MAR 4418 Exam 1 pt.1

Chapters 1, 4, 5

importance of sales management

• Sales managers have to deal with constant changes in today’s environment due to new tech, like AI, CRM systems, mobile sales applications, big data analytics, etc.

• Tools revolutionize sales management by empowering sales teams, optimizing processes, and enhancing customer interactions.

• Sales managers face hurdles in identifying the most suitable tech, learning these themselves, training salespeople effectively, and recruiting the right individuals.

Cogito

• AI software to train salespeople to talk to customers

  • uses machine learning algorithims to analyze successful sales interations, identifies areas for improvement, provides personalized guideance to sales reps

  • enhances salespeople skills while reducing manager’s burdens to train and saves time

what are the complex responsibilities sales management focuses on?

hiring, firring, training salespeople to supervising, compensating, controlling, and evaluating sales teams

incorrect predictions about technology

• phones removeing intermediary salesppl when talking to manufacturers

• sales jobs increasing due to proficient use to tech

sales force management

the management of the personal selling component of an organization’s marketing program

outside salesforce

• a sales force that call in person on prospective customers

  • differs from across the counter selling where customers come to people

  • makes in person sales calls, at customer’s home/business

  • difficult to manage since most of the salespeople are geographically outside the organization’s offices

types of outside sales force

• B2B

  • consumption

  • incorporation

  • resale

• B2C

  • consumption

• B2B customers

  • manufacturers

  • intermediaries

  • institutions

• Sales and e-commerce primary interactions

  • non face to face methods

  • inside sales through telephones

  • e-commerce

e-commerce

an online system of commercial transactions, involving contacting customers via the internet

marketing mix

• the combo of th e4 ingredients comprising the core of a company’s marketing system, namely the 4 Ps

  • when effectively blended the form a markeitn gprogram that provides want satisfying foods and services to the company’s market

Promotional Mix (Communication Mix)

• promotional activities in the company’s marketing program

  • the major elements are advertising, sales, promo, and personal selling efforts (which is the most important)

  • publicity/PR are less widely used elements

relationship marketin gand the role of personal selling

• need to understand cutomer’s needs/solve problems

  • companies expecting more from their suppliers

  • salesppl repping for suppliers also expected to find/slove customers’ needs/problems

• focus on strengthening value-added componenets

  • companies strengthen value added componenets to gain/sustain competitive advantages to products

• relationship marketing/relationship selling

  • building long term relationships with customers

  • salespeople select a few accounts to build a relationship with long term

relationship marketing (relationship selling)

the process by which a firm builds long term relationships with customers based on cooperation, trust, commitment, and info to create mutual competitive advantages

transaction selling

salespeople focus on the immediate one time sale of the product

differences between transaction and relationship selling

• get new accounts v. retain exsisting acounts

• get the order v. become the preferred supplier

• cur the price to get the sale v. price for profit

• manage all accounts to max short term sales v. manage e/account for long term profit

• sell to anyone v. concenrate on high profit potential accounts

similartities to account manager and sales rep

• common job titles

• used interchangably

• AM retains exsisting business

• SM generate new business

what are the 6 categories of contemporary sales jobs

• consultative seller

  • creative, problem solving consulatants who demo company’s product’s contributing to customer satisfaction/proft

• key account seller

  • similar to consultative seller except they focus on smaller number of big, importnant cusotmers

• new business/channel development seller

  • focuses on prosecting for customers and generating new accounts

• sales support

  • salesppl who support the selling fone by other sales reps

  • perform sales promos an dwork with customers in training and education

  • sales engineers are product specialists working w/customers on tech problems

  • either adapt customer’s system to seller’s products or help seller design new products for customer’s needs

• sales analyst

  • involve a mix of data analysis and relationship selling

• missionary salseppl/seller

  • teacher -salesperson who helps prospects understand and learn about new/complex products in a setting not appropriate/possible to sell products

territorial profit managers

• makes decisions affecting their territory’s profitability and other decisions usually made by sales managers in the past.

• Empowered to act in the best interests of their firms.

• Best-performing salespeople are truly customer-focused in all aspects, by being skillful at managing complex information and implementing broader firm strategies at a micro-level.

• Tech plays a big role in increasing the quality of contact and service by providing access to huge data banks.

role and skills of a sales manager

• providing support and resources

• managing multiple sales channels

• manageing 3 different ascpects of the sales fucntion, cusotmers, businesses, and salesppl

• leads team with caring and empowerful approach

• communication skills

• knowledge (industry and business related)

• interersonal skills

• people skills

• administrative skills

qualities to look for to identify a potential sales manager

• top salesppl should be considered for position

• willingness to share infor

• structure/discipline in work habits

• ability to work well in teams or groups

• skill at selling internally

• non overinflated ego

• knowing how to hire and place ppl in right positions

• proficiency of sales

• confidence in team and leadership

different level positions

• entry level

  • responsible for day to day supervision, advice, and training of a small group of salespeople in a limited geographical area

  • has client sales or service experience and coordinates the efforts of a multifunctional team

• mid level

  • manages the activities of sales and supervisors or sales anagers

  • may be eliminated in team selling firm

• highest levels

  • generally in charge of the large key accounts

  • VP and CSO responsible for designing org’s long run sales strategies/planing activities

  • sales department’s laision' to top execs

faltter organization

• eliminating some levels of management

• use cross functional teams to serve clients

  • team leaders replace lower level and mid level management positions and may report directly to the CSO or CMO

differences in sales manager’s job from other management jobs

• geographical challenges

  • makes direct supervision impractical for sales managers

  • on the job training usually limited to only one person at a time so other training tools must be used

• communicaiton challenges

  • monitoring of communication, ethical decisions, motivation and performance are difficul due to lack of face to face one on ones

  • morale problems are common so there’s a lack of support network within employee network

sound management of sales reps is important

• For effective marketing management in a firm, the sales force in the field must carry out the sales plan.

• If salespeople cannot sell successfully because they are improperly selected, trained, or compensated, then sales planning efforts become futile.

• Exceptions are firms that do not rely on their own sales force but instead primarily use advertising or agent intermediaries to move the products.

• Sound management of these representatives is critical to the success of a concern’s marketing venture.

challenges facing slaes force management

• specifically, sales professionals must develop great expertise in the following ares

• hiring after the great resignation from COVID where more time is now taken to look for quality candidates

• selling by, and to, executives where top sales executives meeting with clients close sales

• tech advcancement in CRM an SFA

• sales force diversity

• complex channels of distribution for remote, in person, and hybrid positions

• changing international landscape

• ethical behavior and social responsibility

what should an organization first establish?

its objectives and then plan the appropriate plans of action to reach those goals

organization

• an arrangement, a working structure of activities involving a group of people

  • the goal is to arrange these activities so that the people involved can at better togather than they can individually

organizational changes

• these changes occur in companies’ sales and marketing teams as firms find that their exsisting structures are inappropriate to implement the markeitn gconcept

• all marketing activities should be organizationally intergrated and coordinated

reskill employees

• sales organizations need to reskill their employees

• sharpen employees digital problem solving abilityes with relational and social skills

• help employees develop abilities to manage crises and improve resilience

• managers encouraged to share information w/e/o and sales force, focus on improving exsisting relationships, encourage slaespeople to accentuate the positives in rough situations and remember to place the customer first

moving toward a flatter organization

• coordination across activities is more important than top down control

• multiple specialists work together as a sales team in a hybrid structure

• there is a concerted effort to move toward these new organizational structures becasuse they optimize value for the customer

sales enablement

• an organizationl deployment of resources that help to aid in value creation through the coordination of exsisting processes

• sales enablement serves as an organizational impetus to achieve coverage

impact of organizational structure

• a close relationships exsists between a company’s sales force organizational structure and its stratefic marketing and sales force planning

• the organizational structure has a direct impact on the implementation of stratefic planning

• we need to design an organizational structure that will implement the strategic marketing and sales force planning

control and coordination mechanism

• an organizational structure is a control and coordination mechanism

• manaegment has other mechanisms to direct the effots of its sales force

• any mistakes in organization can result in reduced efficiencies in selection, compensation, training, and other tools

role of the organizational structure

• the orgfanizational structure guides he company in carrying out the strategic plannign to pursue marketing and sales force goals

• a sales force fails to reach its goal because the organizational structure hinders the effective implementation of the strategic sales force planning

the organizational structure should reflect a marketing orientation

• when designing a sales organizaxtion, management shuld focus first on the market and the customer

• executives should consider the selling and markeitn gtasks necessary to capitalize on the market demand and to serce the firm’s customers

the organization shuld be huilt around activities, not around people

• strong personalities and high performaers can handles more responsibility than other

• these strong people inevitably leave the organization, and the resulting organizational structure is problematic

responsibility and authority shuld be realted properly

• when we gice someone a job, the authority and th etools to do it should also be given

• sales managers must learn how to hire the right people and appropriately delegate

span of executive control should be reasonable

• the span of executive control is simply the average number of subordinates who report to each manager

organization should be stable but flexible

• stability in an organization means having trained executive replacements available when needed

• flexibliity refers more to short run situations such as seasonal fluctuations in the nuber of workers needed

• an organization might subcontract some work during peak seasons or hire a temp sales force to deliver samples of new products

activities should be balanced and coordinated

• balance means not letting one unit unduly become more important than another

• coordination is needed between sales and other funcational areas

organizations should improve resillience

• certain organizational structures can help salespeople to become more resilient

• this can be accomplished by facilitating employee interaction within assigned teams

informal organization

most firms need an additional element to make the formal structure work well

role of an informal organization

• self adjusting

  • finds ways to get job done with min effort

  • well being defined by structure of org

• drives sales performance

  • celebrates performance encourages harder work

  • rewards good behavior

• citizenship behaviors

  • salespeople fo things that are aboe and beyond their formal job requirements

• selforiented

  • competition amongst salespeople

  • managers should hunt for cometitive people

line organization

• authority flows from the cheif executive to the first subordinate, then second, etc

• mainly used in small firms

• no disputes about whose the boss

• low cost structure and quick decision making

• not feasible for startup/tiny business

line and staff organization

• most widely used

• used within a large sales force and company has many different products and customers

• allows division of labor and specialization

• limited to staff executive’s direct suboridnates and has adviosry authority over suborindates of other staffs

functional organization

• different from line and staff org in that the advisory authority of the staff executives over the other staff subordinates changes to formal authority

• problem: subordinates get orders from multiple forms of authority and orders can conflict

• Drawback: generates multiple levels of middle manages leading to inefficiency

horizontal organization

• flatter structure in purest form

• eliminates management levels/departmental boundaries

• small group of senior execs at top while everyone else is self managed/cross functional teams

  • each team performas a differnt core process

• reduces supervision and eliminates unneccessary activities

geographic specialization

• geographic organization

  • grouped based on basis of physical territories

  • sales specialization structure may assign each salesperson a separate geographical area to sell

  • large sale forces have multiple levels of geographic boundaries

• benefits:

  • sales department

  • better coverage of entire market and sales force/operations

  • firm’s can meet local competition and adjust to local conditions by having an exec responsible for limited segment of market

  • local management act more rapidly servicing customers/problems

• drawback: no specialization of marketing activities

product operating specialization

• companies that organize their sales force to focus on specific product or groups of products, while centralizing functions like ads and customer service

• likely used when company