Sales People Research Articles

The multi-channel impact on the sales forces management.

Purpose The primary objective of this qualitative research is to gain a deeper understanding of the multi-channel impact on the role of sales forces and the way in which they are managed in a B2B context. Design/methodology/approach The authors compare the conclusion of their literature review with an analysis of the sales strategy of a leading cosmetic brand. They conducted their study by applying a multi-method qualitative research approach, which includes semi-structured interviews with managers and a research action performed by accompanying five salespeople on visits to their professional clients. Findings The results suggest that the development of a multi-channel context encourages salespeople to focus less on sales and order taking and more on advising clients about how best to develop their businesses. The multi-channel evolution seems to have enabled a transition of the role of sales people from a sales function to a function of a provider of personalized advice in the fields of business development, team management, salon promotions and merchandising. Research limitations/implications The quest for coherence, particularly at the international level, would justify a broadening of our study to include the impact of multi-channels sales on the market positioning of the brand and of other brands in different industrial sectors. Practical implications The expansion of the multi-channel sales approach implies that managers are obliged to seek a convergence, or at least a degree of coherence between the different channels. This strategy can be used to promote an effective integration of channels at the international level into a single, reliable distribution system that avoids all forms of cannibalization. The Omni-channel strategy implies shifting the emphasis in the channel and moving from a focus on direct sales to the professional client (“selling-in”) to a stress on direct sales to the end user (“selling-out”). Originality/value This article provides an original analytical approach to highlighting training methods and systems of remuneration that will help sales forces to manage the inter-channel migration of their customers. Salespeople will then be able to view the future Omni-channel context as an opportunity to improve the status of their role.

An Qualitative study of Effective Selling Behavior and Relationship Selling Behavior of Korean sales people: Focus on the case of auto finance salesperson in Ajucapital Corporation

An Qualitative study of Effective Selling Behavior and Relationship Selling Behavior of Korean sales people: Focus on the case of auto finance salesperson in Ajucapital Corporation

“Get busy talking or get busy dying”

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to high-light the very well-known potential downside of technology found in many sales environments and to provide a fail-safe remedy to telephone Call Reluctance. Design/methodology/approach – The typical, illogical thinking that underpins the reasons that sales people offer for their Call Reluctance are discussed in detail. A time tested platform built upon sound logic and decades of successful implementation is provided. The approach appeals equally to managers and sales personal because it is simple, doable and highly motivational. Findings – The results demonstrate the powerful effect that accurate thinking and an easily implemented management approach has for sales organizations and individuals when embracing the unparalleled value of telephone communication. Originality/value – The work is based upon the authors 40 plus years of applying the thinking and platform presented in the paper. In addition, for the past 15 years, the author has enthusiastically witnessed the incredibly positive impact of his approach to over 400 companies worldwide. He does not claim absolute originality of the content, as like most successful sales people, he is indebted to many, many sales people he has had the pleasure to know and learn from.

Intermixed Product and Service Boundaries: Exploring Servitization in Sheet Metal Industry

In the sheet metal industry, single machines or more complex production systems are integrated with a software needed to control them. While it is clear both for the company and the client that the machine is a product offered with the related services, the software deserves more attention. In the company where our team has been involved in an action research program, the software is conceived as a product with its related services, but this concept has not been properly transmitted to clients, who don’t recognize it and pretend software services for free. In this industry, machinery is linked to its software and both are enhanced by the related services, so the final product-service bundle should be made by four components.In order to better clarify this concept and illustrate the solutions our research team has identified to promote a complete PSS offer, the four-leg chair metaphor is proposed. The proper value of the whole PSS offer can be transmitted by an effective communication process, supporting sales people with instruments such as predefined packets for software services. Organisational changes should be adopted such as job enlargement for software technicians and cross-training with salespeople. By the former, software technicians, who are frontline employees in direct contact with customers during the training phase, can be transformed into internal entrepreneurs by proper incentives. Since they lack marketing education and sometimes trust of salespeople, cross-training is proposed as an effective way to keep in touch software technicians with salespeople with mutual learning.

Sales Force Effectiveness through Technical Skills – An Empirical Observation in Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

The study is an attempt to identify the technical skills adopted by sales people in a pharmaceutical industry. The main objective is to understand how far these skills enhance the effectiveness of these sales people when they are in the field. This study is conducted based on survey research and a minimal usage of statistics brought out significant results. The major findings of this study points out the customer/product knowledge and client evaluation are some basic skill sets, which improves the sales people performance in this industry. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p641

Salesmanship Skill as Effective Driving Force in Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

Selling a product or services is a job that needs certain skills, which acts as the important driving force for a company. This takes a complicated dimension when it is probed in Pharmaceutical Industry. The necessity of these sales people in reaching the variety of highly knowledge customer base makes the companies spend some amount in training and making them realize the importance of reaching a target. Considering these aspects, the present study attempted to identify the important skill sets that have the capacity to empower the salesperson, which in turn emerges as sales force effectiveness. The study through survey method found, Adaptability, Consultative selling, Negotiation/questioning, and Sales person cues and communication styles as the important skill sets for a sales force to be effective. These findings are specific to Indian pharmaceutical Industry, which the present study has considered as the sample. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p652

Managing Salesforce Compensation During the Growth Stage

The salesforce is a strategic lever of the sales organization for improving sales growth, market share and profitability. Various attributes of salesforce such as its size and structure are key components of salesforce compensation design. This research focuses on this direction and provides methodology to indentify optimal size of salesforce and the right balance between generalized and specialized sales roles in the salesforce structure. The size and structure of the salesforce significantly impact the operation of salesforce in terms of efficiency and effectiveness and hence it needs to change as the sales organization enters the growth stage. It is mainly because these attributes have highest impact on overall success of sales organization in the growth stage compared to other stages of business life cycle. However, designing an optimal salesforce size and structure is an intricate task. This study looks into this area and develops various matrices and analytical tools to determine optimal salesforce size and structure during growth stage. At optimal salesforce size and corresponding structure, sales organization is able to attract, retain and motivate the ‘right’ type of sales people, build long term relationship with customers, gain market share, enhance profitability and thus maximize the value of sales organization. Research develops a financial model and provides a numerical illustration to calculate optimal salesforce size and structure.

Utah Roots … and Herbs.

Utah Roots … and Herbs.

Personality of a Salesman: Evidence From Polish Pharmaceutical Industry

The personality as a concept exists for millenniums. Hippocrates divided people according to his approach to personality. Then, Jung, Eysenck, Cattel, even Freud and many other followers presented their own approach to personality as a bunch of features, attitudes, and embedded values. According to their works, it has been presumed that any given individual has own personality that differs her/him from all the others. It also allows use of discrimination analysis in describing groups of people as well as creating personality tests that are widely used in business. On these concepts, however, advisory and other non-scientific literature is blooming. Consultants and consultancy companies propose some other tools as Extended Disc, Hay, and IMMOQEE tools that may mislead managers willing to use one or more of the solution offered. In particular, it is visible that sales departments are facing employees rotation and being helpless in many cases. The paper is to present contemporary approach to personality as a concept used in business. It is also to present approaches to personality testing, and its use and results it may or may not deliver. All is based on the research made in groups of Polish pharmaceutical representatives and their managers. The research sample of sales people has been divided into two groups—top and bottom performers. The personality has been presented in a mode fitted to the sales department requirements. The results are to answer questions: 1. Whether the personality is a useful concept in managing sales people? 2. Do they really differ according to results of their work and personality together? and 3. Is it possible to create the description of a personality that differentiates good and bad sales performers?

Salesforce Control and Compensation System

The design of salesforce control and compensation system is crucial in salesforce management as it plays an important role in influencing ethics of salespeople. The performance of a sales organization is positively influenced by ethical behavior of sales people. To understand this relationship, this research applies game theory in the areas of salesforce control and compensation system. Research considers multiple equilibria in the game to identify optimal payoff and finds that a sales organization is better off with outcome control when sales people behave honestly as it has the highest payoff among all other possibilities. The propensity for sales people to make unethical choices can be reduced by designing an appropriate salesforce control system and a relevant compensation plan. Ethical behavior in sales organization can also be influenced by various organizational drivers such as ethical climate, code of ethics, hiring, selection and training process and ethical leadership. By such organizational influences, if a salesperson is motivated to act ethically by putting high efforts for building long term customer relationships, trust and loyalty, it results into a win-win situation for both sales people and the organization. Research has developed various models and payoff matrices to validate application of game theory in the field of salesforce compensation.

Work, Age and Other Drugs: Exploring the Intersection of Age and Masculinity in a Pharmaceutical Organization

This paper explores the work experiences of older male pharmaceutical sales representatives, many of whom are working well past traditional retirement age. In many respects these older sales people are the material signifiers of the company's products because they embody the firm's strategy of selling ‘older’, tried‐and‐tested drugs. Extending their careers well beyond the traditional age at which most Australian men retire enables these sales representatives to continue to construct masculine identities strongly related to work and career as they negotiate their ageing identities. We found that they drew on comparisons with their younger selves, older non‐working men and their future selves to counter ways in which ageing threatened their masculinity. While work remained the main site for the construction of their masculinity, we found that they drew on ageing norms and successful ageing discourses rather than earlier held hegemonic masculinity ideals to construct what it meant for them to be an older man.

Sales People as Emotional Laborers

Ever since Hochschild (1983) introduced the concept of emotional labor in the workplace, it has constantly interested researchers due to its impact on employees’ well-being as well as organizational outcomes. However, a thorough understanding of emotional labor and its relationship with various outcomes in sales people is not yet realized. In a systemic approach to the concept using quantitative methods is still necessary. The present study treats emotional labor as two factors (e.g. emotive dissonance and emotive effort). The psychological and behavioral outcomes of each sub-construct of emotional labor are investigated within a parsimonious framework. The findings suggest that emotional dissonance affected job satisfaction, while emotive effort had a significant influence on emotional exhaustion and job performance.

Sales People as Emotional Laborers : Psychological And Behavioral Outcomes

Sales People as Emotional Laborers : Psychological And Behavioral Outcomes

Succeeding at Sales by Avoiding Failure: Social Achievement Goals in a Collectivist Cultural Context

Social achievement goals are introduced as useful in understanding the motivation of sales people. Further, although past research has indicated that avoidance based achievement goals are maladaptive, recent evidence suggests they are less harmful or may even be helpful in collectivist cultural contexts. Yet, this research has not been extended to work settings. The study tests the validity of social goals and the nature of avoidance based goals in predicting sales outcomes in Sri Lanka. Salespeople in a large organization were surveyed to examine their motivational goals and performance. Results indicated that social achievement goals were predictive of performance and that avoidance based social achievement goals were positively related or unrelated to sales performance. The findings highlight social achievement goals as useful to understanding the behaviour and motivation of salespeople and suggest that regional variations in culture may require motivational programmes that are very different in nature.

Emotional Intelligence – Sales Performance Relationship: A Mediating Role of Adaptive Selling Behaviour

Abstract In this study, we examined the impact of emotional intelligence on sales performance. We posited that the impact of emotional intelligence (EI) on sales performance was mediated by adaptive selling behaviour (ASB). Data were collected from 281 sales people in the financial industries in Malaysia via the WLEIS emotional intelligence scale and ADAPTS adaptive selling behaviour scale, and were quantitatively analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). Results were in keeping with the model. Three domains of EI were not found to impact sales performance directly but through ASB. Theoretical implications and managerial ramifications were also discussed.

The Effect of Marketing Capabilities and Distribution Strategy on Performance of MSP Intermediary Organisations’ in Nairobi County, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of marketing capabilities and distribution strategy the performance of MSP intermediary organizations. The mobile service providers sector is a major contributor to the country’s economic growth and achievement of development goals and vision 2030. Nevertheless, the performance of MSP intermediary organisations appears to have stagnated and is even on a declining trend in some cases. This study employed a descripto-explanatory cross-sectional survey research design. The study collected primary data from 219 respondents drawn from a target population of 397 selected using stratified and simple random sampling procedures. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies and one sample t-tests. Simple linear regression and multiple linear regression in SPSS were used for inferential statistical analysis. This study established that marketing capabilities and choice of distribution strategy had a composite effect in contributing significantly to the MSP Intermediary organisations ‘performance. The study recommends MSP intermediary organisation sales managers need to lobby management to invest in training and appropriate performance compensation plan for its sales people as well as the ICT system that will enable efficient routing of the customers, where daily actual/targets and retailer information is availed, enhancing proper monitoring and evaluation of the sales team and their activities which will lead to improved performance of the MSP intermediary organisation. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Table Normal; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

Attrition and Retention of Sales People: A Diagnostic Study of the Insurance Sector

The insurance sector today stands as a business growing at a rate of 15-20% annually. In spite of spite of this growth, in the present scenario, the insurance industry is facing a grave challenge as far as retaining sales professionals is concerned. Around 35% attrition rate has been reported in the frontline sales category only. The present study aims to find out the factors that cause attrition in the insurance sector and how do these dimensions vary across the personal characteristics of the sales professionals.

Attrition and Retention of Sales People: A Diagnostic Study of the Insurance Sector

The insurance sector today stands as a business growing at a rate of 15-20% annually. In spite of spite of this growth, in the present scenario, the insurance industry is facing a grave challenge as far as retaining sales professionals is concerned. Around 35% attrition rate has been reported in the frontline sales category only. The present study aims to find out the factors that cause attrition in the insurance sector and how do these dimensions vary across the personal characteristics of the sales professionals.

Intention to use mobile customer relationship management systems

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the behavioral intentions of business-to-business (B2B) sales managers to use mobile customer relationship management (CRM) systems in the course of their day-to-day activities. Design/methodology/approach – An extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of mobile CRM system adoption is developed and tested with data from 105 international sales managers representing five B2B companies. Findings – The study extends the TAM framework with three additional constructs derived from mobile technology and sales force automation literature, namely personal innovativeness in the domain of IT, perceived risk, and perceived reachability. The model demonstrates that personal innovativeness and perceived reachability have significant effects on the TAM framework. Research limitations/implications – The relatively small sample size limits the generalization of the results. Practical implications – Sales managers’ intention to adopt mobile CRM can be explained by the extended TAM framework. Understanding the key factors that influence intention to adopt a mobile CRM system will aid companies in implementing it among their sales force. Companies willing to foster adoption of a mobile CRM system among the sales force could focus on communicating the usefulness of using the system and benefits gained from enhanced reachability. Recruiting sales people with strong personal innovativeness is beneficial. Originality/value – This study responds the calls for studies on mobile platforms and on the use of mobile B2B applications in sales force management. It is among the first attempts to incorporate variables derived from mobile technology acceptance literature among the sales force into the TAM framework, to better explain acceptance of mobile CRM systems.

Effect of respondents’ personality on resistance to change and the sales force

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the Big Five Personality dimensions on resistance to change (RTC). Data from a sample of 200 sales people was collected from a large financial services firm in South Africa. Principal components factor analysis followed by varimax rotation was undertaken to test the factor structure and internal validity of the measures used. Correlation analysis was undertaken to determine whether insurance salespersons’ personality types are related to reported levels of RTC. Results are reported, limitations are noted and directions for future research are indicated.