Value analysis of a sales force

Has the work ethic of hard work and perseverance declined in younger salespeople? A difference in work values between younger and older salespeople could indicate the presence of a generation gap in this study of a national industrial firm.     

Sales force evaluation with expectancy theory

The salespeople and their sales managers of two national firms were surveyed to examine the relationships between the salespeople's effort, performance, satisfaction, and propensity to leave their job. The 399 salespeople participating in the study were evaluated by their sales managers. Research results provide insights into the problems associated with correctly measuring performance and testing expectancy theory when salespeople are not evaluated on objective performance measures.     

Salesmen and saleswomen job satisfaction

Men and women salespeople of two National companies were found to differ in the way they view their jobs. This is contrary to other research. Implications for the practicing sales manager are presented.     

Salary increases for the marketing executive

This article discusses how marketing executives view their pay raise. A study of 491 marketing executives examined their views on what is a meaningful salary increase and the reasons why their companies give pay raises.     

Marketing executives' perceptions of equitable salary increases

Employees' perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases is the subject of this article. Factors hypothesized to be the major determinants of the “perceived amount of pay that should be received” in Lawler's model of pay satisfaction are employed as predictor variables in a multiple regression equation context to explain the observed variation in executives' perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases. A national sample of industrial marketing executives were surveyed. A significant relationship was observed between employees perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases and a number of perceived personal job input and job demands related variables, current salary and wage history, and perceived non-monetary outcomes which are theorized in Lawler's model to be among the major determinants of the perceived amount of pay that should be received.     

Buying an industrial service warehouse space

This paper reports the results of a study of the industrial buyer of warehouse space. The role of the purchasing agent and the other members in the buy group are identified and evaluated.     

Sales management control and job performance

A national firm's salespeoples' perceptions of their management control system were related to their performance and satisfaction. Salespeople who perceived job goal clarity, control over their work, and job rewards as being based upon performance were found to be relatively higher performers and better satisfied with their job.     

The relative importance of industrial promotion tools

This article describes a survey of the perceptions of organizational buyers regarding the extent to which their purchasing decisions are influenced by various promotional tools. The results of this survey provide some practical implications for industrial marketers regarding the relative effectiveness of various promotional tools and the relative emphasis that they should place on each of them.     

Vendor segmentation: An additional level of market segmentation

This article describes a new conceptual approach, called “vendor segmentation,” which will be useful to industrial marketers in making their vendor evaluation and selection procedures more customer oriented, and hence more profitable, than conventional procedures. A practical approach for doing vendor segmentation analysis is outlined as a stepwise procedure, and the potential benefits and limitations of using this approach are discussed.     

Guidelines for marketing a new industrial product

This article presents an illustration of what evaluations and obstacles a new product can face in an industrial market. Guidelines are also suggested which will hopefully better prepare industrial marketers for more success in marketing new products.     

A new method for routing salespersons

A new heuristic solution methodology for solving large-scale “traveling salesman” problems is presented. Significant features of the new procedure includes a rapid identification of node location and positive stopping.     

Managing frustration in the sales force

In the day-to-day operations, a sales manager must solve a multitude of problems. One such problem is dealing with behavior resulting from employees' frustration. Frustration-instigated behavior is different in kind from motivated or goal-directed behavior. Failure to recognize frustration-instigated behavior in a salesperson and to respond appropriately can have serious consequences. Because a salesperson often has little control over factors affecting his performance, he is particularly susceptible to frustration. This article tells how to recognize frustrated behavior and then describes six of the most common frustrating sales situations and how to deal with them.     

A sales mix model for effective industrial selling

The purpose of this article is to focus on one aspect of the marketing mix for industrial firms. Specifically, the control of promotion centers on the promotional mix, which includes personal selling, advertising, and sales promotion. The personal sales mix model (Figure 1) highlights those factors that are controllable by the industrial sales representative. Also, the uncontrollables involved in industrial selling are discussed. An understanding of the personal sales mix model should aid industrial marketers in satisfying buyer's needs through effective selling.     

Rating industrial advertisements

Industrial advertisers can create more effective advertisements if they have some notion about the immediate effect their advertising has on the target audience. Here, a multiple item scale is developed for categorizing an audience's reactions to print ads. The proposed scale is discussed as a copytesting instrument and could be used to evaluate alternative executions in order to indicate which ads may be most effective.     

Grid analysis for sales supervision

Falling to recognize the unique need and desire of salespeople, the sales manager tends to allocate supervisory time according to the amount of his or her past selling experience. This time allocation results in either the excessive or insufficient supervision of sales personnel. This article describes a process of arriving at a more optimum allocation of supervisory time.     

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.     

More effective sales force reporting

As the need for marketing intelligence by sales and marketing managers grows more essential, field sales personnel are increasingly being asked to gather and report information. Many executives realize the potential value of using salespersons to supply information useful to management decision making. The sales force is familiar with their territories, their customers' needs and sources of information inside customer organizations, their competitors' marketing activities, and trends in product acceptance. The incremental costs and effort required are low compared to other research methods, since information can be submitted within the context of a regular call report system [2, 6, 8].But salespersons have been found to be inadequate and uncooperative reporters in many instances. Numerous field salespersons believe that reporting infringes on their primary responsibility of selling, and furthermore that management apparently doesn't make use of the resulting information anyway. Thus, while salespersons have access to a wealth of marketing information of potentially great value to the firm, they are often inadequate, unreliable, and unmotivated reporters [4, 5].This article reports the results of a study designed to investigate what management practices contribute to, or detract from, effective reporting of marketing information by salespersons. Current practices in reporting are noted and some recommendations are made to help management improve sales force reporting.     

Industrial sales managers: Satisfaction and performance

This article examines some key variables that affect managerial satisfaction and performance. Some specific supervisory actions are suggested that may improve the field sales managerial satisfaction.     

The effective use of marketing research consultants

Relatively little has been written about effectively managing the buyer-seller relationship for marketing research services. To provide insights into effectively managing this relationship, a survey of both buyers and sellers of marketing research services was conducted. Major findings were that proper problem definition, a familiarity with research methods by the research buyer, and continuous communication between buyer and seller were critical determinants of a successful consultant relationship. For best results the market research buyer-seller relationship should be treated as a mutually beneficial one, not one of conflict or acrimony.     

Industrial sales management in the 1980s

This article offers suggestions for sales management in the 1980s. Experts believe that energy and other resources will decline, government regulation will increase, and increased attention will be given to social responsibility. Several recommendations for dealing with these anticipated pressures are presented.