1. Welcome to
Week 4
Salesforce
organisation
Ehrenberg-Bass
Institute
for Marketing Science
School of Marketing

2. Week 4
Topics to be high-lighted
tonight
Salesforce organisation
Key account management
Sales force types and structures
Major assignment

3. Salesforce organisation
The personal selling function needs
to be organised to meet objectives set
in the marketing plan
An effective sales organisation also
needs to be achieved within the
allocated budget

4. Salesforce organisation: Constraints
The allocated budget
Company policies on customer service
The existing sales structure and personnel
The need for flexibility in a changing
market
Company policy on the degree of
centralisation vs decentralisation
The need for effective communication
between the salesforce and internal
departments — such as R&D, product
management, production and finance

5. Key account management
“The sale, then, merely consummates
the courtship, at which point the
marriage begins. How good the
marriage is depends on how well the
seller manages the relationship.”
(Dalrymple 1998, p 167)

6. The long-term aim is an informal
„partnering‟ relationship … or a
„mutual dependence‟
This approach may enable the
buying organisation to establish
competitive advantage in its markets

7. Requirements for relationship selling
A high degree of trust
Commitment to work
closely to understand
customer‟s problems
and to identify the best
solutions
Exchange of
confidential
information — hence
the need for a longterm focus and for
trust

8. Limitations to key account and
relationship selling approaches
High costs of this type of program
Only customers who purchase large
amounts and require (and value)
outstanding customer service should
be targeted

9. Some research findings
from the literature
POP, N. A., MIHOC, F., FOTEA, I. S., & LAZAR, M.
(2011). ‘RELATIONSHIP SELLING: A SUPERIOR WAY
OF CONDUCTING BUSINESS ON B2B MARKET. AN
EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF AN INTERNATIONAL
FAST TRANSPORTATION SERVICES PROVIDER ON
THE ROMANIAN MARKET’. MARKETING
MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, 21 (2).

10. Sales force structures
Geographically based
Product based
Account based
Activity based
Hybrid or combination of above

11. Salesforce structures (contd)
In Australia and other small
countries, because of the small size of
many sales departments …
.. there often is a need to compromise
between ...
.. specialisation by customer type ..
and ..
.. geographic coverage for efficiency
reasons

12. Other sales approaches
Telemarketing
Part-time salespeople
Team selling
Use of Internet
Implications of sales dispersion