2025

SALES MANAGEMENT

Dr. Kiều Anh Tài

THE SALES
MANAGER
Lecture 3

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Sales management process
• Sales managers’ duties and responsibilities
• Characteristics of effective sales managers
• Sales leadership
• Managing the customer portfolio

SALES MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Source: Mark W. Johnston & Greg W. Marshall (2016). Sales Force Management. Taylor & Francis

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SALES MANAGEMENT PROCESS

• The formulation of a sales program
• The implementation of the sales program
• The evaluation and control of the sales program

SALES MANAGERS’ DUTIES AND

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Determining sales force objectives and goals
• Integration with marketing activities
• Forecasting and budgeting
• Sales force organisation, sales force size, territory design and planning
• Sales force selection, recruitment and training
• Motivating and rewarding the sales force
• Sales force evaluation and control

[Jobber et al.]

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SALES MANAGERS’ DUTIES AND

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Sales force management
• Administrative management
• Marketing
• Direct selling
• Financial management
• Relationship management

[Ha Thi Thuy Duong]

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE
SALES MANAGERS

Source: Adapted from Deeter-Schmelz, D.R., Goebel, D.J. and Kennedy, K.M. (2008) What are the characteristics of an effective sales manager? An exploratory study comparing
salesperson and sales manager perspectives, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 28(1):7–20.

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EFFECTIVE SALES MANAGERS

• Evaluated based on
• Sales and profit
• Build the salesforce
• Lead and manage the salesforce

CLASS DISCUSSION
Are good salespeople surely good sales managers?

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SALES MANAGER ROLES

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SALES LEADERSHIP
• Role of a sales leader
• Create a shared vision that motivates the sales team.
• Develop and implement strategies to achieve that vision.
• Understand and align with the firm’s culture and values.
• Challenges faced by sales leaders
• External factors: Competitor actions, market changes…
• Internal factors: Aligning sales strategies with company objectives.
• Sales managers shape behavior based on own personal values/ experience
and organizational culture.

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SALES LEADERSHIP
• Manage the customer portfolio:
• Group customers based on needs and profitability for targeted management.
• Promote customer orientation:
• Adapt strategies to meet customer needs at all levels of the organization.
• Foster collaboration:
• With customers.
• Internally with marketing, operations, finance, HR.

• Strategic vs Tactical thinking

• Strategic decisions: Long-term, broad impact, shape future direction.
• Tactical decisions: Short-term, operational focus.

MANAGING THE CUSTOMER

PORTFOLIO
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) calculations
• Actual value or revenue
• Cost of sales and service
• Future potential sales value
• Customer grouping by sales channel
• Preferred partner
• Solutions required
• Profitable partner
• Strategic contributor
• Approved vendor

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MANAGING THE CUSTOMER

PORTFOLIO
• Strategic portfolio management
• Decide which customers to develop, retain, or replace.
• Developing existing customers is cheaper but may yield smaller gains.
• Replacing customers is riskier but can lead to higher profitability.
• Sales manager's role
• Allocate right people to right accounts.
• Ensure efficient resource use for maximum return.

MANAGING THE CUSTOMER

PORTFOLIO - RELATIONSHIP
DEVELOPMENT GRID

Source: Rogers, B. (2007) Rethinking Sales Management. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

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MANAGING THE CUSTOMER

PORTFOLIO - SIZE AND PROFITABILITY
GRID

Source: Guenzi, P. and Geiger, S. (2011) Sales Management: A Multinational Perspective. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

MANAGING THE CUSTOMER

PORTFOLIO - CUSTOMER
INTERACTION SEGMENTATION

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TYPES OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN

BUYERS AND SELLERS

Adapted from Stephen B. Castleberry and John F. Tanner, Selling: Building Partnerships,
8th ed. (New York: Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2011).

PERSONAL SELLING’S ROLE IN

MARKETING STRATEGY
• One-shot transactions occurring between a buyer and seller with
limited thought of future consideration
• Roles of salespeople
• Create new value
• Adapt
• “Make the market”
• Exit

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PERSONAL SELLING’S ROLE IN

FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS
• Create a climate of cooperation, with open and honest
communication
• Roles of salespeople
• Engender high level of personal trust in well managed business activities
• Provide expertise for competitive advantage
• Danger when one party in the relationship leaves

PERSONAL SELLING’S ROLE IN

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
• Long-term relationships where both parties make significant
investments
• Roles of salespeople
• Direct communication with production, production designers, and others
• Relationship manager and general manager
• Work with clients large enough to make investments worthwhile

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RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

Exploration Expansion Commitment

Determine value, Generate repeat sales, Build loyalty,

build trust, set proper full-line selling, cross- become a preferred
expectations, monitor selling supplier, engage in
TQM

BUILDING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

• Under promise, over deliver
• Don't forget the small things.
• Stay in contact
• Establish a feedback system

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MANAGING THE CUSTOMER

PORTFOLIO EFFECTIVELY
• Recruit multi-talented, adaptable salespeople; Ensure alignment
with firm culture and values for high performance and customer
satisfaction
• A sales team can be made up of specialist and generalist salespeople,
both internally based and externally based, and may also include
auxiliary people, such as customer services personnel, outsourced
workers or agents.
• Salespeople are allocated to the different customer groups, or to
geographical territories

SELLING TEAM COMPOSITION

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