Management of Sales force

Personal selling is a very important component of the marketing activity. The success of a business concern depends considerably upon the performance of its salesperson. Salesperson play a crucial role in communicating company and product information to customers. The task of selling company’s products and services is entrusted to the salesmen of the company.

A salesperson not only communicates product information to customers but also relays the reactions of customers towards company and its products to his employer. Hence, the management of sales force is an important aspect of marketing management. It is concerned with the task of selection, orientation training, supervision, motivation compensation and evaluation of the sales force of the company.

Objectives of SFM

Objectives of sales force management are achieved through strategies. Policies provide the guidelines. Selling strategies have two dimensions; what type of salesforce is needed and how many of salespeople are needed. The overall size of the salesforce affects the number of calls made and the frequency with which they are made.

A company takes into account its competitive setting, because this influences all its sales-related policies; which in turn affects the formulation of strategies. Marketing plans are long-term and strategic. Mostly, sales plan are short-term and tactical. A company may operate in pure competitive environment which is hardly found in practice, but makes our understanding of other types of competition more incisive.

In practice, we may encounter monopolistic competition which is most common, or oligopolistic competition where there are, a number of competitors. Mostly, the qualitative personal selling objectives respond to the competitive setting in which an organisation operates. Qualitative objectives have a bearing on the sales job.

A company may have the objective to rely 100 per cent upon personal selling. It then needs a larger and a trained salesforce. Another company relies more on advertising, and expects the salesperson to provide just the support service, and order booking service. It may do well with an ordinary salesforce, not so large in size.

Quantitative selling objectives also influence both the nature of the sales task on hand, and the size of the salesforce. A larger sales volume target requires more effective and large-sized salesforce that covers the territory intensively. Sales-related marketing policies provide a framework within which the salesforce performs.

Identifiable Processes Involved with SFM

Sales force management systems are information systems that help automate some sales and sales force management functions. They are often found to be combined with a marketing information system. Sales force automation includes sales lead tracking system that lists potential customers through paid phone lists or customers of related products. Some of the other elements of sales force automation include sales forecasting, order management a product knowledge.

Some of the identifiable processes involved with sales force management are:

1. Setting targets and objectives based on inputs
2. Assigning executives for achieving sales objectives.
3. Control processes are achieved within a given time frame and given markets
4. Management of system to handle uncertain environment

It is not just about the control systems involved with sales force management process but also the various metrics involved.

Designing of the Sales Force

Sales force is linking between companies and customer. Therefore, companies have to be careful in designing and structuring sales force.

The first step is setting out an objective for sales force. Earlier companies had a single objective increasing sale making it objective also for sales people. Sales people are asked to perform a search for prospective clients or lead. Sales people are asked to balance time between a prospective customer and current customer. Effective communication of product and services is essential to close the deal. Sales people also play an important role in after sales service and can make a difference for the company. Sales people are eyes and ears of the company in the market gathering information about competition and customer changing demands.

The second step is use sales people strategically. Sales people have to combine efforts with other team members to achieve the objective. Sales people should be aware how to analyze market data been provided and convert them into marketing strategies.

The third step is deciding the structure of the sales force. The structure of the sales is dependent on the strategy followed by the company. Common sales force structures are as follows:

• Territorial structure is used where every sales representative is assigned specific geographical area. This structure is preferred for building relationships with locals.
• Product structure is used for complex and un- related product portfolio. Here the sales people are directly associated with research and development of the products.
• Market structure is used if the companies are operating different industry or market segments. Every sales force specializes in a definite market and helps push a product efficiently across the given market. However, the disadvantage would arise if customers are located over a wide geographical area.
• Complex structure is used when companies are in business of selling complex product to different customer across a large geographical area. Here sales force structure is a combination of other structures discussed.

Workforce optimization (WFO) is a set of strategies and practices that aim to improve employee and organizational efficiency and decrease operational costs through using data. The overall goal is to achieve organizational success. WFO touches every aspect of the organization, from marketing to finance. The objective is to streamline the processes between every department and employee to maximize results. For example, in Formula One (F1), all teams have pretty much the same setup and cars. The teams that usually come on top are the ones that are able to optimize all the teams, cars, drivers, mechanics, engineers, and departments to win.

When fully implemented, WFO reduces costs, improves operational efficiency, increases productivity, maximizes technology investments, improves customer services, enables process automation, reduces error, and provides deep dive insights into every aspect of an organization.

Contact or call centers and retail, but also the manufacturing logistics sector, extensively use WFO. However, it has also gained popularity and usefulness in other industries and across all roles, irrespective of the type of work.

Data analysis is a critical component of WFO, and some of the data collected include:

• Net promoter score (NPS)
• Operational costs
• Customer satisfaction scores
• Employee performance data
• Employee work schedules.

Best Practices of WFO

1) Get Employees, Managers, And Owners Involved

Workforce optimization only works when everyone in your organization from employees to managers to owners is involved in implementing the process.

Workforce optimization takes many forms and depends on your unique operating model. The solutions you execute directly affect your team, so you don’t want to make a choice at the higher levels only to have it upset or confuse your employees.

2) Implement A Scheduling Solution

Creating the best schedule possible allows you to match the skills of your team members with the specific jobs in your organization. When this happens, your employees are happy, your customers are happy, and everything runs smoothly.

3) Keep Team Members Focused With Task Assignments

One of the best ways to optimize the way your team works is to help them stay focused on their assignments. Any workforce optimization software must have a “To-Do List” that managers and employees alike can access to see what needs to be done next.

4) Incorporate Time and Attendance Software

Gone are the days of the paper timesheets, time theft and even fixed clock-in/clock-out terminals. Modern time and attendance software is now available in the cloud for all your team members to access wherever and whenever they need them.

5) Improve Communication

Communication is at the heart of the workforce optimization process. Whether you talk to your team members in person, send messages via email, or instant message them with updates and policy changes, you need a communication structure in place.

If you don’t communicate well regularly, you’re going to have a hard time relaying information in a timely fashion to those who need it most.

6) Implement Team Task Management

A big part of workforce optimization revolves around keeping your team on task. That’s where team task management comes in.

Team task management is the process of directing, organizing, and conducting both smaller tasks and larger projects through to their conclusion.

This often involves:

• Planning
• Testing
• Tracking
• Reporting
• Enforcing deadlines
• Integrating task dependencies
• Creating priorities
• Managing time on task

7) Track Payroll and Benefits Digitally

Calculating and coordinating payroll and benefits manually is extremely difficult and time-consuming. But, in this day and age of specialized apps for all occasions, it doesn’t have to be.