Phillips Company: Manufacturer of Steam Power Plants – The Role of the Sales Force in the Company Image

Sam McDonald, Vice-President of Sales of the Phillips Company, was con­cerned with the potential role of his sales force in correcting his company’s image in the electric utility industry. The Phillips Company, one of the lead­ing manufacturers of steam power plants in the United States, was located in Philadelphia. The company was started by

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Plastics Industries, Inc.: Manufacturer of Plastic Pipe – The Role of Personal Selling in Creating a Market

Management of Plastics Industries, Inc., was faced with the problem of promoting a new product to the market. The company had been organized in Beaumont, Texas, to manufacture pipe. It was founded by a group of wealthy individuals from the community, and total capitalization had been set with the expectation of four years of

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United Airflow, Inc.: Manufacturer of Household Appliances – Salesperson’s Job

United Airflow, Inc., was a manufacturer of air conditioners, dehumidifiers, humidifiers, vaporizers, and a variety of other small household appliances. The United sales force consisted of 200 people, accounting for about $125 million net sales volume annually. Thomas Rogers had been a salesperson for United Airflow for eight years, calling on department stores, discount

Graham Manufacturing Company: Distributor of Highway Construction Equipment – Sale of a Truck-Mounted Power Shovel

In January 2017, Shattuck Construction Company was awarded a $60 mil­lion contract for building a section of interstate highway crossing New York State. The contract called for clearing, paving, bridge building, blast-ing, and landscaping 50 miles of roadway, two lanes in each direction, in the vicinity of Syracuse. Over a period of six months

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Colonial Heritage Furniture Company: Manufacturer of Traditional American Furniture – Opening a New Account

The salesperson in this case, Jack Leonard, was employed by the Colonial Heritage Furniture Company, an old and well-known manufacturer of tra­ditional American furniture. The prospect, Frank O’Keefe, was the owner and manager of O’Keefe Home Furnishings, a medium-sized, high quality retail furniture store in Waco, Texas. The sales interview recorded here took place

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Stanamer Corporation: Plumbing and Heating Company – Sales Force Expansion

The Plumbing and Heating Division of Stanamer Corporation made and sold plumbing fixtures and fittings, hydronic heating and cooling equip­ment, food-waste disposals, water softeners, and invalid bath lifts. The largest of seven corporate divisions, it operated fourteen plants from coast to coast. Toward the end of the year the general sales manager, J. B.

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The Kramer Company: Manufacturer of Men’s Toiletries – Seeking Greater Sales and Profitability

Sales executives of The Kramer Company, manufacturer of a limited line of high-priced men’s toiletries, were concerned that current sales of For­est Dew, the company’s major product, was insufficient to support the present sales organization. Sales for Forest Dew had increased gradually during the past three years; however, the rate of increase was substantially

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Martin Packaging Company, Inc.: Manufacturer of Packaging Products and Systems – Evaluation of Sales Strategy

Thomas Steeves, manager of the Marketing Research and Analysis Depart­ment of the Martin Packaging Company, Inc., faced the task of evaluating the marketing and sales strategy implications of the new “plasti-shield” bottle being tested by the soft drink industry. The plasti-shield bottle was a new soft drink bottle that had a plastic coating around

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Nature of Sales Management Positions

The requirements of the sales executive’s job vary from company to com­pany and from position to position within companies. However, certain responsibilities are typically assigned to the same types of executives in different companies. It is possible, therefore, to generalize about the activi­ties and responsibilities of sales managers, district sales managers, product managers, and

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Functions of The Sales Executive

Many sales executives get promoted to their positions because of their previous performances as salespersons. In some companies, outstanding salespersons have an inside track when sales executives’ jobs are being filled. The assumption is that outstanding salespersons will be outstand­ing sales executives. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The sales executive’s job demands

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Qualities of Effective Sales Executives

What qualities should sales executives possess? It is difficult to list “success” qualifications. Sales executives’ jobs cover a gamut of products, markets, and marketing channels, and there would seem to be few, if any, qualifi­cations in common. Nevertheless, five qualities (or abilities) common to effective sales executives, whatever their fields, can be identified: Ability

Relations of Sales Executive with Top Management

Effective sales executives are well above average in initiative and personal drive. Realizing the sales executive’s potential, however, depends largely upon relations with top management. Sales executives should want to get ahead, for personal goals are as vital to them as the objectives they set for the sales department, but if they are to

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Relations of Sales Executive with Managers of Other Marketing Activities

Sales executives spend most of their time on sales force management; they also are concerned with other marketing activities. The degree of responsibility over these activities, and the amount of time allocated to them, vary with the particular job, but sales executives are almost always concerned with products, promotion, pricing, and distribution. They may

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Compensation Patterns for Sales Executives

Selling is often important to the success of a company, so it is not surprising that sales executives often command substantial compensation. The impor­tance of selling is reflected in the compensation of top marketing executives who often earn six-figure annual incomes. Top sales executives have com­pensations averaging 70 percent of those of top marketing

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Purposes of Sales Organization

In the ideally organized sales department, wasted motion and duplication of effort would be eliminated, friction would be minimized, and coop­eration maximized. Dynamic characteristics inherent in marketing pre­clude the achievement of such perfection. But when sufficient attention is given to sales organization, the ideal is approached, if not attained, and personal-selling efforts increase in

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Setting Up A Sales Organization

Not often is a sales organization built entirely from scratch, as some struc­ture usually exists. Most problems of sales organization, in other words, are problems of reorganization—the sales organization exists and the goal is to make it more effective. It is appropriate, nevertheless, for the sales execu­tive to approach the organizational problem, each time

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Basic Types of Sales Organizational Structures

If sound practices are followed in setting up the sales department, the result­ing structure takes on features of one or more of four basic types: line, line and staff, and functional, and committee. The grouping of activities into posi­tions and the charting of relationships of positions causes the organization to take on structural form.

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Field Organization of the Sales Department

Sooner or later, every growing company faces the necessity for establishing a field sales organization. The sales manager can personally supervise field selling operations when a company is young, when only a few salespeople are employed, when the sales force travels out of the home office, and when the marketing area is small. As

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Centralization Versus Decentralization in Sales Force Management

In the centralized sales organization almost all activities, including sales force management, are administered from a central headquarters. The cen­tral sales office has full responsibility for recruiting, selecting, training, compensating, supervising, motivating, controlling, and evaluating the sales force. In the decentralized organization, in theory at least, all these activities are handled by field sales

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Schemes for Dividing Line Authority in the Sales Organization

As marketing operations expand, line authority and responsibility eventu­ally become excessively burdensome for the top sales executive. There is an increasing number of people to supervise. Ordinarily, the first remedial step taken is to add a general line assistant, for example, an assistant general sales manager. As the burden of line administrative work continues