Building and Managing a Sales Team: Strategies for Success

1. IN.K.A.M.S.OER 4Build, Manage and Leverage a Sales Team

2. Content Index • DRIVERS FOR SALES FORCE DESIGN• SALES FORCE STRUCTURE• DIRECT OR INDIRECT SALES FORCE • HR MANAGEMENT IN SALES FORCE Recruitment Training and Development Setting Goal and Reward Assessing and Controlling • APPRAISAL METHODS

3. DRIVERS FOR SALES FORCE DESIGN • Optimal companies structure chosen must serve customers effectively, providing high-quality relationships and operate efficiently. To decide the sales structure managers must consider factors as: • Size of sales force, to have a specialized sales force or a generalist one, the sales force structure and if they will have own salesforce or hire independent representatives.

4. DRIVERS FOR SALES FORCE DESIGN Methods to establish the number of salespersons: • the breakdown method, • the workload method. Companies operating in B2B don‘t rely on generalist representatives any more, in order to search for market opportunities, because they need to hire a specialist expertise. These will have better understanding of customer‘s needs or problems.

5. SALES FORCE STRUCTURE Companies could have a geographical, product or customer structure. • Geographical when the sales market area is broken down into territories and a salesperson is assigned to each territory to sell all products of the company. • When products are technologically different, the salesperson cannot be knowledgeable about all product applications. In a product sales structure a salesperson is responsible for selling one or few of companies‘ products. • In a customer based structure salespersons can be organized into market segment, account size or new vs. existing account lines.

6. SALES FORCE STRUCTURE • The mixed structure works best when the market is large, the product mix is complex, and customers want customized solutions. • In global markets sales force organization can vary by country and geographical structure.

7. DIRECT OR INDIRECT SALES FORCE Companies can engage internal or external salespeople. • They could be payed on straight salary, commission or mixed. • Start-up‘s usually increase the number of salesforce only when the revenue grows. • If a company depends mainly on selling partners, it cannot control selling activities and the relationship with its customer. • But outsourcing helps to better manage economic risks, the commission costs are minimal, if product doesn‘t sell. • Company has to balance between risks and benefits and try to optimize its salesforce.

8. HR MANAGEMENT IN SALES FORCE HR management is needed to attract and maintain talented and motivated sales personnel. Recruitment means attracting candidates for hire. Selection is the process of evaluating the fit of candidate and the position. • First step is the job analysis: skills, knowledge and attitudes required, and duties and responsibilities. • Second step: attract and recruit suitable applicants.

9. Recruitment Sources of recruitment: • current employees, • competitors, • educational institutions, • advertisements, • employment agencies, • social media and • personal contacts. After a pool of candidates has been recruited, selection process starts. After a candidate has been chosen, an offer has to be made.

10. Training and Development Training increases the salesperson‘s knowledge base and skill level, resulting in higher performance. If company plans to retain employees, it has to dedicate resources to career development, which is a form of internal recruitment. Stages of sales training process: • assessing current skills and knowledge, • setting objectives, • choose instructional methods and content.

11. Setting Goal and Reward Sales force usually has a specific objective to achieve: a sales quota is a quantitative goal assigned to a sales person for a specific time period. • Sales quotas provide standards to evaluate performance, so they are used to plan, control and evaluate the productivity. • They also provide a source of motivation, a basis for incentive, compensation and standards for performance evaluation. • Mostly used quotas are: sales volume, net profit or activity quotas. • Goals should be realistic and inspirational.

12. Setting Goal and Reward Primer purpose of compensation-rewards systems is: • to enhance the motivation of individual employees, • to attract talented work-force • to increase their on-the-job performance • and secure greater profits for the company.

13. Assessing and Controlling Salesforce evaluation is the comparison of salesforce goals with results. Assessing process: • Setting objectives (sales revenues, market share, customer satisfaction) • Decide the sales strategy (how to achieve goals) • Performance standards set • Results measured and compared with standards • Assess reasons for differences and take actions to improve performance

14. APPRAISAL METHODS • By using multiples measures company can gain a more comprehensive picture of its salesforce performance. • While managing your salesteam remember that the objective is increasing satisfaction and sales. • Salesforce management is just a means to that end.