Create a Short dissection from Sales Force

Main content
10-3gSales Force
We've talked about machines (the Internet, self-service IT
systems) as a channel and about frontline employees at retail
shops as channel representatives, but another human element
of a channel is a company's sales force. For the companies high
on push, such as many B2B channels, the sales force is an
enormously important part of the corporate system and
contributor to the bottom line. If we look at the performance of
highly trained sales teams in industries such as shipping and
metals, we see that the highest-educated and longest-tenured
sales teams have growth rates in the mid-20% range.
Particularly for more undifferentiated products, the quality of
the sales force is often the single most significant means of
differentiation. Stated another way, for these products, a
company's sales force is its most important driver of
performance.
The issues regarding sales forces are two: First, how many
salespeople should we have (and where will they be deployed)?
Second, how should salespeople be compensated for their
efforts? The determination of the size of a sales force is usually
done via some estimation of expected workload. We'd solve for
the optimal number of salespeople by factoring in how many
customers we must serve, how frequently we must call on a
customer throughout the year, the average amount of time
necessary to spend with each client, etc. For example, a
particular SKU is sold to 100,000 drugstores and convenience
stores, and the brand manager wants each salesperson to visit
each account at least once a month, or 12 times a year. Say each
visit lasts 30 minutes. The average number of hours worked a
year would be 2,000 , but not all 2,000 will be face-to-face time
with clients. Let's say that travel and administrative duties take
away 500 hours. Then the minimum number of salespersons
we'd require for this coverage would be
Naturally this number and the kind of salesperson most useful
to the company will vary with the brand and corporate life

cycle: Newer brands and companies might well take advantage
of current selling partners. As the brand grows, the sizing issue
is easier to clarify, and the salesperson's roles are beginning to
be defined and specialized. As the brand matures, the
salespeople need to be generalists in order to cover multiple
products. And with the brand in decline, the sales force might be
cut; indeed, the company might return to the use of selling
partners.
Each company develops its policies to train and evaluate its
salespeople. Sales managers are motivated by the criteria set for
their performance reviews, to which their compensation is tied.
Sales compensation is salary plus bonuses, but the question is a
matter of proportion. The bonuses can be cash, trips, or chunks
of wood (plaques).
Work performance criteria need to be clear from corporate so
that the sales reps don't get frustrated that their work is for
naught, and transparency is important for morale and feelings
of fairness throughout the company. Numerous inputs can serve
as components of performance evaluations, including sales data,
perhaps by segment (e.g., client size) or by product line (e.g.,
pushing a new line), or improvement (e.g., sales compared to
last year's or last quarter's sales). In addition to these outcome-
based measures of conversion, there can be effort measures,
such as time spent with clients, apparent expertise and product
knowledge and training, the salesperson's attitude, or time-
clock inputs such as number of days worked, number of calls
placed, keeping selling expenses down, etc.
Just as the frontline in retailing is part of the brand image to the
consumer, the sales force is part of the brand to the B2B
customer. Here are the three biggest complaints by B2B buyers
about salespeople: (1) “The sales person isn't following my
company's buying process.” (2) “They didn't listen to my needs.”
(3) “They didn't bother to follow up.” Avoid these problems, and
the account is yours!

short response for the three down

1- In our chapter 10 readings, we read about channels of distribution and how it
relates to one of the 4Ps, Place. The chapter talks about how some
manufacturers target consumers through push and pull advertising and how
these two forms of marketing have different strategies, and each can work
differently on the consumer. Part of these strategies have to do with the power a
firm has in their marketing and the message they put out when they are
advertising.
The text lists the types of power and gives a “quick image” of what this may look like:
1. Coercive power = “Bully”
2. Information power = “know-it-all”
3. Legitimate power = “Great Dane and a Chihuahua”
4. Referent Power = “I want to be like you”
5. Reward Power = “I have goodies for you”
My question is: which of these types of power in marketing strategies do you think is
most effective? Are there certain scenarios where one is more effective than the other?

2- As an owner of a company I would be very hesitant to franchise out the brand.
The reason that I would be hesitant to do so it because I would lose some of
control over the ability to provide the same quality product. My question is what
franchise brands do you believe offer the most consistent experience no matter
what franchise location you visit? Also are there any franchises that you have
dealt with that provide a completely different experience at each location you go
to?

3- Our chapter discusses E-commerce and how intensely this channel has shown
growth over recent years. My question is do you prefer to purchase goods and
services online as opposed to in-person or at the store? Typically I like to go to
the store to see what I am buying but, on the flip side, most of the time,
especially due to the pandemic there is much less availability in-store as
opposed to online. Have you recently run into the same issue?