salespersons perform to their utmost capacity; they must be
motivated adequately and properly supervised. It has often been
found that salespeople fail to do well because management fails to
carry out its part of the job, especially in the areas of motivation and
supervision. Although motivation and supervision may appear to be
mundane day-to-day matters, they have far-reaching implications for
marketing strategy. The purpose of this section is to provide insights
into the strategic aspects of motivation and supervision.
Motivation: Salespeople may be motivated through financial and
nonfinancial means. Financial motivation is provided by monetary
compensation. Nonfinancial motivation is usually tied in with
evaluation programs.

Compensation: Most people work to earn a living; their motivation


to work is deeply affected by the remuneration they receive. A well-
designed compensation plan keeps turnover low and helps to
increase an employee’s productivity. A compensation plan should be
simple, understandable, flexible (cognizant of the differences between
individuals), and economically equitable. It should also provide
incentive and build morale. It should not penalize salespeople for
conditions beyond their control, and it should help develop new
business, provide stable income, and meet the objectives of the
corporation. Above all, compensation should be in line with the
market price for salespeople. Because some of these requisites may
conflict with each other, there can be no one perfect plan. All that can
be done is to try to balance each variable properly and design a
custom-made plan for each sales force. Different methods of
compensating salespeople are the salary plan, the commission plan,
and the combination plan.
The greatest virtue of the straight-salary method is the guaranteed
income and security that it provides. However, it fails to provide any
incentive for the ambitious salesperson and therefore may adversely
affect productivity. Most companies work on a combination plan,
which means that salespeople receive a percentage of sales as a

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commission for exceeding periodic quotas. Conceptually, the first


step in designing a compensation plan is to define the objective.
Objectives may focus on rewarding extraordinary performance,
providing security, and so on. Every company probably prefers to
grant some security to its people and, at the same time, distinguish
top employees through incentive schemes. In designing such a plan,
the company may first determine the going salary rate for the type of
sales staff it is interested in hiring. The company should match the
market rate to retain people of caliber. The total wage should be fixed
somewhere near the market rate after making adjustments for the
company’s overall wage policy, environment, and fringe benefits.
A study of the spending habits of those in the salary range of
salespeople should be made. Based on this study, the percentage of
nondiscretionary spending may be linked to an incentive income
scheme whereby extra income could be paid as a commission on
sales, as a bonus, or both. Care must be taken in constructing a
compensation plan. In addition to being equitable, the plan should be
simple enough to be comprehensible to the salespeople. Once
compensation has been established for an individual, it is difficult to
reduce it. It is desirable, therefore, for management to consider all the
pros and cons of fixed compensation for a salesperson before
finalizing a salary agreement. Evaluation: Evaluation is the
measurement of a salesperson’s contribution to corporate goals. For
any evaluation, one needs standards. Establishment of standards,
however, is a difficult task, particularly when salespeople are asked
to perform different types of jobs. In pure selling jobs, quotas can be
set for minimal performance, and salespeople achieving these quotas
can be considered as doing satisfactory work. Achievement of quotas
can be classified as follows: salespeople exceeding quotas between 1
to 15 percent may be designated as average; those between 16 and 30
percent as well-performing; finally, those over 30 percent can be
considered extraordinary salespeople. Sales contests and awards,
both financial and nonfinancial, may be instituted to give recognition
to salespeople in various categories.
Supervision: Despite the best efforts in selecting, training, and
compensating salespeople, they may not perform as expected.
Supervision is important to ensure that salespeople provide the
services expected of them. Supervision of salespeople is defined in a
broader sense to include the assignment of a territory to a
salesperson, control over his or her activities, and communication
with the salesperson in the field. Salespeople are assigned to different
geographic territories. An assignment requires solving two problems:
(a) Forming territories so that they are as much by analyzing
customers’ locations and the potential business they represent.

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Customers can be categorized as having high, average, or low


potential.
Further, probabilities in terms of sales can be assigned to indicate
how much potential is realizable. Thus, a territory with a large
number of high-potential customers with a high probability of buying
may be smaller in size (geographically) than a territory with a large
number of low-potential customers with a low probability of buying.
Matching salespeople to territories should not be difficult once the
territories have been laid out. Regional preferences and the individual
affiliations of salespeople require that employees be placed where
they will be happiest. It may be difficult to attract salespeople to some
territories, whereas other places may be in great demand. Living in
big metropolitan areas is expensive and not always comfortable.
Similarly, people may avoid places with poor weather. It may become
necessary to provide extra compensation to salespeople assigned to
unpopular places. Although salespeople are their own bosses in the
field, the manager must keep informed of their activities. To achieve
an adequate level of control, a system must be created for
maintaining communication with employees in the field, for guiding
their work, and for employing remedial methods if performance
slackens. Firms use different types of control devices. Some
companies require salespeople to fill in a call form that gives all
particulars about each visit to each customer. Some require
salespeople to submit weekly reports on work performed during the
previous week. Salespeople may be asked to complete several forms
about sales generated, special problems they face, market information
collected, and so on.
Using a good reporting system to control the sales force should have
a positive influence on performance. In recent years, more and more
companies have begun to use computer-assisted techniques to
maintain control of the activities of their sales forces. Management
communicates with salespeople through periodic mailings, regional
and national conferences, and telephone calls. Two areas of
communication in which management needs to be extra careful to
maintain the morale of good salespeople are
(a) In representing the problems of the field force to people at
headquarters
(b) In giving patient consideration to the salesperson’s complaints. A
sales manager serves as the link between the people in the field and
the company and must try to bring their problems and difficulties to
the attention of top management. Top management, not being fully
aware of operations in the field, may fail to appreciate problems. It is,
therefore, the duty of the sales manager to keep top management
fully posted about field activities and to secure for salespeople its

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favor. For example, a salesperson in a mountainous area may not be


able to maintain his or her work tempo during the winter because of
weather conditions. Management must consider this factor in
reviewing the salesperson’s work. It is the manager’s duty to stand by
and help with occupational or personal problems bothering
salespeople. Close rapport with salespeople and patient listening can
be very helpful in recognizing and solving sales force problems. More
often than not, a salesperson’s problem is something that the
company can take care of with a little effort and expenditure if it is
only willing to accept such responsibility. The primary thing,
however, is to know the salesperson’s mind. This is where the role of
the supervisor comes in. It is said that the sales manager should be as
much a therapist in solving the problems of his or her salespeople as
the latter should be in handling customers’ problems.
Promotion strategies are directed toward establishing communication
with customers. Three types of promotion strategies may be
distinguished.
Advertising strategies are concerned with communication
transmitted through the mass media.
Personal selling strategies refer to face-to-face interactions with
the customer.
All other forms of communication, such as sampling,
demonstration, cents off, contests, etc., are known as sales
promotion strategies.
Two main promotion strategies were examined in this article:
promotion-expenditure strategy, which deals with the question of
how much may be spent on overall promotion, and promotion mix
strategy, which specifies the roles that the three ingredients of
promotion (i.e., advertising, personal selling, and sales promotion)
play in promoting a product. Discussed also were two advertising
strategies. The first, media-selection strategy focuses on the choice of
different media to launch an ad campaign. The second, advertising-
copy strategy, deals with the development of appropriate ad copy to
convey intended messages. Two personal selling strategies were Partnership
examined: selling strategy and sales motivation and Selling

This figure 1.1 evolved the following.


Business
Management
Consultative
selling
Negotiation
Persuasion

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1.4 Marketing Concepts

The main ideas of marketing make us believe that marketing means


understanding customer’s needs and demands and responding to
their evolving needs and demands through better product or service
offers.

There are different marketing concepts practiced by business


enterprises to conduct their marketing activity.

1. production concept
2. product concept
3. selling concept
4. marketing concept
5. societal concept

Production Concept
The production concept has its origin in the production orientation.
The basic tenor of the concept is that customers will choose products
and service that are widely available and are of low cost. Therefore,
managers try to sell a higher volume of goods at low costs and
through and intensive distribution strategy. The managers believe
that consumer like the product which cost or in low price.

Product concept
The product concept has the proposition that consumers will favor
that product that offer high quality attributes such as quality
performance and other innovative features.
The managers focus on developing superior products and improving
the existing product lines over a period of time.

Sales concept
The sale concept purpose that customers that customers either and
individual or an organization will to buy enough of an organizations’
product unless they are persuaded to do so through selling efforts.
Therefore organization should undertake selling and promotion of
their product market success.
This approach is applicable in case of unsought goods such as lie
insurance vacuum cleaner and freighting equipment such as fire
extinguisher.

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Marketing concept
The marketing concept proposes that the reasons for success lies in a
company ability to create deliver and communicates a better blue
proposition through its marketing comparison to its competitors for
its chosen target market. According to Theodore Levis selling focuses
on the needs to convert his product into to cash marketing with the
idea preoccupied with seller‘s of consumer by means of the product
and the whole cluster.
The marketing concept is an elaborate attempt to explain the
phenomenons that rest on four key elements target market customer
need integrated marketing and profitability.

1.5 The nature and role of sale management

The basic nature of sales management is selling and generating


revenue for the business and organization.
Today selling approach of course also highlights maintaining good
customer relationship managing the profitability of a firm managing
customer complaining and building brand value in the eyes of the
customers.
Even the best marketing programs may fill if a good system and
plane of is going well the job of a sales manager is not only to
organize sales but also to carry out management functions such as
guiding and leading a set of people to achieve sales targets.

The specific duties and responsibilities of a sales manager can be


summarized as.
Determining sales force objective and goals
Finalizing sales force organizations size territory and quotas
Forecasting and budgeting sales
Selecting recruiting and training the sales force
Motivating and leading the sales force
Designing compensation plan and control systems
Designing career growth plans and building relationship
strategies with key customers

1.6 Importance of sales management

The importance of learning sales management and training


manpower in professional selling skills is evident by the amount of
money being spent in Indian and else by organization.

Personal selling is more commonly used promotion methods than


advertising public relations or sales promotions in business to

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business marketing because it offers opportunities to a seller to match


his offering to the customer’s requirements.

As we have explained earlier one the primary advents or personal


selling is that
Customers consider a salesperson as the company selling the product.
If salesperson is well prepared organized in his selling approach
knowledgeable about not only his own product but also the
competitor’s products and has ability to be a problem solver for
customers.
The focus of sales management should therefore be on identifying
grooming leading and motivation a set of trained salespeople to
achieve higher sales and create positive impressive about the firm.

1.7 Types of personal selling

Personal selling is basically classified into three main categories.

1. Industrial
2. Retail
3. Service

1. Industrial selling
This type of selling is basically termed as business to business selling
but in a traditional business model it is categorized as the
manufacturing sector selling. These are grouped into four models

Selling to reseller
A reseller is a wholesaler or retailer or and intermediary who buys
finished good and resells them to the end users. Companies such as
Hero cycles T series and Sunshine chemicals sell to resellers

Selling to business users


This means the output of one producer enters into the production
process of another producer to manufacture a final good for the
consumption of the end users.
Such IBM sells Intel processor to Compaq or Dell.

Institutional selling
These institutional customers use the product in their daily operation
for example Xerox in photocopiers Johnson and Johnson Surgical
equipments.

Selling to Government

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In most countries the government is the Leading buyer. There many


companies who only can sell to government like Escort Rites or some
weapon companies, for example.

2. Retail Selling
This is type of selling is defined as all the activities directly related to
sale of good and services to the ultimate consumers for personal or
non personal consumption.
In retailing environment a customer approaches to seller which is
quite different from industrial selling which is visa versa.
The retailer purchase from industrial seller and then the customer
purchases from retailers.

3. Service selling
Services are the activities or benefits provided to consumers. The
areas of services like the product areas are quite diverse. There are
four unique characteristics that distinguish products from services.
Services are intangible in nature they can not be seen touched tasted
heard or felt like physical goods.
Airline; Insurance can be good example of such type of selling

1.8 Type of Selling

There are classified into three


1. as order take
2. order creator
3. order getter

Order taker
Order-takers are those who put forth little or no effort to complete a
sale. These individuals may be called salespeople, but they do not
actually make sales happen -- they simply write down a list of what
customers have already decided they want, and pass the list along to
the shipping department. A prime example of this type of salesperson
is a catalog representative, who picks up the phone and literally
"takes the order" for customers calling in. There's nothing wrong with
this; these individuals are hired for a specific task and they fulfill it.
They are not expected to 'push' or even suggest specific items. They
simply take the order.

Order creators
They can Missionary salespeople who doesn’t close the sale but
persuade the customer to come and don’t really take the order from
the customers.

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Order Getters
It involves new business salespeople, organizational salespeople,
consumer salespeople and as well as the technical support for any
thing which has been damaged and each perform their own tasks.

1.9 Difference between marketing and selling

There is a lot of confusion about the differences between marketing


and sales. Marketing is in fact the act of 'bringing the product to
market'. Selling is about closing a sale and turning a potential buyer
into a customer. Closing a sale is also called a conversion.
Marketing is primarily about research - identifying potential buyers
and then finding the best way to introduce your product to them.
This usually involves some form of advertising. When you have
identified the potential customers, marketers will develop what is
called the 'marketing message' to try and reach them. The more this
message resonates with what the prospective customers need or
want, the more likely it is that you will be able to sell your product or
service to them.
There are some advantages to online marketing as opposed to offline
marketing. Marketers can perform market research using keyword
searches or search engines, using various programs to help them. The
marketers can get a lot of useful, real time data in this way about
what people are looking for online and this is often free or very cheap
to do. It is also extremely valuable information to have.
Marketing and sales do often overlap into what is called 'the pitch'.
This is how you deliver the marketing message and is how the
marketing turns into the sale.
If the marketing has been done well, the message will be clearly
delivered in the sales copy, ad copy or however you communicate
with the customer. Building trust with the customer and presenting
your message clearly is very important.
Selling is about overcoming objections. It is a one to one technique
where the seller helps the buyer to reach a decision. As part of the
marketing process, you need to uncover potential objections which
might prevent someone buying what you have for sale. Selling is
when all marketing research is applied at the point of sale. The better
you know the customers' potential objections, the better chance you
have of making a sale to them.
Marketing is an art as well as a numbers game. The best marketers
know how to reach prospective customers, which is more than just
number crunching. They know how to make people tick and what
makes them buy.

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There is a huge focus on numbers when it comes to internet


marketing. Thousands or even millions of potential customers will
see an ad or receive an email. You might think that success is
guaranteed when you advertise to so many people.
This is not altogether true. Just because you reach a lot of people do
not necessarily mean a certain percentage of them will want to buy
from you. You do need to get the marketing message to as many
people as possible but it is also vital to make sure you are advertising
to the right people.
Good marketing should disappear behind the ad copy and neat
graphics. The marketing message should come through easily to
motivate and interest the right people. If marketing is done well, the
products can sell themselves.

1.10 Marketing as a management process


This last definition is the one that most modern marketing writers
support. Piercy (1997) makes a distinction between ‘marketing plan
marketing' – the activities that traditional marketing departments do
– and the concept of ‘going to market’ – a much more general
management issue. He writes:
‘Marketing’ belongs to marketing specialists but ‘going to market’ is a
process owned by everyone in the organization.
This approach sees marketing as managing an exchange process. In
commercial (for-profit) organizations, products and services are
exchanged for money and resources. In non-profit organizations,
goods and services are sometimes exchanged for money and
sometimes also to support ideas and beliefs. An example might make
this clearer – why do I buy my Christmas cards from Oxfam rather
than from the local supermarket? There is a commercial exchange, i.e.
a card for money, but also there is an exchange based on ideas and
beliefs. Buying from Oxfam enables me to support their ideas and
beliefs and to feel good about spending money on a worthwhile
cause.
Lord Marshall and his top team instituted investigative techniques,
mainly in-depth interviews with staff, to uncover what they thought
about customers. An insight was generated: speed and efficiency,
although important, were of secondary importance to the customer.
They wanted to see warm, personal and caring staff.

Innovation and improvement


All existing business processes and operations were disregarded.
Only the customers and their needs were used as the basis for
redesigning the company.

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Customer culture
Front-line staffs were now rated as the company's main assets. The
‘Putting People First’ program involved them in redefining the tasks
which win customers, based on teamwork. This became the driver of
business strategy.
Engineers and pilots insisted that they too be involved in the program.
Customer First Teams were created to suggest solutions to customer
problems.
Media advertising communicated ‘The World's Favorite Airline’ to
staff as well as to customers. Motivation and incentives were
prioritized and company-wide performance-related pay was
instituted. Awards for Excellence were conferred by Lord Marshall on
1–1.5% of staff annually.

Measurement
Everything pointed to the need for better metrics and standards. A
Market Place Performance Department, reporting to the CEO, was set
up. Mystery flyers were created [Mystery shoppers/flyers are
researchers who are hired by organizations to pretend to be
customers and secretly evaluate the quality of the customer service].
A continuous upward trend in customer satisfaction ratings was now
registered right through into the late 1990s. Continuous
improvements in market share, passenger traffic and staff
productivity were achieved.

Profitability
The direct result of adopting pan-company marketing was a 30%
increase in productivity and an increase in market share of 2.4% in a
highly competitive market and the posting of improved profits when,
for example, from 1990–1994 the airline industry world-wide lost
US$15 billion.
An organization like British Airways (BA), which takes into account
the needs of its markets before it plans its processes, is said to be
market led or market oriented. It has changed the focus of its marketing
from a marketing plan devised in the marketing department to an
organization-wide involvement in creating an offering of superior
value for the customer. Studies have shown that being market led is
linked to profitability in profit-based organizations and to survival in
non-profit organizations (Slater, 1990).
The market-led approach has three components:
consumer orientation
competitor orientation
Inter-functional co-ordination.

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Tapan K. Panda & Sunil Sahadev
Dr Zain Yusufzai Introduction to Sales Management Chapter # 1(Page 3-43 )

1.11 The sales Management process

The sales management process in any organization involves three


interrelated and dynamic set of decisions and process. Sales
management is the process of attaining sales force goals and effective
manner through planning staffing training leading and controlling
organizational resources.

Formulation of a strategic sales management program


The strategic sales programmed should consider the environmental
issues affecting the business It should organize and plan the
company‘s overall personal selling efforts

Implementation of strategic sales management program


It involves selecting appropriate sales personnel, training, them
leading them and motivating them.

Evaluation and control of sale force performance


It involves developing methods and practices fro monitoring and
evaluating the individual and group sale force performance. This
entails taking correcting the problems and guide for future.

Gerald J. Bauer, Mark S. Baunchalk, Thomas N. Ingram, and


Raymond W. LaForge Consider the following situation: The XYZ
Company manufactures and markets various products to many
different business customers around the world.
The company employs a field sales force to sell all products to all
customers

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Tapan K. Panda & Sunil Sahadev
Dr Zain Yusufzai Introduction to Sales Management Chapter # 1(Page 3-43 )

within defined geographical territories. This approach produced


reasonable
sales and profit growth for many years. However, about five years
ago, sales
flattened and profits declined. What happened? Customers became
more demanding and competition intensified. Many customers
reduced their supplier
base dramatically and XYZ lost customers. The remaining customers
demanded more attention while competitive pressures kept a lid on
prices. Thus, profit margins were squeezed. XYZ realized that its
future growth required significant changes in sales operations. These
situations are typical for many sales organizations. Customers are
changing buying practices. Many are working closely with a few
suppliers to reduce the cost of doing business and to ensure higher
quality standards. Competition for these customers is often on a
global scale and has never been more intense. Companies such as
XYZ are trying to give customers "more for less," but are also trying
to increase profits by "doing more with less."Thus, the selling
environment is increasingly turbulent and offers key challenges to
sales organizations:

Summary

This chapter gives us the information about personal selling and sales
management.

A successful sales management program does not exist in vacuum. A


sales manager has to build a successful sales management strategy
keeping in mind the available resources and internal environmental
factors such as prevailing economy

Personal selling is a personal mode of communication between a


salesperson and the potential customers.

Appendix

1. Potential customers are those customers who in reality


purchase the product and they have power to perchance the product
from the retailers.

2. Predominantly means chiefly, mainly or principally

Sales Management 16
Tapan K. Panda & Sunil Sahadev

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