CONCEPT AND DEFINITION OF SALES

MANAGEMENT

 Sales management originally referred

exclusively to the direction of sales force
personnel and lately the term transformed into
broader aspect in addition to the management of
personnel selling.
 In general view Sales management refers the
management of overall marketing activities such
as advertising, sales promotion, marketing
research, physical distribution, pricing and
product merchandising.
CONCEPT AND DEFINITION OF SALES
MANAGEMENT

 According to American Marketing Association

sales management refers “the planning,
direction and control of personal selling
including recruiting, selecting, training,
equipping, assigning, supervising,
compensating and motivating as these tasks
apply to the personal sales force”.

 The only business function that generates

revenue.
 CONCEPT AND DEFINITION OF SALES
MANAGEMENT

 Efforts put forth to attain a company‟s sales objectives

through sales management‟s involvement with
following activities:
a. Formulation of sales strategy through
development of account management policies, sales
force compensation policies, sales revenue forecasts
and sales plan,
b. Implementation of sales strategy through
selecting, training, motivating and supporting the
sales force, setting sales revenue targets, and
c. Sales force management through development
and implementation of sales performance,
monitoring, and evaluation methods, and analysis of
associated behavioral patterns and costs.
 OBJECTIVES OF SALES
MANAGEMENT

 3 general underlying objectives:

1. Sales Volume
2. Profits
3. Growth
 EVALUATION OF SALES MANAGEMENT

A. The beginning era identified as simple trade

era, lasted from the beginning of the marketing
concept to the mid 19th century. In this period
whatever products available were harvested
with limited offerings. Exploration and trade in
resources was the focus of the economic
activity with products as center of attraction.
CONTINUED…..

B. In the next stage the simple trade era was

replaced by the production era, continued until
the great depression. In this era importance
was given on engineering and production. The
primary objective was to only produce product
and sell it to the market in assumption that
customers have to accept it as alternatives
were not available.
CONTINUED…..
C. The sales era lasted between 1920’s and 1940’s
emphasized on different marketing related
aspects rather than product only. As consumer
markets were saturated and competitions were
increasing day by day so it was not easy to sell
product without providing adequate
information about the brand. Here price
became one of the most important features to
organizations to get an edge over their rivals.
CONTINUED….
D. During the post second world war phase,
world featured economic boom resulted a
urgent need of a separate department for
marketing called as Marketing Department
Era. Here organizations experienced that past
sales orientation concept were not sufficient to
motivate consumers as they have more
bargaining power in market place. Business
consolidated market related activities like
advertisement, sales promotion, public relation
etc into a consolidated department and
concentrating on brand positioning.
CONTINUED……

E. As the premise of the marketing concept

became widely accepted so the era of
marketing organization emerged to take care of
customers need. Now customers are the focal
point and all employees became part of the
marketing effort. In the classical theory of
marketing evolution this is the last stage
followed by two modified version of sub-stages.
CONTINUED…..
I. This sub-stage within marketing concept
identified as the relationship marketing
concept. The goal of the organization is to
build-up a long term relationship with
customers. The general focus has changed to
lifetime customer value and customer loyalty.
Customer relationship management and data-
mining become the buzzwords in recent
marketing scenario.
CONTINUED…..
II. The second sub-stage within the marketing
concept is identified as social/mobile
marketing concept. It summed-up the
knowledge and theories of its predecessor era
but focuses on real-time connections and
social exchanges based on build-up
relationship driven by the consumers. In this
concept business are connected 24/7 to
current, future and potential consumers in real
time.
 THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF
SALES MANAGEMENT

 According to Robert N. McMurry in his famous

article „The Mystique of Supper Salesmanship‟
(Harvard Business Review, March-April 1961)
classified salesperson‟s position in the
organization on following ways;
1. Position where a salesperson‟s job is
predominantly to deliver a product.
2. Positions where a salespersons is predominately
an internal order taker;
3. Positions where a salesperson is also
predominantly an order taker but works in the
field.
CONTINUED….
4. Positions where a salesperson is not expected or
permitted to take an order but is called only to
build goodwill or to educate an actual or
potential user;
5. Positions where the emphasis is placed on
technical knowledge.
6. Positions which demand the creative sales of
tangible products.
7. Positions requiring the creative sale of
intangible products.
CONTINUED…..
 While the role of sales management professionals
is multidisciplinary, their primary
responsibilities are;
A. Setting goals and standards for sales-force;

B. Planning, budgeting and organizing sales

program to achieve pre-defined goals;
C. Implementing the program with proper
segmentation and
D. Controlling the overall program and evaluating
the results.
 PERSONAL SELLING
 It is a two-way form of communication. Each
individual is contacted by face to face
conversation.
 Personal selling reaches the goal of marketing
effort i.e., to increase profitable sales.
 Personal selling influences the buyers to buy a
product.
 Personal selling creates product awareness,
stimulates interest, develops brand preferences,
negotiate prices etc.
 The purpose of personal selling is to bring the
right products into contact with the right
customers, and to make certain that ownership
transfers take place.
 Features of Personal Selling:

 He must maintain lasting relations between the

firm and its customers.
 It is a creative art. He creates wants in customers.
A human need may change into human want but
because of salesmanship. He should possess the
ability to convert needs into wants.
 He must talk in the point of view of customers and
engage their mind to his point of view. That is,
the ability of the salesman must influence the
customer‟s mind.
 He must satisfy the consumers not only by selling
products but also provides knowledge and
assistance to satisfy the needs of consumers.
 The new type of salesman has to play important
role in the total marketing process. Thus he must
have the ability to learn to communicate expert
knowledge, in which he deals. Apart, typically,
considerable weight has been put upon the
importance of the art of persuasion a necessary
characteristic of good selling.
 Functions of Personal Selling:

 Seeking out customers.

 Creative selling.
 Pioneering.
 Checking Invoices.

 Assuring prompt order processing.

 Suggestive selling.
1.Line Organisation
Line organisation is the basic framework for the whole organisation. It
represents a direct vertical relationship through which authority flows.
This is the simplest and oldest, known as chain of command or scalar
principle. The authority flows from top to the lower levels. Every person
is in charge of all the persons under him and he himself is accountable to
his superior only.
This organisation is a vertical structure where one person delegates
authority to his subordinate and who in turn delegates to his subordinate
and so on. Authority flows vertically from top level person to all the
persons responsible for the execution of work. Responsibility, on the
other hand, flows upwards. Everybody is responsible for his work and is
accountable to his boss.
2.Line and Staff Organisation: Staff and line are names given to
different types of functions in organizations. A "line function" is one that
directly advances an organization in its core work. This always
includes production and sales, and sometimes also marketing. A "staff
function" supports the organization with specialized advisory and
support functions. For example, human resources, accounting, public
relations and the legal department are generally considered to be staff
functions. Both terms originated in the military.
3.Functional Organization Structure: A functional
organization structure is a hierarchical organization structure wherein
people are grouped based on their area of specialization. These people
are supervised by a functional manager with expertise in the same field.
A functional organization is the most common type of organizational
structure. This is where the organization is divided into smaller groups
based on its special functions such as IT, finance or marketing.
4.Horizontal Organisation: