Benchmarks of Successful Salesforce Performance

Abstract Activities that enhance salesforce performance are examined. Effective salesforces are more adaptive in selling, handle customer complaints better, and generate higher market shares and profits, especially by selling new products. There are no differences between the two groups in terms of their selling capabilities. However; more effective salespeople get a higher sense of accomplishment from their work and are more willing to take risks. Resume Le present article etudie les activites qui augmentent la performance des representants. Les representants efficaces sont adaptifs a la vente, traitent soigneusement les plaintes des clients et gene rent des parts de marche et des profits elevis, en particulier en vendant de nouveaux produits. Il n'existe aucune difference entre les deux groupes en termes de capacite de vente. Cependant, les bons representants ont un grand sens de la reussite dans leur travail et sont prets a prendre des risques. Competitive pressures in the global economy have gone beyond producing significant savings in production costs to evaluation of the contribution of the marketing function and its costs. Within the marketing department, sales managers are facing increasing scrutiny in obtaining additional resources to manage their salesforce. In today's competitive environment, managers must justify every investment in terms of opportunity costs and "understand the return on salesforce investment" (Lilien, Rangaswamy, & Matanovich, 1998, p. 40). Faced with the necessity of improving the effectiveness of their salesforce, managers have become aware of the need to apply new technologies to improve salesforce productivity (Swenson & Adilson, 1992). Managers' efforts have included better account management practices and lead generation attempts, computer-assisted sales programs, telemarketing, and systems contracts (Hise & Reid, 1994). Pruning of suppliers by many customers, the threat of global sourcing, and slow economic growth have fuelled the interest of researchers to investigate the determinants of better performance in salesforce management (Babakus, Cravens, Grant, Ingram, & LaForge, 1994; Hise & Reid, 1994). Management of the salesforce is a crucial area in many firms, both because of the number of people employed and the amount of funding required to maintain a salesforce. For many firms, personal selling is the key to marketing strategy implementation (Lilien et al., 1998). In some firms, personal selling expenditures may be as much as 15% of their sales and may be greater than total advertising costs (O'Connell & Keenan, 1990). The average cost of a sales call in Canada is estimated to be around $170, with a range from a low of $50 to a high of $370 per call for customer specialists in technology-intensive firms (Barker & Levanoni, 1998). If sales management is to become more competitive, management practices that improve its effectiveness must be identified and performance hurdles must be eliminated. Otherwise, even competent salespeople will not be able to perform well (Babakus et al., 1994). Cravens, Grant, Ingram, LaForge, and Young (1992) stated that there was no known research that "considers the sales management practices used in organizations that display high levels of effectiveness" up until that point (p. 25). Attempts to identify management practices that contribute to salesforce effectiveness in Canada are useful because they can contribute to a new and growing stream of research on the performance of salespeople (Challagalla & Shervani, 1996; Cravens, Ingram, LaForge, & Young, 1993; Darmon, 1993; Ganesan, Weitz, & John, 1993; Grant & Cravens, 1996; Oliver & Anderson, 1994; Piercy, Cravens, & Morgan, 1997). Salesforce Performance Until recently, relatively little attention has been paid in the salesforce management literature to the factors that enhance the performance of salespeople. …