Impact of Sales Control Systems

Introduction

Sales people’s performance is of particular attention to organizations as it is associated with the overall performance of the company as well as customer satisfaction. Modern day sales workplace is becoming much complex, but sales managers can play vital part in determining the activities of their sales people. Hence, it is important to understand various control measures that impact on the performance of sales people. A sales people control system is regarded as set of processes for observing, directing, assessing and compensating the employees. It affects employees’ behavior in such a manner that it enhances the welfare of both the organization and the employees (Piercy & et. Al., 2007). Based on this aspect, the key objective of this essay is to explore the controls managers can use in order to influence the performance of sales people. Furthermore, it also discusses about the importance of encouraging sales people to act in ethical way.

Sales Force Organization

Sales force organization is the procedure of allocating and administering the sales resources in order to satisfy the sales and marketing activities. There are various ways; sales manager can organize the sales people to enhance its performance.

Product organization: sales manager can organize the sales people according to their knowledge regarding the products or services of the organization. By organizing sales people in such a way, every sales person will be liable for selling only those products and services which he/she understands best. As a result it will encourage them and influence on their performance (Kundu, n.d.).

Customer organization: Sales managers can also organize the sales people to suit different kinds of customers. Allocating a portion of sales people to each kind of customer will permit the organization to customize the sales terrains to act on each customer’s distinctive requirements. It will enhance the efficiency of entire sales force (Slater & Olson, 2000).

Professional insight: Sales manager need to bring into line the sales force to overall business approach. He can develop a sales structure on the basis of diverse market segments if he intends to enhance the market share and grow the business in diverse regions. It is important to assess the abilities and experience of the sales people to determine the degree of knowledge regarding products and markets. Furthermore, it is also important for sales manager to evaluate the possible workload on diverse sales team members (Fatima, 2015). With respect to regional organizational structure, creating flexibility in sales people will help to enhance their performance by sharing the workload.

Setting objectives: To organize sales people, the manager needs to set objectives. However, with the business expands, there is a requirement to recruit more sales persons and to delegate a senior member in the sales team to have better control on performance.

Recruitment

Recruiting the right people is important to enhance the effectiveness of sales people. The reasons are because selling necessitates diverse skill set and abilities for obtaining better effectiveness. To recruit effectively, managers require to properly identifying the qualities of a productive sales representative so that success can be described in advance and properly projected (Ružić & et. Al., 2017). Managers that recruit properly fit employees can able to create high performance sales organization.

Create perfect sales person profile: To recruit right persons for enhancing the performance, managers first need to clarify and describe the abilities and quality necessary for the sales role and for organizational culture. Sales manager can develop an apparent outline of abilities, experience and behaviors, the ideal sales person require having and accordingly developing job description and recruitment efforts through this.

Demonstrate the organization as employer of choice: High performing sales persons are selective while selecting the employer to work for. Therefore, the manager will require demonstrating the organization as employer of choice. Various methods can be utilized for enticing bets sales persons towards the organization. Such as, the manager can create a strong online presence as it is the first location where possible employees will look in order to know about the organization. Therefore, the organizational website requires looking professional and up to date (Uduji & Onwumere, 2013). The manager also requires ensuring that the offices appear a good place to work, where success is celebrated and where top performance is expected.

Use of attractive salary package to entice top employees: One of the secrets to recruit talented sales person is to develop proper salary package for them. This is particularly true in sales, where networking and relationship creation are much crucial for obtaining success. In order to capitalize on sales person’s individual network, it is important to make the job lucrative providing attractive salary package.

Creation of strong employer brand: In order to attract top performing employees, it is important to develop an employer brand. The reason is that high performing sales people are always interested to perform for industry leaders or high growth organizations that are dignified to lead the market. By focusing on the organizational reputation and resources, managers can develop a strong employer brand and obtain the attention of the talented sales people.

Training

Training is important activity for initial and constant development of sales people for enhancing their performance. Training enhances the knowledge base and skill level of sales person. It improves the learning so that sales persons can reach to an acceptable performance level in less time, rather than learning to direct work experience. Various changes have influenced the selling functions in present days. Nowadays, customers have much information, and the request for high level of services. Customers in present days also have high expectations. Besides, competition has also increased due to market globalization. Such environment necessitates new and enhanced skill from sales persons, which can only be obtained through proper training. In present day’s competitive environment, only knowledge regarding available products and services are insufficient for a sales person to achieve high performance. They require going beyond selling activities and must develop creating good relationships with the customers (Roman & et. Al., 2001). Salespersons require concentrating more on applying customer based approach, which implies solving customers’ issues and adding value to customers’ business through expanded period of time. Hence, training has become one of the most urgent activities of managers to enhance sales persons’ performance.

E-learning: In order to enhance the performance of sales persons, the managers can use e-learning. Training will help to boost their confidence while selling and confronting customers, particularly for the new recruits. With sufficient training they will be able to recognize exact customers’ concerns and comprehend the product or service details to position them as appropriate solution (Richardson, 2013). Through e-learning, managers can also monitor the progress of employees to certify that every person has observed the training materials.

Practical example: The managers require using practical examples while providing training to the employees. He can conduct role play in practical situations and implement practical example in the e-learning program in order to empower the sales persons. Real world example will help to make the experience memorable for every sales personnel.

Preserve training short but constant: Although training is essential for developing a high performing sales team, the fact is that sales persons typically unable to retain large information at one time. Therefore, long sales training is a waste of time as study reveals that about 50% of training components is forgotten within 5 weeks and less utilized in actual selling procedure. Furthermore, excessive training is harmful to the sales person’s natural talent. It can push other techniques over their individual capabilities, resulting to crushing their confidence (Napoletano, 2014). Therefore constant micro learning is effective in order to generate good habits within sales persons.

Motivation

Motivation of sales people also have strong impact on their activities and effort, which result in certain level of performance. Typically, sales managers require to design such control mechanism which direct the motivation procedure towards growing mutual well-being for both, the organization and sales person. There are two kinds of controls, sales managers can use in order to accomplish high performance, which are behavior based control and outcome based control. Outcome based control method focuses less on observing and supervising direction of sales people, and more on evaluating the results. Behavior oriented control signifies opposing thought, which concentrates on observation, high degree of supervisory direction, complex method of assessment and compensation of sales people (Lacmanović, 2006). There are various tactics, which can help to motivate sales people:

Setting objectives: It is important for the managers to provide the sales persons with an objective to reach. It should be realistic and achievable. Without objective, the salespersons will not know what to seek from them or what constitute good performance.

Generating trust: The basis of motivation is trust. If the sales persons have low faith on sales manager and do not believe him to have best interests at heart, it will be hard for them to feel motivated and determined by their activities. Therefore, to effectively motivate them, sales manager require generating trust for the sales persons. It is important to concentrate on having a supportive mindset (Patel, 2014). Furthermore, sales manager need to ensure that a conformable work atmosphere is developed, where the sales people feel respected and involved.

The results of unethical behavior and how to avoid it

Business ethics is one of the essential practices in an organization. Ethical sales behavior involves the behavior wherein salesperson communicate genuine message and keep the personal information of the customers confidential. On the other hand, unethical sales behavior is the behavior wherein salesperson gives misleading information to customers and sells those products which are not suitable for the customers (Durif & et. al., 2009).

Ethical sale behavior of the salesperson plays a crucial role in attracting the customer’s trust and loyalty. When the salesperson doesn’t apply ethics while selling products and services, it has direct impact on the satisfaction, trust and loyalty of the customers. The expectations of the customers regarding the products and services are dependent on the presentation and behavior of the salesperson and if salesperson behave in an unethical manner than customer’s buying behavior change instantly (Hazrati & et. al., 2012). The unethical behavior even dissatisfies the customers and doesn’t allow them to make transaction with the company. Moreover, the unethical behavior doesn’t even keep a long-lasting interest of customers towards the company. It is the salesperson who built trust of the customers towards the product and company. However, the unethical practices affect the perception of the customers towards the company. Hence, it can be stated that unethical behavior could destroy the mutual link and relationship in between buyer and seller and even result in the loss if the customers. It is thus essential be stated that salesperson should behavior in an effective manner with the customers and assess their needs.

Salesperson can behave in an ethical manner by respecting the views and perception of the customers and providing true information regarding the products and services. They should not engage in trickery or play with words and display wrong expertise to inspire the customers to buy. Moreover, there needs to be same respect for all the customers despite of their financial standards (Lin, 2012). Salesperson should also treat all the customers as human beings and must manage each of the individual as per the traits.

Conclusion

Sales are activities that concretize the effort of managers within the organization and directly impact on sales teams’ performance and organizational success. In present days fast changing and competitive business environment, sales team plays vital part in securing sales from the customers. Therefore, it is vital to encourage them to demonstrate high performance through various methods. The essay highlights that by organizing the sales force, recruiting right talents, giving them proper training and motivating them can have positive influence on their performance. In this context, the difficult position of sales manager require to be nurtured and approached carefully, as it will have broad impact on sales force. Sales manager undeniably requires to be supportive, conscious about the significance of his role in accomplishing sales persons’ satisfaction and, specifically, watchful in implementing proper control over them. Proper control methods supports to the usefulness of sales management if it is applied appropriately. They can help to control the activities and characteristics of sales people and instill ethical behaviors within them, which is beneficial for the sales team and the organization.

References

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