What are the two sales organization concepts? Show
1. Specialization 2. Centralization (generalization) _____ is the degree to which individuals perform some of the required tasks to the exclusion of others. Individuals can become experts on certain tasks, leading to better performance for the entire organization. ______ is the degree to which important decisions & tasks are performed at higher levels in the management hierarchy. These structures place authority and responsibility at higher management levels. Centralization (generalization) ____ have all selling activities and all products to all customers, and _______ have certain selling activities for certain products for certain customers. Centralists (generalists) - all selling & all products to all customers _____ refers to the number of individuals who report to each sales manager Span of control _____ define the number of different hierarchical levels of sales management within the organization. A _____ span of control equals a flatter organization with fewer sales management levels. A shorter span of control equals a ______ organization with more sales management levels. _____ sales management positions are part of the direct management hierarchy within the sales organization. Line _____ sales management positions are not in the direct chain of command in the sales organization structure. Staff _____ sales management positions are more specialized than _____ sales management positions. Staff more specialized than line How do you reduce the size of your sales organization? eliminate layers of sales mgmt. line & staff positions to make the organization flatter. Making an organization flatter focuses sales management on... activities that would generate sales A ______ organizational structure has high environmental uncertainty, non-routine task performance, and its performance objective is adaptiveness. A ______ organizational structure has low environmental uncertainty, repetitive task performance, and its performance objective is effectiveness. centralized (generalized) What are the 4 customer and product determinants of sales force specialization? 1. Market-driven specialization 2. Product/market-driven specialization 3. Geography-driven specialization 4. Product-driven specialization _____ specialization is the least specialized and most generalized type of salesforce. Geographic specialization ____ specialization assigns salespeople selling responsibility for specific products or product lines. Objective: for salespeople to become experts in their assigned category. Product specialization _____ specialization assign salespeople specific types of customers & they are required to satisfy all of the customers needs. Market specialization ____ specialization requires having salespeople specialize in performing certain required selling activities. Functional specialization A ______ is a large, important account that should receive special attention from the sales organization. strategic account What are the three options to handle a strategic account? 1. Develop a strategic account salesforce 2. Assign strategic accounts to sales managers 3. Assign strategic accounts to salespeople along with other accounts The most common strategic account option is... assigning strategic accounts to sales managers The appropriate structure of a sales organization depends on... the characteristics of the selling situation If an organization is based on customer needs & complexity of a product, it may have a ______ structure. What are the advantages/disadvantages of a geographic organizational structure? ADV: - low cost - no geographic duplication - no customer
duplication - fewer management levels What are the advantages/disadvantages of a product organizational structure? ADV: - salespeople become experts in product attributes & applications - management control over selling effort What are the advantages/disadvantages of a market organizational structure? ADV: - salespeople develop better understanding of unique customer needs - management control over selling allocated to different markets What are the advantages/disadvantages of a functional organizational structure? ADV: - efficiency in performing selling activities The important management decisions involved in allocating selling effort, determining salesforce size, and designing territories are referred to as ___________. What are the three interrelated questions that salesforce deployment decisions can provide answers to? 1. Allocation of Selling Effort: How much selling effort is needed to cover accounts & prospects adequately so that sales & profit obj's will be achieved? 2. Salesforce Size: How many salespeople are required to provide the desired amount of selling effort? 3. Territory Design: How should territories be designed to ensure proper coverage of accounts & provide each salesperson w/ reasonable opportunity for success? What are the three analytical approaches to the allocation of selling effort? 1. Single factor models 2. Portfolio models 3. Decision models _____ models are easy to develop and use & have low analytical rigor. The accounts are classified into categories based on one factor & all accounts in the same category are assigned the same number of sales calls. ______ have account opportunity & a competitive position. _____ is an accounts need for and ability to purchase the firm's products. _____ is the strength of the relationship between the firm and an account. Account opportunity Explain the four portfolio model segments & strategies: Very attractive; Potentially attractive; Moderately attractive; Unattractive. - Very attractive: heavy investment of selling effort - Potentially attractive: heavy investment of selling effort in accounts where competitive position can be strengthened - Moderately attractive: sufficient selling effort to maintain competitive position - Unattractive - minimal selling effort, lower cost account management methods _____ models have simple basic concepts to allocate sales calls to accounts that promise the highest sales return from the sales calls. They also have the optimal number of calls in terms of sales or profit maximization. What are the three key considerations when determining salesforce size? 1. Sales productivity 2. Salesforce turnover 3. Organizational strategy What are the three methods for calculating salesforce size? 1. Breakdown approach 2. Workload method 3. Incremental method What are the advantages/disadvantages of the breakdown approach?
ADV: - straightforward - easy to use & understand - simple calculations - uses sales forecast to determine salesforce size What are the advantages/disadvantages of the workload approach? ADV: - estimation of
selling effort needed is used to determine salesforce size - conceptually sound - suited for all types of selling situations - relatively simple What are the advantages/disadvantages of the incremental approach? ADV: - uses marginal profit contribution and marginal costs to determine salesforce
size - quantifies important relationships between salesforce size, sales, and costs _____ consist of whatever specific accounts are assigned to a specific salesperson. It can be viewed at the work unit for a salesperson. What are the 5 steps in the territory design procedure? 1. Select planning and control unit 2. Analyze planning and control unit opportunity 3. Form initial territories 4. Assess territory workload 5. Finalize territory design Sales managers should temper the analytical results with ___________ before making final deployment decisions. What are 6 reasons why we forecast? 1. Determine salesforce size 2. Design territories 3. Establish sales quotas and selling budgets 4. Determine sales compensation levels 5. Evaluate salesperson performance 6. Evaluate prospective accounts ______ in the best possible results of an industry level is a number that a firm never actually reaches. A firm attempts to forecast this number in comparison to the entire market. ______ at best possible results in a firm level is like market share. It is what we think the maximum about is that we could sell if everything went perfectly. Firms rarely achieve this. ______ is the realistic number that firms can reach. _____ forecasting is a forecast made at the business unit level, then broken down by zone, region, district, territory, & account forecast. _____ forecasting is made at the "front-line" level and then aggregated up the levels of the organization. What are four company forecasting methods? 1. Moving averages 2. Exponential smoothing 3. Decomposition methods 4. Naive method _____ uses historical averages to forecast future sales. It is a mean of the past periods and is only valid for one period in the future (2-year, 4-year). ____ is weighted moving average, where usually the most recent period is weighted heavier. _____ is the breakdown of historical sales data into four components. The components are evaluated and then reincorporated to create a forecast. The _______ method is the assumption that what happened in the immediate past will continue in the immediate future. naive method ____ is used to adjust forecasts. _____ approaches are all qualitative methods. They do not use numbers to determine the forecast. Bottom-up approach methods Which type of sales force specialization does not result in any duplication of sales effort to an account or area?strategic account specialized. Which type of salesforce specialization does not result in any duplication of sales effort to an account or geographic area?
When salespeople are assigned specific types of customers and are required to satisfy all needs of these customers this is referred to as?Specialization. You just studied 180 terms! 1/180.
When a firm's competitive position is strong but account opportunity is low the selling effort strategy should be to?When a firm's competitive position is strong, but account opportunity is low, the selling effort strategy should be to: a. perform additional analysis to identify accounts where the sales organization's competitive position can be strengthened and invest heavy selling effort in these accounts.
Which is the simplest sales force organizational structure?Dividing your sales force by geographic region is the simplest approach.
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