Managing Salespeople: : A Relationship Approach

Citation

Ritch, M.K. (1999), "Managing Salespeople: : A Relationship Approach", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 76-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbim.1999.14.1.76.1

When reviewing textbooks, there is always a search for offerings that have a practitioner as well as academic application, especially in the field of sales management where there has always been a perceived gulf between the classroom and the “real world”. At this point in the development of the sales management field with greater emphasis on relationships between salespeople and customers, a textbook that would permit a seasoned sales manager to pursue a self‐taught advancement and refresher course while providing students in the classroom with meaningful direction for their future professions would be extremely valuable. The concepts surrounding relationship selling have been around for some time and sales training in this area has been fairly well developed. The role of the sales manager in this process is not so clear and is still in a state of evolution. For this reason, a meaningful text exploring the sales manager’s role in building the relationship process that had strong practitioner application is sorely needed. The ideal text would be one geared at the graduate level where some knowledge of management principles is assumed (either through undergraduate training or practical experience). This would permit the writing style to be crisp and succinct, and the examples and case studies to have current validity while not being ponderous with unwarranted detail. For the text to be a good reference source, it should be free of the multitude of color pictures depicting obvious situations and insets describing points not relevant beyond the undergraduate level reader. The writing style should be informative and organized in such a manner as to make future searches for specific points easy and intuitive. The bottom line is that it should be free of the fluff that plagues so many business texts today and deliver current, up‐to‐date information and examples. With many undergraduate level texts, what you are supporting with your purchase price are all of the glitzy instructor support materials furnished “free” to the adopting organization. All of that is fine for the undergraduate student looking for a fair level of entertainment along with his or her education. For the serious graduate student or the practicing sales manager, the content between the covers is all that matters.

Managing Salespeople: A Relationship Approach seems to offer such qualities with its 18 chapters totaling 412 pages (excluding appendices) averaging only 22 pages per chapter. Many current sales management texts have anywhere from 16 chapters totaling 796 pages to 438 pages and 15 chapters. This work averages 22 pages per chapter compared to others possessing as many as 50 pages. The first five appendices (consisting of 82 pages) cover basic selling topics such as prospecting, planning the sales call, the presentation, closing the sale, and selling on the Internet. This information is placed in appendices so as not to clutter the hard‐hitting and impactful style of the chapters directly devoted to sales management topics. The reason for its existence at all (according to the authors) is to supplement marketing programs that do not offer a basic professional selling course in their discipline. The appendix permits an instructor to have an exposure vehicle for basic selling to enhance such a discipline. The 70 pages of the final appendix involve a total of eight exercises and case studies that have practical salesforce application as well as assisting students in their learning experience. Individuals involved with these exercises in the final appendix will be exposed to real‐world development tools that are often not experienced by salespeople or sales managers during the early phases of their careers. Personally, issues like in‐basket exercises and negotiation simulations did not cross my path for many years after beginning my sales management career. This appendix becomes a powerful seasoning tool for the uninitiated to better prepare them for future challenges. Compared to five other sales management texts examined, this work contained four chapters of materials not pursued with chapter level importance in the other offerings. They included International Sales Force Management, Automating the Sales Force, and Indirect Incentives; subjects of interest to any sales manager attempting to build a competitive sales organization. Additionally, each chapter contained no out‐of‐date information or examples that commonly plague subsequent editions from the same authors. All of the concepts and supporting examples were current, insightful, and had practical application. This is not just another sales management text. It is a work that will assist any current sales manager in updating skills by exposing them to tools and concepts that will keep them competitive and current in this ever‐changing field.

A review of one chapter, as an example of the style and content, revealed a meaningful treatment of Leadership and Supervision. Chapter 17 covered a total of 16 pages that included two case studies. Like all of the chapters, it began with an example of building relationships relevant to the subject of the chapter. In this case, 3M’s ACT training program was effectively reviewed. The example indicates that 3M started asking customers about its sales practices in 1993, departing from its previous position of simply searching for an indication of product quality. The example elaborates on how customer perceptions concerning the skills of their salespeople are gathered and analyzed. From this information, each salesperson is evaluated to determine gaps in their skills needed to fully satisfy customers. The three most significant gaps are then addressed with 3M’s internal classroom training programs or through “approved” self‐study courses, videocassettes, audiocassettes, or university training sessions. The information transfer is better assured since the salesperson understands that customer follow‐up will occur. This entire discussion on 3M’s example of developing better leadership capabilities consumed all of one page.

The core of the chapter starts with a one‐paragraph description of what is leadership followed by a review of leadership theories, including trait theory, behavioral theory, and contingency theory (further broken down into contingency leadership theory, path‐goal theory, and situational leadership theory). A box insert during this discussion outlines eight keys to leadership found in a 1993 Sales and Marketing Management article. This discussion also supplied two figures; the first illustrated the different leadership abilities required at different levels in the organization and the second depicted the two‐by‐two matrix of the Situational Leadership Model of Hersey and Blanchard fame. The figures were necessary for clarity and to reduce the need for extensive written discussion. This section concludes with a two‐paragraph discussion concerning the potential pitfalls of attribution error for those managers adopting a contingency leadership approach.

A two‐page discussion concerning leadership styles follows, briefly examining democratic versus autocratic, employee‐ versus production‐centered, and transactional versus transformational styles. This discussion begs the question as to when each leadership style should be applied. The result is a review of appropriate conditions for each complete with a figure that illustrates the interrelation of authority and empowerment for autocratic, persuader, consultative, democratic, and laissez‐faire styles. The value of management by objectives (MBO) specifically for sales managers is then developed, outlining how a sales manager would embrace MBO principles in leading an effective salesforce. The critical issue of finding and training tomorrow’s leaders is the concluding discussion of the chapter, complete with a box insert entitled, “The Search for Effective Leaders”, adapted from Tom Benford’s article in a 1992 issue of Sales and Marketing Management.

Each chapter concludes with a concise summary of main issues developed, followed by a list of key terms discussed. These will be of significant assistance in using this work as a reference source for practitioners in subsequent referrals. Following a few review and discussion questions (primarily for classroom use), each chapter concludes with two case studies and two questions for each case. The cases are crisp, focussed on issues directly related to the chapter and provide the reader with a verification of understanding.

The level of detail for each point discussed is relatively brief, but in sufficient enumeration to provide a clear understanding of the principles involved. This work is free of the cumbersome nature of some efforts that have progressed to the nth edition. It seems that many texts simply keep adding materials but rarely cut outdated concepts, exercises, and examples. The end result often becomes a morass of materials that cloud a reader’s understanding of the subject. This work is void of such problems and delivers a current view of the sales management field that embraces historically sound concepts while introducing new cutting‐edge approaches with current examples. This mix makes each page deliver meaningful material, free from extraneous filler often designed to increase the size of the final offering. It is obvious that Robert Hite and Wesley Johnston know what they are talking about and go about delivering that knowledge in an effective way with Managing Salespeople: A Relationship Approach.