The Objectives of Sales Force Management - SFM
The objectives of managing the sales force are achieved through strategy. The policy provides guidance. There are two dimensions to sales strategies - what kind of sales force is needed and how many salespeople are needed. The overall size of the salesforce affects the number of calls and the frequency with which they are made.
A company takes into account its competitive setting, as it affects all its sales-related policies; Which instead influences strategy formulation. Marketing planning is long-term and strategic. In most cases, the sales plan is short-term and strategic. A company may operate in a purely competitive environment that is rarely found in practice, but our understanding of other types of competition makes it even more worrying.
In practice, we may face exclusive competition which is the most common, or oligopolistic competition where there are several competitors. In most cases, quality personal sales goals respond to a competitive environment where an organization operates. Qualitative objectives affect sales work.
A company may have a purpose to rely 100% on personal sales. This requires a larger and more trained sales force. Another company relies heavily on advertising, and the seller expects to provide only support services and order booking services. It can do well with a normal sales force, not so big in size.
Quantitative sales targets affect both the nature of sales work and the size of the sales force. A larger sales volume target requires more efficient and larger sales force that intensively covers the region. Sales-related marketing policy provides a framework within which sales power works.
In many organizations, the sales force is the only group that is specifically charged, and compensated, to generate revenue from sales. The efforts of field sales people are an important inspirational element of the firm. Some sales force is huge. In India, two dozen life insurance companies hire more than 2 million agents to sell their products; GE, IBM, Pfizer each employ thousands of salespeople around the world.
In B2B marketing, field sales power has always been critical; Salespeople usually launch products / services directly to end users. Business customers increasingly want vendors to gain real expertise in their specific industry / activity.
They hope that vendors will help solve business problems, not just sell widgets. Instead, many B2B vendors have expanded product lines, adding solutions experts to help weave different products/services together into integrated offers.
In contrast, in B2C, mass communication / digital marketing is often the main means of communication to reach consumers; Sales power plays a helpful role. But as the retail industry is centralized, a few large retailers / distributors secure significant energy; Efforts to sell B2C fields are on the rise.
Some FMCG companies now spend more on managing direct sales relationships with wholesalers / retailers than advertising to consumers! Example: At P&G, more than 400 people work exclusively with Walmart.
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