Leaders in Selling and Sales Management

Little empirical research has been reported on multinational sales force management, and none on organizational aspects. Reported here are results from a 14 MNC-135 subsidiary survey of overseas sales management practices. They show that MNCs use independent sales organizations to augment company personnel in affluent markets, in physically-large countries, and where markets are geographically-dispersed or culturally-fragmented. In addition, about one sales force in five covers more than one national market. Industry factors are important in the structuring of sales forces, suggesting that industry practices are carried into overseas markets.     

Leaders in Selling and Sales Management: Peter Fischer

Commission compensation plans often lead to disagreements between salespeople and sales managers, particularly when salespeople are terminated or leave the job. This paper explores the legal aspects of the relationship between the salesperson and the selling firm with regard to the payment of commissions. In addition, the aspects of agency law, contract law and state statutory law which impact the payment of sales commissions are reviewed. The paper concludes with managerial implications and research suggestions.     

Leaders in Selling and Sales Management: Elbert Hubbard

With the current uncertainty in the job market, coupled with an emphasis on customer satisfaction and long-term business relationships, there is a renewed interest in salespeople who are highly involved in their jobs. Before any convincing research in this area can be undertaken, a psychometrically sound scale of salesperson job involvement must be available. Our paper provides an assessment in a sales setting of three versions of the most widely used job involvement scale—the Lodahl and Kejner (1965) scale. Results suggest that all three versions have serious flaws and should be used with extreme caution. While one study is never enough to make final recommendations, a classic scale development project with salespeople may be beneficial.     

Leaders in Selling and Sales Management: John H. Patterson

Although there is much controversy regarding the teaching of ethics in our universities today, ethical dilemmas are a part of the reality of the sales force. This study examines the differences in the perceptions of sales management students and practitioners in an ethical situation. The results suggest that gender does have an impact on the severity of the consequences and that there are significant differences between the perceptions of practitioners and sales management students.     

Leaders in Selling and Sales Management: Lee A. Iacocca

Solid product knowledge and an absolute love for selling have propelled Lee A. Iacocca into the business-world spotlight. Although detractors may criticize some of his corporate management skills, and he personally admits to his share of mistakes (Ingrassia & Stertz 1990), few can doubt the selling and sales management skills of Iacocca. Although much has been written about Iacocca, this article will focus on his specific contributions to the sales discipline.     

Leaders in Selling and Sales Management: An Analysis of the Impact of Sales and Marketing Principles on the Career of Stanley C. Gault

Certainly one of the most successful contemporary CEOs is Stanley C. Gault of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. This success is evidenced by his recently being named CEO of the Year by Financial World magazine. In addition, he also has received SME-I's Marketing Statesman of the Year award. Although Mr. Gault has had successful careers with three different companies, General Electric, Rubbermaid, and Goodyear, the one constant in each of these positions has been his understanding of the importance of selling.     

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.     

Sales Technologies,Sales Force Management,and Online Infomediaries

An information intermediary (or infomediary) is an online firm that plays an important role in the information component of a transaction but not in the logistics component. Infomediary sales channels in which leads that originate online are converted to sales by an offline sales force are particularly important in areas such as automobile retailing, real estate, insurance, mortgages, and many other contexts. This research examines the role of sales technologies and the organization of the sales force in creating value for infomediary sales channels, formally examining channel outcomes using an analytical model and empirically examining channel outcomes using a survey of 678 automobile dealerships. The analyses indicate that adoption of sales technologies for lead management and channel-specific salespeople influence leads purchased (from infomediaries) and infomediary channel sales for the retailer. These findings integrate important technologies from outside the organization (infomediaries) and technologies and management structures inside the organization (sales technologies for lead management and channel-specific salespeople) into an understanding of retailer use of infomediary channels. These findings also suggest that it is in the best interest of infomediaries to offer sales technology and services to retailers, bundling information products with technologies for channel management.     

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.     

Personal Selling and Sales Management Abstracts

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a customer defection model describing an organizational buyer’s propensity to stop purchasing from a supplier within a multisource buyer–seller relationship. A total of 168 employees who worked in purchasing using multiple suppliers in procurement were used for this study. Findings provide strategies for the salesperson to utilize in order to reduce the customer’s perception of available alternatives (e.g., increase trust in the salesperson) and defection (e.g., increase customer satisfaction and commitment). Findings also show that the relationship between satisfaction and commitment is fully mediated by trust within a multisource relationship.