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ORGANISING SALES FORCE AND SALES
ORGANISATION
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Sales organization
•An organization of individuals either working together for
the marketing of products and services manufactured by an
enterprise or for products that are procured by the firm for
the purpose of reselling
•A sales organization defines duties, roles, rights, and
responsibilities of sales people engaged in selling activities
meant for the effective execution of the sales function
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Setting up a sales organization
• Defining objectives
• Determination of activities and their volume of
performance
• Grouping activities into position
• Assignment of personnel to positions
• Provision for coordination and control
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• Organizing the activities and management of the sales
force forms a major part of strategic sales planning
• Managers are becoming more proactive in restructuring
• A strong corporate vision and effective strategic market
planning are closely linked with how the organization is
structured and how it interacts with its customers
Importance of sales organization
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• Activities should be divided and arranged in such a way
the firm can benefit from the specialization of labor.
• The organizational structures should provide for stability
and continuity in the firm’s selling efforts.
• The structure should provide for the coordination of
activities assigned to different persons in the sales force
and different departments in the firm.
Purpose of Sales Organization
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Components of sales force
 Sales department
 Sales Manager
 Sales persons and Agents
 Products
 Distributors
 Targets
 Promotions etc.
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Factors influencing sales
organizations
• Product and Service related factors
• Organization related factors
• Marketing mix related factors
• External factors
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Centralization
Decentralization
Degree of
Specialization
Market
orientation
Span of control
Basic concepts of sales
organization
Concepts
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Degree Of Centralization
& Decentralization
 Authority and responsibility placed at higher levels of
management
 Most of the major decisions are made at the upper levels of
the organization.
 Conversely, if decision making authority is decentralized,
important decisions are often made at lower levels of the
hierarchy
 Degree of centralization depends on several factors
 Most organization prefers decentralization of authority
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Centralization
Advantages Disadvantages
• Easier to implement common
policies and practices
• Prevents other parts of the
business from becoming too
independent.
• Easier to coordinate and control
& greater use of specialization.
• Economies of scale and
overhead savings become easier
to achieve.
• Quicker decision making.
• More bureaucratic- often extra
layers in the hierarchy.
• Local or junior managers are
likely to be much closer to
customer needs.
• Lack of authority down the
hierarchy may reduce manager
motivation.
• Customer service does not
benefit from flexibility and speed
in local decision making.
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Decentralization
Advantages Disadvantages
• Decisions are made closer to the
customer.
• Better ability to respond to local
circumstances.
• Improved level of customer
service.
• Consistent with aiming for a
flatter hierarchy.
• Good way of training and
developing junior management.
• Improves staff motivation.
• Decision making is not necessarily
“strategic”.
• Difficult to ensure consistent practices
and policies (customers might prefer
consistency from location to location).
• Diseconomies of scale-
eg. duplication of roles.
• Who provides strong leadership when
needed (Eg. in a crisis)?
• Harder to achieve tight financial
control-risk of cost overruns.
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• The degree to which individuals perform some of the
required tasks to the exclusion of others.
• Effective when company’s products or market growth is
high
• Individuals can concentrate on few activities
• Individuals can become experts on certain tasks,
leading to better performance for the entire organization
Degree of Specialization
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• When markets are varied and complex
• Each market segment can be allocated with a sales
team
• Market oriented sales team can develop suitable sales
strategy for the segments it serves
• Also adapt its selling strategy to the
changing market conditions
Market Orientation
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• Refers to the number of individuals who report to each
sales manager
• Generally span of control to be effective , should be
around six or eight
• Span of control depends on the job description of
subordinates as well as the abilities of the subordinates
and sales managers
Span of Control
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Line Organization
Line and staff
Organization
Functional
Organization
Horizontal
Organization
BASIC TYPES OF SALES
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES
Organizational
Structures
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• All managers have line authority to direct and control
subordinates
• Used in small firms / departments
Advantages:
• Simple organization
• Clear authority
• Quick decisions
• Low cost
Disadvantages:
•No support to line
managers from subordinates
who have specialized
knowledge / skills
• Less time for planning /
analysis
Line Sales Organization
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• Specialist staff managers are available for senior
marketing / sales managers
• Staff managers’ role is to assist / advise line managers
• Used in medium and large size organizations
Advantages:
•Better marketing
decisions
•Superior sales
performance
Disadvantages:
•High cost and
coordination
•Slower decision making
conflict may arise if staff
managers’ role is not clear
Line & staff Sales Organization
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• Each functional specialist has line responsibility over
salespeople.
• Used by a large firm with many products / market
segments, minimizing line authority to functional
managers
Advantages:
•Qualified specialists
guide sales force
•Simple to administer
Disadvantage:
•Confusion due to
more managers giving
orders to sales force
Functional Sales Organization
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• Removes management levels & departmental
boundaries
• Except planning team, all others are members of cross
functional teams
• Used by firms having partnering relationships with
customers
Advantages:
•Reduction in supervision,
unnecessary tasks & cost
•Improved efficiency and
customer responses
Horizontal sales Organization
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Sales Force Structures
A company can structure the sales force in three major
ways.
 Firstly, is to hire sales representatives and run
everything in the house.
 Second is to outsource the sales work to outside
contractors who work independently.
 Third is a middle ground between previous two methods-
it involves hiring a broker agency that employs and
manages sales reps
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Geographic
Specialization
Product
Specialization
Market
Specialization
Specialization within sales
organization structures
Specialization
Hybrid
Specialization
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Geographic Specialization
• Simplest and most common method
• Individual salespeople assigned to separate geographic
territories
• Each salesperson is responsible for performing all
activities necessary to sell the products, in the assigned
area
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Geographic Specialization
Advantages Disadvantages
• It does not provide any
benefits associated with the
specialization of labor.
• Better market coverage
• Travel time and expenses are
minimized.
• Sales administration and
overhead costs are kept low.
• Quick response to local
conditions & competition
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Geographic Specialization
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Product Specialization
• Large number of products or brands
• Two types:
* Sales organization with product managers
* Sales organization with product specialized
sales force
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Product Specialization
ADVANTAGES
• Individual salespeople master
effective selling methods for
single or related products.
• Closer alignment of sales and
production
• Sales management controls the
allocation of the selling effort
• across the line
DISADVANTAGE
• Duplication of effort
• Customer dissatisfaction
• Increased selling cost
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Product Specialization
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Market Specialization
• Increasing and important type of specialization
• Organizing a sales force by customer type /market
segment
• Selling based to different customer types
* User industries
*Channels of distribution
*Buying practices & preferences
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Market Specialization
Advantages
• Better understanding of
customer needs
• Increased familiarity with
certain businesses
• Increased control over the
allocation of the selling effort
Disadvantages
• Higher selling and
administrative costs
• Duplication of territory
coverage
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Market Specialization
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Hybrid sales organization
• Combination of sales organization structures
• Strength of one organization structure are the weakness
of other organization structure
• Choice of specialization may vary from company to
company
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Customer and Product Determinants
of Sales Force Specialization
Customer Needs Different
Customer Needs Similar
Market-
Driven
Specialization
Product/Market-
Driven
Specialization
Geography-
Driven
Specialization
Product-
Driven
Specialization
Simple
Product
Offering
Complex
Range of
Products
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Step 1: Plan your sales team's activities using your
sales strategy
• Clearly communicate your sales objectives . For example, in relation
to new and existing businesses.
• Agree how much time is to be allocated for selling different products,
to different types of customers, in different areas.
• Agree a sales budget. For example, for any promotional material or
equipment the sales team require.
• Tell about sales margins and pricing.
• Policy on incentive pay.
Organize a sales force
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Step 2: Allocate responsibility for different accounts,
products or geographical territories
• Negotiate responsibility with individuals in the sales team.
• Keep to a minimum the number of people handling each account
• Maximize your sales team's productive time by using sales support
and customer service employees
• Put your best sales people into new sales initiatives, letting you
benchmark what can be achieved.
• Better communication between sales people handling the same
account
• Avoid any conflict between team members.
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Organize a sales force
(Cont..)

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Step 3: Set clear ground rules for the level of
responsibility and freedom:
• Agree whether they decide when to contact customers, or if they
have to follow a set call plan.
• Outline how far sales people can plan and carry out customer
contacts independently
• Set out what budgets are available for travel and customer
entertainment.
• Tell sales people what freedom they have to negotiate discounts.
Organize a sales force
(Cont..)
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Step 4: Appoint sales person to manage overseas
territories
• Grow export business by appointing one or more sales
representatives to manage your business in important overseas
territories.
• If global export sales represent a significant part of your business,
setting up a sales organization based on marketing territories
Organize a sales force
(Cont..)
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Step 5: Review your product range to determine the
most appropriate sales structure
• Set up a product-based sales structure
• Appointing or recruiting sales representatives with good product and
technical knowledge.
• Also organize the sales force to specialize in different market
sectors.
• Analyze which customer sectors represents large share of the total
sales
• Appoint sales representatives with a good understanding of the
business issues and challenges in your target sectors.
Organize a sales force
(Cont..)
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Step 6: Organize and communicate information
• Share news and discuss problems
• Get sales people to complete weekly sales activities reports
• Hold weekly team meetings, monthly for field-based employees
• Get sales people to report back customer comments, enquiries and
complaints
• Agree priorities for the next week or month, including specific
objectives
• Allow sales people to access sales information using an extranet or
internet service such as www.salesforce.com/uk
Organize a sales force
(Cont..)
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Step 7: Focus on important customers
• Include a key account manager in your sales-force structure.
• Takes responsibility for managing relationships with important
customers and ensuring that they receive a high standard of service
• Protecting key accounts is vital, because the loss of a large
customer could damage your business.
• If retailers or distributors are important to the business, appoint a
member of the sales force to work with them.
• The representative takes responsibility for placing products in
distributor network and for working with distributors to help them
increase sales of your products to their own customers.
Organize a sales force
(Cont..)
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Step 8: Assess your sales resources
• Review the skills and experience of sales team to determine their
levels of product knowledge or understanding of specific market
sectors.
• Identify representatives with skills in winning new business and
those who are skilled in managing relationships with existing
customers.
• Build flexibility into your sales force structure.
Organize a sales force
(Cont..)
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Step 9: Establish a management structure for the sales
force
• If you have a small sales team, you may be able to set goals and
manage the team yourself.
• Expand the sales representatives as your business grew.
• You may prefer to delegate management to a senior member of the
team or recruit an experienced sales manager.
Organize a sales force
(Cont..)
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• A company must take numerous factors that are related
to its sales forecast.
• Some of these factors are:
*Past Demand
*Lead time of product
*Planned advertising or marketing efforts
*State of the economy
*Planned price discounts
*Actions that competitions have taken
How to forecast a sales force
size
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Forecasting Sales Force
• A systematic attempt to probe future with the help of
known facts.
• It is the “analysis and interpretation of future conditions
in relation to operation of enterprise”.
• Thus , its the process of predicting future systematically.
The result of this is called forecasts.
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• New Customers
A trend analysis can be used to measure the
ability of each sales person to acquire new
customers over a specified period of time
• Product Sales
Record the product number of each item sold, the price of
each product and the employee number of the sales
person responsible for each sale
Tools for sales force analysis
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• Customer Segmentation
Customer segmentation is a tool designed to help you
understand which category of customers are responsible
for the greatest profitability for your company
• Repeat Sales
A number of factors are used to quantify the effectiveness
of your sales force in bringing in repeat sales
Tools for sales force analysis
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Sales forecasting
Methods
Quantitative – Time series analysis
Using and interpreting market research data, test
marketing.
Qualitative – Delphi technique, brainstorming, intuition.
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Other methods of Sales
Forecasting
1. Survey method
2. Expert opinion
3. Market test methods
4. Sales force opinion
5. Statistical method
* Trends method
* Graphical method
* Time series method
*Regression line
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• Forecasting the sales force is an essential element of
planning.
• Businesses use sales forecasts in order to predict cash
flow requirements, enhance effective inventory
management, allow for better procedures to understand
the markets and prepare for contingencies
• Contribute to profits and attain long term goals
Conclusion
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