The impact of misrepresentative data patterns on sales forecasting accuracy

The development of a sales forecasting system involves three major steps. The first step is to obtain prior sales data and to identify the model that will best forecast the patterns that exist in the data. The second step is to estimate parameter values for the selected model by analyzing the prior sales data. The third step is to test the accuracy of the model by use of the prior sales data. Each of the steps requires use of prior data. In all three steps, there is a basic assumption that the past data represent some underlying process that can be identified and modeled. In some cases the past data may not represent the underlying process, and the forecasting process is seriously distorted. Some frequent causes of distorted data are 1) accounting methods that are used to record or collect the data, 2) marketing tactics such as promotions which that create outliers, 3) limits on production capacity that cause stockouts. This paper looks at events and actions that may distort data used for sales forecasting and at the resulting impact the events and actions may have on forecasting accuracy.     

When and how does sales team conflict affect sales team performance?

Drawing on information processing theory, this study integrates the conflict and learning literatures to examine an under-examined area in sales research: When do sales team task and relationship conflicts influence sales team performance, and what is the underlying process by which this occurs? Although there is burgeoning interest in sales research at the team level, very few empirical studies have shed light on sales team dynamics such as conflict and how they impact sales team performance. This study attempts to address this gap by developing a mediated moderation model and finds that (a) task and relationship conflicts have negative impacts on sales team performance, (b) team information exchange and information interpretation/implementation mediate the negative relationship between task and relationship conflicts and sales team performance, and (c) task and relationship conflicts stifle sales team performance when the team makes little use of a collaborative conflict handling style because this interactive combination (task/relationship conflict–low collaborative conflict handling style) hinders team information exchange and interpretation/implementation. Implications for conflict management in sales teams are discussed.     

对入世后我国旅行社营销策略的探讨

入世后我国旅行社在市场竞争主体、旅游人才、客源市场以及销售渠道等营销环境上出现变化，我国旅行社应注重实行体制改革、品牌营销、产品组合、横向联合体模式、一对一营销、销售渠道扩展、服务营销、旅行社人才策略等主要营销策略。     

我国网络销售代理的发展现状、存在的问题及对策分析

目前,网络销售代理正处于起步发展阶段,传统经销商和网络销售代理商的竞争正激烈上演,网络销售代理与传统销售代理的整合营销正逐步运用,在这个发展阶段中,促进我国网络销售代理发展的法律法规也正逐步完善。与此同时,网络销售代理在发展的过程中存在选择产品供应商不当,产品网络销售代理策略不合理,物流配送服务未能快速及时有效地进行,缺乏专业的网络销售代理人才和客户关系管理不当等问题。为此,应该选择合适的产品供应商,制定合理的产品网络销售代理策略,提高物流配送服务的效率,加强网络销售代理人才的培养和建立良好的客户关系管理系统,以便网络销售代理商能够更加顺利地拓展业务。     

现行税制中的视同销售：问题与对策

现行税制中视同销售存在的主要问题：相关概念缺乏解释,流转税与所得税视同销售的范围不规范、不协调;对同样的视同销售行为税务处理方法存在争议;视同销售会计处理方法不统一。应着重从以下方面解决这些问题：完善税收法规,对相关概念予以解释和明确;尽可能使流转税与所得税视同销售的范围协调一致;规范特殊视同销售行为的税务处理方法,尤其是对视同销售中赠送的税务处理的规范;统一视同销售的会计处理方法。     

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.     

It’s a matter of congruence: How interpersonal identification between sales managers and salespersons shapes sales success

In recent years, marketing research and practice have recognized the importance of managing frontline employees’ identification. However, investigations so far have focused on identification at the collective level of the self, such as organizational identification, thereby largely neglecting important interpersonal identification processes at the relational level. Using a large-scale dataset comprising information from sales managers and salespeople as well as company data on customer satisfaction and sales performance, the authors make a first attempt to address this neglect by exploring important phenomena of interpersonal identification in the sales manager–salesperson dyad. Results show that initial increases in the level of identification congruence between sales managers and their respective salespeople yield positive incremental effects on sales performance and customer satisfaction. Findings also show that interpersonal over-identification and identification incongruence are negatively related to both outcomes. Results demonstrate how sales managers could mitigate these negative effects.     

Point-of-purchase displays, product organization, and brand purchase likelihoods

Can point-of-purchase (POP) displays cause a decrease in sales of the featured brand? In an actual test-market promotion, the use of special POP displays led to a decrease in sales of featured wines from a specific U.S. region. Moreover, sales of regularly shelved wines from competitive regions actually increased. The results of a laboratory experiment supported the explanation that the POP displays essentially reorganized the wines into region categories within the stores, making it easier for consumers to compare alternatives by region. As a result, sales of wines from preferred regions increased and sales of wines from disliked regions decreased relative to when the wines were displayed by variety categories on regular shelf space. Further evidence indicated that reorganizing products by levels of a given attribute influences purchase likelihoods mainly when the attribute is otherwise low rather than high in salience and when brands have normally high rather than low purchase likelihoods.     

改进我国企业人员推销管理

目前 ,我国不少企业在对推销人员管理上较为粗放 ,存在选拔不严 ,培训不力 ,监管落后 ,激励不当 ,支持不够的问题 ,严重影响企业销售工作。应加强对推销人员的选拔、培训、监管、激励和支持 ,使推销人员管理科学化。     

Salesforce support systems: Potential applications to increase productivity

Microcomputer based sales support systems have been held out by meany as a solution to the increasingly high cost of the personal selling effort. Promises of increased productivity through both greater efficiency and effectiveness have been made by many vendors. The author proposes some guidelines which provide sales managers with assistance in deciding when and where such systems can be used to increase the productivity of the salesforce.     

Perceptions of the sales job: How students compare with industrial salespeople

Past research on student's attitudes toward personal selling have generally concluded that students have misconceptions about sales. An interesting issue, but one that has not yet been explored, is whether students' perceptions of selling are different from salespeople's perceptions. This paper reports the results of a study that examined the differences between salespeople's and students' perceptions of a sales job. In addition, several managerial implications for developing sales recruiting messages are discussed. The author wishes to gratefully acknowledge an anonymous reviewer for his/her helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this article and the Sales and Marketing Executives Club of Dallas for its personal support of this project.     

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.     

企业应收账款风险的衡量与防范

企业之间为了争夺更多的市场份额,采用了赊销的手段,产生了许多的应收账款,再加之企业本身内部控制不够完善,使得其资金周转较为困难。本文针对应收账款的形成原因进行分析,着重研究了企业应收账款风险评估的具体方法,并且提出应收账款风险的防范措施。     

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.     

Customer knowledge creation capability and performance in sales teams

Drawing on substitutes for leadership theory, this study examines the relationship between a sales team manager’s empowering leadership and his or her sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability. The authors develop and test a model that positions task interdependence, outcome interdependence, and their interactions as substitutes for empowering leadership. Further, the authors explore two perspectives of team-level performance—customer relationship performance and financial performance—as consequences of a sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability. Using matched data collected from sales team managers and sales team members, the authors find general support for their hypotheses. The study finds that a sales manager’s empowering leadership has a positive effect on a sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability. However, the results also suggest that the positive effect of empowering leadership on a sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability is mitigated when either outcome interdependence or both task and outcome interdependence are high. Further, as outcome interdependence and the interaction between task and outcome interdependence increases, a sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability also increases, which suggests that outcome interdependence and the combination of task and outcome interdependence replaces the role of empowering leadership. The study also finds that the greater a sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability is, the higher its customer relationship performance and sales team financial performance will be. Implications for customer knowledge creation in sales teams in the presence and absence of empowering leadership are discussed.     

转型升级背景下的张家界旅游营销创新研究

张家界旅游业正处于转型升级的关键期.在转型升级背景下,张家界旅游营销面临来自形象品牌塑造、营销体系建构、营销活动展开等方面的问题,旅游营销创新必须运用现代营销理念,采取针对性措施,做到形象品牌鲜明化、营销体系健全化、营销方式多元化.     

Social values and salesperson performance: An empirical examination

Although social values have been used increasingly in consumer research, their utility in sales management research has received little attention. Using a national sample of industrial salespeople, the authors evaluate several hypotheses, developed from social adaptation theory and a theoretical framework of values domain, regarding the incremental ability of the List of Values (LOV) to predict salesperson performance beyond adaptive selling (ADAPTS) and customer orientation (SOCO). The LOV shows promise as a tool by which salesperson performance can be predicted. Managerial implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented. He received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Oregon. His experience includes five years in sales and sales management with Xerox and Digital Equipment Corporation. His research interests include sales force management and marketing strategy. He has published in theReview of Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Business Forecasting, Journal of Marketing Education, and other journals. He received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Oregon. His current research interests include issues in cross-cultural marketing strategy, global and domestic sales force management, and research methodology. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Marketing Education, and other journals.     

The interactive effects of sales control systems on salesperson performance: a job demands–resources perspective

Sales control systems represent an important managerial tool in directing the sales force for desired organizational objectives. However, the majority of prior sales control research has focused only on the main effects of sales control systems without explicitly considering their interactive effects and associated intervening mechanisms. Drawing on job demands–resources theory, the authors theorize differential interactive effects of outcome control, activity control, and capability control on job engagement (i.e., adaptive selling behavior and selling effort) and job stress (i.e., role ambiguity and role conflict), which subsequently affect salesperson performance. Empirical results using a sample of industrial salespeople find that (1) outcome control and capability control have positive interactive effects on adaptive selling behavior and selling effort while suppressing role conflict, (2) activity control and capability control have a negative interactive effect on role ambiguity, and (3) outcome control and activity control have a positive interactive effect on selling effort but negative interactive effects on adaptive selling behavior and role clarity. These results indicate that sales control researchers can benefit from considering the complex interactive effects of various control styles as well as the intervening processes, which provide a more refined understanding of this important managerial tool.     

The sales manager as a Role model: Effects on trust, job satisfaction, and performance of salespeople

This study develops a conceptual framework that relates role-modeling behavior of sales managers to a set of key outcome variables and assesses the validity of the framework using a cross-sectional sample of salespeople and sales managers drawn from a variety of business-to-business sales organizations. Findings indicate that salespeople’s perceptions of their managers’ role-modeling behavior relate positively to trust in the sales manager and relate indirectly, through trust, to both job satisfaction and overall performance of salespeople. The study provides empirical validity for practitioner suggestions that sales managers should lead by example, and thus should provide a model of the behavior managers desire their salespeople to enact. His primary research interest is in the application of leadership theory to sales management. His work has been published inPersonnel Psychology andJournal of Business-to-Business Marketing.     

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.