Selling and Sales Management in Action: The Sales Force's Role in International Marketing Research and Marketing Information Systems

Many companies resist global markets because of seemingly insurmountable problems with these markets. Salespeople are often used successfully to gather market information. There is a wealth of market data that can be collected by a company's international sales force and distributors' sales force which can prove to be valuable in surmounting cultural and marketing barriers associated with global markets. The current paper discusses how and with what success U.S. multinational companies are using their international sales forces in gathering international marketing research data.     

Ethical Perceptions of Field Sales Personnel: An Empirical Assessment

Much research attention has been directed over the past twenty-five years to ethical issues in marketing. One area of marketing that is gaining research interest is the selling arena. Despite the extant literature on selling ethics, few studies have focused on identifying situations that pose ethical problems for field sales personnel. This paper reports results of an investigation that examined salespeople's perceptions concerning what selling situations or practices are ethical questions, what situations are presently addressed by company policies, and what situations should be addressed by company policies. Findings reveal that salespersons seemingly are desirous of receiving more management guidance than they currently are receiving regarding their ethical concerns. Implications for managers and researchers are provided.     

Perceived Organizational Ethics and the Ethical Decisions of Sales and Marketing Personnel

Using a scenario-based approach, this study analyzed data collected from marketers with sales backgrounds and investigated the impact of perceived organizational ethics on their ethical issue recognition, ethical judgments, and ethical behavioral intentions. The results indicated that perceived organizational ethics, which was operationalized with two separate measures, was positively related to both the ethical judgments and expressed behavioral intentions of respondents. Further, ethical issue recognition was positively associated with ethical judgments and expressed behavioral intentions, and ethical judgments were positively related to ethical behavioral intentions. The findings suggest that, in order to enhance sales professionals’ ethical reasoning, organizations should focus on developing an ethical context that is relevant to the issues confronted by sales professionals in their work and that is as specific as possible with regard to these ethical dilemmas.     

The Impact of Territory Difficulty and Self Versus Other Ratings on Managerial Evaluations of Sales Personnel

Previous research has yielded inconclusive evidence regarding whether territory difficulty information influences evaluations of salesperson performance. Two studies were conducted to assess whether a territory difficulty bias exists. In addition, the research tested for a divergence in performance ratings depending upon whether the evaluation was completed by a salesperson or a sales manager. The results show that, given the right conditions, territory difficulty bias can be overcome, and that previous failures to find territory difficulty effects in similar studies were likely caused by Type II errors. Also, the results indicate that self-ratings do tend to exhibit an upward bias over ratings by others.     

地区层面上的心理学国际合作：以欧洲为例

根据需要,心理学的国际合作能够且需要在不同的层面上进行,包括全球层面、地区层面甚至局部地区层面。在回顾国际化心理学的主要功能之后,以欧洲为例阐述了心理学在地区层面上跨国合作的近期进展情况。在介绍“欧洲的各个侧面”部分,通过数据比较说明了欧洲传统文化的多样性,教育领域亦如此。为了欧洲一体化,欧盟大力支持各种形式的学术培训及科学研究的合作交流,在心理学领域也有明显的效果。本文通过欧洲地区性的课程创新、原创性的研究、新出现的心理学跨国组织对心理学领域的合作进行了说明。如果要与欧洲各心理学研究机构进行合作交流,本文可能会有所帮助。本文也会激发世界其他地方思考地区性合作的可能性和实际需要     

Selling and Sales Management in Action: Sales Training: Status and Needs

Initial training, continuing education and management development activities continue to receive attention in the industrial sector (Honeycutt and Ford 1991). For example, recent reports indicate that organizations spend upwards of $30 billion annually for training programs involving 15 billion work hours (Huber 1985), with the objective being to improve the profitability of the firms.     

Selling and Sales Management in Action: Attitudes and Applications of Quotas by Sales Executives and Sales Managers

A survey of 186 sales managers and executives revealed that in setting sales quotas, factors such as the sales territory and the support provided by the manager were considered more important than the past performance of the sales representative. As would be expected, in an inspection of general opinions about sales quotas, the managers demonstrated a preference for linking the sales quota to the compensation of the salesperson.     

The Mediating Role of Sales Behaviors: An Alternative Perspective of Sales Performance and Effectiveness

Business decisions about hiring, promoting, an purchasing should be made in an unbiassed way When sex stereotyping influences the decisio process. Such decisions are not only unfair bi can lead to large economic and social costs. A experiment involving more than 200 MBAs measured the impact of general attitudes toward women in business and various personal characteristics on the extent to which there was se stereotyping with regard to men and women in sales positions. Results suggest that sex stereotyping still exists, but its extent depends on the attitude being measured and on characteristics of the stereotyping the solution is to provide exposure to competent females in selling and sales manage ment positions.     

Salesperson Ethical Decision Making: The Impact of Sales Leadership and Sales Management Control Strategy

Enhancing the moral behavior of salespeople is increasingly important, but difficult, in today’s fast-paced and complex selling environment. Sales organizations need to emphasize ethical codes of conduct, but must also address the potential impact of all sales management decisions on the ethical behavior of salespeople. We expand the focus on ethical codes to include an interpersonal dimension of sales organization ethical climate and the cognitive moral development of salespeople. Relationships among sales leadership and sales management control strategy, the structural and interpersonal dimensions of sales organization ethical climate, salesperson cognitive moral development, and salesperson moral judgment are discussed and specific propositions presented. These propositions suggest specific directions for future sales ethics research and have key implications for sales organizations.     

The Complexities of Sales and Sales Management Research: A Historical Analysis from 1990 to 2005

Researchers have postulated that sales and sales management research is more problematic to conduct than other managerial research and has become more diffi cult to conduct over time. To address this issue, we examine 532 samples from 1990 to 2005. We fi nd that researchers can positively affect response rate and obtained sample size by the judicious selection of response facilitators, and we identify the single best facilitator for a sales sample as well as the best combination of facilitators. Importantly, the use of the two suggested response facilitators increases the estimated obtained sample size by 58 percent compared to a study with no facilitators.     

Sales Technology Applications: Interactive Video Technology in Sales Training: A Case Study

Interactive video (IV), a new technology for training, has had a recent surge in popularity. The use of interactive video technology has been reported to reduce training costs, increase quality, and decrease the amount of time required for training. The major characteristics of this new technology are presented. A state-of-the-art application of an IV system for sales training developed at BellSouth Services is discussed. The results confirm that IV is a promising new sales training tool.     

Congruence in Sales Force Evaluations: Relation to Sales Force Perceptions of Conflict and Ambiguity

Abstract

This research examined the relationship between salespersons' perceptions of role conflict and role ambiquity from various sources and the degree of agreement between salespeople and sales managers on salesperson performance. Three sources of role ambiguity were found to explain the most variance in performance congruence. Implications for management are discussed.     

Selling and Sales Management in Action: Managerial and Legal Implications of Price Haggling: A Sales Manager's Dilemma

Conventional marketing wisdom suggests that once an organization has carefully selected the target market and positioning of its offering, the price strategy is relatively straightforward. However, with the increasing power of the buyer brought about by the proliferation of offerings, domestic and international, the consolidation of distribution channels, the slowing of market growth as well as legislation contribute to a far from straightforward implementation of the pricing policy. To this end, the authors will examine the managerial and legal implications of haggling over price which the sales manager will face regarding “one-price” and “variable-price” policies, and the effect of these policies on the buying process.

Price haggling has not enjoyed the same tradition in the United States as it has in many overseas markets. Until the end of retail price maintenance in 1975, in most cases the ticket price was the price to be paid. U.S. buyers consider themselves shrewd shoppers, but this shrewdness arises from shopping around, rather than from price negotiation. Indeed, one of the few exposures to price haggling in the United States is experienced while shopping at the car dealership. However, price negotiation is becoming far more common, particularly in business-to-business purchases. The problem, however, is how to administer the proper pricing strategy without alienating customers or violating the law.     

The Future of Sales Training: Challenges and Related Research Questions

This paper discusses four key challenges and related research questions that will be critical to the future success of sales training in three major areas: content development, delivery, and evaluation. The four challenges are the changing roles of salespeople, the intensified emphasis on accountability, the enhancement of technological capabilities, and the importance of cultural diversity. To examine these issues and develop future research questions, the paper draws from reports of industry practices and academic literature in sales training, the sales/service interface, customer-oriented selling, social media, self-directed learning, and multicultural communications competency.     

The Role of Sales and Marketing in Market-Oriented Companies

Since little is known about whether both marketing and sales functions pay off in market-oriented companies, this research analyzes the interaction between market orientation and the departmental power of marketing and sales within the firm. Data collected across five industries on the marginal effect of marketing’s departmental power on business performance show that market-oriented companies benefit from a strong marketing function, but a powerful marketing department cannot compensate for low levels of market orientation. Surprisingly, the power of sales impedes successful market orientation implementation. This has important implications for future sales management research. We highlight the significance of these findings for both theory and practice.