Sales Force Management

Fall 1999

1
Outline

 Role of the sales force in corporate

strategy
 Trends in personal selling and sales
management
 Functions of the salesperson and sales
manager
 Course overview

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Strategic Leverage of the
Sales Force

 Customer focus
 Enhances customer loyalty
 Source of competitive advantage

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Enhances Customer Focus

 Allows a targeted market segment

approach
 one customer at a time
 customize sales calls and presentations by
needs
 important source of market knowledge and
customer needs assessment

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Develops Customer Loyalty

 Creates high switching costs

 salesperson (knowledge, expertise,
relationship) creates product/service
differentiation, particularly when competitors’
products deliver the same basic benefits
 Loyalty reduces the customers’ price
sensitivity

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Source of Competitive
Advantage

 Creates a barrier to entry

 costs of creating a sales force
 market access
 Creates a medium-to-long term
competitive advantage
 unlike advertising (medium-term) or pricing
(short-term)

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Trends in Personal Selling

 Nature of the sales job:

 Informed consultant:
 knowledge of customers, industries and applications
 Process (rather than event) driven
 Team player
 Customer advocate/Market feedback
 Integration of promotional mechanisms (e.g.
DTC)

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Trends in Personal Selling

 Nature of the sales manager’s job:

 Decentralized management; greater span of
control
 Automation
 Database targeting/customer data
 Evaluated on team performance (rather than
individual performance)
 Reward in many ways (not just $$)

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Importance of Effective
Sales Management

 Expensive part of marketing strategy

 Cost of call:
 Overall average: $157
 ($239 for a value-added selling environment)

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Functions of the
Salesperson

 Prospecting
 Communicating: two-way
 Allocating & coordinating: company
resources, time
 Servicing
 Helping define marketing strategy

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Functions of the Sales
Manager

 Communicate expectations: tell

salespeople what you expect them to do
 Make the work doable: an important
component o the SM role here is removing
obstacles to performance
 Evaluate and give feedback: reward
successful behavior, apply corrective
actions for behavior that is not acceptable
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Course Overview

 Effective Personal Selling

 Strategic Issues
 Tactical Issues
 Industrial Settings
 informed buyers
 discipline of repeat purchase
 often genuine differentiation is possible

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Course Overview
(continued)

 Effective Personal Selling

 What is effective personal selling?
 Business to business selling and the Buyclass
Framework (Case: Lawford Electric)

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Course Overview
(continued)

 Strategic Issues
 Vertical Integration (Case: Jamestown)
 Control Systems
 Structuring the Sales Force(Cases: Wright Line &
Siebel Systems
 Sales Force Allocation: Deployment & Organization
(Case: Syntex)
 Territory Assignment & Design
 Strategy for Optimal Sales Productivity

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Course Overview
(continued)

 Tactical Issues
 Sales Analysis (Case: Milford A)
 Performance Evaluation (Case: Milford B)
 Compensation (Case:Mary Kay Cosmetics) &
Motivation (Case: IMAGE)
 Selection (Case: IDS) & Training
 Information Systems/Sales Force Automation
(Case: Profiling at National Mutual)
 Sales Force Automation

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Course Overview
(continued)

 Putting it all together (Case: DigitalThink

& Group Projects)

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Course Requirements

 Class Participation 20%

 Group Projects 35%
 DigitalThink Case
 Group Presentation
 Mid-term Exam 20%
 Final Exam 25%

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Class Participation

 Show up, on time.

 Prepare cases and reading
 Quality vs. quantity
 Contribute articles/reading/examples
 http://www.salesandmarketing.com/
 http://www.sellingpower.com/
 http://www.decalibrary.org/

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Group Projects

 DigitalThink Case
 Due November 17th on or before class. 5
page limit on text w/ 3 page limit on exhibits
 Group Presentation
 Only presentation needs to be submitted-- no
paper/write-up

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Mid-term & Final Exams

 Case oriented
 Mid-term will focus on personal selling &
strategic issues
 Final will be more heavily weighted on
tactical issues

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Policies

 Projects are due on or before class

 You may challenge a grade-- but only in
writing

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Communicating with the
Professor

 E-mail is great (cain@haas.berkeley.edu)

 The syllabus is on the web
 Office hours: Wednesday 11:00am-
2:00pm
 By appointment

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