Sales Force Objectives and Strategy

The days when all the sales force did was “sell, sell, and sell” are long gone. Sales reps need to know
how to diagnose a customer’s problem and propose a solution that can help improve the customer’s
profitability.
Companies need to define specific sales force objectives. For example, a company might want its
sales representatives to spend 80 percent of their time with current customers and 20 percent with
prospects, and 85 percent of their time on established products and 15 percent on new products.
Regardless of the selling context, salespeople perform one or more specific tasks:
• Prospecting. Searching for prospects or leads
• Targeting. Deciding how to allocate their time among prospects and customers
• Communicating. Communicating information about the company’s products and services
• Selling. Approaching, presenting, answering questions, overcoming objections, and closing sales
• Servicing. Providing various services to the customers—consulting on problems, rendering
technical assistance, arranging financing, expediting delivery
• Information gathering. Conducting market research and doing intelligence work
• Allocating. Deciding which customers will get scarce products during product shortages
To manage costs, most companies are choosing a leveraged sales force that focuses reps on selling
the company’s more complex and customized products to large accounts and uses inside salespeople
and Web ordering for low-end selling. Salespeople handle fewer accounts and are rewarded for key
account growth; lead generation, proposal writing, order fulfillment, and postsale support are
turned over to others. This is far different from expecting salespeople to sell to every possible
account, the common weakness of geographically based sales forces.92
Companies must deploy sales forces strategically so they call on the right customers at the right
time in the right way, acting as “account managers”who arrange fruitful contact between people in
the buying and selling organizations. Selling increasingly calls for teamwork and the support of
others, such as top management, especially when national accounts or major sales are at stake;
technical people, who supply information and service before, during, and after product purchase;
customer service representatives, who provide installation, maintenance, and other services; and
office staff, consisting of sales analysts, order expediters, and assistants.Once the company chooses its strategy, it can use a direct or a contractual sales force.A direct (company)
sales force consists of full- or part-time paid employees who work exclusively for the company.
Inside sales personnel conduct business from the office using the telephone and receive visits from
prospective buyers, and field sales personnel travel and visit customers. A contractual sales force consists
of manufacturers’ reps, sales agents, and brokers, who earn a commission based on sales.
Sales Force Structure
The sales force strategy also has implications for its structure. A company that sells one product line
to one end-using industry with customers in many locations would use a territorial structure. A
company that sells many products to many types of customers might need a product or market
structure. Some companies need a more complex structure. Motorola, for example, manages four
types of sales forces: (1) a strategic market sales force composed of technical, applications, and
quality engineers and service personnel assigned to major accounts; (2) a geographic sales force
calling on thousands of customers in different territories; (3) a distributor sales force calling on and
coaching Motorola distributors; and (4) an inside sales force doing telemarketing and taking orders
via phone and fax.
Established companies need to revise their sales force structures as market and economic conditions
change. SAS, seller of business intelligence software, reorganized its sales force into industry-specific
groups such as banks, brokerages, and insurers and saw revenue soar by 14 percent.95 “Marketing
Insight:Major Account Management” discusses a specialized form of sales force structure