Current Trends in Sales Management - Term Paper Example

The paper “Current Trends in Sales Management" is a pathetic example of a term paper on management. There exist a number of changes that are taking place in sales management. For example, the production of new products, that becomes inspired by the use of new technologies. These new products make the existing approaches to selling obsolete. These new changes need a revision of the traditional methods of selling. In this period, companies look at their sales force for gains in productivity when they attempt to increase the firm's profitability through their cost reduction programs (Andris, 2001).

With the new media, a number of sales of methods have become opened. This has made the sales department lose the exemption from the new management techniques such as total quality management. The streamlining of management leads to decentralization and individual responsibility (Andris, 2001). These developments have led to the depersonalization of management for the many salespeople. Instead of the salespeople meeting daily with the managers, they can communicate through the use of the internet for their work.

Instead of the salespeople beginning their work in the office, they can start at home and take a lot more responsibilities than before for arranging and managing their work. The other trend is the assessment of sales performance. A simple method such as the cover contribution or the turnover is no longer viable. Questioning the clients on a more regular basis about their satisfaction with the sales personnel is the way of checking the performance of the sales team (Stone, 2007). There is also the trend of the transition from the price selling to value selling.

Just like the products get sold, a service also must be sold. According to Professor Simon, this trend is the latest and explosive of all trends. If certain firms remain relevant in spite of this trend, it is because they are offering cut prices. Other organizations are taking the opposite direction by lifting their discounts and moving to net price policy. The federal and the local governments also have an impact on the market and its sales force. A number of the regulated utilities are changing their sales forces for the very first time due to the number of deregulations.

According to Andrew Grove of Intel, the successful selling organization is the evaluative organization. To be a successful selling organization, one has to evaluate constantly whether the markets are ever-changing or simmering and come up with effective strategies (Andris, 2001). Information technology is also replacing the former specialist knowledge. When dealing with high qualification selling, the individual is becoming more influential in the sales process, but still, the importance of information technology is still evident.

For example, the progressive change from mechanics to electronics in the industry of mechanical engineering that requires well-qualified sales engineers. When dealing with low qualification selling, information technology is getting famous and the people used in the sales sector have become gradually replaced. In the banking sector, this development is already underway where the information technology in cash machines, telebanking and more is replacing individuals (Stone, 2007).  Assessment of the sales personnel is essential to the entire business.

The assessment should be carried out to ensure that the sales force gets engaged in only the highest impact on sales. The time spent by the salesperson when traveling, training and even planning besides selling should enable the sales personnel time with the consumers of the commodities valuable. When this sales personnel people, waste large amounts of time sitting in a nonpivotal sales meeting, answering irrelevant internet mails, and following their sales figures against the incentive payouts, the organization loses a lot of money (Gary, 2007).

This applies to even the best salespeople available since they are also most likely waste their time if they are not clear about what the organization requires them to do and expects them to achieve for their customer, product or the market segment. The salespeople should have clearly communicated priorities and objectives. They should be provided with goals that encourage healthy behaviors. The manager should measure how their sales force are utilizing their time and following their sales and give them ongoing feedback on these metrics (Brown, 2005).

At times, the salespeople have the idea of what the company requires them to do but do not have effective information that they need to do it. When the salespeople are not sure how to identify suitable prospects like developing the business with new customers, give no guidance. The manager should invest in the creation and maintenance, of an up to date customer databases. The salesperson should be extremely motivated to enable them to do what the company requires from them. The organization should introduce incentive plan rewards and also nonmonetary recognitions.

The company to enhance its sales should increase the recruitment and retention of the top performers in the industry. The Organization, should evaluate the available personnel, and encourage people who lack the motivation to succeed in the company sales force, seek alternative jobs (Brown, 2005).