The actors in the process and their roles

Abstract

What knowledge should sales managers have acquired in order to properly carry their missions? What qualities should they possess? These are questions that are addressed in Part I of this book. As underlined in Chapter 1, a sales force must be managed at two levels. A sales manager must attempt to influence market and customer behaviors through the sales force and salespeople. Three chapters of Part I (Chapters 2, 4, and 5) are devoted to a description and analysis of the behaviors of the three main actors of the dynamic sales management process: buyers, salespeople, and sales managers. Chapters 3 and 5 assess the roles of these actors in building and maintaining strong and lasting relationships. The rationale for this structure is provided in Figure I.1. Chapter 2 describes the key actors of the sales management process that salespeople attempt to “influence,” that is at a basic level, customers and prospects whose behaviors must be understood, predicted, and influenced, and at an aggregate level, the whole sales territory. Chapter 3 analyzes the role salespeople play in developing relationships with clients and in managing their own sales territories. In order to establish business relationships between suppliers (through their sales representatives) and customers, a number of interactions must take place. Salespeople as well as sales managers cannot properly accomplish their missions unless they understand their customers' purchase and selling behaviors and grasp the influence and persuasion mechanisms that are activated during the selling and negotiation processes.