Industrial Sales Force Research Articles

Managing the effects of culture shock and sojourner adjustment on the expatriate industrial sales force

This study reviews the considerations involved in employing an expatriate industrial sales force and then explores the nature of culture shock and sojourner adjustment in terms of their impact on expatriate sales performance and turnover. Managerial actions for enhancing expatriate performance and reducing turnover are suggested.

The effects of organizational formalization on organizational commitment and work alienation in US, Japanese and Korean industrial salesforces

States that researchers in marketing have called for investigations concerning personal selling and sales management in the international arena. Examines the influence of organizational formalization on work alienation through role stress and organizational commitment in industrial salesforces in the USA, Japan and Korea. From surveys of salesforces selling electronic products and components, reveals inter‐country differences and highlights the importance of conducting cross‐national studies on salesforce issues.

Identifying Peer Mentors in the Sales Force: An Exploratory Investigation of Willingness and Ability

There has been a high level of interest in the sales management practitioner literature in mentoring, but very little is known about peer mentoring relationships between more experienced and less experienced salespeople. Sales organizations that wish to initiate or encourage peer mentoring relationships must identify those salespeople who are both able and willing to mentor less experienced salespeople. The results of an exploratory study to identify mentors in an industrial sales force are reported. The authors find that job experience, job satisfaction, a measure of interpersonal competence, and role conflict are associated with willingness to mentor; interpersonal competence and role conflict are associated with ability to mentor. Results are discussed and opportunities for future research are offered.

Managing the industrial salesforce culture

The concept of culture has been an important subject of managerial interest over the past decade, yet little has been written about how culture can be managed within the industrial salesforce. Describes the key components of a salesforce culture and explains the characteristics of a well‐managed salesforce culture. Finally, develops suggestions for managing the industrial salesforce culture around three strategic factors: planning, implementation and control. Concludes by providing some guidelines for further research in this important area.

Improving the performance of the industrial sales force in the 1990s

Manufacturers of industrial products are facing escalating sales costs and declining sales force productivity. Fortunately, there are means available to effectively cope with these problems. These include account management, lead generation efforts, computer-assisted sales programs, telemarketing, and systems contracts. This article provides examples of companies that have successful programs, and identifies benefits, conditions required for putting them into operation, and implementation strategies.

Managing the Industrial Sales Force of the 1990s

This article is concerned with the changes which have affected the personal selling function in industrial markets in recent years. It reviews research findings from the UK, Europe and America, and discusses the implications for sales force management and sales training. It concludes that industrial marketing must focus upon key account relationship management, rather than the manipulation of the four Ps in order to create competitive advantage, and that radical new approaches are needed in sales training which reflect the changing nature of the sales person's role, and which may be demonstrated to have a positive affect on selling effectiveness.

The Emerging Role of Women in Industrial Selling: A Decade of Change

The rapid influx of women into the industrial salesforce over the last decade has created a need to upgrade understanding of the female salesperson. The authors examine gender differences in job-related attitudes and performance outcomes in an integrated salesforce. Results showing few gender differences bring into question anecdotal suggestions that women require special programs to facilitate their assimilation into the salesforce. Specific recommendations are provided about individual treatment for both male and female salespeople.

An Empirical Study of Factors Influencing Innovation Implementation in Industrial Sales Organizations

The authors formulate and test a model of organizational factors leading to successful implementation of the telemarketing innovation. Data to test the model were collected by interviewing two key informants in each of 110 industrial salesforces. Support was found for many of the individual hypotheses in the model. Preliminary conclusions are drawn for marketing management and theory.

Interactive Multiple Objective Decision Support for Sales Force Sizing and Deployment

An interactive decision aid is introduced for the deployment of two sales resources: salespeople and sales support staff. The aid consists of a normative sales resource allocation model with five objectives and an interactive multiple objective programming solution procedure. The specific decision problem addressed involves the assignment of salespeople and sales support people to customer accounts and the allocation of the time they spend on these accounts. The authors contribute to the existing sales resource modeling literature by dealing with the deployment of two sales resources and interactively solving this problem with respect to five short-run and long-run objectives of the firm. This approach differs from existing sales force modeling efforts in which the solution is found noninteractively by optimizing a single sales resource model with respect to a single objective, often short-run sales. An application of the decision aid to the deployment problem of an industrial sales force manager is presented. Furthermore, useful extensions of the basic sales resource allocation model are discussed.

Motivation and Dissatisfaction of Industrial Salespeople — How Relevant is Herzberg's Theory?

The need for effective industrial sales‐force motivation is emphasised and the theoretical relating to Herzberg's theory is discussed. Previous empirical studies are reviewed and the results of a 1985 investigation of British industrial salespeople's views on motivation and dissatisfaction are analysed. Implications concerning the Dual Factor Theory and industrial salesforce management are examined.

CAS: The rebirth of the industrial sales force

Changes in the technology used by industrial manufacturers will cause changes in the structure of the industry. CAD/CAM/CAE technology is an example. This paper explores the potential impact of CAD/CAM/CAE on the structure of industrial sales channels. These changes are personified by the development of a new member of the industrial sales force—computer aided sales (CAS). The strategic implication of CAS are presented, as is the change in industry structure that preceded the development of CAS.

Implications of Salesforce Productivity Heterogeneity and Demotivation: A Navy Recruiter Case Study

This paper describes a study of Navy recruiter productivity at the individual recruiter level. Timeseries of monthly contract production by each of 345 recruiters who served for six months or more during the period May 1977–December 1978 formed the basis of the study. A wide variation in job tenure was observed in this data with some recruiters beginning their normal three-year tour of duty, and others in their second or third years. Two key empirical findings are reported here: (1) in addition to the expected learning period at the beginning of a recruiter's tour of duty there was a severe and extended demotivational (or “delearning”) period at the end of the tour. Production during these periods was very low. (2) substantial heterogeneity existed in recruiter productivity after controlling for the impact of tenure. Recruiter performance is predictable—good recruiters tend to stay good while poor recruiters continue to perform poorly. A stochastic model for heterogeneous production is developed and an early rotation policy for poorly performing recruiters is proposed. Under this policy a recruiter is observed for N months after the learning period. If total production in N months is less than c, the recruiter is rotated out and is replaced by a new recruiter. It is shown that the optimal selection of N and c can substantially improve recruiter force productivity. Productivity improves even when these parameters deviate somewhat from optimality. U.S. Navy Recruiting command initiatives that resulted from this and related studies are described. They included a change in the measure used for recruiter goal setting and an incentive system which led to rewards for superior recruiters and reassigning poorly performing recruiters to nonrecruiting duty. Finally the paper discusses the implications of the results obtained for industrial salesforces.

An empirical examination of the assumed job tenure-vocational maturity linkage in the industrial sales force

In the design of communication, motivation, and supervisory programs, conventional wisdom suggests that sales managers often assume a job tenure-vocational maturity linkage. This paper reports the results of a survey of 241 industrial salespeople that calls into question this assumption. Implications for sales administrators and academics are suggested.

An Empirical Examination of the Assumed Job Tenure-Vocational Maturity Linkage in the Industrial Sales Force

An Empirical Examination of the Assumed Job Tenure-Vocational Maturity Linkage in the Industrial Sales Force

Industrial salesforce satisfaction and performance with Herzberg's theory

Sales managers are seeking answers to facilitate the salesforce motivational process. This study empirically tested one of the most prominant motivational theories, which, some authorities consider the leading work formulated on the idea that satisfaction leads to performance. This study found no support for Herzberg's dichotomy or the correlation between satisfaction and performance.

Industrial Sales Forces — Their Role in Product Planning and Development

The information contained in this article was collected during the course of a research study of the role and activities of industrial salesmen, particularly focusing on the types of information they generate as a result of their contacts in the market place. The article examines how certain companies are utilising the knowledge of industrial salesmen in product planning and development.

Optimizing the number of industrial salespersons

The objective of this article is to examine the major alternative methods currently used for optimizing the industrial sales force size and to assess their applicability in industrial firms. The article examines in detail the main difficulties facing an industrial firm trying to optimize its sales force, discussing some of the factors that affect industrial selling strategy and policy. The five alternative major techniques for optimizing the number of industrial salespersons, are then discussed in detail, presenting the basis of each approach/method, its advantages and disadvantages for an industrial firm, and when the method is applicable in an industrial marketing situation.

Industrial Sales Forces — Organization Strategy

Looks at the developments and trends taking place in how companies organize their industrial salesforces. Investigates the reasons why companies have restructured their salesforces and what marketing objectives have been sought when making organizational changes. Examines marketing information generated from salespeople working within different organizational patterns. Suggests that salesforces are being restructured with the specific objective of increasing the flow of intelligence from the market‐place.

Analyzing the industrial salesforce selection process

Selection of the industrial salesforce is an integral part of effective sales management. While some sales management literature has addressed the desirable qualities of salespersons in relation to performance, practically no attention has been given to how salespersons are being selected. The success of the selection process determines the performance of the salesforce and the amount of time sales managers devote to selection as compared with their other responsibilities. Research from sales management and personnel selection literature suggests that the determining characteristics may vary, depending on the kind of selling job to be performed, the product, and even on the interviewers themselves, yet most analyses have aggregated results across most of these categories. This paper investigates the salesforce selection process through the use of conjoint analysis to illustrate the complexity of the decisions involved and the capability of analysis at the individual level.

Performance and Satisfaction in an Industrial Sales Force: An Examination of their Antecedents and Simultaneity

Is the link between performance and job satisfaction myth or reality? Does performance influence satisfaction, or does satisfaction influence performance? This age-old managerial problem is examined with a causal modeling methodology to unravel the true relationship.