chapter 4 Sales organizations
Chapter 4
Sales Force Organization
Objectives:
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
1- Understand the meaning of organizing as a managerial function
2- Know the Characteristics of a good sales force organization
3- Understand the most common way to divide sales responsibilities based on sales specialization.
4- Explore the additional strategic organizational alternatives
5- Know the organizational forms in international selling
_____________________________________________________________________
The nature of sales organizations:
An organization is simply an arrangement – a working structure – of activities involving a group of people. The goal is to arrange these activities so that people involved can act together better than they can individually.
Sales organizations are restructured to make them more responsive to changing needs and demands of their customers.
Characteristics of a good sales force organization:
1. Organizational structure should reflect a marketing orientation. When designing a sales organization, management should focus first on the market and the sales force. The organization structure is built according to the selling and marketing tasks necessary to capitalize on the market demand and to serve the firm’s customers.
2. Organizations should be built around activities not around people.
3. Responsibility and authority should be related properly. When you give someone a job to do, also give the person the tools to do it.
4. Span of executive control should be reasonable. This means the number of subordinates who report directly to one executive. As a guideline, the span should be small – usually not more than six to eight people.
5. Organizations should be stable but flexible. Stability in an organization means having trained executive replacements available when needed. Flexibility refers to short run situations as fluctuations in the number of workers needed. An organization might subcontract some work during peak
Sales Force Organization
Objectives:
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
1- Understand the meaning of organizing as a managerial function
2- Know the Characteristics of a good sales force organization
3- Understand the most common way to divide sales responsibilities based on sales specialization.
4- Explore the additional strategic organizational alternatives
5- Know the organizational forms in international selling
_____________________________________________________________________
The nature of sales organizations:
An organization is simply an arrangement – a working structure – of activities involving a group of people. The goal is to arrange these activities so that people involved can act together better than they can individually.
Sales organizations are restructured to make them more responsive to changing needs and demands of their customers.
Characteristics of a good sales force organization:
1. Organizational structure should reflect a marketing orientation. When designing a sales organization, management should focus first on the market and the sales force. The organization structure is built according to the selling and marketing tasks necessary to capitalize on the market demand and to serve the firm’s customers.
2. Organizations should be built around activities not around people.
3. Responsibility and authority should be related properly. When you give someone a job to do, also give the person the tools to do it.
4. Span of executive control should be reasonable. This means the number of subordinates who report directly to one executive. As a guideline, the span should be small – usually not more than six to eight people.
5. Organizations should be stable but flexible. Stability in an organization means having trained executive replacements available when needed. Flexibility refers to short run situations as fluctuations in the number of workers needed. An organization might subcontract some work during peak