Accelerating Sales Force - Essay Example

? Accelerating Sales Force Business, Essay user [Pick the Sales force is regarded as the most important and cardinal part of companies, organizations, shops and any business in the emerging cooperate world of today. The efforts of the sales force are of paramount and colossal importance because this factor eventually decides where the company stands in the economic and financial perspective. The sales force must be hired keeping in view the organizational needs and contextual backgrounds of the business in order to get the most out of it. Unprofessionally hired, oversized, undersized or uneducated sales forces will cast augmented detrimental effects on any business because the presentation of the product is decisive when it comes to the market penetration and selling. A customer will decide to choose or leave the product based on the analysis of the product within few minutes. This time should be exploited in an optimal way to ensure the sale of the product and this job is done by the sales force. Seemingly, sales force might be considered among the lowest ranks in the organization hierarchies but technically, it is the most important sector in any business or organizational that decides the overall course of proceedings for the business. In order to ensure the success and increase of sales of any business, the sales force must be sized ideally and within the alignment of the organizational norms and standards. The sales force is said to be oversized when the customers see a rush of sales persons around them doing nothing. This is giving the glimpse that the sales people are sitting idle and they have nothing to do in the workplace. The oversized sales force will cause depletion of the economic resources of the organization. Similarly the customers, competitors and general masses will view this excess of sale force in the workplace as a result of a lot of profits which is allowing this company to have such a huge lot of sales force (Zoltners et al, 2001). According to 10 insights for better sales force design which are regarded as a standard to follow in the perspective of sizing and allocation of sales force in any organization or business, there is a very strong bonding between territory level call efforts and territory level sales. According to this principal, the increase in the sales force will increase the overall profits. This relationship is depicted in the figure below. It also says that time spent by each sales person on the customer is directly proportional to the profit or sales. (Zoltners,2001) Carryover factor has also a very important role to play. For example a customer comes to buy a product which is of high quality and very expensive. The efforts of sale person at that time will be a deciding factor for the future. If next time the same customer will come and there will be an undersized sales force at the same workplace, not much slashes in the sales will occur because the imprinting effects has been made at the first impression time. Cost containment approach is not good to follow if the company wants to plan long term profitability index increasing plans. For example a profit maximization approach allocating a 14% sales force expense of total sales will be better for a business than downsizing of sales persons. Efficient sizing and increasing of sales force promises profitability to the business. Similarly gradual downsizing and step wise hiring is also harmful to the company because if the company will hire the individuals for the sales force step by step, extra cost will be exhausted in their training session, allowances etc. Increasing and focusing on the sales departments have a key role to play in achieving colossal milestones in the companies. For example if a company wants to achieve a big sales goal for the current year then they should definitely and immediately increase the sales force size (Zoltners et al, 2001). The sales force structures play a paramount role in fulfilling the customer’s needs which in turn produce benefits and strong customer relationships. The management can focus on diverse sales force structures like generalist, market based structure, product based structure, activity based structure and hybrid sales force structure. In generalist sales force structure, synergistically driven sales are implemented where all the sales persons are trained to sell all kinds of products to all the customers without any classification and target marketing. This may not be a good choice in today’s classed market scenarios. In product based structures, sales force is trained to sell a very deep product line. For example a company sells clothes, cosmetics, medicines and food items. Sales force will be allocated different domain and each person will be trained according to that. Activity based structure focuses on selling products on special events and activities for example targeting certain events like Christmas and training the sales persons according the this specific scenario. Market based structures are ideal for the companies which are working in different geographic location for example a company having franchise in Dubai and UK should train the sales force according to the respective cultural and ethnic backgrounds to sell the product to the customers. In order to meet the goals of sales, the organizational management must ensure to hire the best people because the performance of the hired work force will decide the future of business. The first step should be to clearly identify the job for the candidates. Secondly, the human resource people should check the profiles of the applicants based on experience and qualification and then make an applicant pool. (U.S. Department of Labor 2013) After the selection, attractive allowances and due facilities should be provided in order to ensure commitment because the sales force commitment is the key behind selling of the products. The hiring process will not end here as there is a need for excessive checking and periodic evaluation to maintain responsibility and to sustain refinement of the sales force (Zoltners et al, 2009) Committed and competitive sales forces can promise the success of the business and there is a massive need to inculcate the importance of sales individuals. From hiring to training, the management should pay heed at all levels to ensure that the sales force is committed because the responsible and able work force is the decisive factor is selling the product to the customers which is the sole intention behind every business. References Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form U.S. Department Of Labor (2013). Diversifying Your Workforce . U.S. Department of Labor Ofice of Disability Employment Policy. Zoltners, A. A., Sinha, P., & Lorimer, S. E. (2009). Building a winning sales force: Powerful strategies for driving high performance. New York: AMACOM. Zoltners, A. A., Sinha, P., & Zoltners, G. A. (2001). The complete guide to accelerating sales force performance. New York, NY [u.a.: AMACOM. Read More