Managing the Sales Team

Abstract

As the importance of managing relationships with customers has increased, organisations have had to pay particular attention to the productivity of one of their scarcest and most expensive resources: the group of individuals who have the greatest amount of direct contact with customers, otherwise known as the sales force. The standard measures of sales force productivity have traditionally included call rates; revenue targets; volume targets, and an increased client base. In more enlightened organisations, results-oriented sales managers have come to recognise that other objectives and productivity yardsticks are also required. In addition, this has led to the understanding that organisations also have to address issues of motivation and training to complement this expanded set of requirements.