SDM-Ch.7 1 Chapter 7 Controlling the Salesforce
Nov 11, 2014
SDM-Ch.7 1
Chapter 7
Controlling the Salesforce
SDM-Ch.7 2
Learning Objectives To know criteria and types of salesforce expense plans
To understand salesforce audit and its evaluation process
To learn evaluation of effectiveness of a sales organisation through sales, cost, profitability, and productivity analysis
To know purposes and procedure for evaluating and controlling the performance of salespeople
To understand ethical, social, and legal responsibilities of sales managers and salespeople
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Salesforce Expense Plans
Salesforce expenses include travel, meals, lodging, telephone, and customer entertainment
Firms have salesforce expense plans to ensure proper spending
Objectives / Criteria of effective expense plans are:
It should be,• Fair to the salesperson and company• Simple and economical to administer• Clear to prevent misunderstanding• Reimbursed without much delay• Allowing differences in expenses among different
territories
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Salesforce Expense Plans (Continued)
Four types of salesforce expense plans
1. Salespeople pay all expenses
Merits: Simple, less cost for company, salespeople get income tax advantage
Demerits: Less control on salespeople’s activities; non-selling activities not done properly
2. Company pays all expenses / Unlimited payment plan
Merits: Good control on salespersons activities; no anxiety for sales people on spending money
Demerits: Salespeople spend more and may make money unethically
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Salesforce Expense Plans (Continued)
3. Company partially pays expenses / Limited payment plan
Merits: Useful in budget planning; less disputes; better
control on salesperson’s activities
Demerits: Needs more time to set expense limits and
administer; Inflexible plan, not liked by good salespeople
4. Combination plan / Expense-quota plan
• Combines limited and unlimited plans
• Advantages of both plans
• Company has control on selling expenses; salespeople
have flexibility within total expense budget
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Salesforce Audit
Salesforce or sales management audit is a part of marketing audit
A marketing or salesforce audit is a comprehensive, systematic,
diagnostic, and prescriptive tool, to be used periodically
Purpose. To assess adequacy of process, improve performance,
recommend changes
Evaluation process of salesforce audit. It has 3 stages. Company
management should find out:
• What happened by comparing actual performance with goals
• Why it happened by identifying factors contributing to negative
variance. Difficult and time consuming task
• What to do about it by taking corrective actions
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Evaluation of Effectiveness of Sales Organisation To know “what happened”, companies analyse their
sales, costs, profits, and productivity Effectiveness model of a sales organisation
Effectiveness of a
SalesOrganisation
Sales Analysis
Cost Analysis
Profitability Analysis
Productivity Analysis
We shall examine each of the above factors
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Sales Analysis
Sales analysis of a company can be done in different ways: Different alternatives are shown in a framework below:
Sal
es A
nal
ysis
All levelsIn Sales
Organisation
DifferentType of
Sales
Different Type of Analysis
National and/or international levels sales organisation
Regional level
Branch /district level
Territory level
Individual level
Total sales of the company
By type of products
By type of distribution channels
By type of customer classifications
By size of orders
Comparisons with sales quotas / targets
Comparisons with previous periods
Comparisons with industry / competitors
Comparisons within sales organisations
Comparisons with sales forecasts
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Sales Analysis (Continued) Sales analysis is done at all levels of the sales organisation Reasons
(1) For evaluation and control: sales analysis needed at different organisation levels like regional, district, territory
(2) For identifying problems:
Use hierarchical sales analysis. E.G.• Sales performance at national level below sales volume budget• Find which regions have problems in achieving sales quotas• Focus sales analysis of branches reporting to problematic regions• Do sales analysis of territories under problematic branches• Further analysis of problematic territories to be done by talking to
salespeople, customers, branch managers• Corrective actions can then be taken to improve sales
Extend hierarchical sales analysis to different type of sales Out of different type of analysis, comparisons with sales quotas are
widely used
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Marketing Cost and Profitability Analysis Purpose: To measure profitability of company’s
marketing units such as territories, market segments, products, channels, & customers
This information helps to decide which marketing units to be expanded, reduced, or eliminated in future.
Procedure• State purpose of the analysis• Identity major functional (or activity) expenses• Convert natural accounting expenses into functional
expenses• Allocate functional expenses to marketing units• Prepare profitability of marketing units, by using “full-
cost approach”, or “contribution approach”
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Purpose of the Analysis Before starting cost and profitability analysis, it is necessary
to know for which marketing units the analysis would be done
This helps to classify costs into direct and indirect. E.G. Salesperson’s salary is direct cost for territory analysis, but indirect cost for analysis of products or segments
Identify Major Functional Expenses The company should prepare a list of major functions or
activities with respect to marketing expenses
E.G. Personal selling expenses, order processing expenses, packing and delivery expenses, warehousing and inventory expenses, administration expenses
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Convert Natural Accounting Expenses into Functional Expenses
Natural or traditional expenses are to be converted to functional expenses, for doing marketing cost analysis
An example will make this point clear
Natural / Traditional Expenses
Total Functional Expenses
Personal Selling
Adv. and Sales
Promotion
Warehousing & Inventory
Administration
Salaries 20,000,000 10,000,000 4,000,000 2,000,000 4,000,000
Rent 10,000,000 2,500,000 1,000,000 5,000,000 1,500,000
Travel 5,000,000 5,000,000 __ __ __
Adv. and Sales Promotion
15,000,000 __ 15,000,000 __ __
Total 50,000,000 17,500,000 20,000,000 7,000,000 5,500,000
A better method for allocating costs is activity-based costing (ABC), which allocates costs based on cause of expenses
Note: All figures are in Rupees
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Allocate Functional Expenses to Marketing Units
Functional expenses are allocated to the marketing unit under study, depending on several bases shown below, as examples
Function Bases of allocation of expenses
• Personal selling • Directly to sales territories• Selling time given to each product and market segment• Sales calls x average time per call to customers & channels
• Advertising and sales promotion
• Circulation of media to sales territories• Media space for each product & market segment• Equal charges to customers & channels
• Administration • Equal charges for all marketing units
Above allocations are done to find marketing costs and profitability of marketing units
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Prepare Profitability of Marketing Units
This is done by preparing profit & loss statements for the marketing units under study
Two approaches are available in allocating marketing costs for profitability analysis: (1) Full-cost, (2) Contribution
Full-cost approach: All marketing costs, both direct & indirect, are allocated to the marketing unit
• Useful for long-term profitability studies of products and market segments
Contribution approach: Only direct marketing costs are allocated to the marketing unit
• Useful for short-term decisions like profitability of branches / regions
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An Example of Profitability Analysis
SNo Particulars Full-cost
Approach
Contribution Approach
Western Region Branch A Branch B Branch C
1 Sales 400 150 130 120
2 Cost of good sold 300 112.5 97.5 90
3 Gross margin (1-2) 100 37.5 32.5 30
4 Branch selling expenses
12.7 4.5 4.2 4
5 W. Region direct selling expenses
12.0 - - -
6 Contribution (3-4-5) 75.3 33.0 28.3 26.0
7 Allocated indirect expenses
36.3 - - -
8 Net profit (6-7) 39.0 - - -
Note: All figures are in Rupees million
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Productivity Analysis
Productivity is generally measured by ratio between output & input Some of the productivity ratios in sales management are:
• Sales per salesperson (used by many companies)
• Selling expenses per salesperson
• Sales calls per salesperson Improvement in productivity leads to increase in profitability Some of the methods used by firms to improve productivity
• Reducing salesforce size
• Hiring manufacturer’s reps. or agents on commission basis
• Using the internet, telemarketing, direct mail to reach customers
• Increasing sales volume substantially
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Evaluating & Controlling Performance of Salespeople
Purposes / objectives / importance of performance evaluation of salespeople are:
Mainly to find how salespeople have performed This information is used for other purposes, such as:
• Improving salespersons’ performance, by identifying causes of unsatisfactory performance
• Deciding salary increments and incentive payments• Identifying salespeople for promotion• Determining training needs• Motivating salespeople through recognition and
reward• Understanding strengths and weaknesses of
salespeople
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Procedure for Evaluating and Controlling Salesforce Performance
The steps involved in the procedure are:
Set policies on performance evaluation and control
Decide bases of salespersons’ performance evaluation
Establish performance standards
Compare actual performance with the standards
Review performance evaluation with salespeople
Decide sales management actions and control
We shall describe above steps briefly
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Set Policies on Performance Evaluation & Control
Most companies establish basic policies. Examples are: Frequency of evaluation. Mostly once a year. Who conducts evaluation? Mainly immediate
supervisor Assessment techniques to be used. E.G.
Management by objectives (MBO), 360-degree feedback
Sources of information. Sales analysis, new business reports, lost business reports, call plans, etc
Bases of salesforce evaluation. (next slide) Conducting performance review sessions with
salespeople
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Decide Bases for Salespersons’ Performance Evaluation
A firm should decide which of the following bases / criteria it would use: (1) result / outcome based, (2) efforts / behavioural based, or (3) both results & efforts based
A company selects performance bases or criteria from a list of alternatives, some of them shown below:
Quantitative results / outcome bases / criteria
Quantitative efforts / behavioural bases / criteria
Qualitative efforts / behavioural bases / criteria
• Sales volume
• In value / units
•Percentage of quota
• by products & segments
• Accounts / customers New accounts nos. Lost accounts nos.
• Customer calls No. of calls per day No. of calls per customer
• Non-selling activities overdue payments collected No. of reports sent
• Personal skills Selling skills Planning ability Team player
• Personality & Attitudes Cooperation Enthusiasm
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Establish Performance Standards
Performance standards are also called sales goals, targets, sales quotas, sales objectives
Performance standards for quantitative results are related to the company’s sales volume or market share goals
Performance standards for efforts / behavioural criteria are difficult to set
• For this, companies do “time and duty analysis” or use executive judgement
Performance standards should not be too high or too low
After establishing standards, salespeople must be informed
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Compare Actual Performance with Standards
Salesperson’s actual performance is measured and compared with the performance standards
For this, sales managers use different methods or forms:
• Graphic rating scales
• Ranking
• Behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS)
• Management by Objectives (MBO)
• Descriptive statements
Companies combine some of the above methods for an effective evaluation system
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Review Performance Evaluation with Salespeople
Performance review / appraisal session is conducted, after evaluation of the salesperson’s performance
Sales manager should first review high / good ratings, and then review other ratings
Both should decide objectives / goals and action plan for future period
After the review, sales manager should write about performance evaluation & objectives for the future
Guidelines for reviewing performance of salespersons
• First discuss performance standards / criteria / bases
• Ask the salesperson to review his performance
• Sales manager presents his views
• Establish mutual agreement on the performance
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Decide Sales Management Actions and Control
Many companies combine this step with the previous step – i.e. performance review
During performance review meeting with salesperson, sales manager does the following:• Identifies the problem areas. E.G. Sales quotas not
achieved• Finds causes. E.G. less sales calls, poor market
coverage, or superior performance of competitors• Decides sales management actions E.G. train
salesperson, redesign territories, or review company’s sales / marketing strategies
If a salesperson’s performance is good, he / she should be rewarded and recognised
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Business Ethics and Sales Management
Sales managers and salespeople have ethical
responsibilities
Some of the ethical situations are:
• Relations with the company. EGs. Expense
statements, credit for damaged merchandise
• Relations with customers. EGs. Gifts, false
information to get business, customer entertainment
Ethical guidelines
• A code of ethics developed by the company would be
effective if it is enforced by top management
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Social Responsibilities
Corporate social responsibility means distinguishing right from wrong and doing the right
Social responsibility is the management’s responsibility to take decisions and actions for welfare and interests of society and the company
A company has following four responsibilities to its eight stakeholders: Customers, Community, Creditors, Government, Owners, Managers, Employees, and Suppliers, acronym: CCCGOMES
• Ethical responsibilities. Deal with fairness, equity, impartiality
• Legal responsibilities. Follow laws and regulations
• Economic responsibilities. Produce and market goods / services that society wants, and make reasonable profits
• Voluntary responsibilities. Make social (EG philanthropic) contributions
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Legal Responsibilities and Sales Management Laws and regulations by local, state, or central
governments have impact on sales management
Price discrimination. As per MRTP act, 1969, seller should not discriminate prices among similar buyers (e.g. retailers)
Price fixing. Under MRTP act, it is unlawful for suppliers to fix prices
Consumer protection. As per Consumer Protection Act, 1986, it is illegal to make false or misleading claims about products / services
Bribes. Payment of money or giving gifts to gain a customer is illegal under Indian Contracts Act 1872 and Sale of Goods act, 1930. Sales managers must take responsibility that laws are not violated
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Key Learnings
Salesforce expenses include travel, meals, lodging, telephone, and customer entertainment
Salesforce expense plans consists of (1) salespeople paying all expenses, (2) company paying expenses partially, (3) company paying all expenses, (4) combination plan
Salesforce audit is done to access process adequacy, improve performance, and recommend changes
For evaluating effectiveness of a sales organisation, the company analyse sales, costs, profits, and productivity
Sales analysis is done at all levels in a sales organisation, for (a) evaluation and control, and (b) identifying problems
Purpose of marketing cost and profitability analysis is to measure profitability of company’s marketing units
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Key Learnings (Continued)
Two approaches for profitability analysis are: full-cost and contribution
Most commonly used productivity ratio in sales management is sales per salesperson
Main purpose of performance evaluation of salespeople is to find how salespeople have performed
Sales managers have ethical, social, and legal responsibilities
Corporate social responsibility is distinguishing right from wrong and doing the right