Sales Management Practices Research Articles

Ethical Sensitivity to Stakeholder Interests: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

This study applied Hofstede’s typology to examine the effect of culture on ethical sensitivity toward various stakeholders. It was found that uncertainty avoidance had a positive effect and that power distance and individualism/masculinity had negative effects on ethical sensitivity. The results also indicated that ethical sensitivity to stakeholder interests is dependent on which stakeholder is affected. Although Americans and Taiwanese sales agents were equally sensitive to customer interests, the Taiwanese were more sensitive to the interests of their company and a competitor but were less sensitive to the interests of a colleague. This study should prove valuable to international marketers because the cultural typology allows managers to identify differences in work-related values of employees across different nationalities and thus provides a theoretical base for designing more effective sales management practices.

Research in Selling and Sales Management in the Next Millennium: An Agenda from the AMA Faculty Consortium

In July 1999 we had the honor of hosting and co-chairing the American Marketing Association Faculty Consortium on Professional Selling and Sales Management. The three-day event was held in Orlando at the Wyndham Palace Resort and Spa and attracted well over 100 attendees from academe and business. The format of the consortium featured presentations by academics and practitioners, panel discussions, and targeted work sessions. The first evening of the consortium was an extraordinary one, with noted sales strategist and author Neil Rackham delivering a keynote address titled, "Rethinking the Sales Force." In his talk Rackham skillfully challenged many commonly held tenets of professional selling and sales management practice. This provocative keynote address provided the backdrop for discussions and working sessions throughout the remainder of the consortium.

Benchmarks of Successful Salesforce Performance

AbstractActivities that enhance salesforce performance are examined. Effective salesforces are more adaptive in selling, handle customer complaints better, and generate higher market shares and profits, especially by selling new products. There are no differences between the two groups in terms of their selling capabilities. However, more effective salespeople get a higher sense of accomplishment from their work and are more willing to take risks.RésuméLe présent article étudie les activités qui augmentent la performance des représentants. Les représentants efficaces sont adaptifs à la vente, traitent soigneusement les plaintes des clients et génèrent des parts de marché et des profits élevés, en particulier en vendant de nouveaux produits. Il n'existe aucune différence entre les deux groupes en termes de capacité de vente. Cependant, les bons représentants ont un grand sens de la réussite dans leur travail et sont prêts à prendre des risques.

Impact of Personality on Sales Manager Leadership Style

ABSTRACT Much research in sales management has examined the impact sales manager leadership styles have on salesperson work outcomes. What has not been investigated is what factors may lead an individual to adopt one leadership approach over an alternate. Theorists in organizational behavior posit that personality characteristics may be predictive of the leadership style an individual employs. This paper reports the results of a study that explored whether two key personality variables-extraversion and neuroticism-are related to three prominent leadership styles-laissez-faire, transaction-al, and charismatic. The findings support the overriding hypothesis that the two personality variables are strongly related to and account for a substantial portion of the variance in the three leadership styles. Implications for sales management practice and research are provided.

New directions and new strategies for selling

The corporate world is in the midst of a significant shift in business strategy. It's a shift so visible that it seems almost trite to catalog it. The management gurus who chronicle business trends each have their own way to describe it. Michael Hammer of reengineering fame, whose work has generally been associated with the cost side of the business equation, talks of it as a shift to “long‐term growth on the revenue side.” John DeVincentis, leader of McKinsey's Worldwide Sales and Channel Management practice, calls it “a new focus on the top line.” In essence, the established strategic emphasis on bottom‐line efficiency that gave the business world such familiar techniques as downsizing, restructuring, overhead value analysis, and reengineering is being replaced by a new interest in strategies for boosting growth.

Models of Leadership for Sales Management

Numerous explanations for understanding the nature of leadership are available in the literature. A common feature of these views is that each one is based implicitly on a particular level of analysis (e.g., group, dyad, or individual). The purpose here is to explicate these views using multiple levels of analysis, thereby introducing various models of leadership for sales management. Implications of these approaches for theory development and testing as well as sales management practice are discussed.

Critical sales events and salesforce attitudes

A new family of explanatory variables — critical sales events (CSEs) — is described. The impact of CSEs and past performance on the satisfaction and loyalty of industrial sales reps is explored. Controlling for sales experience and gender, performance, and two types of recent events (loss of a major customer and success at making a big sale) were generally significantly linked to salesforce satisfaction (with pay, advancement, the work itself corporate performance, and the sales manager) and to loyalty (affective organizational commitment and intentions to stay). The results suggest the value of understanding the effect of critical sales events for both sales management theory and practice.

Leaders in Selling and Sales Management: John Cameron Aspley and the Dartnell Corporation

John Cameron Aspley revolutionized the sales management discipline in 1916 by introducing a mimeographed news bulletin designed to provide salespeople with periodic and timely information to improve their performance. Aspley recognized that salespeople needed such information but that there was no other easily accessible source. He felt that salespeople and sales managers could benefit from learning about sales techniques and management practices that were successful in other industries so he established The Dartnell Sales Service. This news bulletin was an inter-industry vehicle for exchanging personal selling techniques and sales management principles.

The contemporary motor carrier salesperson: An analysis of shipper and carrier perspectives

One of the continuing concerns of the motor carrier industry is the need to upgrade the knowledge and skills of its salespeople. The paper reports the findings of a study which attempts to identify the specific characteristics of salespeople that require upgrading or improvement. The study is unique in the sense it examines and compares the views of both shippers (i.e. “buyers”) and carriers (i.e. “sellers”) of trucking services. Overall, both the univariate and multivariate analysis indicate that shippers and motor carrier sales managers have very different perceptions regarding desirable salesperson attributes, with shippers advocating less emphasis on personal traits and more attention to service and knowledge-related attributes. This suggests that motor carriers, in general, have been slow to adapt their sales management policies and practices to the realities of the contemporary transportation environment.

Linkages Between Sales Management Tools and Practices: Some Evidence from British Companies

This article investigates the interactions among sales management tools and practices used in six key areas of managerial responsibility, namely: organization, selection, training, remuneration, supervision, and evaluation. The results are based principally upon a mail survey of 113 U.K. manufacturing companies. Our data suggest that the sales management tools and practices used by the sample companies in the aforementioned managerial areas tend to be interrelated. Specificially, the practices pertaining to the organization and selection of the sales force are linked with the training practices employed. Also, the selection and the training practices used by manufacturing companies tend to be linked with the evaluation practices. Finally, the remuneration practices and policies are linked to the practices pertaining to the supervision and evaluation of the sales force.

Linkages between sales management tools and practices: Some evidence from British companies

Linkages between sales management tools and practices: Some evidence from British companies

Knowledge Structure Differences between More Effective and Less Effective Salespeople

A study of salespeople working for a telephone marketing operation indicates that more effective (above average) salespeople have richer and more interrelated knowledge structures about their customers than do less effective (below average) salespeople in terms of both customer traits and strategies for selling to the customers. No significant differences are found between effective and less effective salespeople on the number of categories used to classify customers. A longitudinal study that tracked entering salespeople over time, from the less effective to the more effective stage, validates the findings of the cross-sectional study. Implications of these findings for sales management practice and the small but growing literature on real-world competence are discussed.

Industrial supplier-buyer negotiations

The research surveyed 302 Midwestern purchasing agents in order to determine if industrial buyer-seller negotiations should be classified as largely competitive or collaborative. The characteristers of purchasing agents more closely linked to high overall performance, openness and honesty, as opposed to success at exploitation of the seller, support the collaborative viewpoint. The study results support sales management practices which stress the development of the salesforce's ability to formulate integrative, or win-win bargaining solutions. Price concession performance by buyers was shown not to be a major purchasing management objective.

The Influence of Career Stages on Components of Salesperson Motivation

Researchers have found that career stage is related to salespeople's attitudes, work perceptions, and performance. To date, however, no reported research has explored the impact of career stages on all three components of salesforce motivation—valence, expectancy, and instrumentality. The authors report the results of a study intended to address this void in the sales management literature. Implications for sales management practice and research are offered.

Matching salesmen to the selling job

To develop and maintain a successful salesforce, it is essential for sales managers to “match” a salesperson's characteristics with the selling job he/she has to perform and with the overall selling environment. Such a match is established in this paper as we have identified three main selling styles based on the criteria used by manufacturing companies to select salespersons. These are “missionary selling,” “trade selling,” and “technical selling.” The association between selection policies and other aspects of sales management behavior is also investigated. Results are based principally upon a mail survey of 113 U.K. manufacturing companies and a profile is presented showing the sales management practices that were found to be associated with each of the selling styles identified.

A survey of sales management practices

When ascertaining what sales management tools and practices to use, one approach would be for sales managers to compare the tools and practices they are presently using (or contemplating) with those used in other firms. This article provides sales managers with the opportunity for such a comparison by presenting the results of a study that examined what tools and practices sales managers are currently employing.

The Changing Character of Industrial Selling

Highlights two major directions in the character of the personal selling function — the first is the increasing professional nature of industrial selling, the second is growing managerial orientation within selling. Notes the selling process is evolving and broadening in ways which can make the salesperson valued to the buyer beyond product or service value offered. Says that salespeople receive much broader scopes of authority. Examines cause and effect of changes in selling characteristics, reviewing evidence specific to these new directions. Propagates some of the feelings that are negatively hung on salespeople such as being selfish, deceitful, lazy and often downright dishonest. Goes on to explain why these are wrong and gives positive connotations to try and put things right. Key is understanding the process of buying‐selling because there must be a solid conceptual foundation to support the diagnostic process. Summarizes that hiring, training, compensation and other sales management practices must be adjusted — but the evidence base seems to promote a promising future.

Personal characteristics of salespeople and the attractiveness of alternative rewards

How do personal characteristics of salespeople affect their desire for the various rewards available to them? Do younger salespeople desire different types and levels of rewards than older salespeople? Are there differences due to job tenure, marital status, family size, and so forth? In this article, the authors attempt to answer these questions. Based on an extensive investigation of the industrial sales forces from two large companies, the authors examine the relationship between personal characteristics and the sales force's valence for various rewards. Although some of the findings are consistent with current sales management practices, some are not, suggesting that present day thinking with respect to the design and administration of rewards may need more careful scrutiny.