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.     

Strategies for sales force management

Far too few companies with a personal selling force utilize a scientific framework to aid in solving their tactical selling problems. While this approach is used somewhat in other functional areas of the business, personal selling is by-passed. The purpose of this article is to investigate the major decision-making areas a sales manager must act upon and to provide tools to enable him to make rational decisions through the framework of models. Hopefully, the following models will provide the sales manager with more effectiveness in 1) dealing with sales force problems, and 2) attainment of the company's sales objectives. At the very least, exposure to this framework will motivate the sales manager and salesmen to think of the various factors and their functional relationship as they affect the selling effort of the company.     

Personal selling and sales management: A relationship marketing perspective

The authors examine how the practice of personal selling and sales management is changing as a result of the increased attention on long-term, buyer-seller relationships and identify some implications of these changes. Changes in the traditional personal selling and sales management activities are needed to support the emergence of the part-nering role for salespeople. For salespeople in the part-nering role, the personal selling shifts from a focus on influencing buyer behavior to managing the conflict inherent in buyer-seller relationships. The emphasis on building relationships rather than making short-term sales and the use of sales teams dictates changes in the way firms select, train, evaluate, and compensate salespeople and members of sales teams. In this article, the authors have suggested some issues concerning the emerging partnering role for salespeople that deserve the attention of scholars interested in personal selling and sales management research. Barton A. Weitz is the J. C. Penney Eminent Scholar Chair in Retail Management at the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and his research interests are in the areas of personal selling effectiveness, salesperson motivation, and channel relationships. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, andAdministrative Science Quarterly. He has coauthored two textbooks,Selling: Building Relationships andRetail Management. Kevin D. Bradford is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida. His research interests include issues in buyerseller relationships and increasing salesperson effectiveness.     

Expert systems: The integrative sales management tool of the future

Personal computer technology has provided a major opportunity to develop revolutionary approaches to the solution of business problems. While applications of artificial intelligence and expert systems are rapidly emerging, few have been developed in the sales management area. Specifically, this paper proposes the creation of an expert system to enhance sales management activities and their coordination with the entire marketing function within an organization.     

The impact of sales management changes on new product success

Although the role of the sales force and sales management mix can be significant in influencing successful new product launch, the impact of specific sales management programs and tactics has not been examined in detail. This study explores whether firms that introduce new products were more successful in achieving their objectives when the new product introduction was accompanied by associated changes in sales management mix variables. Firms that were more successful in achieving their new product objectives accompanied their new product launches with significantly more changes in sales force quotas than did firms whose achievement of new product objectives was less successful. However, no significant differences in the number of changes in sales force structure, training, or sales support were found between firms with more successful versus less successful new products. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She began her career as a chemist and has held research, sales, product management, and marketing management positions prior to entering academia. The major focus of her research is on the process of developing and marketing new products. Her articles have appeared in theJournal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, andIndustrial Marketing Management. He has written numerous books and articles in professional journals and is the former editor ofJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. He serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, andJournal of Business & Industrial Marketing and has been a consultant to many business and government organizations.     

Information system innovations and supply chain management: Channel relationships and firm performance

This study explores how innovations surrounding supply chain communication systems (SCCS) affect channel relationships and market performance. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, the study hypothesizes that certain SCCS innovations can be viewed as firm resources that enhance channel capabilities, which in turn affect a firm’s market performance. The empirical research is based on 184 responses from a survey with U.S. supply chain and logistics managers using structural equation modeling as the analytic method. The results suggest that the effect of applied technological SCCS innovations on channel capabilities is mediated by interfirm systems integration. In contrast, administrative SCCS innovations enhance information exchange and coordination activities directly. Furthermore, the influence of applied technological innovations for SCCS is not strong enough to affect either responsiveness of the partnership or firm performance, whereas administrative innovations for SCCS affect both. Daekwan Kim (dkim@cob.fsu.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing and international business in the College of Business at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University. His research interests include the impact of information technology on channel relationships and marketing strategies, role of information technology in global supply chain management, channel relationships, global brand management, and family conglomerates in emerging markets. S. Tamer Cavusgil (cavusgil@msu.edu) is University Distinguished Faculty and the John W. Byington Endowed Chair in Global Marketing, the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Michigan State University. His research interests include international marketing strategy, coordination in the global company, and emerging markets. He is the founding editor ofAdvances in International Marketing and a governor of the Academy of Marketing Science. Roger J. Calantone (rogercal@msu.edu) is the Eli Broad Chaired University Professor of Business and is University Distinguished Faculty at Michigan State University. He is program director of the university specialization program in Information Technology Management and is also adjunct professor of economics. His publications and research are mostly in the areas of product design and development processes, decision support systems, and organization process metrics and control.     

Intraorganizational determinants of key account management effectiveness

While there is a significant amount of research on determinants of selling effectiveness for individual salespeople, there is a surprising lack of study offactors that affect selling effectiveness in team-selling situations. The authors focus on the context of key account management (KAM) and develop a conceptual model offactors that affect KAM effectiveness. They test hypotheses with data from 385 firms using structural equation modeling and find that firms should seek to build esprit de corps among those involved in KAM, should proactively initiate activities with key accounts and do these activities more intensively, should ensure that key account managers have access to key resources within the marketing and sales organization, and should involve top managers of the firm. John P. Workman Jr. is an associate professor of marketing at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He conducts research on the organization and role of marketing within the firm, on new product development in high-tech firms, and on the interpretive process of learning about the market. His research uses concepts from organization theory, strategy, and sociology to examine the interactions between marketing and other groups in the firm. He has a B.S. from North Carolina State University, an MBA from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He formerly was on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Christian Homburg is a professor of business administration and marketing and chair of the marketing department at the University of Mannheim in Germany. He received his Ph.D. and master's degrees from the University of Karlsruhe and earned his habilitation at the University of Mainz. His research interests include organizational issues in marketing, customer orientation, industrial marketing, and relationship marketing. He has consulted and delivered executive education programs for more than 100 companies, including, for example, Daimler-Benz, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Hoechst, RWE, Thyssen, Krupp-Hoesch, and Sodexho. Ove Jensen is a partner and managing director at Prof. Homburg & Partners, a strategy consulting firm (www.homburgund-partner.de). He has studied in Germany, France, and the United States. He holds a master's degree from the WHU Koblenz (Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management) and received his Ph.D. from the University of Mannheim, both in Germany. His research interests encompass key account management, marketing organization, sales management, incentive systems, and pricing issues. He has conducted many consulting projects, market research studies, and management seminars in Germany, the United States, France, and Japan. Among his clients are Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Bayer, BASF, Lafarge, and Saint-Gobain.     

The strategic role of the sales force: perceptions of senior sales executives

Current models of sales force strategy imply formidable information processing demands, which leads us to take a cognitive approach to studying the issue of sales force strategy. We focus on how top-level executives use mental models of sales force performance to simplify the issue of sales force strategy. We interviewed 74 senior executives responsible for their firms’ selling function using the repertory grid approach, as this methodology has been shown to be particularly effective at uncovering the collective cognitive maps on which executives’ decisions and behaviors are based. Executives identified a broad set of 37 strategic concepts that they felt distinguish the sales force efforts of directly competing companies. A second set of sales executives classified the 37 concepts into capabilities, resources, and organizational context concepts. Based on the classification results and feedback from both sets of executives, we developed research propositions for examining sales force strategy and provide directions for future research.     

Coping with sales decay: Case and techniques

Multi-product manufacturers of consumer goods find for most of their items that, at some point in the marketing cycle, sales have peaked. The decline that follows will normally proceed along an approximately stable rate described by the particular decay constant applicable. Often, action to alter or even reverse declining trends may be feasible and desirable. But in order to be aware of these meeds, to know when and how strongly to proceed, one must understand the nature of decay rates, be able to analyze decay patterns, and set up effective surveillance controls. The problem or recognizing and dealing with sales decay is explored with the aid of a case. Based on workshop materials of executive seminars on “Market and Sales Forecasting” (c) N. L. Enrick 1974, Management Centre Europe (Brussels, January/February) and Management Center of Cambridge (Toronto and Montreal, Canada).     

Performance congruence and value congruence impact on sales force annual sales

The separate and joint impact of performance congruence (similarity between salespeople and their sales managers) and value congruence on annual sales are investigated in a field study. Two hundred thirty-nine salespeople and their sales managers from several industries participated in the study. A significant association was found for separate and joint associations between performance congruence and value congruence and annual sales. More specifically, the more similar salespeople and their sales managers are regarding performance congruence measures, “identifying new prospects” and “setting up an initial appointment” and personal values, “warm relationships with others,” and “sense of belonging,” the higher annual sales.     

中小企业营销国际化与国际化营销

中小企业是中国经济结构中重要组成部分之一.在经济全球化的进程中,中小企业如何从全球经济的角度来提高自身的竞争能力,主要包括两部分内容,即立足本土研究营销国际化,放眼海外学习国际化营销.     

Sales contest effectiveness: An examination of sales contest design preferences of field sales forces

Sales contests, a widely used form of sales force special incentives, receive considerable attention in the trade and academic press. While understanding salespersons’ preferences for various contest designs is a critical first step for understanding how sales contests motivate salespeople to pursue contest goals, a knowledge gap exists in understanding design preferences. With expectancy theory serving as a theoretical basis, the authors develop hypotheses about preferences for sales contest components. Following tests of hypotheses using survey and conjoint data provided by field sales forces from three companies, exploratory analyses of how individual, supervisory, and sales setting characteristics may affect preferences suggest potential boundary conditions for initial findings. The results lead to an improved awareness of the determinants of contest design preferences as well as insights and implications for sales managers seeking to design effective contests.     

论组织企业管理培训的关键因素

文章从理论与实践结合上论述了三个问题：一、正确认识组织企业管理培训的关键因素。二、正确处理三个关系：组织者与被组织者的关系,组织机构与政策文件的关系,计划调训与面向培训市场的关系。三、抓好四个切入点：一是加强培训队伍、培训基地和培训网络建设;二是提高培训质量,突出强调“学以致用”;三是贯彻执行国家经贸委三条措施;四是政府各有关部门和社会各界联动,形成组织企业管理培训的合力     

试论高校教学管理构成要素与教学管理体制制约因素

教学管理包含教学管理主体、教学管理客体、教学管理目标与教学管理手段四大基本要素。教学管理体制即教学管理活动的组织制度体系。教学管理的构成要素是制约高校教学管理体系的内在因素；高等教育宏观管理体制、经济管理体制、政治管理体制、观念文化则是影响高校管理体制的外在因素。     

渠道冲突与渠道活力

渠道冲突的实质是利益冲突。渠道冲突并不可怕,只要抓住问题关键,良性冲突可以转化为渠道动力。渠道激励和冲货问题是渠道冲突的集中体现,分销层次与价格层次的动态平衡是化解渠道冲突为渠道动力的有效办法。     

Digitization of selling activity and sales force performance: An empirical investigation

Firms are creating a digitized selling capability by developing Web sites designed to provide information and conduct transactions with customers, replacing many routine sales force activities. The authors use the motivationability framework to shape a conceptual model that examines the effects of the digitization of selling activity on two salesperson outcomes: salesperson effectiveness and salesperson job-insecurity. Using data from salespeople in 168 firms, they assess the moderating effects of environmental-level motivational factors and firm-level ability factors on the impact of digitization of selling activity on salesperson effectiveness and job insecurity. The results reveal that digitization has the paradoxical effect of improving salesperson effectiveness and heightening job insecurity concerns, and also that managers can improve the technology-enabled multichannel capabilities of the firm by giving priority attention to human capital improvement, sales force control systems, and communication of the digitization strategy. Devon S. Johnson (Ph.D., London Business School, dj@devonjohnson.com) is currently an assistant professor of marketing at Northeastern University, Boston. Previously, he was an assistant rofessor of marketing in the Giozueta Business School at Emory University. His research interests are the role of social capital in relational exchange and technology consumption and implementation. Sundar Bharadwaj (Sundar_Bharadwaj@bus.Emory.edu) is an associate professor of marketing in the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. His general research interests focus on marketing strategy and performance and risk. His research has been published in theJournla of Marketing, Management Science, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others.     

Sales managers and sales force feedback: Information left in the pipeline

In a study of sales force feedback at management levels, salesmen from two large corporations “planted” competitive new-product information with their sales managers. The object was to monitor the responses of the managers to reports from the field. Only about half of the 35 managers sampled passed the information on to higher levels. The importance of sales force feedback seems to have been lost on these managers, even though the use of such information had been stressed in their management training programs. The study indicates a need to provide motivation to use sales force feedback as a link in management information systems.     

Heterogeneity in sales districts: Beyond individual-level predictors of satisfaction and performance

This article examines the influence of heterogeneity within a sales unit on the unit’s satisfaction and performance.Sales unit refers to a set of salespersons working out of the same office and for the same supervisor, andheterogenity refers to salespersons’ dispersion or variance on key dimensions. Specifically, drawing on theories in social psychology, the authors study the influence of sales unit heterogeneity in terms of (1) demographic characteristics (e.g., gender dispersion), (2) skills and rewards (e.g., reward dispersion), and (3) goal orientations (e.g., learning orientation dispersion) on a sales unit’s performance and job satisfaction levels. The hypotheses developed are tested using data from a study involving 476 salespeople belonging to 105 sales units in a large organization. The authors find that the focal heterogeneity variables account for nearly 25 percent of the total variance explained by the full set of independent variables included in the model. R. Venkatesh is an assistant professor of business administration at the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business. His articles on product bundling, cobranding and sales force management have appeared or are forthcoming in theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, andMarketing Science. Goutam Challagalla is an associate marketing professor at Georgia Tech. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Texas at Austin, where he won the Outstanding Dissertation Award. He has published articles on sales management and marketing theory in marketing and psychology journals. Ajay K. Kohli is Isaac Stiles Hopkins professor of marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. During 2000–2001, he is on leave from Emory and working at the Monitor Company. He has published in several journals on market orientation, sales management, and organizational buying behavior.     

对我国城市社区管理的若干思考

城市社区管理是我国城市建设的基础。十几年来,我国的城市社区建设在各方面取得了一定的成绩,但是,仍存在管理理念陈旧、行政化表现严重、管理体制落后、城市社区自治功能弱、权力缺失等问题。因此,应转变观念,改革现行的城市社区管理体制,规范城市社区管理。