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There is a famous quote “Nothing will happen until an organization efficiently sells”, which is a great tribute to the
significance of the product sales within any organization. But still, the sales is one of the elements of business which
is most poorly under optimised and understood. One of the reasons for this is that, in today’s era of globalization, the
sales of products and services has become a challenging within the operations of business. The various factors,
including an explosion in data and technologies, global competition, buyer sophistication, and the product
commoditization, are not being utilized well. These factors have greatly influenced the environment of sales and
demand a completely new models of sales. These factors have also increased the importance of strategic sales. In a
global market, where only services and products are not enough to attract the consumers, the sales has become a
critical source of competitive differentiation and value creation. It is not surprising that SFE, Sales Force
Effectiveness has emerged as a priority for the organizational leaders and other executives. The gains associated
with the efficient practice of SFE is captivating. The organizations which have shifted to excellent from average
Sales Force Effectiveness consistently earn high profits with the growth rate of around 25 per cent and more. The
sales have efficiently increased for the organizations who have adequately utilized the various dimensions of SFE.
The approaches associated with the evaluation of SFE, has greatly assisted the organizational executives to develop
a better understanding of performance gaps. However, it is very challenging to maximise the adequate utilization of
SFE within the today’s era of globalization. To identify the importance of performance gains, the organizational
executives have adopted comprehensive, systematic and granular approaches to SFE. The approach that have been
introduced in the report would enable the leaders to efficiently focus on the particular factors which can maximise
the product sales and provide superior growth to the organization.
3.2. Why is this research important?
The research, based on the priorities setting and evaluation of SFE, is important not only for the organizational
leaders but also for the consumers as well. The customers are the largest group of stakeholders within any
organization. The sales is a vital structure associated with an assembly of interdependencies and moving parts. The
comprehensive framework of SFE includes 30 drivers of SFE which overview the six main situations needed for
Sales Force Effectiveness. The drivers of SFE provide appropriate areas of decision involved in the sphere of strong
influence or direct control of sales leaders. The drivers of SFE eventually determine the financial performance of the
sales force. There is a need of developing a better understanding regarding the relationship between financial
performance and SFE drivers so that the organizational leaders can properly utilize the concept of Sales Force
Effectiveness. The relationship between financial performance and SFE Drivers include their priorities and their
activities, which influences the quality of the experience of consumers during the operations of sales and the value
perception of consumers, which influence the productivity of sales, market share, profit, and revenue. However,
each of the SFE drivers have a different significance for the organization, and are all practicable across sizes,
cultures, strategies, countries, and industries of sales force. The drivers of SFE are the elements used by
organizational executives to assure that the sales force is well aware of its priorities and has the ability to achieve the
same. These tools also assist the leaders to address competitive disadvantages or internal threats which arise and
inhibit the organizational performance financially. Thus, the research provides an evaluation of SFE in accordance
with the different investment hurdles, resource constraints, timing pressures, and performance requirements of sales
leaders.
3.2.1. Selling, sales management and the quest for sales effectiveness
? Short overview
The research is focussed on various aspects of Sales Force Effectiveness which assist the organizational leaders in
recognizing the gaps of SFE and setting priorities for future development. In the SFE advancement, issues
prioritization and effectiveness evaluation are considered to be the first step. The framework of SFE has been
broadened so as to address the requirements and complexity of sales force within any organization. A step wise and
flexible process of priority setting and SFE evaluation has been customised as per the requirements of sales leaders.
The research quantitatively analyses SFE to validate and complement the outcomes from benchmarking practices of
leaders.
? SFE
The most adequate SFE initiatives recognize, prioritize and then strategize to close the gaps in implementation
capability and sales strategy to utilize specific opportunities of development. Sales forces can attain effectiveness by
highly adequate capabilities of operations, developing the sales force with the efficiency, speed-to-market, expertise
and information required to attain superior performance. SFE is a customer-emphasized strategy based on superior
customer experience, differentiation and value creation. SFE is also considered as a diligently and disciplined
execution of sales process and customer engagement. SFE mainly involves a highly accountable, performance-
focused and motivates sales force determined to “doing it right” and “getting it done”.
? Sales & Selling
Sales and selling are two different elements involved in the business, but both contribute to the profitability and
productivity of an organization. Sales is the practice of meeting consumers and offering them with a service or
product, as per their needs, in turn of required compensation. Whereas Selling is a part of marketing and a practical
implementation. The overall goal of sales and selling is to achieve sustainability and success for the organization.
However, for effective sales and selling, the organizational leaders have to effectively practice the sales force in
accordance with the needs of consumers and the overall objectives of an organization.
3.2.2. Current Organisational Practice (Sonia) (800 words total)
High performance organisation
It has always been stated that one cannot manage any practice that has not been measured. In the time of today,
measuring the effectiveness of sales has become the most necessary practice at the best level to an extent that a
number of organizations are devoting entire teams of research and covering this particular dimension of the
performance of sales. Up till now, there are only four firms in the market that have obtained a certification by the
Effective Sales Research for being best in the measurement of the performance of sales. Performance Methods
Incorporates (PMI) has been included in this particular group of excellence. It is a perspective of the market that
even though there is a need for measuring certain factors within the organizations of sales, measuring the same
things repeatedly is not a necessity. The sales team of high performance help in the development, designing and
deployment of the programs for measuring the effectiveness of sales in order to create an understanding the
performances in the past, enabling the execution of current sales along with bringing improvements in the results of
the future.
The high performance organizations not only focus on measuring the effectiveness of sales, they also focus on
modifying and bringing adjustments in the approaches of sales and formulate strategies on the basis of go-to-market
with respect to what knowledge they have gained from the process of measurement. Success of sales can be counted
upon on the basis of the performance of sales and the level of productivity, value of customers and relations with
them, execution and planning, work of teams, sessions of training, revenue and growth. All of these dynamics help
in providing the management of sales with opportunities for measuring the effectiveness of sales. There are a
number of possibilities for metrics and measurement within all of these categories. Some of these are inclusive of
the following:
? Performance and productivity of sales: Performance taking place according to the written plans
? Value of customers and relations with them: Focus on the activities of sales in order to create values of
customers and formulating authenticity with respect to the formulation of strategies
? Planning and execution: Strategies are being formulated for growing or for winning
? Work of team: Demonstration of the effectiveness of work of team
Programs to measure the effectiveness of sales are launched as the necessity to do so is understood by the managers
of sales and people of sales and creation of this understanding is important in order to implement metrics of sales
and what are the expectations of the leadership of sales for achieving by measuring the performance of sales. When
there is heat in the market and the targets of revenues are exceeding, organizations tend to forget that investment of
time in order to assess the effectiveness of sales in important.
Need to move away from just synergies to growth and profitability
Synergies are values that are formulated and captured with time by the total of the relative businesses to what can be
done in a separate manner. Synergies of operations are defined as the benefits of performances of organizations with
the help of leveraging resources of operations throughout the business that are related. Synergies of operations tend
to create a focus on the relationships at horizontal levels amongst units of business in order to capture the
performance of organizations. In the management of the strategies of sales, synergies of operations are studied with
respect to the diversification of organizations. On the basis of the output synergies of operations promote,
classification of synergies can be done as synergies of efficiency and growth. Synergies of efficiency are sub-
additivities of cost in order to share similar resources of operations throughout the organizations of sales. On the
other hand, synergies of growth are super-additivities of revenue that are highly valuable by creating combinations
of the resources that are complementary. These synergies help in contributing towards the advantages of
organization by enabling better usage of resources that are valuable, rare, and hard to be imitated or by the
exploitation of transaction along with the advantages of agencies in relation with the organization.
Synergies of market power are considered to be advantages of performance for the organizations in order to leverage
the power of market throughout the organizations. The result of these synergies are achieved by the formulation of
strategies of pricing of predators, bundling, buying and selling of reciprocals and forbearance that are mutual in
nature. Synergies of finance are advantages of performance for the organization to leverage the resources of finance
throughout the organizations. The results of these synergies can be achieved by the reduction of risk, establishment
of capital market, and exploitation of advantages of tax. This helps in increasing the dedication of stakeholders to
invest in the particular organizations.
With the help of these synergies, sales organizations can move towards growth and profitability. Thus, considering
these advantages, it can be stated that there is a need to move towards synergies.
Organisational vision for convergence on sales methods and processes
3.2.3. Sponsorship and Applicability
There is a need to manage leads in an active manner for effective sales organization by the complete pipeline of
sales from stage of pre-qualification to the final stage of closure. Most of the time issues of internal factors result in
impeding the progression of lead by the pipeline due to priorities of competition, absence of appropriate tools of
sales, and misalignment of incentives and metrics. Therefore, it can be stated that for effectively sponsoring sales
force it is necessary to begin with the management of a healthy pipeline which demands clear definition of
imperatives of strategies, appropriate tools and training, and establishment and measurement of indicators of key
performance.
? Competitive advantage
Sales force effectiveness itself is considered as a competitive advantage. Having high volume of sales does not mean
that there will be high volume of profit. For sales organizations, the customers are considered to be the king. In order
to enjoy this competitive advantage it is important for the organizations to provide good practices of sales that
concentrate on investing more time and sources on the customers who are profitable by reducing the time and cost
towards the bad customers. It is important to fulfil the demands of the customers with quality sales as it is believed
that customers owe the sales of organizations.
3.3.2. Research Aims
The research aims at identifying the various drivers of sales force and recognizing that there are only specific ones
which can be implemented and influenced by the first in line sales manager. The research is primarily the
constrained view of the drivers of sales force within a global matrix organization. The research is, thus, the overview
of various activities wherein the sales manager has responsibilities and accountabilities but no authority or control
over. The research highlights the usual constraints of budget and time which may conflict the priorities to build sales
force effectiveness by the first in line sales manager and which can be replicated across a global organization,
spanning over hundred or more countries. Therefore, it acknowledges all the various good work on management and
leadership behaviours that move on to tasks and activities that could create a considerable difference to the sales
force effectiveness of a sales team that are primarily implemented and influenced by the first line sales manager
within any global organization.
The secondary research aims to identify a number of previously published single use frameworks and
models which can be adapted to provide a multiple element framework to identify the leadership elements
which improve sales force effectiveness across different sales process.
The primary research initial research will be to validate this new multi element model or framework
through the use of multiple control groups who use different sales process. This research will be to
establish applicability of a general model.
The second phase of the project is to analyse the results of stage one and undertake further primary
research to identify the impact on sales effectiveness of different elements of the new framework. This
will enable analysis to understand the impact of individual elements of sales leadership on each sales
process and examine whether the different sales processes attract different amounts of the sales
leadership elements to deliver sales force improvements.
By undertaking this three stage process it is intended to identify which elements drive sales force
effectiveness across two different processes. Present a useable framework that can be further tested and
applied to enhance sales performance using a multiple variable approach whose variable s can be
adapted dependant on the life stage of the sales force.
3.3. What the research question is
The research questions are as follows:
What are the organizational priorities regarding business of sales?
How efficiently do sales manager and organizational leaders understand their organizational sales strategy?
What practices of sales do various stakeholders perceive as adding the most value?
To what extent do sales managers and organizational leader’s view regarding sales practices coincide with that of
stakeholders’?
What practices of sales management are most closely interrelated to sales performance?
3.3.1. What is the business problem I am trying to solve?
The business problem which is being tried to solve includes the identification of practical programmes which
improve the effectiveness of the sales teams in acquiring new business, retaining and growing existing revenues
utilising the sales manager as a principal driver of sales force effectiveness. The one of the main business problems
faced by global organization is the high level of costs related to sales force as, if not practiced efficiently and
adequately, the sales force effectiveness may not stand up to return on investment. Another business problem is the
inability of some global organizations to adapt at a fast pace.
3.5. Summary of chapter
3.6. Summary table of the data
3.7. The takeaway
3.8. Roadmap of thesis
2.0 Literature review
Introduction
? Concept of sales force effectiveness
The importance of the sales force effectiveness to business organisation has had little scholarly attention in personal
selling and marketing literature. Zoltners, Sinha and Lorimer (2008) provide three reasons for the lack of scholarly
discussion. First, sales force effectiveness depends on the successful interaction between sales people and customers,
which is difficult and unpredictable to model in terms of importance to organisations. Second, a study on the
importance of the sales force encompasses several disciplines including finance (sales revenue and compensation
packages), psychology (sales people and customer behaviour and perceptions) and economics (environmental
variables), indicating the diversity of areas of study on the importance of sales force. Third, the popular press has
created the perception that sales and the sales force is an art based on tips for successful sales rather than a discipline
that learners should understand against the backdrop of research or appropriate theoretical framework. In addition to
the three reasons, the reluctance of business organisations and sales people to provide relevant and up to date
information about their sales strategies to researchers pointing towards risks of loss of competitive advantage further
complicates the understanding of the sales force effectiveness.
? Scope of lit review
The scope of literature review is to investigate and improve the performance of my business unit in a
recognised and robust manner and share that practice to benefit other businesses within the group and
also to publish the models and frameworks for reference to others in this field. Success measures
include the completion of the tasks and assignments. The overall purpose of the research is to enable
improvement in the knowledge in the subject area both from a personal and also generalist perspective.
The research will hopefully generate either areas to positively implement within my current and future
business activities or areas not to pursue the implementation of. Along with the award of the doctorate
and the recognition that involves and finally to contribute to the delivery of knowledge transfer via
conference papers or published papers.
? How lit was identified
The access to current academic literature is provided by The University of Portsmouth. Access to journals
and books in related area are sourced via the university library and through the Sconul access
Programme. The provision of online links through various databases such as Web of Knowledge and
EBSCO provide access to numerous online journals and peer reviewed publications in the subject area.
The sponsoring company will provide access to such secondary data as staff lists, performance measures
and support in conducting research in an ethical and approved manner
Primary data will be obtained from participants drawn from the sponsoring company’s management and
functional employees engaged in sales.
Description and Overview of Sales Force Effectiveness
Sales Force
The term “sales force” is a collective term used to refer to all the people in a business organisation entrusted with the
responsibilities of interacting with customers to influence selling activities with the primary aim of improving sales
revenues (Zoltners, Sinha and Lorimer, 2008). While interacting with the customer, the sales force performs five
basic duties of contacting customers, selling products or services, working with wholesalers (business-to-business),
servicing accounts and managing information between seller and buyer (Davies, Ryals and Holt, 2010). The sales
force performs these duties through three broad categories of people (Suff and Reilly, 2006). First, the sales
people, who sell products and services directly to customers over the counter, through the phone or through the
internet; second, the account managers, who develop and maintain relations with customer accounts; and third,
technical support team, who provide continuous technical support to sales people, for examples sales engineers.
By interacting with customers, the sales force provides a point of interaction between a company on one side and the
customer on the other. At the point of company-customer interaction, the sales force plays a critical role of
informing and implementing a company’s competitive marketing strategies by providing up-to-date information
about customers purchase behaviours, perceptions and changing needs for incorporation and formalisation into
marketing strategies (Kotler, Rackham and Krishnaswamy, 2006). Incorporation and formalisation of customer
needs into marketing strategies is important to influence higher sales through adoption of a customer-driven
marketing approach optimised to meet and satisfy customer needs. The interaction between the sales force and
customer is also critical to a company since customers form a key financial asset. Figure 2.1 illustrates the
interaction between company and customers through the sales force.
Sales
Force
Figure 2.1: Interaction of Company and Customer through the Sales Force
Source: (Kotler, Rackham and Krishnaswamy, 2006)
The sales-force core duty – to collect and improve sales revenues – indicates similarity with the marketing function;
however, the sales force function is distinct from the marketing function. While the sales force is a component of the
marketing tool, its function is fundamentally to discharge the responsibilities of communicating and influencing
cordial relationships with the customer with the view of influencing sales (Rouzies et al., 2005). Besides the primary
function, the sales force deals with competitive market intelligence, personal selling, distributor management,
account management, merchandising and after sales services, while the marketing function focuses on competitive
analysis, market research, market segmentation, product development, product positioning, pricing, packaging and
advertising as indicated in Figure 2.2.
Marketing Function Sales Force
Figure 2.2: Different Functions of Marketing and Sales Force
Source: (Rouzies et al., 2005. p.114, adapted from Zoltners, 2004)
Despite the differences in the functions of the sales force and marketing, integration of their services is
essential for companies to increase the effectiveness of its sales force by shifting competitive strategies towards a
market and customer oriented model and ensuring that marketing and sales force functions are non-overlapping
(Rouzies et al., 2005). Integration is also essential to enable the sales force broaden its customer focus, and
effectively plan and target for both short-term and long-term sales forecast (Kotler, Rackham and Krishnaswamy,
2006).
? Sales force definitions
Many researchers have critiqued the concept of Sales Force in their own way. However, the widely used definition
of the same refers the Sales Force as the division of business responsible for selling services and products for an
organization (Gartner, 2008). Sales Force involves the setting of objectives and targets on the basis of inputs and
assigning the actions responsible for achieving overall goals (Haag et al, 2006). If the Sales Force is effective, then it
fuels the future growth of organization as the organizational leaders and sales managers keep the number of
employees the same and only add some revamped compensation package, coaching or training.Some other
researchers define the Sales Force as an incorporation of various strategies (Darmon, 2007). The sales force first
look internally to the key skills or strengths of an organization, ask for employee referrals, develop better network
with society, advisors, colleagues, customers, and suppliers, check with the professional institutions, undergo
various advertising and promotional activities, and then implement the best of the strategies so as to effectively
increase their sales and eventually gain higher profits (Jordan, 2009).
? Sales people
Once an organisation has determined the structure and roles of the sales force, the way sales people perform their
roles becomes an important driver for the effectiveness of the sales force since they are the ones responsible with
interacting with customer to stimulate sales. For sales people to improve the effectiveness of the sales force, they
should possess the required skills, capabilities and values shared by the sales team members. For the sales managers,
they should possess the capacity to select skilled and motivated individuals through defining what works and
following a selection process repeatedly to enhance effectiveness as well as motivate the sales people to remain in
the organisation to prevent loss of valuable skills and costs associated with recruitment (Marshall, 2005).
? Account managers
The account managers within any global organization use theoretical aspects and practice the same to manage the
associated customers and other various groups of stakeholders. Account managers are defined as the associates
within an organization which maintain and build relationships in multiple operating units, functions, and levels for a
long term periodin both accounts and sales which contribute to the objectives of an organization now or in the future
(Kempeners and Hart, 1999). The activities of account managers at a global level is termed as Global Account
Management, which is defined as a dependency agreement between the supplying organizations and customer which
are interrelated through both informal and formal ties at various levels (Harvey et al, 2003).The term Account
Managers is associated with various definitions and explanations. These are the persons who manage the actions of a
team around a set of pre-existing strategies designed as per the needs of clients so as to support the obligations and
objectives of an organization (Savage, 2008). Another researcher define the Account manager as an employee whose
job is to support specific accounts of stakeholders on a daily basis and who serves as the initial point of contact
between the organization and the various groups of stakeholders (Lewis, 2004).The position of account managers
provide optimization, planning, technical support and customer support for the accounts as well as develop a strong
relationship with the customers. Further, account managers are the employees who work for an organization and are
responsible for the management of selling and sales (Earl et al, 2003)
? Core activities
Sales force activities include the processes that enlighten sales people about the knowledge and practices to improve
the selling process. Sales force activities include processes such as lead generations, customer needs analysis,
solution development, customer service and account maintenance, which collectively drive sales revenues (Kotler,
2006). Sales activities provide the sales people with current knowledge about customer behaviours and needs, and
market place trends to prioritise their opportunities, to solve customers’ problems and to utilise their time efficiently
and effectively (Marshall, 2005). Under the sales force activities, technology plays an increasingly important role in
creating and building customer knowledge through using customer-relation management system. Technology also
provides the required information in time, leaving the sales people with more time to spend selling products or
services and to improve their focus on selling (Hunter and Perreault, 2006). For sales managers, technology supports
and facilitates their activities, especially in providing just-in-time coaching and identifying patterns that would
optimise sales force effectiveness (Hunter and Perreault, 2006).
In addition to enlightening the sales force, sales force activities excite, inspire and motivate sales people to carry out
their roles optimally (Zoltners et al., 2008). Sales force activities such as encouraging a culture of success, having
transformational leadership that incorporates the ideas and opinions of the sales people, having incentives and
compensation programs for motivation and assigning the sales people meaningful work for inspiration and
motivation. The sales people activities also act as controller through direct the selling activities in proper ways
consistent with the marketing and sales strategies (Kotler, 2006). In controlling the activities of the sales people,
sales management plays the key roles of building a culture that enhances selling activities, coming up with
appropriate compensation programs, performance appraisal programs, sales forecasting and goal setting, and
effective coordination and communication between the sales team members (Murphy and Li, 2012).
Sales Force Effectiveness
The concept of sales force effectiveness, as it emerged in the mid-1980s (Weitz, Sujan and Sujan, 1986) has
received little attention in the marketing and personal selling literature, yet sales force effectiveness has presently
grown into an essential tool used by companies to achieve revenues targets and to develop effective marketing and
sales strategies. Jones et al. (2005) associates the growing focus of companies on the sales force effectiveness to the
internal and external changes in the business environment that shortened product cycles, heightened customer
demands, increased product similarities, and intensified global competition. These changes require increased
abilities for the sales force to learn, understand, and adapt to them to ensure sustained effectiveness in influencing
higher sales.
Despite the sales force growing prominence as a strategic marketing tool, the concept of improving its effectiveness,
labelled as sales force effectiveness, has varying definitions across disciplines or across different points of view as
indicated by Zoltners, Sinha and Lorimer (2008). From a sales manager point of view, sales force effectiveness
involves the processes of value addition to the customer beyond product value achieved by a shift from transactional
to consultative selling processes. From a sales compensation analyst’s view, it is about using better compensation
packages to enhance the motivation of sales people. From a sales training manager’s view, it is about increasing
competency through training and skill development. From a finance manager’s view, it is about increasing sales per
person while keeping operational costs at a minimum. While all these definitions are valid, the present study
explores the sales force effectiveness from a sales manager point of view, as such sales effectiveness would refer to
the processes of increasing sales revenues through enhancing product value to customers and the empowerment of
sales people through training, and development and implementation of proper compensation packages.
? Different views as to sales force effectiveness
? The reason sales force effectiveness is important
Good sales force effectiveness is considered important as it helps in providing substantial improvement in
performance in the time of today which increasing in the complex world of business organizations. Sales force
effectiveness of top quality helps in maximizing revenues from the customers that exist and provides systematic
identification and management of new prospects. It provides a platform to sales organizations for growing at a fast
pace in the world of competition.
? Sales force effectiveness changing over company lifecycle
Importance of Sales Effectiveness
Little scholarly attention notwithstanding, the importance of sales force effectiveness to business organisations is
evident in the large numbers of people engaged in sales and sales management, and the huge investments
organisations make towards the sales force. In 2006, the U.S. had an estimated 20 million people working in sales
and sales management (Bureau of Labour Statistics, 2006). In the same period, the organisational budgets for the
U.S. sales force ranged from 10% to 40% of the cumulative sales budget, and collectively the U.S. spent an
estimated US$800 billion as sales force costs in 2006 fiscal year (Bradley, 2006). In the same period, the U.K. had
about 12% of the total female employee population and 5% of the total male employee population working in sales
and customer services, which represented the fastest growing employment sector, with the majority of the sales
force working in call centres in selling engagements (Bradley, 2006).
Investing in the sales force does alone not automatically yield higher sales revenues. A business has to determine the
value of the sales force towards the attainment of its mission and vision by defining the relationship between the
sales force, company strategy, and marketing and sales strategies as illustrated in Figure 2.4.