Page 280 - DMGT408DMGT203_Marketing Management

Unit 12: Sales Management

Introduction Notes

All organizations have to sell something or the other for their survival and growth. It may be a
product (shampoo, steel and toothpaste), service (airline, insurance), idea (patriotism), concept
(family planning), destination (India, Brazil) and person (politician). Robert Louis Stevenson
said “everybody is surviving on selling something to someone.” Salesmen are called by various
names. They are called as sales man or sales woman, sales representatives, sales executives,
customer care executives.
Most companies structure their sales force based on geography, customers, products or a
combination of these factors. For a company marketing just a single product category and
selling to different scattered customers in one industry, a territory-based structure would be
suitable. If a company manufactures several different product categories and sells to different
types of customers, it might find a customer type based sales force. The sales manager of today
uses professional and scientific procedures to plan and implement a sales management program.
In this unit, you will be introduced to the fundamental aspects of sales management and the
selling process.
12.1 Functions of Sales Organisation

Organisation means the systematic coordination of the functions essential to achieving
organisational objectives. The objective of a sales organisation, therefore, is the performance of
various activities necessary to promote sales. The functions of sales organisation can be classified
as follows:

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Caution
1. Planning functions
(a) Sales forecasting
(b) Sales budgeting
(c) Selling policy
2. Administrative functions
(a) Selecting salesmen
(b) Training of salesmen
(c) Control of salesmen

(d) Remuneration of salesmen
3. Executive functions
(a) Sales promotion
(b) Selling routine—execution of customers’ orders.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:
1. Selection and training of salesmen is one of the administrative functions of sales managers.
2. Deciding the compensation for the salesmen is one of the executive functions of the sales
managers.

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