The Strategic Role of the Sales Force: Perceptions of Senior Sales Executives

Current models of sales force strategy imply formidable information processing demands, which leads us to take a cognitive approach to studying the issue of sales force strategy. We focus on how top-level executives use mental models of sales force performance to simplify the issue of sales force strategy. We interviewed 74 senior executives responsible for their firms’ selling function using the repertory grid approach, as this methodology has been shown to be particularly effective at uncovering the collective cognitive maps on which executives’ decisions and behaviors are based. Executives identified a broad set of 37 strategic concepts that they felt distinguish the sales force efforts of directly competing companies. A second set of sales executives classified the 37 concepts into capabilities, resources, and organizational context concepts. Based on the classification results and feedback from both sets of executives, we developed research propositions for examining sales force strategy and provide directions for future research.

Compensating the sales force.

Loose-leaf.

Sales management, marketing policies, sales campaigns which build up trade, training yourself to sell, developing and managing a sales force

Mode of access: Internet.

Sales force social exchange in problem resolution situations

While sales managers spend much of their time resolving sales force-related problems, existing theory offers little insight into the social exchange processes which occur in problem resolution situations. Using a qualitative inquiry method rooted in grounded theory, we uncover three key social exchange contributions used by sales managers when dealing with problem situations in the sales force: sales manager responsiveness, caring, and aggressiveness. We then show that the extent to which managers use these exchange contributions in problem situations is a function of manager characteristics, problem-specific characteristics, and the situational context. We also show that the extent to which managers invest in these three social exchange contributions has implications for the quality for the interpersonal relationships between salespeople and their managers, and for the effectiveness of problem resolution activity.

International selling and sales management:sales force research beyond geographic boundaries

An introduction is presented for this issue which includes the articles "Internationalizing Sales Research: Current Status, Opportunities and Challenges" by Nikolaos G. Panagopoulos and colleagues, "Cultural Intelligence in Cross-Cultural Selling: Propositions and Directions for Future Research" by John D. Hansen and colleagues, and "A New Conceptual Framework of Sales Force Control Systems" by Ren Y. Darmon and Xavier C. Martin

Work-related stressors and psychological strain in the sales force:the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

The contemporary workplace appears rife with psychological strain, which can have considerable deleterious outcomes to the firm and the individual. However, research on strain in the sales force is underdeveloped. This paper reports the results of a study of the antecedents and consequences of psychological strain in the sales force, with particular attention to the roles of role ambiguity, emotional exhaustion, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Emotional exhaustion is found to increase strain. Intrinsic motivation reduces strain under conditions of relatively high role ambiguity, but leads to more strain under conditions of low role ambiguity. Strain is found to have a J-shaped relationship with turnover intentions, and is linearly related to lower job satisfaction and lower job performance.

Delegation of pricing authority to the sales force:an agency-theoretic perspective of its determinants and impact on performance

In industrial selling situations, the questions of what factors drive pricing authority delegation to salespeople and under what conditions price delegation is beneficial for the firm are often asked. To advance knowledge in this area, we (1) develop and empirically test a framework of important drivers of price delegation based on agency-theoretic research and (2) investigate the impact of price delegation on firm performance, taking into account agency theory variables as potential moderators. The study is based on data from a sample of 181 companies from the industrial machinery and electrical engineering industry in Germany. The results indicate that the degree of pricing delegation increases as information asymmetry between the salesperson and sales manager increases and as it becomes more difficult to monitor salespeople's efforts. Conversely, risk-aversion of salespeople is negatively related to the degree of price delegation. Furthermore, we find a positive effect of price delegation on firm performance, which is amplified when market-related uncertainty is high and when salespeople possess better customer-related information than their managers. Hence, our results clearly show that rigid, “one price fits all” policies are inappropriate in many B2B market situations. Instead, sales managers should grant their salespeople sufficient leeway to adapt prices to changing customer requirements and market conditions, especially in firms that operate in highly uncertain selling environments.

Factors affecting the adoption of new products by the sales force

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Social media and related technology:drivers of change in managing the contemporary sales force

The selling environment has undergone tremendous transformation over the past 2 decades. Perhaps the greatest change has centered on changes and advancements in technology. The latest dramatic change has been the rapidly increasing use of social media and other related technologies in the business-to-business realm. The sales world began the use of technology through the use of Web 1.0, which was primarily webpage oriented; now we see the world of social media as the paradigm of how firms should implement technology. Although there has been some recent emphasis on how marketing might implement social media into their strategies and how the individual salesperson might implement social media into his or her daily selling routine, no substantive discussion on how social media is affecting the role of the sales manager has appeared in the literature. This article systematically examines how social media is impacting the sales management function and, in fact, may be dramatically revolutionizing the position. To help the marketing and sales organization better understand the changing sales world, we present eight lessons that every sales manager needs to embrace.

Perceções de (In)Justiça na Avaliação de Desempenho das Forças de Venda: estudo em empresas do sector farmacêutico

Num mundo competitivo com alterações profundas nos processos de trabalho e desempenho, surgem necessidades de novas formas de avaliação e competências profissionais. Estas necessidades promovem um ambiente nem sempre justo e saudável, algo imprescindível para o bem-estar de uma organização. O presente estudo objetiva verificar perceções de justiça organizacional da avaliação de desempenho de duas empresas do sector farmacêutico (empresa A e empresa B). Do mesmo modo verifica-se de que forma as variáveis sociodemográficas afetam ou fragmentam a avaliação de desempenho. Este tema é pouco explorado em Portugal, contribuindo para o aprofundamento da compreensão da multidimensionalidade da perceção de justiça nas forças de vendas destas organizações. A pesquisa descritiva foi realizada por meio de levantamento, com assertivas extraídas da pesquisa de Sotomayor (2006), para investigar as perceções de justiça distributiva, processual, interpessoal e informacional. Os resultados obtidos neste estudo indicam perceção de justiça organizacional na avaliação de desempenho por parte da força de vendas em todas as quatro dimensões distintas, apresentando a justiça procedimental um score de destaque, seguida da justiça distributiva. A organização B apresenta níveis mais elevados de prevalência de justiça distributiva, procedimental, interpessoal e informacional face à organização A. No que respeita à relação entre as variáveis sociodemográficas e à perceção de justiça na avaliação de desempenho, a mesma não é suportada nesta amostra não comprometendo a perceção de justiça. Do presente estudo retira-se o quanto determinante nas organizações que envolvem forças de venda são as políticas e práticas de gestão de desempenho, acautelando o sucesso estratégico sustentado da organização, percecionando que com estas a organização as valoriza e cuida do seu bem-estar, com perceções positivas de justiça na avaliação de desempenho. / In a competitive world with profound changes in work processes and performance needs arise new forms of evaluation and professional skills. These needs foster an environment not always fair and healthy, something essential for the well-being of an organization. This study aims to verify perception of organizational justice evaluation of performance of two companies in the pharmaceutical sector (company A and company B). Likewise there is how sociodemographic varia-bles affect or fragmenting the performance appraisal. This theme is underexplored in Portugal, contributing to the deepening of understanding of the multidimensionality of perception of justice in these organizations sales forces. The descriptive research was conducted through survey, with the extracted assertions Sotomayor research (2006), to investigate the perceptions of distributive, procedural, interpersonal and informational justice. The results of this study indicate organizational justice perception on performance appraisal by the sales force in all four different dimensions, presenting procedural justice an outstanding score, followed by distributive justice. The organization B has higher levels of prevalence of distributive justice, procedural, interpersonal and informational face the organization A. As regards the relationship between sociodemographic variables and the perception of justice in performance appraisal, it is not supported in this sample does not compromising the perception of justice. The present study withdraws how decisive in organizations involving sales force policies and performance management practices, cautioning sustained strategic success of the organization, perceived that the organization values and cares for your well-being, with positive perceptions justice in performance appraisal.

Metodologia Scrum e força de vendas no turismo: Ubiwhere

O presente trabalho descreve a aplicação da metodologia Scrum à Força de Vendas direcionada para o mercado de Turismo. A metodologia Scrum é habitualmente usada nas empresas de desenvolvimento de software e pressupõe um conjunto de práticas que agilizam os métodos de criação de projetos, permitindo uma maior adaptabilidade aos fatores externos e imprevisíveis. A versatilidade desta metodologia é demonstrada pela sua aplicação a contextos tão distintos como marketing e vendas. É nesta perspetiva que surge a ideia de criação de uma nova Força de Vendas, adaptada aos princípios de metodologia ágil Scrum.