Field Sales Research Articles

Collectivistic and Individualistic Performance Expectancy in the Utilization of Sales Automation Technology in an International Field Sales Setting

This study examines a model that discriminates between internalized collective performance expectancy (ICPE) and evaluative individual performance expectancy (EIPE) related to utilization of sales force automation (SFA) technology in an international setting. A field study was conducted with a sample of 141 sales representatives utilizing SFA technology in five countries. Results of the study showed that salesperson ICPE had a significant positive effect on SFA utilization and salesperson EIPE failed to show a significant direct effect on SFA utilization. However, salesperson EIPE had a significantindirect effect on SFA utilization through salesperson ICPE. This research supports the need for better managerial and vendor understanding of cultural value–specific factors related to field sales technology utilization.

Compensation and control sales policies, and sales performance: the field sales manager's points of view

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship among the compensation system (fixed or commission) applied to salespeople, the system by which they are controlled, and the effects of both on individual performance and sales organization effectiveness. Previous research has been extended in a different country/context, and from the field sales manager's points of view.Design/methodology/approachFirst, a cluster analysis was used to obtain a set of groups of salespeople characterized by their main compensation system (salary and/or commission). Also, ANOVA is used to analyze the significance of the differences due to the different compensation system.FindingsThe empirical data reflect the results of research involving 108 field sales managers and show that the compensation system used for the salespeople has significant effects on individual salesperson performance and sales organization effectiveness and is related to the control system used by the company. Companies with a compensation system based on a fixed salary use behavior control more than companies with a compensation system based on commission; salespeople who receive a greater proportion of compensation as a fixed salary give better individual performance than those who are paid by commission; salespeople who receive a greater proportion of their pay as a fixed salary are more effective than those paid largely by commission. Results do not show relevant differences among countries.Research limitations/implicationsAny generalisation of results is limited by the characteristics of this study, in particular by the sample used and the particular situation of the country analysed (Spain). At the same time, and because the study relies on the subjective judgment of sales field managers' perceptions, the measurement of some concepts is subject to various cognitive biases.Practical implicationsCompensation for salespeople is one of the most important issues in saleforce management as it has a significant effect on motivation, which is critical, given the conditions of their working environment.Originality/valueThis paper analyzes the field sales manager's points of view and not that of the salesperson or the sales team. This provides a closer perspective because field sales managers operate between the salesperson and sales manager. This paper presents a framework based on Baldauf et al.'s and Piercy et al.'s previous research, with two main contributions. The first contribution is the proposed direct analysis of the relationships between various antecedents of effectiveness. The second contribution is the consideration of two dimensions of the effectiveness construct: financial efficacy and field sales manager satisfaction.

Mobile Sales Force Automation

Research shows that interaction models determine if designs are exploratory or task oriented in structure. When the business objective defines efficiency as the key goal, the intent and structure remain action oriented. In this article, the author establishes that mobile sales force applications need to focus on efficiency to enable field sales staff to increase their productivity.

Baby Boomers And Generation X Industrial Salespeople: Generational Divide Or Convergence?

<p class="MsoFooter" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in center 3.0in right 6.0in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Currently two of the largest generational groups occupying industrial field sales positions are Generation X and Baby Boomers. While anecdotal evidence suggests these two generations are widely different, few studies have compared their career attitudes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Working within the conceptual framework of psychological employment contracts this study tested the notion that Generation X would be more transactional and Baby Boomers would be more relational in nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This nature was expected to take the form of higher intrinsic motivation levels and fewer career path changes among Baby Boomers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>While Baby Boomers do tend to express higher levels of intrinsic motivation, their career paths are less relational than expected (i.e. their careers are spanning more than one employer).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Overall the findings provide partial support for some of the relational theory expectations- and more importantly dispel still others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Managers faced with intergenerational field sales forces may similarly, therefore, question the assumption that Baby Boomer field salespeople will follow the relational employment contract profile.</span></span></p>

The Two Faces of Uncertainty Avoidance: Attachment and Adaptation

The authors used a sample of 155 field sales personnel from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand to examine attachment and adaptation as two ways of addressing individual uncertainty avoidance. Results suggest that both attachment and adaptation are used to reduce uncertainty avoidance in the workplace. Individuals low on uncertainty avoidance had no need to attach with their group or adapt to their environment. Those high on uncertainty avoidance used both techniques to deal with risk. Individuals reporting moderate levels of uncertainty avoidance primarily used adaptation rather than attachment to deal with risk.

Cummins India: brand leadership through service excellence

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the fact that brand image creation is an elaborate and long‐term activity through consistent strategic initiatives and the importance of understanding customer expectations and delivering them consistently.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based mainly on the information gathered by conducting interviews with executives of the case study company (Cummins India Ltd), field sales and service team members of the company and some important customers.FindingsCummins in India has been the market leader in manufacturing diesel, gas, and dual fuel engines for various industrial purposes such as generating sets, industrial, mining, and marine applications. The case mainly focuses on the generating set market where customers look for a brand which can assure not only a quality product, but also quality service. It covers a series of activities initiated by Cummins India Ltd, that span about two decades to make available spare parts and service support to customers. The case is a description of the history of Cummins India creating an organizational structure with service focus, a culture of service orientation and the systems to ensure service delivery. This corporate brand image has contributed immensely to the success of the company.Originality/valueThe paper is based mostly on primary information gathered through interviews and provides an insight into various initiatives of a successful organization to develop a customer‐focused service strategy.

Automating creative and advertising workflows at Newsday – An interview with James Kober of Newsday

Michael Moon of GISTICS interviews James Kober, prepress area manager for Newsday, and Vince Di Paolo of Moksa, examining ad operations workflow in the newspaper industry in general and at Newsday, specifically. The interview investigates how Newsday used Canto Cumulus to stimulate creative collaboration, streamline production between print and online groups, support field sales, and drive process innovations and faster cycle times.

Some determinants of salesforce effectiveness

PurposeThis paper aims to find out what characterises salespeople in the most effective salesforce in Spain.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical analysis has been done with 108 field sales managers from different sectors of activity to determine the conditions of the salesperson's control, professionalism and behaviour that affect his/her performance and the effectiveness of companies. A structural equations model or second generation multivariate model was used – PLS.FindingsThe results show that more effective salesforces are controlled through behaviour control systems, salespersons in this team identify with the company's strategic objectives and an important part of their remuneration is based on a fixed salary.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, the information has been gathered on a unique hierarchical level – team managers. Second, the company's activity sector and the type of salesperson can modify the results. Finally, the size of the sample has limited the potential application of specific statistical techniques and even the generalisation of the results.Practical implicationsField sales managers must help to define the salespeople's tasks to reach the company's objectives in the most effective way. This situation implies, logically, that control is exerted over behaviour and to a lesser extent over the results achieved by the salesperson.Originality/valueThe paper determines those variables which allow companies, and especially those persons holding responsibility in the salesforce, to increase their effectiveness. The objective enriches the knowledge on sales effectiveness and also applies, in the Spanish case, a study methodology that has been applied in other countries.

Re‐examining field sales unit performance

PurposeDrawing on the resource‐based view of the firm and the dynamic capabilities perspective, this paper sets out to argue that salespeople's selling skills and their inter‐ and intra‐unit collaborative skills are valuable, rare, socially complex, and inimitable knowledge‐based resources embedded in the human and social capital of field sales units (FSUs). Salespeople's selling and collaborative skills, both directly and interactively, should help field sales units generate greater economic rents. This paper also aims to explore the effect of salespeople's selling and collaborative skills on the level of total compensation through the mediating role of sales unit performance.Design/methodology/approachThe data were obtained from a sample of managers of FSUs in 102 large Canadian organizations. The proposed model and its hypotheses were tested using hierarchical moderated regression analysis.FindingsCollaborative skills, but not selling skills, are directly related to FSU performance; the effect of selling skills on FSU performance is strengthened by the complementary role of collaborative skills; and selling skills and collaborative skills both individually and interactively result in the payment of higher compensation to salespeople as a result of their enhanced performance.Research limitations/implicationsSalespeople's selling skills and collaborative skills (both directly and interactively) not only enable the FSU to generate higher levels of performance, but they also increase individual salespeople's compensation.Practical implicationsIt is necessary for managers to acknowledge the role of knowledge‐based resources in building/developing organizational dynamic capabilities.Originality/valueThis is one of the few studies that explores the strategic role of salespeople in creating a competitive advantage and links the sales management literature to the literature on the RBV of the firm and social capital/human capital theory.

Corrocoat strengthens field sales team

Corrocoat strengthens field sales team

A Model of Job Performance, Job Satisfaction, and Life Satisfaction Among Sales and Sales Support Employees at a Pharmaceutical Company

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the influence of role conflict, role ambiguity, and role strain on job performance, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction among field sales and company sales support employees in a single pharmaceutical company. Because this study is based on data from a single company, these results may not necessarily be generalized to all companies in the industry. In the present research, a path model of the process reveals important variations in response to role conflict, role ambiguity, and role strain between the two classes of employees. For both classes, the influence of decreased role ambiguity is generally positive for measured outcomes. However, reductions in role conflict, while lessening role strain, are likely to result in lower job performance for field sales employees. Decreases in role strain, while improving life satisfaction, may lead to lower job satisfaction for sales support employees.

The effect of moderators on the salesperson behavior performance and salesperson outcome performance and sales organization effectiveness relationships

Salesperson behavior performance is conceptualized as a predictor of outcome performance and sales organization effectiveness. The research considers the effects of salesperson capabilities, industrial/consumer products, and industry growth moderators on salesperson performance and sales organization effectiveness relationships. Empirical analyses are conducted using data from a sample of 174 field sales managers in Austrian sales organizations. The results of moderator regression analyses indicate that salesperson capabilities, product type, and industry growth are relevant moderators. The roles of the moderators vary across the relationships analyzed. Several management and research implications are examined.

By gosh I think she’s got it – well, not yet

Charts the rise of women into sales manager positions in the US and looks at the general traits which help females in such roles. Cites that women have more trouble being accepted in sales roles when selling to other countries. Focuses upon the People’s Republic of China and presents the finding of a study of 266 field sales personnel across the republic. Suggests that there are still a number of difficulties for businesses, but provides some ideas for consideration.

Facility management: How a virtual model enabled a breakthrough for a high‐tech company

In 1999, Hewlett‐Packard Company (HP) began the reinvention of the entire company to provide an infrastructure which would respond to the demands of an ever‐changing industry. This paper presents an indepth case study of the successful partnership between HP’s US Field Sales Office Facility Maintenance support team and Trammell Crow Corporate Services. The initial goal was to achieve a more efficient method of managing facility operations and maintenance. HP created the programme focus, touch points, processes and strategies. What happened was a complete reinvention of the methods that HP uses to accomplish facility support. While traditional maintenance models will always have their place in industry, this case study provides evidence that there are incredible benefits available for those industries that have the courage to change in radical ways.

This Company Died for Your Lawn, This Lawn Died for Your Company

THIS COMPANY DIED FOR YOUR LAWN, THIS LAWN DIED FOR YOUR COMPANY/ Steve Almond SLIGO'S NEW IDEA WAS WEALTH, sudden gouts of cashola, the vaguely cheese-like scent of new biUs. He viewed our current circumstance —technicaUy, a circumstance of poverty—as the ideal substrate . There was always a friend of a friend; there was always TV and the shiny-paper versions of TV. Runts with messianic grins and the right creation myth were becoming ziltionaires on the Net. What was it anywaybesides wishful thinking? Wishful thinking is always the linchpin of a sustained and senseless prosperity. Our economy of scale, Stigo's and mine, involved chicken wings and hot-dog buns. We were members of the reflective poor, a couple of can-do palookas with dreams in our socks and so on and so on. SUgo was hemorrhaging with ideas: freelunch.com; makeadecision.com; aUbi.com. The key was seed money. The career counseling center at Grover Cleveland Senior High was pasted with Uterature from the armed forces, an enterprise ardently concerned with computer training and cross-racial hygiene. Before we could even reach the desk, a woman in lumpy slacks appeared. Her manner suggested the brisk loneliness of a parent volunteer. "May I help you?" came out more Uke Dear God, turn me into someone else. "We're looking for the job board," SUgo said. "Are you aU students here?" SUgo wore army surplus cutoffs and a guayabera. His skull was massive, which wasn't his fault but contributed to a sense of menace. I was thepossibly-more-dangeroussidekick. Myhairhunginridiculous shingles. There was a tendency on my part to skulk. "We're alumni," SUgo said. "My name is Fortran SUgo. This is Michael McGlinchy." "Tm not sure I understand," the woman said. I wasn't quite sure I understood either. We were college graduates, after aU, with lovely, pointless degrees in philosophy. But SUgo insisted the bestjobs, the quick cash numbers, were at the high school level. He urged me to consider the dramatic upswing in teenaged millionaires. His logic was relentless and opaque. "Graduates," he said to the parent volunteer. "We are graduates of this fine institution, though currently on the market, as it were, when considered —that is, ws—from an employment perspective." 170 · The Missouri Review The woman inspected SUgo. Her mouth was a rubberized message of doom. "I think you'd better leave." "Tm sure that's not necessary," SUgo said. But already she was moving to the phone. This was a period of extreme paranoia concerning schools and school property, thanks to the series of deadly assaults by disaffected students. In Europe and Asia, disaffected students fomented revolution and swung heroically from tanks. In America, though, they were more or less in the business of slaughter. Someone was always going apeshit in America, and never for the right reasons. You read about it all the time. SUgo had a plan to capitalize on this: amuck.com. Out on the sidewalk, SUgo showed me the three-by-five card he'd nicked from the job board. Big $$$—Growth Field—Sales experience preferred ! There were directions to an orientation session, to be held in the courtyard of a leafy community college outside Sheperdstown. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon. Wrappers tossed past on a soft breeze. At last a guy in a sweater vest appeared. He checked his watch and frowned. "You the only ones?" His hair looked like one of those Rogaine ads. You could see someone was paying very careful attention to his hairline, some poor hairdresser named Trish or Linda. "How old are you guys?" he said. "How old are we?" SUgo said. "Right." "In our twenties," SUgo said. "Right around there." "Any sales experience?" I could see SUgo start to sort of cock his fist. "Okay okay okay," said the guy. "Tm late already." He introduced himself as PhU, though tentatively, as ifhe mighthavejust settled on the name. He took our number and handed us a pamphlet. AAAA Lawn Service. The Company That Cares About Your Lawn. The Company That Would Take a Bulletfor Your Lawn. The Company That Diedfor Your Lawn. We hollered these mottos back and forth, SUgo...

Examining the consequences of sales management control strategies in European field sales organizations

The effective management of sales organizations is important to managers of international marketing operations spanning multiple countries, but also to managers of local operations who may question the validity of many of the prescriptions of US‐based research. Studies sales management control in companies in Austria and the UK to contribute a European perspective on behaviour‐based control compared to outcome‐based control. Focuses on the pivotal role of the field sales manager compared to prior research at the salesperson and chief sales executive levels. Confirms the robustness of the behaviour‐based control in these international contexts, and also contributes a number of new insights to the general sales management control research literature. Identifies a number of important research directions in this important area, as well as implications for managers of international selling organizations.

Sensing the way to protect progressing cavity pumps

When it comes to efficiency and versatility, progressing cavity pumps (PCPs) have many advantages. They provide highly efficient, accurate metering of viscous fluids, while simultaneously being highly resistant to wear from abrasive fluids, and capable of transferring shear-sensitive products without damage. However, like many types of pump, dry running is a potentially dangerous problem. David Lee UK Field Sales Manager for Robbins and Myers discusses several different sensor-based systems which can deactivate the pump if it runs dry.

Salespeople characteristics, sales managers’ activities and territory design as antecedents of sales organization performance

The impact of characteristics of salespeople, activities of sales managers and territory design are investigated as antecedents of sales organization performance among Canadian salesforces. Based on MANOVA analysis of responses from 102 field sales managers, more effective sales organizations have salespeople who are more motivated, employ managers who direct more and are more satisfied with the design of their territories. Sales managers must adopt better people and communication skills to train and direct their salespeople who are expected to provide better service and establish long‐term relations with their customers.

Strategies for avoiding the micro management trap

In the highly competitive business world of today, many managers have a tendency to micro manage their field sales employees. These managers have good intentions of trying to help the representatives accomplish the various tasks and directives that have been set by upper management. However, this type of approach often results in a lack of productivity. Managers and representatives become focused on tasks and often lose sight of the big picture. This article presents four key strategies to help sales managers avoid the micro management trap and to increase productivity of the field sales representative.

How disintermediation is changing the rules of marketing, sales and distribution

Disinter — to unearth, to displace; and mediate — to act as middleman. Combined, they mean to displace the middleman. Disintermediation signifies major shifts in how we market, sell and deliver products. In many industries, distributors are disappearing and being replaced by electronic media. As a result, direct sales forces are shrinking and their role is changing. On the other hand, marketing is being forced to become a revenue-producing part of the organisation. This paper discusses how field sales is waning in power, marketing is gaining ground, and the biggest beneficiary is the customer. As a result, there is a new class of middlemen called infomediaries, By comparing old and new business-to-business sales and marketing models, we discover both the beneficiaries and the potential casualties of disintermediation. This paper discusses these major trends and recommends what companies must do to thrive in the emerging marketing landscape.