Sales Force Management: Customer Relations and Strategies Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of sales force management, covering key aspects such as customer relationship management (CRM), sales strategies, and salesperson performance. It begins by highlighting the benefits of effective customer relations and explores various working methods and technological tools used to maintain and improve customer interactions. The report then delves into the personal characteristics that motivate salespeople, analyzes the components of a salesperson's performance model, and evaluates cultural forces influencing performance. Furthermore, it identifies and evaluates sales force strategies, addresses internal and external environmental factors in sales planning, and examines the use of financial and non-financial information for resource allocation. Finally, the report analyzes the impact of sales forecasting on sales targets and outlines a plan for resource utilization to meet sales goals. The report aims to provide insights into the effective management of a sales force, ultimately driving sales growth and profitability.

MANAGEMENT OF SALES
FORCE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.......................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Recognize the benefits of managing customer relations in an excellent manner..................3
1.2 Various working methods and practices to maintain customer relation in an organization..4
1.3 Use of technological forces for improving sales force management practices......................5
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Identifies personal characteristics on motivation salesperson.................................................6
2.2 Analysis of the components of performance of salesperson model........................................7
2.3. Critical evaluation of the cultural forces that affects the salesperson performance.............9
2.4 Critical evaluation of the criteria through which best salesperson gets selected for
targeting international market..............................................................................................................9
TASK 3.....................................................................................................................................................10
3.1 Identify and evaluate sales force strategies or steps about implementing sales force task.
...............................................................................................................................................................10
3.2 Analyze how to deal with external and internal environment in sales forces planning.......11
3.3 Use financial and non-financial information to analyze the requirement of resources........12
3.4 Analyze the impact of sales forecasting on sales targets.......................................................13
3.5 Make a plan for the use of resources for meeting the sales target.......................................14
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Sales force management refer as process of developing sales team which
coordinates sales operations and also implement various sales techniques which allows
a organization to consistently surpass its desired sales targets. It is crucial for an
organization if they want to increase their sales and want to achieve higher profitability.
The report will define the significance of customer relationship management. It will
evaluate different types of working practices and methods in order to maintain customer
relationship in the business.
Furthermore, the study will do critical evaluation of salesperson performance and
will identify the characteristics which are needed for sales person motivation. It will
critical analysis salesperson performance model. The report will moreover identify sales
force strategies for implement and plan sales force tasks. It will identify external and
internal environment of sales force planning. It will define the use of non financial and
financial information for accessing the resource requirements scope. Lastly, it will plan
the use of resources for meeting sales target.
TASK 1
1.1 Recognize the benefits of managing customer relations in an excellent manner
Customer relationship management refers as a strategy which is helpful for
managing the customer’s interaction. The goal of CRM is to improve customer services
and assist the customer relation for driving the growth of sales.
Benefits of customer relations are as follows -
Enhance customer service better - This provides organization with numerous
advantages and strategies. It provides a capability to business to remain in touch with
their customers as per the Hastings, Hortaçsu & Syverson, (2017). It improves the
understanding responsiveness among the organization employees that helps to provide
a better customers service.

New customer engagement - CRM is useful for identifying new and potential
customers. As these CRM systems keep track record of existing clientele profile which
can be use for determining the people who can be target for maximizing clientele
returns. New customers can be a indication for the firm's future growth.
Helps the sales force in closing faster deals - CRM system in a business helps to
close deals faster by facilitating efficient and quicker responses to consumers’
information and leads. Customers get convinced for turning around their purchase
inquiries once they respond to promptly. Businesses who have implemented CRM have
observed that turnaround time gets decreased.
Enhance loyalty of customers - Customer relation are helpful for increasing the sales
of the company's product. It helps to improve the customer loyalty in the firm determined
by Sharma, Rangarajan & Paesbrugghe, (2020). This helps to build a good image
among the customers. Satisfied customers lead to facilitate a positive working
environment in the organization.
Simplifies marketing and sales processes - CRM system facilitate the firm for the
development of effective and better communication channels. Technological integration
such as interactive voice systems and websites make the work easier for the
salespeople. This strategy is helpful for responding customer’s feedback.
1.2 Various working methods and practices to maintain customer relation in an
organization
It is crucial thing in marketing and sales to retain and attract the potential
business customers. Various working practices and methods for maintaining customer
relationship are as follows -
Listening to the customers - it is a best way to manage a good relationship with the
customers. It is essential for a business to listen the customer’s queries and problems.
Once the sales and marketing team are able to identify the customer’s queries they
provide various measures to resolve it. Thus, through this customer satisfaction in the
organization gets increased. For listen the customers concern, feedback or issue the

business organization can engage with them through social media network. By this aids
can reach out to consumers if they have any issues or problems.
Efficient call centers - Target the customers through CRM software’s is much more
easier as the employees and sales team have access for ordering the customers
histories and details. This software’s are helpful for the organization employees and
workforce to know about the customers deals that is dependent upon previous records
and archives determined by Ferreira, (2017).
Be genuine to business customers - If the business workforce remains genuine with
the customers than this will build a good customer relationship for long term. Generally
the company should not make any promises which they can't keep. Thus, it is very
important to remain honest with the customers and give them correct advice related to
the product or issue.
Measurement of customer satisfaction - It is important to measure customer
satisfaction levels in the business. This is essential for the organization to ensure that
they are meeting the needs of the customers. This provides a suggestions and ideas
where the business can make improvement. The organization can implement the
customer satisfaction policy which can give a way through which issues and problems
get resolved.
Engaging and creating the company's brand ambassadors - For a new business or
startups there is a need to grow a community which is one of the marketing efforts and
which involves engaging a community or to create a group of brand ambassadors.
Customers can get engaged in product development through focus groups, pilots and
via beta tests.
1.3 Use of technological forces for improving sales force management practices
Four types of main leading vendors systems are Microsoft, salesforce, Oracle A
and SAP. The system facilitates the development of effective and better communication
channels.

 Technological integrations such as interactive voice response system and
website are helpful for making the work comfortable for representatives and
salesperson with the business organization (Good & Calantone, 2019).
 Sales management systems refer as information systems that are used in
customer relationship management which helps to automate sales force
management function. This system is combined with information system of
marketing..
 Artificial intelligence - The information technologies like Sales force Einstein is
being build into customer relationship management platform for automotive the
repetitive tasks and work and also for identifying the customers buying patterns
for practicing the future behavior of customers.
 The organization can also consider the Cloud CRM as an effective option. It is
also cost effective. The Sales force charges from the users and can offer the
opportunity of yearly or monthly payments on the subscription basis.
 The information and data can get stored through Cloud based CRM. The system
contains remote network through which the employees or workforce can access
anywhere of anytime.
 The organizations are now using OroCRM, SugarCRM and SuiteCRM which
offers alternative for proprietary platforms through Microsoft, sales force and
vendors.
 Salesperson is referring as vital member of a business whose responsibilities
and duties is to sale the goods and services to the customers or clients.
TASK 2
2.1 Identifies personal characteristics on motivation salesperson
The salesperson should have depth knowledge of product and its features so
that sales of the product can do in effective manner. This characteristic potentially
impacts the business of the firm. Motivation is the factor that helps the salesperson to
keep the flow of sales. Hence, various characteristics for a salesperson motivation are
as follows -

Empathy - The selling involves questions, concerns and objectives. The salesperson
should be empathic towards its customers and for adjusting their approach and
presentation (Qualities that properly motivates the salespeople, 2016.). Salesperson
confidence is crucial to understand the needs of the customers and sale them
appropriately while providing them effective solutions, this is essential for the internal
motivation as it is starting place for building the connections.
Ego drive - It is a quality which makes a salesperson needs and wants for making the
sale in their personal way. They ego's is enhancing by persuading others. This is done
on frequent basis in face to face conversation or situation. Persuading is termed as ego
driven sales representatives. However, it is not achieve only through ego drive but by
making a balance between empathy and other essential factors.
Resilience - It is needed for beating the rejection. As while making sales the
salesperson attempts to persuade the customers and more often get rejected than
accepted. Thus, the salesperson should be resilience they need to view rejection in
positive manner and need to get lesson from the failures. They need to look for the next
opportunities rather than crying over the failure of not making the sales.
Trust - It is a like a heart for any meaningful bond or relationship between the
customers and salesperson. It is about the knowing the customers interest and come up
with the products which meets those interests. The trust is helpful for allowing
customers to open up the opportunities which they consider for themselves.
Decision Making - It is crucial for a salesperson to become a effective decision maker.
The decision making is done in logical order as the act of purchasing is a series of
decisions. The salesperson should know how to deal with the customers in each stage
and make the sales happen.
2.2 Analysis of the components of performance of salesperson model
Salesperson performance model
Role Perceptions

Perceived role conflict - It arise when demands role of partners are taken or perceived
as incomplete and incompatible.
Perceived role of ambiguity - It occurs that time when useful and necessary
information or data for performing the role is not perceived and not available.
Role inaccuracy - It is a degree to which the demands perceptions are not accurate. It
might create dissatisfaction in the mind of sales person. It affects the motivation. In
some case it enables the salespeople to make creative decisions which are benefited.
Salespeople Aptitude
The behavior, characteristics and attitude pertain the salesperson is sum up of all the
resultant performance. Sales aptitude is function of physical and aptitude factors such
as age, verbal intelligence, attractiveness and sales expertise. It also includes the
personal characteristics of the sales person that are empathy and sociability.
Sales Skills levels
It is the salesperson learned proficiency which is crucial for performing tasks. It includes
interpersonal skills, technical knowledge, and leadership and presentation skills. The
following skills are needed -
 The Salesperson should be able to identify the sales opportunities stated by
Good & Calantone, (2019).
 They should be able to apply the knowledge of business customers.
 Establish a proposition value which results in the higher sales
 The salespeople should be able to understand the business challenges which
are faced by the organization in the market.
Satisfaction
Job satisfaction comes when the salespeople gets reward for what they have
achieved. The satisfaction is of two types Extrinsic and Intrinsic.

 Extrinsic rewards - It is related to the pay of the salesperson. The manager
timely provides financial incentives to uplift the salesperson confidence and
motivation level Cron, (2017). They recognized the salesperson efforts through
which they feels appreciated and encouraged. The salesperson that works with
full dedication and has achieved something great gets promoted in the
organization.
 Intrinsic rewards - These are the things which the salespeople attained for
themselves. This is the feeling of accomplishment, valuing their self worth and
grabbing the personal growth opportunities.
2.3. Critical evaluation of the cultural forces that affects the salesperson performance
According to Madhani, (2018), Cultural Forces affects the performance
salesperson. The salespeople should have imbibed knowledge, skills and experience of
having cross cultural theme sales. The customer’s choices and preferences may differ
in accordance with their knowledge, taste and culture. Salespeople need to suggest
best product to the customers which is related to the culture which they belongs.
The salespeople who are operating in international companies have to cope up
with the diverse culture of the customers. They need to access the customer’s needs
and preferences as per their culture and diversity. They also need to have good
communication skills and knowledge of international language. This will help to increase
the connectivity with the global customers and also helps to increase the sales of
company's product in international market.
2.4 Critical evaluation of the criteria through which best salesperson gets selected for
targeting international market
According to Reid, Plank & Rich, (2017), Salesperson criteria depend upon what
the organization is looking for in their salesperson. It includes specific habits, skills,
motivations and strengths that best suit the organization. Ideal Salesperson criteria will
be as follows -
Attracting the top salespeople - The organizations creates advertisement that best
describes the salesperson need: it includes experience, knowledge and

accomplishment which is required by the companies Li, Evans, & Echague, (2016). In
this the organizations offers the pay scale to the salesperson who is suitable for the firm
or organization.
Assessment of the candidates - Potential and top performing salesperson can be
screened out. The good assessment saves the time and also delivers the qualified
candidates for the firm. The predictive and validated assessment is essential for getting
more sales and also helps to gets hired for the best category.
Qualify - The organizations can conduct the interview through phone or can make a
brief if it is possible otherwise the interview will be helpful for qualifying the right
salespeople for the vacant job role.
Full interview - It is compulsory to take personal interview for identifying and evaluating
the candidate knowledge and for the confirmation that they are truly capable and
qualified to fit for the salesperson criteria in the company.
Persuade - After the decision for appointing the salesperson took place then create
opportunities for selling the important role, potential rewards and on organizational
leadership.
On boarding - For this the organizations need to prepare a comprehensive plan for the
newly recruited salesperson for the first ninety days. As per the Bessler, Echague &
Punera, (2018), Organizations need to reach beyond the training for products and
organizational orientation. They have to developed quick start plan which includes sales
training, accountability, goal setting and coaching.
TASK 3
3.1 Identify and evaluate sales force strategies or steps about implementing sales force
task.
 Find an executive sponsor - The executive sponsor can influence the project by
becoming its champion. Having that person’s full support and participation will be
helpful for the company.

 Have a defined process - Clearly define each CRM process before developing a
solution, such as lead flow, customer acquisition planning and campaign set up.
This is Scope of each part of Work.
 Create a timeline - As part of your SOW and workflow, include the timeline.
Include major milestones such as the project start date, estimated database
switch date, and sales force go live date.
 Determine the key players - Talk with key users within your organization for
better understanding of their needs, business processes, and expectations from
your new system Spencer & Egenberger (2016).
 Share your plan with end users, including customers - The end users of sales
force are the ones who will ultimately make a CRM initiative successful. They will
use the system every day, so share your scope of Work and workflow with them.
 Take ownership of the data - Clearly define data maintenance responsibilities on
the earliest. Business data needs someone to be held accountable for its
maintenance.
 Roll it out in phases - When you launch sales force, do it in stages. Employees
may be resistant to big change, so focus on one piece of that data.
 Have a post-implementation plan - Once your users are in sales force, you want
to keep them there. That’s why inspiring CRM adoption is so important. Your post
implementation plan should not just be about the technology.
3.2 Analyze how to deal with external and internal environment in sales forces planning.
Sales force uses the shared responsibility model for data privacy and security.
With respect to regulated data such as Protected Health Information (PHI) and
Personally Identifiable Information (PII), sales force acts as the data processor; sales
force is responsible for providing sufficient physical and technical security measures
while sales force is also accountable for the integrity, quality, and usage of the data, as
well as the types of data being stored.
Borodow, Yahmadi & Borodow, (2019), Sales force’s Government Cloud, which
includes Force.com, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Analytics Cloud and Chatter are also
FEDRAMP compliant. In general, sales force contracts include clauses that prohibit

sales force from accessing customer accounts or releasing customer data stored in their
platform.
Sales force is a multi-tenant platform. This means it uses a single collection of
cloud computing resources to provide its services to several tenants. This can raise
security concerns around customers accidentally accessing data stored in another
customer’s sales force instance. Sales force solves this by giving each company a
unique identifier, which then gets associated to each session that is started by a user
within a company.
One of the most helpful tools of a sales force administrator is the sales force
Health Check. This feature provides security score for certain sales force settings
compared to a sales force recommended baseline settings, allowing administrators to
understand how robust their configuration is from a security standpoint.
3.3 Use financial and non-financial information to analyze the requirement of resources.
Financial Information
 Revenue Growth rate - Building an impressive body of research on issues of
nonprofit revenue choice and mix, this research hardly tests Foster and Fine’s
claim that revenue concentration contributes to the growth of nonprofit
organizations. Using National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) digitized
data, the authors test whether revenue concentration is a vital revenue
generating element or not.
 Human Capital – Resource - Kovach, Atasu & Banerjee, (2018), based theory
emphasizes the importance of human capital as a source of sustained
competitive advantage. Nowadays, there is an increased interest in achieving a
better understanding of the micro- foundations of strategic capabilities based on
human capital. Heterogeneous human capital is often a key element underlying
mechanism for strategic capabilities.
 Employee Engagement - Time varying job and personal resources motivate
employee’s state of work engagement and subsequently have an influence on
the organization's financial performance.

Non-financial information
 Pantouvakis and Bouranta developed a theoretical framework and conducted an
empirical study for various service sectors to analyze the inter‐relationships
between organizational learning culture, employee job satisfaction and their
effect on customer satisfaction.
 The facilitating role of employee job satisfaction on the relationship between
organizational learning culture and customer satisfaction is well researched.
 As a non-financial performance indicator, customer satisfaction is directly
proportional to the employee education level and is indirectly influenced by the
organizational learning culture.
 When the employees are supported by their organization's culture, they are
obtaining new knowledge and skill sets, along with achieving job satisfaction.
This is to influence them to deliver their job with high quality which results in the
better customer care and support.
3.4 Analyze the impact of sales forecasting on sales targets.
The use of sales forecasting is to predict business performance in the coming
quarters. It is a helpful tool for budgeting and setting expectations for the C-Suite. An
accurate sales forecast allows a company to gauge the interest in their products (Sales
Forecasting, 2020). Increased sales mean a higher demand for their products and this
directly impact the sales targets, it helps companies according to the plan their supply
must meet the increased demand.
It helps CFO's to plan the financial growth of the company. With a real sales
forecast, it allows them to accurately budget the coming months and year. Forecasting
helps public companies when setting projections for the next quarter and by this the end
result will be more profitable and will be achieved with effectiveness Balboni & Terho,
(2016).
Meeting the predefined goal from the start of the quarter can have a positive
impact on stock prices and investor perceptions which positively impacts the end result.
Also, failing to meet the forecasted goal can significantly hurt stock prices.

Sales forecasting helps marketers also as If the forecast shows a coming drop in
sales, marketers can adapt by creating promotions that change this drop and will make
it more favorable for their business.
3.5 Make a plan for the use of resources for meeting the sales target.
To plan the resources for meeting the sales target, the major plan of sales control
systems along with interactive effects and associated intervening mechanisms must be
considered. These types of plans must be based on job demands resources theory
which focuses on differential interactive effects of end result control, activity control, and
capability control on job engagement.
The plan must be as follows -
 Outcome control and capability control must have maximum interactive effects on
adaptive selling effort and selling behavior. It must understand the conflicts in the
organization.
 Incorporate activity control and capability control must be considered and the
effect of role ambiguity also determined by Johnston & Marshall, (2016). The
plan must evaluate outcome control and activity control which have a positive
interactive effect on selling effort, also a negative interactive effect on role clarity
and adaptive selling behavior.
 The functional areas such as marketing, sales, finance, and operations
conventionally specialize in fragments of the planning activities, which results in
conflicts over preferences, expectations and priorities.
 Contradictory to conventional studies on this area, which focuses on
responsibilities, incentives and structures, as a process perspective and its
integration can be achieved regardless of formal functional incentives.
 Organizations are able to incorporate if functions retain different incentives and
orientations to maintain a focus on their customer needs.
 The planning process must integrate planning performance, procedural,
information and alignment along with social elements that contribute the
performance of the planning process and place the information processing
parameters of the organization.

CONCLUSION
It has been concluded that customer relationship management includes the
practices, strategies and technology that help a firm to manage and analyze customer
data and interaction. It has been summarized that CRM provides various ways through
which customers can easily communicate with the sales representatives. It has been
determined that the sales force management system provides real time access to
customer and competitive information through which the business organization can
identify its competitors or parents for the given project. It has been concluded that
personal characteristics define the salesperson dealing with its customers. It has been
evaluated that there are certain exceptions to sales force contracts, including when
sales force performs technical updates to fix service problems, or when legally
compelled to share data with law enforcement.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Balboni, B., & Terho, H. (2016). Outward-looking and future-oriented customer value
potential management: The sales force value appropriation role. Industrial
Marketing Management. 53. 181-193.
Bessler, S., Echague, P. & Punera, K. (2018). U.S. Patent No. 9,898,743. Washington,
DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Borodow, E., Yahmadi, I. & Borodow, A. (2019). U.S. Patent No. 10,181,106.
Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Cron, W. L. (2017). Macro sales force research. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales
Management.37(3).88-197.
Ferreira, T. S. (2017). Motivational factors in sales team management and their
influence on individual performance. Tourism & Management Studies.13(1). 60-
65.
Good, V., & Calantone, R. J. (2019). When to outsource the sales force for new
products. Industrial Marketing Management.82.106-116.
Hastings, J., Hortaçsu, A., & Syverson, C. (2017). Sales force and competition in
financial product markets: the case of Mexico's social security
privatization. Econometrica.85(6).1723-1761.
Johnston, M. W., & Marshall, G. W. (2016). Sales force management: Leadership,
innovation, technology. Routledge.
Kovach, J. J., Atasu, A., & Banerjee, S. (2018). Salesforce incentives and
remanufacturing. Production and Operations Management.27(3).516-530.
Li, J., Evans, A. & Echague, P. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 9,247,051. Washington, DC:
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Madhani, P. M. (2018). Effective salesforce management practices: A real option
approach. IUP Journal of Business Strategy.15(1).7-24.
Reid, D. A., Plank, R. E. & Rich, G. A. (2017). Examining the use of sales force
management practices. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
Sharma, A., Rangarajan, D., & Paesbrugghe, B. (2020). Increasing resilience by
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Online
Sales Forecasting, 2020. . [Online]. Available through :<
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/sales-forecasting-66304.html>
Qualities that properly motivates the salespeople, 2016. [Online]. Available through :<
https://www.customerexperienceinsight.com/7qualitiesproperlymotivatedsalespeo
plehave/#:~:text=Here%20are%20the%20traits%20that,Empathy.&text=A
%20salesperson's%20confidence%20that%20he,the%20starting%20place
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