MEDIA

mathematics
HEALTH ENGINEERING
DESIGN

management
EDUCATION

MUSIC
GEOGRAPHY E

ART
C PHYSICS
O
law

L
O
agriculture

BIOTECHNOLOGY G
Y

LANGUAGE
CHEMISTRY history
MECHANICS

psychology

Sales Distribution Management

Subject: MANAGEMENT FOR SALES & DISTRIBUTION Credits: 4

SYLLABUS

An Introduction to Sales Management

Objectives and Scope of Personal Selling, Buyer Seller Dyad and Personal Selling Situation,
Theories of Personal Selling, Personal Selling Process, Mistakes in Sales

Sales Forecasting
Prospecting, Sales Resistance, Closing Sales, Types of Personal- Selling Objectives, Analyzing
Market Potential, Sales Forecasting Methods: Qualitative Methods, Quantitative Methods

Organization and Management of Sales Force

Functions of Salesperson, Qualities of Effective Sales Executive, Purpose of Sales Organization,
Setting up a Sales Organization, Types of Sales Organization Structure, Centralization Versus
Decentralization in Sales Force Management

Controlling the Sales Effort

Purpose of Sales Budget, Objective in Using Quotas, Procedure of Setting Quota, Limitations of
Quota System, Concept of Sales Territory, Need for Establishment and Revision, of Sales
Territory, Assignment of Sales Personnel to Territories, Importance of Customer Feedback By
Sales Personnel

Channels of Distribution and Strategy

Marketing Channel, Types of Intermediaries, Contemporary Channel Scenario in India,
Objective of Marketing Intermediaries, Function of Marketing Channel

Channel Design
Steps in Channel Design, Selection of Appropriate Channel, Channel Management, Channel
Motivation

Physical Distribution
Physical Distribution concepts and objective, Components of Physical Distribution,
Transportation, Warehousing, Impact of IT on Physical Distribution, Implication of Supply chain
Management in Physical Distribution
Suggested Reading:

1. Sales Management, [Link], Edward.W .Gundiff and [Link]

Prentice Hall of India.
2. Sales Management: Analysis and Decision Making, Ingram, Cengage Learning.
3. Sales & Distribution Management, Krishna [Link] and Vasant. M. Cavall, TMH.
4. Fundamentals of Sales Management, “Ramneek Kapoor”, Macmillan.
5. Management of a Sales Force, “Spiro, Stanton and Rich”, TMH.
6. Sales Management: In the Indian Perspective, “Vaswar DasGupta”, PHI.
 SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT (MBA)

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course pack is designed to help students learn about sales

and distribution management concepts and how to apply them
to solve business problems.
Sales Management focuses on the activities of first line field
sales managers.
Modern Sales Management is a complex and disciplined mix of:
professional selling and negotiation skills, people and Manage-
ment skills ( including selection, motivation, Communicating
and training). The coverage of the course pack deals with these
topics in practical way. The importance of personal selling task
and feedback system has been discussed. Companies are facing
increasing competition, with threats to many traditional markets
and customer bases, as supply and purchase points in many
market segments become more concentrated. To tackle the
threats and capitalize on opportunities the modern sales
manager needs a far broader range of selling and managerial
skills and experience than in past decades.
In Distribution Management the channel design is discussed,
the different components of distribution like transportation,
Inventory, Warehousing has been covered.
Course pack will enable students to understand Supply chain
Management which has improved the efficiency in distribution.

i
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

CONTENT

Lesson No. Topic age No.

Lesson 1 Objective and Scope of Personal Selling 1

Lesson 2 Buyer Seller Dyad and Personal Selling Situations 5
Lesson 3 Theories of Personal Selling 9
Lesson 4 Personal Selling Process 15
Lesson 5 Prospecting, Objection Handling and Closing 19
Lesson 6 Sales Forecasting-I 23
Lesson 7 Sales Forecasting-II 29

Lesson 8 Functions of Salesperson 34

Lesson 9 Purpose of sales Organisation 40
Lesson 10 Types of Sales Organisation Structure 44
Lesson 11 Recruitment Process 51

Lesson 12 Selection Process 57

Lesson 13 Training Objective Training methods 65
Lesson 14 Theories of Motivation 74
Lesson 15 Devising Compensation 81
Lesson 16 Types of Compensation Plans, Fringe Benefits 87
Lesspn 17 Standards of Performance Qualitative, Quantitative 93

Lesson 19 Evaluation and Control Through Action and Supervision 105

Lesson 20 Purpose of Sales Budget 109
Lesson 21 Objective in Using Quotas 114
Lesson 22 Procedure of Setting Quota, Limitations of Quota System 120
Lesson 23 Concept of Sales Territory 125
Lesson 24 Need for Establishment and Revision of Sales Territory 129
Lesson 25 Assignment of Sales Personnel to Territories 136
Lesson 26 Importance of Customer Feedback by Sales Personnel 142

iv Lesson 18 Recording of Actual Performance 99

 SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT
RBS SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT 11.672.1
CONTENT
Unit No. Lesson No. Topic Page No.
Lesson 28 Robjective of Marketing Intermediaries 152
Lesson 29 Function of Marketing Channel 152
Lesson 30 Channel Design 158
Lesson 31 Selection of Appropriate Channels 166
Lesson 32 Channel Management 173
Lesson 33 Channel Motivation 179

Lesson 34 Physical Distribution concepts and objective 186

Lesson 35 Components of Physical Distribution 190
Lesson 36 Transportation 194
Lesson 37 Warehousing 197
Lesson 38 Impact of IT on Physical Distribution 200
Lesson 39 Implication of Supply Chain Management in Physical Distribution 204

v
 UNIT 1
INTRODUCTION TO SALES MANAGEMENT
LESSON 1 UNIT 1
OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF
PERSONAL SELLING

Learning Objectives services backed up by supporting activities (help in doing

SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

• To know the broad objectives of sales management training dealer salesforce, local advertising, credit) and assurance
that products and services are wise investments in competitive
• Definition of sales management
market place.
• How a Sales executive acts as a coordinator
Society looks to them to assure delivery of goods & services
• To know about personal selling
• that final buyers want at price
In this lesson we will study about an overview of Sales
• of increasing importance
Management.
Sales Managers today must develop an integrative manage- • to market products whose potential for damaging the
ment style using adaptive, problem solving, extensive environment is minimal.
information, in many cases is an ever changing market place. If goods and services made and sold are needed and accepted
The overwhelming majority of business environment workers by buying public and if this products are socially responsible,
are service providers such as investment bankers, consultants, then it is likely that management’s objectives will have been
and information technology specialists. Sales Mangers in the achieved. Ultimately, a business’s earnings depend upon, how
current business environment must have the ability to add well the interest of the firm, the final buyers and society are
value, which means functional expertise in sales and marketing blended. To the extent that these interests are in harmony, the
along with knowledge of industry. However managers must firm experiences Sales Volume, Net Profits and Business
also have the skills to lead, communicate, use changing tech- Growth.
nologies, build teams, motivate sales people, form strategic Sales Management as defined by
alliance with customers.
American Marketing Association — is Planning, direction and
These are times of drastic corporate downsizing in which control of Personal selling including recruiting, selecting,
sales orgranisations are expected to do more with less. Many equipping assigning, routing,
internal and external changes in organizations have dictated the
Supervising, paying and motivating as these task apply to
need to conduct business differently.
personal Salesforce.
External business environment has experienced changing
Sales Managers are responsible for organizing the sales effort,
technology, globalization, more competition and more
both within and outside their Companies. Within the Com-
demanding and sophisticated customers.
pany the Sales Manager builds formal and informal
Internal changes have included greater emphasis on quality organizational structures that ensure effective communication
levels in product and service output, faster communication not only inside the sales department but in its relations with
channels and more educated, skilled employee base. other organizational units.
The relationship between sales people and customer is changing Outside the Company, Sales Manager serves as a key contact
faster than sales orders can be processed. Most remarkable is the with customers and other external publics and is responsible for
fact that it is customers who are driving change. They are asking building and maintaining an effective distribution network.
for, if not demanding better service from vendors. The shift
Sales Managers have still other responsibilities. They are
has radically changed the way selling is done. Companies are
responsible for participating in preparation of information
building relationships, improving technologies, processes and
critical to the making of key marketing decisions, such as those
systems along the way.
on budgeting quotas and territories. Sales Management helps
Sales Executive are professionals. The professional approach to respond proactively and effectively to customers, the key to
requires thorough analysis, market efficient personal selling winning business and processing orders during the pre-sales,
objectives, appropriate sales policies and personal selling order management and post shipment phases.
strategy.
Objectives of Sales Management
Sales Executives have responsibilities to their Organization, From the Company View point, there are three general objec-
Customer and Society. tives of Sales Management
Top Management holds them responsible for • Sales Volume
1. Obtaining Sales Volume • Contribution To Profits
2. Providing Profit Contribution • Continuing growth
3. Continuing Business Growth Sales Executives, of course do not carry the full burden in the
Customers (most often, wholesalers, retailers or industrial effort to reach these objectives, but they make major contribu-
user) expect them to supply easily resalable products and

1
 tions. Top Management has the final responsibility, because it is should have knowledge about production schedule. They
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

accountable for the success a failure of entire enterprise. should be able to provide the market with precise delivery of
Top Management delegates to Marketing Management, which materials. Further sales personnel should be aware of changes
then delegates to Sales in product features, quality styles so as to update the market
about the [Link] in turn provide information about
Management, sufficient authority to achieve the tree general
customers want and demand to the production department .
objectives. In the process objectives are translated into more
This is because they are in direct contact with the customers.
specific goals.
Organisations need to add features to their product or con-
Top Management stantly improve quality in order to survive in the market.
↓ Co-ordination with Human Resource
Marketing Management Sales Department works under lot of pressure. They experience
↓ rapid changes due to constant development in market place.
They have to keep the objectives in mind and there are targets to
Sales Management be achieved. It is essential that there is constant motivation in
the department. Human Resource department need to provide
Objectives are broken down an restated as definite goals that the necessary facilities to the Sales Personnel. Adequate compen-
Company has chance of achieving. sation package keeping the interest of Sales Personnel is
prepared. Sales Personnel should be aware of these benefits.
Before goat setting Sales Executives provide estimate on market
and Sales potentials, the capabilities of sales force and middle- What is personal selling?
men. Once goals are finalized it is the Sales Executives who Personal selling involves oral conversations, either by telephone
guide and lead Sales Personnel and middlemen who play critical or face-to-face, between salespersons and prospective customers.
role in implementing selling plans. Contribution of personal selling
Sales Executives as Coordinator • Salespeople generate revenue
Why is it necessary to coordinate sales activities with other • Salespeople provide market research and customer feedback
departments ? • Salespeople provide solutions to problems
Sales Executives have responsibilities to co-ordinate sales • Salespeople provide expertise and serve as information
activities with other departments in the organization. This is resources
essential as the product/service which is the final output of any
• Salespeople serve as advocates for the customer when
organization is to be ultimately sold by the Sales Personnel.
dealing with the selling organization
Higher ranking Sales Executives are those most concerned with
obtaining effective co-ordination, but Sales Executives at all The Four Sales Channels
organizational levels have some responsibility for coordinating. • Over-the-counter selling: personal selling conducted in
Production Department retail and some wholesale locations in which customers
come to the seller’ place of business
Advertising Department Sales Department • Field selling: sales presentations made at prospective
Human Resource Department
customers’ homes or businesses on a face-to-face basis
• Telemarketing: promotional presentation involving the
Coordinating with Advertising use of the telephone on an outbound basis by salespeople
Synchronizing personal selling with advertising is important. or on an inbound basis by customers who initiate calls to
Advertising may prove uneconomic unless the sales force obtain information and place orders
capitalizes upon interest aroused. Personal Selling effort is • Inside selling: performing the functions of field selling
wasted in explaining details that might be explained by but avoiding travel-related expenses by relying on phone,
advertising, but when sales personal and advertising use the mail, and electronic commerce to provide sales and product
same appeals, promotional impact is magnified. The timing service for customers on a continuing basis
and sequence with which different phases of personal selling
and advertising efforts are executed affect firm’s chances for Sales Management in the 21st Century
marketing success. • Building long-term relationships with customers
Marketing • Creating sales organizational structures that are more
nimble and adaptable
• Gaining greater job ownership and commitment from
salespeople by removing functional barriers within the
Advertising Sales
organization
Co-ordination with Production • Moving sales management style from commanding to
Selling should be coordinated with production. There should coaching
be stocks available to be sold in the market. Sales Personnel • Leveraging available technology for sales success

2
• Better integrating salesperson performance evaluation to The core responsibilities

SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

Some senior managers feel
include full range of activities and outcomes of senior management
there is no time to analyze
Personal selling which forms part of sales management will be a and understand the factors are to set strategy and
way to reach out to customers. affecting profitability. objectives, secure
resources, and maxi-
Questions mize profitability. It is
Q1. How do you define sales management? imperative that top managers have a deep enough knowledge
Q2. What are objectives of sales management? of profitability management to be able to communicate that
Q3. How a sales executive acts as a coordinator? wisdom to the sales force. It is futile to simply instruct the sales
force to produce the most profitable results.
Q4. What is personal selling?
Translate into business objectives: All companies have
business plans, but often these plans, which feature mainly
Annexure 1 company and market analysis, sets of programs, and numbers,
Jonathan Byrnes is a senior lecturer at MIT and president of are not adequate to guide a sales force.
Jonathan Byrnes & Co., a focused consulting company. He earned a The core questions that must be addressed every day by the
doctorate from Harvard Business School in 1980 sales reps and sales managers are who to call on and what each
by Jonathan Byrnes call needs to accomplish. A sales rep can accomplish a limited
You are what you sell. Sales is the front-wheel drive that pulls a number of things, such as increasing sales in an existing
company forward in the marketplace. But in many companies, account, changing a customer’s product mix, up-selling, cross-
top managers are frustrated because the sales process seems selling, obtaining a new customer, minimizing discounts,
disconnected from corporate objectives. This presents a serious minimizing returns, etc. Effective business plans must give
impediment to management’s efforts to manage profitability guidance to the sales force about which objectives they should
effectively. pursue in given situations in order to produce the highest
payoffs. The sales reps cannot maximize everything.
Why does this occur so often, and what can managers do about
it? Effective business plans have three essential roles: first, to state
clearly the company’s objectives; second, to specify new initia-
The process of transforming top management’s goals into
tives, required resources, and expected results; and third, to
concrete sales typically breaks down for one or more of the
guide the day-to-day activities of the company toward maxi-
following reasons:
mum profitability. In most companies, the first objective is
• Lack of top management clarity about objectives. usually met, the second is sometimes met, and the third is
• Difficulty translating objectives into an operational often neglected. When this occurs, it causes the sales force to
business plan. become disconnected from profitability.
• Vagueness communicating objectives and business plan to Communicate the business objectives: In some companies,
the sales force. business objectives and plans are simply not communicated to
• Failure to align compensation with the objectives. the sales force. They are created by department heads or staff,
and shared only with upper- and middle-level managers.
• Problematic individual sales plans and managerial coaching.
Sometimes business plans are considered confidential. This
Each of these can be remedied through thoughtful manage- causes the sales force to be disconnected.
ment.
There is a parable about three bricklayers who are asked what
A Five-step Remedy they are doing: the first replies, “laying bricks,” the second
In order to reconnect sales management to profitability, address replies, “building a wall,” and the third replies, “building a
each of the points of breakdown. Managers can do this cathedral.” In the absence of an understanding of business
through a five-step process. objectives that guide profitability maximization, the sales force
Understand profitability: A surprisingly frequent underlying is simply laying bricks. They never see the cathedral, and the
reason why the sales force does not succeed in maximizing company loses the inspired performance.
company profitability is that the senior managers themselves do In effective companies, the top managers communicate the
not have a clear understanding of the company’s key profitabil- company’s objectives to the sales force. If the objectives have
ity drivers. This makes it impossible for them to communicate changed, they explain the decision and why the new objectives
to the sales force clear, implementable objectives and systematic are good for the company, the customers, and the sales force.
procedures to accomplish them. They do not hand off to the head of sales the responsibility for
Some senior managers feel there is no time to analyze and this vital communication.
understand the factors affecting profitability, and to devise This direct communication creates two important benefits.
concrete measures to guide managers in their efforts to maxi- First, because most top managers have a deeper understanding
mize profits. This is a major error. of the factors that create profitability across the company, they
are able to communicate the nuances of how to maximize the
company’s profitability in the everyday decision-making that is

3
 the heart of the sales process, and they can communicate why get sales? How will I get sales? How will I meet my objectives
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

this is important to the sales force and the company. Second, and the company’s objectives? How will I make money? Well-
the mere fact that the top managers personally communicate the specified account plans provide the basis for management
objectives to the sales force strongly underlines their commit- coaching. They also protect the company against losing sales in
ment to accomplishing these goals. By demonstrating that they the event of rep turnover.
have taken the time to understand and explain how to maxi- Here’s an example of the power of effective account plans. The
mize profitability, these top managers display the “body top management of a company had looked carefully at its
language” that motivates the sales force. profitability and sales force productivity. It determined that the
Translate into a compensation plan: In some companies, highest-payoff sales objective was to “turn around” high
objectives are changed each year, or more frequently, with little or potential, under penetrated accounts that were clustered in areas
no change in the that minimized installation costs. However, the reps were
compensation plan. focused on increasing revenues in a vague way, and consequently
Every aspect of the account
There is an old spent inordinate amounts of time with “easy” or “friendly”
plans should be
saying that a person accounts, many of which were only marginally profitable to
measurable.
can understand a serve.
vision and can buy In order to increase
into the vision, but in the end will do what you pay him to do. A sales rep is most sales force productiv-
Conversely, if a person does not understand how to accomplish productive when focused ity, top management
the vision, it does not do a lot of good to tie her compensation on accomplishing the few devised a clear set of
things that really matter in
to its realization. The difficulty with tailoring an effective sales each sales call.
business plans to
compensation plan is that it requires a set of well-thought-out guide the reps in
business objectives that are specific enough to guide the sales account selection and
force every day. The sales force should be driven by the compen- managing their time. They helped the sales managers work with
sation plan. “Work your pay plan” is one of the central tenets the reps to identify the highest-potential underperforming
of sales management. Simply telling the sales reps to maximize accounts in each territory, and to create step-by-step account
profitability without giving them an understanding of how to plans to map the buying center and systematically position the
do this, and compensating them to do this, will render the company for the sale. Management understood that turning
compensation plan largely ineffective. around an account could be a three-month process, and set up
Sometimes, the sales force is asked to maximize many objec- milestones to monitor progress with compensation tied to
tives, or a set of objectives that cannot be simultaneously achieving specific milestones. Sales managers coached the reps
maximized. In these cases, the sales force defaults to the account-by-account, milestone-by-milestone.
simplest way to maximize their compensation. Sales compensa- The initiative was extremely effective, with sales increasing by
tion is so critical to a company’s success that top management more than 30 percent in a number of target accounts within a
should directly review the plan. month. Top management had succeeded in reconnecting the
Create individual sales plans: In many companies, sales plans sales force to profitability.
for individual sales reps do not exist or are too vague. This is “Top Gun” Sales Managers
like writing a paper without taking the time to develop an Several years ago, the U.S. military developed “Top Gun”
effective outline. For example, a rep may simply plan to increase training programs to increase the effectiveness of fighter pilots.
revenues by a certain percent for a cluster of accounts. This is a These programs were based on the finding that, although
hope, not a plan. By contrast, an effective individual sales plan technology had improved considerably, many pilots were
must be specified at the account/product level, so the rep and becoming less effective. The problem was that these pilots were
sales manager can track progress and continuously improve the having difficulty with information overload. The best pilots had
rep’s performance. learned to focus on the few things that mattered most. Once
The building blocks for a tightly-connected sales force are three- the other pilots were taught what to focus on in specific
fold: 1) clear business plans, which include guidance on what to situations, their effectiveness skyrocketed.
do to maximize profitability in particular types of situations, In a similar way, top managers can reconnect their sales manage-
and which reflect top management clarity and commitment; 2) ment to profitability. A sales rep is most productive when
compensation that has been tailored to direct the sales reps to focused on accomplishing the few things that really matter in
meet the company’s objectives; and 3) well-specified account each sales call. It is management’s responsibility to identify
plans that will enable the reps to fulfill the business objectives those few things, and to tie compensation specifically to their
and allow the sales managers to monitor and coach the reps’ accomplishment. It is the rep’s responsibility to get the job
progress. These plans must be developed by the individual sales done.
reps, and include step-by-step, account-specific initiatives to
The biggest problem in sales force productivity is often that
obtain new accounts, to increase penetration in existing
management has not given the reps the necessary goal clarity
accounts, and to increase account profitability.
and focused compensation. This five-step process will ensure
Every aspect of the account plans should be measurable. They that top managers give the sales force what it needs to succeed,
should provide specific answers to the questions: Where will I in the process ensuring the success of the whole company.

4
 SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT
LESSON 2
BUYER SELLER DYAD AND PERSONAL SELLING SITUATIONS

Learning objectives customer’s perception of what that behavior should be is a

• To know about buyer seller dyads necessary condition for the continuation of dyadic interaction.4
• Το know about the different personal selling situations. Another factor influencing buyer-seller dyadic interactions is the
buyer’s initial conditioning with respect to selling. Salespeople
• To know the recent trends in selling.
have been maligned and the butt of nasty stories for genera-
Buyer Seller Dyad tions. People are taught from childhood to beware of the tricky
Let us Understand what is Buyer Seller Dyad? salesperson.
Fundamental to understanding salesmanship is recognition There are indications that salespeople, not as stereotyped, but as
that it involves buyer-seller interactions. Sociologists use the they actually perform, leave much to be desired in the impact
term “dyad” to describe a situation in which two people they make on customers. Studies of the attitudes of buyers and
interact. The salesperson and the prospect, interacting with each purchasing agents reveal that many are critical of the
other, constitute one example of a “buyer-seller dyad”. Another salesperson’s lack of product knowledge, failure to follow up,
is the interaction of a seller using advertising with a particular general unreliability, slavish adherence to “canned” presenta-
prospect in the reading, listening, or viewing audience. In both tions, blatant use of flattery, bad manners, commercial
advertising and personal selling, the seller seeks to motivate the dishonesty, and so forth.
prospective buyer to behave favorably toward the seller. The Buyer-Seller Dyad
Whether or not the buyer reacts as the seller desires depends
Good communication is a key to successful marketing, and it is
upon the nature of the interaction. The opportunity for
particularly important for positive personal selling results. The
interaction is less in the advertising case than in personal selling.
buyer-seller dyad is flexible and efficient, closes sales, and
However, advertising and personal selling often supplement or
provides feedback.
support each other, and the buyer reacts to their combined
impact. 1. Salesperson determines consumer needs.

Franklin Evans researched buyer-seller dyads in the life insurance

2. Salesperson presents information Consumer
business. Prospects who bought insurance knew more about Salesperson
and answers consumer questions.
salespersons and their companies, and felt more positively 3. Salesperson and consumer
toward them, than did prospects who did not buy, Further- conclude transactions.

more, the more alike salespersons and their prospects were, the
greater was the likelihood that a sale would result. This was true Salesperson-customer
Relationship
for physical characteristics (age, height), other objective factors
(income, religion, education), and variables that relate to Salesperson
Customer

personality factors (politics, smoking). 3

Evan’s findings have significance for sales management. Role Requirements Personal Personal Role Requirements
& characteristics Characteristics Characteristics & characteristics
Whenever possible, sales personnel should be assigned to Personal affiliation
prospects whose characteristics are similar to their own, thus
improving the chance of successful dyadic relationships. Pairing
salespersons with customers of similar backgrounds is more
easily accomplished in industrial selling, where there are fewer
prospects about whom information is needed, than in con- Needs and Expectations Adjustment Needs and Expectations

sumer-goods selling, where the number of prospects and

customers per salesperson is much larger.
Choice of Strategy Choice of Strategy
Henry Tosi studied dyads of wholesale drug salespeople and
retail pharmacists who made buying decisions. When the buyer
Negotiation
perceived the salesperson’s performance to be similar to his or
her concept of “ideal” performance, the number of sources Adapt Adapt

from which purchases were made was low. Although this did
not necessarily result in a larger percentage of purchases from Exchange
the salesperson, customer satisfaction with the salesperson’s
behavior did at least allow the salesperson to get into the store.
Tosi concluded that, in addition to the physical characteristics Stop

and personality and objective factors cited by Evans, the

Conceptual model of ‘Salesperson – Buyer ‘Dyadic Relationship

5
 Figure in the last page is a conceptual model of “salesperson- 4. Missionary – aims only to build goodwill or to educate the
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

buyer” dyadic relationships. This model, developed after an actual or potential user, and is not expected to take an
extensive literature search, views the sales process as being order; for example, the distiller’s “missionary” and the
influenced by both salesperson and buyer, each a focal person pharmaceutical company’s “detail” person.
influenced by personal characteristics and role requirements. 5. Technical Salesperson – emphasizes technical knowledge;
Personal characteristic include personality, values, attitudes, past for example the engineering salesperson, who is primarily a
experiences, and the like. Role set requirements (for example, consultant to “client” companies.
formal authority and organizational autonomy) interact with
personal characteristic to shape needs and expectations. Focal Group B (developmental Selling)
persons’ perceptions of each other’s needs may lead to adjust- 6. Creative Salesperson of Tangibles – for example,
ments of their own (see the “feedback” mechanism represented salespersons selling vacuum cleaners, automobiles, siding,
by the broken lines in Figure 2.1). and encyclopedia.
Based on individual needs and expectations, each focal person 7. Creative Salesperson of Intangibles – for example.
develops a strategy aimed to negotiate a favorable exchange. Salespersons selling insurance, advertising services, and
That strategy may embrace persuasion, ingratiation, communi- educational programs.
cation of facts or offers, friendship, and other elements. If the The more developmental selling required in a particular sales job
strategies are compatible, an exchange takes place. Otherwise, the and the more complex it is, the harder it is to make sales. The
salesperson and the buyer may stop interacting, or based on amount and kind of developmental selling depends upon the
feedback from the unsuccessful negotiation, either or both may natures of prospects and customers, on the one hand, and the
adapt by altering strategy, attempting to adjust needs and nature of products, on the other hand. The easiest sales are self-
expectations, or modifying role requirements. Role require- service sales: customers know their needs, know the products
ments, as well as needs and expectations, often are determined capable of satisfying these needs, sell themselves, and go
by forces beyond the focal person’s control, so one or both may through the checkout line. The most difficult sales require
find it impossible to adapt. For instance, to meet a buyer’s developmental selling and creativity – where sometimes the
expectations, a salesperson may need to set prices, yet this may sales must be made on something other than the product’s
be against company policy and beyond the salesperson’s control. merit, or “multiple” sales are necessary to get the order, and
When the particular round of negotiations is terminated where continual effort is required to keep the account.
regardless of its outcome, the experience becomes input into
Recent Trends In Selling
future interactions of the salesperson
Let us see what are the recent trends in selling to understand
Diversity of Personal-selling Situations selling in present environment.
Considerable diversity exists among personal-selling situations,
• Relationship selling
and it is helpful to distinguish between service and develop-
Regular contacts over an extended period to establish a sus-
mental selling. Service selling aims to obtain sales from existing
tained seller-buyer relationship. The success of tomorrow’s
customers whose habits and patterns of thought are already
marketers depends on the relationships that they build today
conducive to such sales. Developmental selling aims to convert
Relationships are built upon trust.
prospects into customers. Developmental selling, in other
words, seeks to create customers out of people who do not According to Stephen X. Doyle and George Thomas Roth
currently view the salesperson’s company favorably, and who (“Selling and Sales Management in Action: The Use of insight
likely are resistant to changing present sources of supply. & Coaching to improve Relationship Selling,” Journal of
Personal Selling & Sales Management, Winter 1992, p. 62) there
Different sales positions require difference amounts and kinds
are five characteristics of trust-building in salespeople.
of service and developmental selling. McMurry and Arnold
classify positions on a spectrum ranging from the very simple to Customer Orientation means that the salesperson places as
the highly complex. They categorize sales positions into three much emphasis on the customer’s interests as on the
mutually exclusive groups each containing subgroups, a total of salesperson’s interests. Presentations balance the pros and cons.
nine subgroups in all: The salesperson doesn’t push a product that the buyer doesn’t
need.
Group A (service Selling)
Competence includes the salesperson’s ability, knowledge, and
1. Inside Order Taker –”waits on” customers; for example, resources to meet customer expectations. The salesperson
the sales clerk behind the neckwear counter in a men’s store. displays technical command of products and applications.
These jobs are known as technical support staff, sales
assistants, telemarketers, and telesales professionals. Dependability is the predictability of the salesperson’s actions.
His or her words and actions are consistent with a professional
2. Delivery Salesperson – mainly engages in delivering the image.
product; for example, persons delivering milk, bread, or
fuel oil. Candor is the honesty of the spoken word. The proof used to
support claims is credible. Subsequent events prove the
3. Route or Merchandising Salesperson – operates as an order
salesperson’s statements to be true.
taker but works in the field – the soap or spice salesperson
calling on retailers is typical.

6
Likability is rooted in each party’s perception of “having personal interests, competition, etc. Online access to the

SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

something in common” with the other. This is an emotional company’s customer and prospect database gives the salesper-
factor, yet a powerful force in buyer and seller relationships. son the ability (and the responsibility) to update files from the
field. In some cases, it makes sense to create a dedicated (and
• Consultative Selling
more manageable) sales database for a special initiative, product,
Meeting customer needs by listing to them, understanding —
or region. Salespeople become intelligence agents in the field
and caring about — their problems, paying attention to details,
when they feed that information directly into the data resources
and following through after the sale
shared by the rest of the sales force and the company at large.
• Team Selling
Combination of salespeople with specialists from other
Conclusion