Sales Force Management: Integrating Research Advances

Sales and Marketing Management, “Survey of Selling Costs” (26 February 1979), p. 57.

Walker Orville C. Jr. Churchill Gilbert A. Jr. Ford Neil M. , “Motivation and Performance in Industrial Selling: Present Knowledge and Needed Research,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 14 (May 1977), pp. 156–168.

Montgomery David B. Urban Glen L. , Management Science in Marketing (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969); Davis Kenneth R. Webster Frederick E. Jr. , Sales Force Management (New York: Ronald Press Company, 1968).

Lilien Gary L. , “ADVISOR 2: Modeling the Marketing Mix Decision for Industrial Products,” Management Science, Vol. 25 (February 1979), pp. 191–204.

Buzzell Robert D. Farris Paul W. , “Industrial Marketing Costs: An Analysis of Variations in Manufacturers' Marketing Expenditures,” Report Number 76–118 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Marketing Science Institute, 1976).

Glaze Thomas A. Weinberg Charles B. , “A Sales Territory Alignment Program and Account Planning System,” in Bagozzi Richard (ed.), Sales Management: New Developments from Behavioral and Decision Model Research (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Marketing Science Institute, 1979); Hess Sidney W. Samuels Stuart A. , “Experiences with a Sales Districting Model: Criteria and Implementation,” Management Science, Part II, Vol. 18 (December 1971), pp. 41–54; Lodish Leonard , “‘Vaguely Right’ Approach to Sales Force Allocation,” Harvard Business Review, Vol. 52 (January–February 1974), pp. 119–124; Shanker Roy J. Turner Ronald E. Zoltners Andris A. , “Sales Territory Design: An Integrated Approach,” Management Science, Vol. 22 (November 1975), pp. 309–320.

Zoltners Andris A. Gardner Kathy S. , “A Review of Salesforce Decision Models,” unpublished working paper (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University, 1980).

Mitchell Terence R. , People in Organizations: Understanding Their Behavior (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978).

Davis Robert T. , “Sales Management in the Field,” Harvard Business Review, Vol. 36 (January–February 1958), pp. 91–98; idem, “A Sales Manager in Action,” in Boyd H. W. Jr. Davis R.T. (eds.), Readings in Sales Management (Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, 1970); Livingston J.S. , “Pygmalion in Management,” Harvard Business Review, Vol. 47 (July–August 1969), pp. 81–89.

Bagozzi Richard P. , “Towards a General Theory for the Explanation of the Performance of Salespeople,” unpublished doctoral dissertation (Northwestern University, 1976); Ryans Adrian B. Weinberg Charles B. , “Sales Territory Response,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 16 (November 1979), pp. 453–465; Walker Churchill Ford , op. cit.

Researchers attempting to estimate the effect of exogenous and situational factors on outcomes such as performance or job satisfaction must be concerned about whether the implemented sales force organization, policies, and procedures have suppressed the effects of interest. If the sales force's management has a policy of assigning territories of equal potential, then it would make little sense to include this variable in a research study designed to relate territory sales performance to territory characteristics. However, it would be incorrect to assume that territory potential has no effect on sales performance.

Walker Orville C. Jr. Churchill Gilbert A. Jr. Ford Neil M. , “Where Do We Go From Here?—Selected Conceptual and Empirical Issues Concerning the Motivation arid Performance of the Industrial Sales Force,” paper presented at the American Institute for Decision Sciences, St. Louis (1978), p. 4.

Mitchell , op. cit.

Ryans Adrian B. Weinberg Charles B. , “Managerial Implications of Models of Territory Sales Response,” in Beckwith Neil (eds.), 1979 Educators' Conference Proceedings (Chicago, Illinois: American Marketing Association, 1979), pp. 426–430; Ryans Weinberg , op. cit.

This is similar to the conceptualization used by Hackman J. Richard Morris Charles G. in their discussion of the performance of task groups. See Hackman J. Richard Morris Charles G. , “Group Tasks, Group Interaction Process, and Group Performance Effectiveness,” in Berkowitz L. (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 7 (New York: Academic Press, 1975).

Walker Churchill Ford , “Motivation and Performance.”

Ibid., p. 162.

Mitchell , op. cit.

Bagozzi , op. cit.

Herzberg Frederick Mausner Bernard Snyderman Barbara B. , The Motivation to Work (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1975).

Walker Churchill Ford , “Motivation and Performance.”

Walker Churchill Ford , “Where Do We Go?”

McClelland David , the originator of the need-for-achievement theory, has reported some success in increasing the level of need for achievement in adults through training. See McClelland David C. , The Achieving Society (Princeton, New Jersey: Van Nostrand, 1961).

Tybout Alice M. , “The Relative Effectiveness of Three Behavioral Influence Strategies as Supplements to Persuasion in a Marketing Context,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 15 (May 1978), pp. 229–242; Varella Jacob A. , Psychological Solutions to Social Problems (New York: Academic Press, 1971).

DeJong William , “An Examination of Self-Perception Mediation of the Foot-in-the-Door Effect,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 37 (December 1979), pp. 2221–2239; Yalch Richard F. , “Closing Sales: Compliance-Gaining Strategies for Personal Selling,” in Bagozzi (ed.), op. cit. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Marketing Science Institute, 1979).

Yalch , op. cit., p. 197.

Foss Robert D. Dempsey Carolyn B. , “Blood Donation and the Foot-in-the-Door Technique: A Limiting Case,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 37 (1979), pp. 580–590; Yalch , op. cit.

Walker Churchill Ford , “Motivation and Performance.”

Lodish Leonard , “CALLPLAN: An Interactive Salesman's Call Planning System,” Management Science, Part II, Vol. 18 (December 1971), pp. 25–40.

Fudge William K. Lodish Leonard M. , “Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Model Based Salesman's Call Planning System by Field Experimentation,” Interfaces, Part II, Vol. 8 (November 1977), pp. 97–106.

Walker Churchill Ford , “Motivation and Performance,” and “Where Do We Go?”

Churchill Gilbert A. Jr. Ford Neil M. Walker Orville C. Jr. , “Organizational Climate and Job Satisfaction in the Salesforce,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 13 (November 1976), pp. 323–332; and Bagozzi , op. cit.

Walker Orville C. Jr. Churchill Gilbert A. Ford Neil M. , “Organizational Determinants of the Industrial Salesman's Role Conflict and Ambiguity,” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 (January 1975), pp. 32–39.

Weitz Barton A. , “Relationship Between Salesperson Performance and Understanding of Customer Decision-Making,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 15 (November 1978), pp. 501–516.

Evans Franklin , “Selling as a Dyadic Relationship—A New Approach,” American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 6 (May 1963), pp. 76–79; Gadel M.S. , “Concentration by Salesmen on Congenial Prospects,” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 28 (January 1964), pp. 64–66.

Capon Noel Holbrook Morris B. Hubert James M. , “Selling Processes and Buying Behavior: Theoretical Implications of Recent Research,” in Woodside Arch G. Sheth Jagdish N. Bennett Peter D. (eds.), Consumer and Industrial Buying Behavior (New York: Elsevier North-Holland, 1977), pp. 323–332.

Brock Timothy C. , “Communicator-Recipient Similarity and Decision Change,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 1 (June 1965), pp. 650–654; Busch Paul Wilson David T. , “An Experimental Analysis of a Salesman's Expent and Referent Bases of Social Power in the Buyer-Seller Dyad,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 13 (February 1976), pp. 3–11.

Bagozzi Richard P. , “Salesperson Performance and Satisfaction as a Function of Individual Difference, Interpersonal, and Situational Factors,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 15 (November 1978), pp. 517–531; idem, “Performance and Satisfaction in an Industrial Sales Force: An Examination of their Antecedents and Simultaneity,” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 44 (Spring 1980), pp. 65–77. The omission of territory potential from the Bagozzi 1980 model is surprising given the highly significant correlation between it and both performance and job satisfaction in his earlier paper. The framework proposed here emphasizes the need to include relevant precursors.

Locke Edwin A. , “The Nature and Causes of Job Satisfaction,” in Dunnette M.D. (ed.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Chicago, Illinois: Rand McNally, 1976), pp. 1297–1349.

Williamson Oliver E. , Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications (New York: The Free Press, 1975).

However, considerable theoretical attention has been devoted to the design of optimal compensation systems under assumptions about the salesperson's objective function and constraints under which the salesperson operates. See Farley John U. , “Optimal Plan for Salesmen's Compensation,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 1 (May 1964), pp. 39–43; Srinivasan Venkataraman , “The Non-Optimality of Equal Commission Rates in Multi-Product Sales Force Compensation Schemes,” Working Paper No. 529 (Stanford, California: Graduate School of Business, 1979); and Weinberg Charles B. , “Jointly Optimal Sales Commissions for Non-Income Maximizing Sales Force,” Management Science, Vol. 24 (August 1978), pp. 1252–1258.

Territory sales response models could be used in some situations to increase the statistical precision of the experiment.

Darmon Rene Y. , “Salesmen's Response to Financial Incentives: An Empirical Study,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 11 (November 1974), pp. 418–426.

Walker Churchill Ford , “Motivation and Performance,” and “Where Do We Go?”

Ibid.

Bagozzi's research can be viewed as straddling both types of models, as it, for example, also examines some motivational components. See Bagozzi , “Salesperson Performance”; Beswick Charles A. Cravens David W. , “A Multistage Decision Model for Sales Force Management,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 14 (May 1977); Lucas Henry C. Jr. Weinberg Charles B. Clowes Kenneth , “Sales Response as a Function of Territorial Potential and Sales Representative Workload,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 12 (August 1975), pp. 298–305; and Ryans Weinberg , “Sales Territory.”

Ryans Weinberg , “Managerial Implications.”

Varella , op. cit.; Tybout , op. cit.

Cary Frank T. , “IBM's Guidelines to Employee Privacy,” Harvard Business Review, Vol. 54 (September-October, 1976), pp. 82–90.

Byham William C. Spitzer Morton E. , “Personal Testing: The Law and Its Implications,” Personnel, Vol. 48 (September–October 1971), pp. 8–19.