Sales Management

CONTENTS
• Chapter One: Introduction to Sales Management
• Chapter Two: Building Relationships through Strategic
Planning
• Chapter Three: Forecasting Market Demand, Sales Budgets,
and Sales Quotas
• Chapter Four: Planning for and Recruiting Successful
Salespeople
• Chapter Five: Choices in Sales Force Organization
• Chapter Six: Training the Sales Team
• Chapter Seven: Compensating (Remunerating) Salespeople
• Chapter Eight: Evaluation and Control of Salespeople
• Chapter Nine : Professional Selling Process
 Chapter One
Introduction to Selling and Sales
Management
 1-1. Sales Management Definition
• The term “sales management” is used by businessman to refer
to the direction or supervision of salesmen.
• But in the present business scenario, it has included other
aspects of management also, such as:
planning, direction,
control of personnel selling,
recruiting, selecting,
equipping, supervising,
paying and motivating, etc
• Marketing management is a broader concept and sales
management is a part of marketing management.
• Whereas marketing is concerned with the product, price,
promotion, distribution, target market, planning and
implementation and control of these activities,

• The sales management is only a sub-function of marketing

management and is mainly concerned with the planning,
direction and control of the sales force.
• Sales forces are found in both profit and non-profit making
organizations.
• Everyone lives by selling something.
• Selling is one of the oldest professions.
• Today’s selling executives are professionals.
• They plan, build and maintain effective organizations and
design and utilize efficient control procedures.
• This requires a thorough analysis of quantitative and
qualitative personal selling objectives, formulation of sales
policies and selling strategy.
• Top management holds them responsible for:
1. Achieving an adequate volume of sales
2. Providing maximum contribution to profit
3. Experiencing continuing growth
1-2. Sales Management Cycle/Function
• A sales manager looks after and manages a firm’s personal
selling functions.
• Sales management deals with analysis, planning, organizing,
direction and control of the company’s selling activities.
• Analysis: This involves probing into the sales records of the
company, analysing the reports of sales people, investigation
of marketing trends and other environmental factors.
• Planning: It involves setting objectives of the firm’s sales
efforts, formulation of sales strategies and policies in order to
achieve those objectives.
• Organisation: It involves determination of the structure of the
sales force and delegation of authority which is supposed to be
necessary to achieve the organisation’s objectives.

• Direction: It involves proper supervision and implementation

of the plans with the help of proper communication,
motivation and leadership.

• Control: It involves comparison of the actual with the desired

results, finding out reasons for deviation and taking corrective
actions accordingly.
 1-3. Sales Management Skills
• The key long-term driver of success for a sales manager is his
or her mastery of the following sales management abilities:
1. Building a sales team
2. Managing sales performance
3. Sales coaching
4. Sales leadership
 1. Building A Sales Team
• High performing sales teams are built on the foundation of
great salespeople.
• These are the ones who consistently meet and beat their
quotas.
• So, a successful sales manager must be constantly looking to
recruit and hire talented sales professionals.
• The key skill in this process is the in-person job interview.
• The best way of avoiding common sales manager interview
pitfalls (e.g., asking leading questions, doing too much of the
talking, hiring based on "gut" feeling not facts, etc.) is to
master behavior-based interviewing.
• Behavior-based interviewing starts by translating specific
sales competencies from the hiring profile into specific sales
behaviors, which are then used as the basis for interview
questions designed to uncover such behaviors.

• To identify specific behaviors that impact performance, sales

managers should examine the key traits that set apart their
top performers from the rest of their team.

• These traits can include work ethic, motivation, resilience, and

integrity.
 2. Managing Sales Performance
• Managing a typical sales team of 7-10 salespeople is a
daunting task.
• Just what exactly should a sales manager do on a day-to-day
basis?
• The classic definition of management is to achieve results
through and with others.
• And this is the primary role of a sales manager.

• Unfortunately, many sales managers who were promoted from

the field do not have the skills, knowledge, and tools to
manage their teams.
• The essence of day-to-day sales management consists of:
• 1. Communicating performance expectations so everyone
knows what is expected of him or her and how success will be
measured.
• 2. Monitoring and managing job behaviors so everyone knows
what behaviors will lead to success.
• 3. Monitoring job results on a regular basis so that corrective
actions and/or positive reinforcement happen in a timely
manner.
• 4. Providing regular feedback to assist with on-going
professional development and sharing of best practices.
• A key concept in sales management is understanding the
distinction between behaviors and results.
• Results are the outcomes salespeople achieve; while behaviors
are the observable actions salespeople use to achieve results.

• It is critical to monitor behaviors because positive and

consistent behaviors lead to positive and consistent results.

• Monitoring behaviors can help the sales manager accurately

forecast upswings and backslides in results so that the sales
manager can take corrective action on a timely basis.
 3. Sales Coaching
• Effective sales coaching can potentially increase top-line
revenue by up to 20 percent.
• With such potential benefits, it is no wonder that many sales
organizations recommend that their sales managers spend 25 -
45 percent of their time sales coaching.
• Perhaps the most challenging aspect of sales coaching for
sales managers is conducting the coaching conference after
the manager has observed the sales professional on a sales
call.
• During the coaching conference, the sales manager must act as
a teacher and help his or her sales professional learn or
improve specific selling skills.
• That, however, can be exceedingly challenging for sales
• Sales coaching is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and
perfected.
• For example, the coaching conference should follow a
structured four-step process.
1. Reinforce positive behavior
2. Lead sales professional in self-discovery
3. Provide opportunity to practice
4. Gain commitment to use new methods
 4. Sales Leadership
• Sales managers who are also dynamic sales leaders can
positively influence the actions and attitudes of the sales team
to achieve or surpass their goals.
• These positive changes in performance and results are the
bottom line, tangible benefits of great sales leadership.
• Sales leadership is a powerful skill and enables a sales
manager to achieve outstanding results.
• Great sales leaders know how to motivate and influence others
to reach their full potential.
• Sales leadership skills are generally more proactive than
traditional sales management.
• While sales leadership has many different dimensions, a sales
manager must excel at the following:
 Sales Vision: The ability to communicate and implement a
sales vision provides focus and direction to the sales team.
• It helps prioritize activities, energizes the team, and improves
performance.

 Decision Making: Making decisions isn’t always easy, but

sales leaders need to weigh options carefully to make a high
percentage of right decisions.
• It’s the best way to build confidence, respect, and trust.
 Influence: The ability to persuade, motivate, and drive the
sales team.
• Influence builds the sales team’s commitment to accomplish
the sales manager’s sales vision.

 Personal Abilities: Includes attributes that are often difficult

to measure and define, such as pride, fairness, and enthusiasm,
along with tangible attributes like management skills.
 Chapter Two
Strategic Sales Planning
 Sales Force Organization
• Sales force organization is the process of allocating and
managing sales resources to meet sales and marketing
objectives.

• The organization reflects:

 the number of sales representatives and their skills,
 the size of the product range,
 the location of customers and prospects, and
 the market sector in which company operates.
 Strategy
• The sales force must align with overall sales and
marketing strategy.
• Companies that aims to grow their business in different
domestic or export territories should organize their sales
force along regional lines.

• If the company want to increase share in specific

industry sectors, it should organize the sales force by
market sector.
 Location
• Allocating resources to sales territories is an important
element of sales force organization.

• Companies with customers across the country divide

their market by convenient geographical groupings, such
as north, south, east, west.
 Specialization
• Sales force organization takes account of a company’s
skills and specialization.

• A company with complex technical products, for

example, might organize its sales force by product line.

• It would recruit sales representatives with good

technical knowledge or invest in product training
programs so that the sales force can provide a high level
of technical service to customers.
 Support
• A key element in sales force organization is the support
available to the direct sales effort.
• Companies can improve sales force productivity by using
a telemarketing team to cover time-consuming tasks,
qualifying prospects, or taking routine, low-value orders.

• Building relationships with marketing to develop lead

generation programs can improve the quality of sales
force prospecting.
 Sales Force Management

• The sales manager identifies promising sources for the

recruitment of new sales personnel and sets standards
for selection of the most promising recruits.
• The sales manager provides for the training of new
personnel so as to achieve high-level performance in the
shortest possible time.

• At the same time the sales manager provides for the

training of veteran sales personnel, so as to improve
their performance levels and to prepare them for possible
promotion.
• The sales manager sees to it that there is an adequate
supply of sales executive talent for replacements up
through and including the sales manager’s own position.

• The sales manager ensures that sales personnel are

properly motivated so as to achieve optimum sales
performance.

• The sales manager establishes a system of sales

supervision that controls waste and inefficiency and
points sales efforts into the most Profitable channels.
 Elements Of Sales Force Management

• Lead generation= gathering date about customers

• Sales forecasting=predicting the company future sales
• Order management=manage the product orders
efficiently
• Product knowledge=having complete knowledge of the
product
 Estimating Market Potential

• A market potential is an estimate of the maximum

possible sales opportunities present in a particular
market segment and open to all sellers of a good or
service during a stated future period.
 Analyzing Market Potential
1. Market Identification
• The first step in analyzing a product’s market potential is
to identify its market.
• Market identification requires finding out:
 Who buys the product?
 Who uses it?
 Who are the prospective buyers and/or users?
• Some companies find answers to these questions in their
internal records, but most companies, especially those
that use long marketing channels, must use field research
to obtain meaningful answers.
• In consumer-goods marketing, buyers, users, and
prospects are identified and classified according to such
characteristics as age, sex, education, income, and social
class.

• In industrial-goods marketing, buyers, users, and

prospects are identified and classified by size of firm,
geographical location, type of industry, and the like.

• Market identification studies reveal the characteristics

that differentiate the market segments making up the
product’s market potential.
 2. Market Motivation
• To detect/notice the reasons why customers buy the
product and why potential customers might buy it.
• Market motivation studies answer twin questions:
Why do people buy?
Why don’t people buy?
• The answers help:
 in estimating market potential
 to increase the effectiveness of promotional programs.
• Analysis of results by trained specialists lays bare what
goes on in buyer’s minds, including, importantly, the real
reasons for buying or not buying the product.
• Most motivation studies are directed towards explaining
the buying behavior of ultimate consumers rather than
industrial users.
• Information from motivation studies helps not only in
estimating a product’s market potential but assists in
deciding:
 how best to present the product in sales talks, the
relative effectiveness of different selling appeals and
 the relative appropriateness of various promotional
methods.
 3. Analysis of Market Potential

• Generally, market potential cannot be analyzed directly,

so analysis makes use of market factors (a market factor
is a market feature or characteristic related to the
product’s demand).

• For instance, the number of males reaching shaving age

each year is one market factor influencing the demand
for men’s electric shavers.
• Thus, using market factors for analyzing market potential
is a two-step process:

 Select the market factor(s) associated with the product’s

demand

 Eliminate those market segments that do not contain

prospective buyers of the product.
 Sales Potential and Sales Forecasting
• Sales potentials are quantitative estimates of the
maximum possible sales opportunities present in
particular market segments open to a specified company
selling a good or service during a stated future period.

• They are derived from market potentials after analyses of

historical market share relationships and adjustments for
changes in companies’ and competitors’ selling
strategies and practices.
• The estimate for sales potential indicates how much a
company could sell if it had all the necessary resources
and desired to use them.

Sales forecast: it indicates how much a company with a

given amount of resources can sell if it implements a
particular marketing program.
 Sales Forecasting Concepts
There are 5 levels of concern in sales forecasting:

(a) Market Potential

(b) Sales Potential
(c) Actual Sales Forecasts
(d) Sales Quotas
(e) Sales Budgets
a. Market Potential – it is the highest possible expected
industry sales of a good or service in a specified market
segment for a given time period.
e.g. The market potential for the sales of beverage in
Ethiopia annually. Consider religion, local, age, other
alcohol = 20million

b. Sales Potential – refers to an individual firms market

share of the market potential, where market share is
defined as the percentage of market controlled by a
particular company or product.
E.g.: market share is 5million
• It is the maximum sales a firm can hope to obtain.
c. Sales Forecasts – is the sales estimate the company
actually expects to obtain, based on the market
conditions, company resources, and the firms marketing
plan.
• The sales forecast is less then the sales potential since it is
based on realistic set of circumstances.
E.g.: 4.5 million
d. Sales Quota – is a sales goal assigned to a sales person,
region or a team.
• They are usually derived from the sales forecasts. Sales
goals and objectives sought by management.

e. Sales Budgets – a management plan for the expenditures

to accomplish sales goals.
 Sales Territories
• A sales territory is the customer group or geographical area
for which an individual salesperson holds responsibility.

• It is a geographical area assigned to a salesman for the

purpose of marketing the products of his concern.

• Territories can be defined on the basis of geography, sales

potential, history, or a combination of factors.

• Companies strive to balance their territories because this can

reduce costs and increase sales.
• Generally, a firm divides the markets into specific
geographical zones and assigns each salesman a specific
zone in which he has to carry out his selling operations.

• The specific geographical zone or area assigned to a

salesman becomes his sales territory.

• Each of the territory is served by one or more salesmen.

 Allocation of Sales Territory

• Allocation of sales territories to a salesman is one of the

important duties of the sales manager.

• The allocation of sales territories must be given serious

thought by the sales manager as it is one of the important
tools of control.
 Objectives of Allocation of Sales Territory

• The main objective of allocation of sales territories can be

summarized as:
1. To hold the salesman responsible for sales and services.
2. Supervise and control over the sales force.
3. To meet competition easily.
4. To save time and expenses.
 Sales Budge
• A budget is simply a tool, a financial plan that an
administrator uses to plan for profits by
anticipating/expecting revenues and expenditures.

Purposes of Budgeting
• The budget is very important for the successful operation of
the sales force.

• It serves several purposes including planning, coordination,

and evaluation.
Planning: Companies formulate marketing and sales objectives.
• The budget determines how these objectives will be met.
• The budget is both a plan of action and a standard of
performance for the various departments.
• Once the budget is established, the department can begin
organizing to realize that plan.
• This is especially important to salespeople.

• It is through a detailed breakdown of the sales budget among

products, territories, and customers that sales reps learn what
management expects of them.
Coordination: Maintaining the desired relationship between
expenditures and revenues is important in operating a
business.
• The objective of a business is to buy revenues at a reasonable
cost, and a budget establishes what this cost should be.
• Thus the budget enables sales executives to coordinate
expenses with sales and with the budgets of the other
departments.
• The budget also restricts the sales executives from spending
more than their share of the funds available for the purchase
of revenues.
• Hence the budget helps to prevent expenses from getting out
of control.
Evaluation: Any goal, once established, becomes a tool for
evaluation of performance.
• If the organization meets its goals, management can consider
the performance successful.
• Hence the sales department budgets become tools to evaluate
the department’s performance.
• By meeting the sales and cost goals set forth in the budget, a
sales manager is presenting strong evidence of his or her
success as an executive.

• The manager who is unable to meet budgetary requirements is

usually less well regarded.
 Quotas
• Quotas are quantitative objectives assigned to sales
organizational units individual sales personnel.
• Quotas specify desired performance levels for sales volume;
such budgeted items as expenses, gross margin, net profit, and
return on investment; selling and non selling related activities;
or some combination of these items.
• Sales management sets quotas for organizational units, such
as individual sales districts and sales personnel.

• In some companies, sales management sets quota for

middlemen, such as agents, wholesalers, and retailers.
 Quotas fall into Four Categories
Sales Volume Quotas:
• It is an important standard for appraising the performances of
individual sales personnel, other units of the sales
organization, and distributive outlets.
• Sales volume quotas communicate managements’
expectations as to how much for what period.
• Sales volume quotas are set for:
 geographical areas,
 product lines, or
 marketing channels or
 for one or more of these in combination
• Budget Quotas: Budget quotas are set for various units in the
sales organization to control expenses, gross margin, or net
profit.
• The intention in setting budget quotas is to make it clear to
sales personnel that their jobs consist of something more than
obtaining sales volume.
• Budget quotas make personnel more conscious that the
company is in business to make a profit.
Expense quotas emphasize keeping expenses in alignment with
sales volume, thus indirectly controlling gross margin and net
profit contributions.
Gross margin or net profit quotas emphasize margin and profit
contributions, thus indirectly controlling sales expenses.
• Activity Quotas: The desire to control how sales personnel
allocate their time and efforts among different activities.
• A company using activity quotas starts by defining the
important activities sales personnel perform; then it sets target
performance frequencies.
• Activity quotas are set for:
 total sales calls, calls on particular classes of customers,
 calls on prospects, number of new accounts,
 missionary calls, product demonstrations,
 placement or erection if displays,
 making of collections and the like.
• Ideally, management needs time-and-duty studies salesperson
and sales territory, but, of course, this is seldom practical.
• Activity quotas are appropriate when sales personnel perform
important, non selling activities.

• For example, activity quotas are much used in insurance’

selling, where sales personnel must continually develop new
contacts.
• Combination Quotas: Companies that are not satisfied with
any single type of quota may combine two or more types.
• As an example, a firm may want to establish a quota based on
three activities, plus gross margin on the products sold.
• A combination quota seeks to use the strong points of several
types of quotas, but frequently such a plan is limited by its
complexity.
• In many cases, combination quota structures are so
complicated that they are not easily understood by the reps:
Then the quota becomes a source of dissatisfaction rather than
an incentive.
• Also, a sales rep may overemphasize one element in the quota
plan.
 Chapter III
Recruiting and Selecting Sales Personnel
 Recruitment
• Recruitment is a process of finding and attracting the
potential resources for filling up the vacant positions in an
organization.
• It sources the candidates with the abilities and attitude, which
are required for achieving the objectives of an organization.
• Recruitment is a process of:
identifying the jobs vacancy,
analyzing the job requirements,
reviewing applications, screening,
short listing and selecting the right candidate.
• Recruitment is a process of searching for prospecting
employees and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for
jobs in an organization.
• Recruitment is a process to discover the sources of manpower
to meet the requirements of the staffing schedule and to
employ effective measures for attracting that manpower in
adequate number to facilitate effective selection of an efficient
working force.

• It is often termed as positive in that it stimulates people to

apply for jobs to increase the hiring ratio i.e., number of
applicants for a job.
 Sources of Sales Force Recruitment
• The eligible and suitable candidates required for a particular
job are available through various sources.
• These sources can be divided into two categories
• Internal
• External
 A. Internal Sources of Recruitment:

1. Promotions:
• The promotion policy is followed as a motivational technique
for the employees who work hard and show good
performance.
• Promotion results in enhancements in pay, position,
responsibility and authority.

• The important requirement for implementation of the

promotion policy is that the terms, conditions, rules and
regulations should be well-defined.
2. Retirements:
• The retired employees may be given the extension in their
service in case of non­availability of suitable candidates for
the post.
3. Former employees:
• Former employees who had performed well during their
tenure/term may be called back, and higher wages and
incentives can be paid to them.
4. Transfer:
• Employees may be transferred from one department to
another wherever the post becomes vacant.
5. Internal advertisement:
• The existing employees may be interested in taking up the
vacant jobs.
• As they are working in the company since long time, they
know about the specification and description of the vacant
job.
• For their benefit, the advertisement within the company is
circulated so that the employees will be intimated.
 Benefits of Internal Sources of Recruitment

 The existing employees get motivated.

 Cost is saved as there is no need to give advertisements about
the vacancy.
 It builds loyalty among employees towards the organization.
 Training cost is saved as the employees already know about
the nature of job to be performed.
 It is a reliable and easy process.
 Limitations of Internal Sources of Recruitment:

1. Young people with the knowledge of modem technology and

innovative ideas do not get the chance.
2. The performance of the existing employees may not be as
efficient as before.
3. It brings the morale down of employees who do not get
promotion or selected.
4. It may leads to encouragement to favoritism.
5. It may not be always in the good interest of the organization.
 B. External Sources of Recruitment
1. Press advertisement:
• A wide choice for selecting the appropriate candidate for the
post is available through this source.
• It gives publicity to the vacant posts and the details about the
job in the form of job description and job specification are
made available to public in general.
2. Campus interviews:
• It is the best possible method for companies to select students
from various educational institutions.
• It is easy and economical. The company officials personally
visit various institutes and select students eligible for a
particular post through interviews.
3. Placement agencies:
• A databank of candidates is sent to organizations for their
selection purpose and agencies get commission in return.
4. E-recruitment:
• Various sites such as jobs.com, naukri.com, and monster.com
are the available electronic sites on which candidates upload
their resume and seek the jobs.
5. Competitors:
• By offering better terms and conditions of service, the human
resource managers try to get the employees working in the
competitor’s organization.
 Benefits of External Sources of Recruitment:

1. New talents get the opportunity.

2. The best selection is possible as a large number of candidates
apply for the job.
3. In case of unavailability of suitable candidates within the
organization, it is better to select them from outside sources.
Limitations of External Sources of Recruitment:

1. Skilled and ambitious employees may switch the job more

frequently.
2. It gives a sense of insecurity among the existing candidates.
3. It increases the cost as advertisement is to be given through
press and training facilities to be provided for new candidates.
 Methods or Techniques of Recruitment

• Another summarizes the possible recruiting methods into three

categories: direct, indirect and third party.
 i) Direct methods

• These include sending traveling recruiters to educational and

professional institutions, employees’ contacts with public and
man exhibits.
• One of the widely used direct methods is that of sending of
recruiters to college and technical schools.
• Most college recruiting is done in cooperation with the
placement office of a college.
 ii) Indirect methods
• Indirect methods involve mostly advertising in newspaper, on
the radio and professional journals, technical magazines and
brochures.
• Advertising is a very useful technique to recruit blue-collar
and hourly workers, as well as scientific, professional and
technical employees.
 iii) Third party methods
• These include the use of commercial or private employment
agencies, state agencies, placement offices of schools,
colleges and professional association recruiting firms,
management consulting firms, indoctrination seminars for
college professors and friends and relatives.
 Selection of Sales Force
• The selection procedure is concerned with securing relevant
information about an applicant.
• The objectives of selection process are:
 to determine whether an applicant meets the qualification for
a specific job and
 to choose the applicant who is most likely to perform well in
that job.
 Selection Process
1. Application in blank:
• Application in blank is a written formal application submitted
by the person in quest/search of a job.

• The object: to get the candidate introduced to the interviewer

so that he is in a position to prepare himself as to what kind
of questions he is to ask to size-up/judge the candidate.

• It enables the sales selection committee to weed out

undesirable candidates at the very outset/beginning.
 2. References/recommendation
• The candidate is asked to give references of persons that
guarantee of his integrity/honesty.
• The number of references may be two or three.
• The reference relates his character, educational career, past
service or experience.
• Here, the sales manager is to get confidential reports about
the candidate and verify the statements made by the
candidate and the referee or referees.
• To get first-hand and frank information about the candidate,
the selection panel should have face to face telephone
contacts, discussions and deliberations.
 3. Preliminary/first round interview
• The panel of experts decides the number of candidates to be
called for interview and cards or letters are sent to the
candidates well in advance.
• Interview is both a formal and informal talk and the
conversation between the interviewers and interviewee.
• Since, it is a crucial point in selection process; the interviewer
is to be sympathetic/kind, receptive/open,
accommodative/have room and interested in the problems of
the candidate.
• The purpose: to form/shape the opinion of applicant’s
appearance, bearing/manner, poise/dignity, voice,
resourcefulness/creativity and the philosophy of selling.
 4. Psychological testing

• Testing represents an additional tool in the kit of selection

panel.
• The psychological tests operate on the common theory that
human behavior can be well forecasted by sampling.

• Tests create situations in which an applicant reacts and such

reactions are considered as replica/model of his behavior in
the work area for which he has applied.

• In case of selection, two types of tests are held namely,

‘personality’ and ‘aptitude’.
Personality tests: gauge whether the candidate has good sales
personality a congregation of physical, mental, character and
social qualities.

Aptitude tests: measure his aptitudes in the field of selling such

as self-discipline, sales motivation resistance to
discouragement, acceptance and appreciation of criticisms,
diplomacy, tact, controlled aggressiveness, emotional stability
and so on.
 5. Medical examination
• Confirmation of physical fitness demands that every
promising or likely candidate to be selected is to undergo a
medical test.
• Invariably, everyone in this world is suffering from one kind
of disease or the other.
• The salesman’s job needs physical fitness in addition to
mental.
• Normally, persons with high blood pressure, foot affliction,
kidney and heart troubles, tuberculosis, cancer etc. are not
selected.
• It is worthwhile to have outright rejection of such candidates
than repenting at leisure.
 6. Final interview
• A candidate, who has crossed all the above hurdles, stands on
the threshold of final interview or selection.
• The selection committee has all the detailed information in
terms of qualifications, references, physical and psychological
test that helps to come to final decision.
• Normal, yet crucial questions are asked:
 willingness to accept the job,
 reliability as to continuity, if appointed.
• He/she might be asked questions as to how he plans his work
and works his plans.
• Finally, selected candidates are given official letters of
appointment
 Group Assignment
Chapter VIII: International Sales management
– International sales management and culture
– Formulating sales strategies at the national level
– Sales organizational structures

Each Group Should do the Three topics

 Chapter IV:
Sales Training and Orientation
 What is Sales Training
• Effort put forth by an employer to provide the salesperson job
related culture, skill, knowledge, and attitudes that result in
improved performance in the selling environment.
• The purpose of sales training is to achieve improved job
performance.
• In the absence of training, job performance improves with
experience.
• Training substitutes for or supplements experience, so sales
personnel given training reach high job performance levels
earlier.
 Building Sales Training Programs

• There are several types of sales training programs.

• The most comprehensive and longest is the training program
for newly recruited sales personnel.
• More intensive and shorter programs on specialized topics, as
well as periodic refresher courses are presented for
experienced sales personnel.
• Building a sales training program requires five major
decisions.
• The specific training aims must be defined, content decided,
training methods selected, arrangements made for execution,
and procedures set up to evaluate the results.
 1. Defining Training Aims

• Regardless of the type of sales training program, defining its

specific aims is the first step in its planning.
• Defining the general aim is not sufficient.
• For example:
 we may want to increase the sales force’s productivity
through training,
 we must identify what must be done to achieve increased
productivity.
• General aims are translated into specific aims phrased in
irrational terms.
• The following discussion focuses on factors that management
considers as it seeks to identify training needs for
(1) initial sales training programs and
(2) continuing sales training programs.
 Identifying Initial Training Needs
• Determining the need for, and specific aims of an initial sales
training program requires analysis of three main factors:
 job specifications,
 individual trainee’s background and experience, and s
 ales-related marketing policies.
 I. Job Specifications
• The qualifications needed to perform the job are detailed in
the job specifications.
• Few people possess all these qualifications at the time of
hiring.
• The set of job specifications needs scrutinize/study for clues
to the points on which new personnel are most likely to need
training.
• Other questions related to job performance need considering:
 How should salespeople apportion/allocate their time?
 Which duties require the greatest proportion of time?
 Which are neglected? Why?
 Which selling approaches are most effective?
 II. Trainee’s Background and Experience
• Each individual enters an initial sales training program with a
unique educational background and experience record.

• The gap between the qualifications in the job specifications

and those a trainee already has represents the nature and
amount of needed training.

• In all organizations, determining recruits real training needs is

essential to developing initial training programs of optimum
benefit to company and trainee alike.
 III. Sales-Related Marketing Policies
• To determine initial sales training needs, sales-related
marketing policies must be analyzed.
• Differences in products and markets mean differences in
selling practices and policies, which in turn, point to needed
differences in training programs.
• For instance:
 Selling a line of machine tools: requires emphasis on product
information and customer applications,
 Selling simple, no technical products demands emphasis on
sales techniques.
• Differences in promotion, price, marketing channel, and
physical distribution all have implications for initial sales
training.
 Identifying Continuing Training Needs
• Determining the specific aims for a continuing sales training
program requires identification of specific training needs of
experienced sales personnel.
• Basic changes in products and markets give rise to needs for
training, as do changes in company sales-related marketing
policies, procedures, and organization.
• But even though products and markets change little and
company policies, procedures, and organizations remain
stable, sales personnel change.
• Sales management must know a great deal about how sales
personnel perform to identify training needs and in turn to
define specific aims.
 2. Deciding Training Content
• The content of a sales training program, whether an initial or
continuing program, derives from the specific aims that
management formulates.
• Initial sales training programs are broader in scope and
coverage than are continuing programs.
• Initial programs provide ‘instruction covering all important
aspects of performance of the salesperson’s job.
• Continuing programs concentrate of specific aspects of the job
where experienced persons have deficiencies.
Content varies from company to company, because of
differences in products, markets, company policies, trainees’
ability and experience, organizational size, and training
philosophies.
• No two programs are, or should be alike.
• Every initial sales training program should devote sometime to
each of four main areas: product data, sales technique,
markets, and company information.
i. Product Data:
• Companies with technical products=devote more than half
their programs to product training.
• with standardized products=new sales personnel require only
minimal product training.
• In all cases, new salespeople must know enough about the
products, their uses, and applications to serve customers
information needs.
• Product knowledge is basic to a salespersons self-confidence
ii. Sales Technique:
• Most new sales personnel need instruction in sales
techniques.
• Some sales managers believe that if an individual has an
attractive personality, good appearance and voice, and
reasonable intelligence and knows the product, he or she will
sell it easily.
• But the predominant view is that new sales personnel need
basic instruction in how to sell.
iii. Markets:
• The new salesperson must know who the customers are, their
locations, the particular products in which they are
interested, their buying habits and motives, and their
financial condition.
• why and how they buy.
iv. Company Information:
• Certain items of company information are essential to the
salesperson on the job; others, not absolutely essential,
contribute to overall effectiveness.
• The training program should include coverage of all sales-
related marketing policies and the reasoning behind them.
• The sales person must know company pricing policy, for
instance, to answer customers questions.
• The salesperson needs to be fully informed on other policies,
such as product services, spare parts and repairs, credit
extension, and customer relations.
 3. Selecting Training Methods
• It is important to select those training methods that most
effectively convey/express the desired content.

• The training methods are: Lecture, Personal conference,

Demonstrations, Role play, Case discussion, Impromptu
discussion, Gaming, On the job training, Correspondence
courses
The Lecture: Trainees mainly watch and listen, although some
versions of lecturing permit questions.
• A lecture can be effective, provided that the lecturer is able
and enthusiastic and uses examples, demonstrations, and
visual aids.
• Compared with other training methods, the lecture is
economical in terms of time required to cover a given topic.

Personal Conference: In the personal conference, the trainer

(often a sales executive or sales supervisor) and trainee jointly
analyze problems.
E.g.: effective use of selling time, route planning and call
scheduling, and handling unusual selling problems.
Demonstrations: appropriate for conveying information on such
topics as new products and selling techniques.
• Demonstrating how a new product works and its uses is
effective
• showing has been more effective than telling.
On-the-Job Training: Also called the coach-and-pupil method,
combines telling, showing, practicing, and evaluating.
• The coach, sometimes a professional sales trainer begins by
describing particular selling situations, explaining various
techniques and approaches that might be used effectively.
• Is an important part of most initial sales training programs.
• Appropriate for developing trainees’ skills in making sales
presentations, answering objections, and closing sales.
Role Playing: Begins with the trainer describing the situation
and the different personalities involved.
• The trainer provides needed props/support, then assign
trainees to play the salesperson, prospect, and other
characters.

• Each plays his or her assigned role, and afterward, they

together with other group members and the trainer:
appraise each player’s effectiveness and
suggest how the performance of each might have
been improved.
 4. Executing Sales Training Programs

• The execution step requires organizational decisions.

Who will be the trainees?
Who will do the training?
When will the training take place?
Where will the site of the training be?
 Who Will Be the Trainees?
• Identifying trainees is more complex for continuing than for
initial sales training programs.
• A company identifies the trainees for its initial sales training
program when it firms/set up sales job descriptions and hires
sales job applicants.
• While continuing sales training programs are prescribed for all
personnel in some companies
 Who Will Do the Training?
Initial sales training: Both Sales executives and Personnel
Director should participate in initial sales training
-the sales executives because of selling expertise and the
personnel director because of training expertise.

Continuing sales training: Responsibility of the top sales

executive.
• Introduction of new products, adoption of revised sales
policies, perfection of improved selling techniques, and
similar developments call for training.
• Sales training is a never-ending process.
 When Will the Training Take Place?
• Timing group versus individual training - Opinion is divided
as to the proper timing of group and individual training.
• Newly recruited trainees should receive formal group
training before starting to sell.
• When there are large numbers of new personnel, group
training is the way to train at the lowest cost per person.
Where Will the Training Site Be?
• Some companies hold initial sales training programs at the
central offices; others conduct separate programs at branch
offices.
 5. Evaluating Sales Training Programs
• The evaluation focuses upon measuring program
effectiveness.
• A sales training program represents investments of time,
money, and effort.
i. The starting point is to compare the program’s aims with the
results.
• Approaches measuring results based on certain comparisons:
 the length of time new sales personnel take to attain the
productivity level of the experienced salesperson
 the performance against standards of trained and untrained
sales personnel
 the respective training histories of the best and worst
performers.
ii. Other approaches to measuring program effectiveness are in
use.
• Some companies use written tests (on a before-and-after
training basis) to determine how much trainees have learned.

iii. Other firms send observers to work with sales personnel who
have completed training programs and to report the extent to
which trainees are applying what was taught in programs.

iv. Still other companies solicit/ask customers for their reactions

to a salesperson’s performance after training.
 Group Assignment
Chapter VIII: International Sales management
– International sales management and culture
– Formulating sales strategies at the national level
– Sales organizational structures

Each Group Should do the three topics

 Chapter 5
Motivating the sales people