Sales Force Decision Sequence - Essay Example

Sales Force Decision SequenceSales or marketing is one of the core segments of every organization which determines the success or failures of a business. An efficient marketing team is essential for every service or manufacturing organization in order to effectively introduce their products into the market. Marketing or sales is a complex process which needs careful planning, strategy formulation and implementation. The decisions needed to be taken both at the top level and the bottom level which is mentioned briefly in this paper.

‘Normally, sales force decision making process may have three levels; Level 1, 2 & 3. The sales force decision making starts at the level 1 which are taken by the top management whereas the level 2 & 3 are taken at the mid level and bottom level. The ‘corporate strategy’ and ‘go to market strategy’ are taken at the level 1 by the top management. These level 1 decisions are not under the control of the sales force whereas the level 2 & 3 are controlled by the actual sales force. The level 2 and 3 decisions will be taken by the sales force as per the needs of the level 1 decision.

Customer retention and attraction process, size and structure and product & market resource development decisions are taken at the level 2 whereas compensation, hiring, training, sales manager, productivity enhancement decision taken at the level 3’ (Zoltners)Each level of decision making is interconnected with each other. The actual implementation part of the strategies made at level 1 is taking place level 2 and 3. At level 1, the top management will take the decisions about which markets needed to be exploited and when the product needed to be introduced into the market etc.

At level 2, the decision would be more realistic and it will be based on the production capacity of the organization and the actual size and structure of the market. Customers are of two types; existing and new. The existing customers needed to be retained whereas new customers needed to be attracted in order to market a product successfully. At level 2 such strategies will be formulated. Level 3 decisions are the last level of decisions before the product actually introduced into the market.

At this level the actual sales force required for the implementation of the sales strategies formulated at level 1 and 2, would be appointed. Sales managers, Executives Representatives, Assistants etc all hired and trained at level 3. Moreover, various suggestions and instructions required to improve the productivity would be discussed and implemented at level 3. Productivity enhancement programs actually determine the success or failures of a product in the market. The feedbacks received from the market should be utilized to improve the quality of the product and to make it more acceptable to the customers.

In short, sales force decision sequence starts at the top level which then transferred to the bottom level. All the level 1, 2 & 3 decisions are interdependent and there is no free or independent existence for any level 2 or level 3 decisions. Level 2 and 3 decisions should be formulated to implement the decisions taken at the level 1. Works Cited1. Zoltners, Greggor A., & Prabhakant. “The Complete Guide to Accelerating Sales Force Performance”. 07 November 2009.