1. Overview of Sales Management and the Selling Environment
Sales and Distribution Management
Marketing 3345

2. Sales Management in the 21st Century
Building long-term relationships with customers
Creating more nimble and adaptable sales organizational structures
Removing functional barriers within the organization to create greater job ownership and commitment from salespeople

3. Sales Management in the 21st Century
Shifting sales management style from commanding to coaching
Leveraging available technology for sales success
Integrating salesperson performance evaluation to incorporate all activities and outcomes

4. Key Themes Innovation – thinking outside the box
Technology – broad spectrum of tools available to salespersons
Leadership – capability to make things happen
Globalization
Ethics

5. Innovation Classical selling involved . . .
Transaction Selling – a series of transactions, each one involving separate organizations entering into an independent transaction.
The contemporary shift . . .
Relationship Selling – narrowing the vendor pool, improving efficiencies, working directly with customers to solve problems. In general, salespeople are asked build relationships.

6. Technology
Constant accessibility to people/data via computers and mobile phones
Interactive web presences
Just-in-Time (JIT) delivery
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in manufacturing
Efficient Customer Response (ECR) in retailing
Customer Relationship Management Software (CRM)
Intranets for internal communication
Extranets to serve all stakeholders

7. Leadership versus Managing
Leading (Mentoring)
Communicate
Cheerleader/coach
Empower to make decisions
Managing
Control
Supervisor/boss
Direct

8. Globalization – bridging the culture gap
View customers in terms of ethnic core values
Get in sync with customer business practices
Follow customers’ lead
See others honestly
Adopt the perspective of other cultures

9. Ethics Customer loyalty is impossible to maintain without trust
Long term relationships require higher ethical standards
Federal Sentencing Guidelines designed to punish unethical firms

10. Sales Management Process
The formulation of a sales program
The implementation of the sales program
The evaluation and control of the sales program

12. Environmental Impact on Selling
Environmental forces constrain the ability to pursue certain marketing strategies or activities
Environmental variables determine the ultimate success or failure of marketing strategies
Changes in the environment create new marketing opportunities
Environmental variables are affected by marketing activities

14. Economic Environment
Buyer-seller interactions take place within the context of current economic conditions
The economy impacts real potential demand
Global economic conditions are important
Competitive structure affects selling success

15. Legal-Political Environment
Many of the changes in society’s values reflect new laws and new government regulations.
Three broad categories of laws are relevant:
Antitrust
Consumer Protection
Equal Employment Opportunity

16. Technological Environment
Changing the way salespeople and sales managers do their jobs
Influences sales strategies
Provides increased opportunities for product development
Transportation, communications, and data processing technologies change sales territories, sales rep deployment and sales performance evaluation

17. Social and Cultural Environment
Ethics - concerned with development of moral standards by which actions and situations can be judged.
Of concern to sales managers:
Their relationships with salespeople
Interactions between salespeople and their customers
Managers must influence ethical performance by example
Ethical standards reflect integrity of the firm

18. Natural Environment Nature influences demand for products
Weather
Natural disasters
Availability of raw materials
Energy resources
Demarketing may result from shortages caused by nature
Growing social concern about the possible negative impact of product and production have important implications for marketing and sales programs

20. Goals/Objectives/Culture
Mission and objectives drive customer management approaches
A well-defined mission + successful corporate history + top management values = strong corporate culture

21. Personnel Modern sales organizations are highly complex and dynamic
Often difficult to expand to take advantage of growing markets
Utilizing outside specialists can help firms meet need to expand

22. Financial Resources Lack of financial resources can:
constrain ability to develop new products
limit promotional budget
limit size of sales force

23. Production and Supply Chain Capabilities
Production capacity
Location of production facilities
Transportation costs
Ability to ensure seamless distribution and service after the sale

24. Service Capabilities Opportunity for strong competitive advantage
Difficult for other firms to compete for same customers
Customers reluctant to switch regardless of price

25. R&D and Technological Capabilities
Excellence in design and engineering provide major promotional appeal
Ability to communicate technological sophistication as value-add helps prevent over-reliance on price to get sales

26. Key Terms transactional selling relationship selling leading versus
managing
sales management
sales management process
formulation
Implementation
evaluation and control
internal (organizational) environment
corporate culture
discontinuous change
external environment
economic environment
legal and political
environment
technological environment
social and cultural
natural environment
ethics
demarketing