Sales Management: Building and Running a Sales Force
What this domain tests
Sales management questions probe whether you can design, staff, direct, and evaluate a selling organization. Know the core sequence: set objectives, forecast demand, size the force, structure territories, recruit and train, motivate and compensate, then control through metrics.
Concepts you must own
- Forecasting methods: qualitative (jury of executive opinion, sales-force composite, Delphi) versus quantitative (moving average, exponential smoothing, regression). Match method to data availability and time horizon.
- Workload vs. incremental methods for sizing the sales force. Workload divides total required call hours by available selling hours per rep; incremental weighs added rep cost against added gross margin.
- Territory design balances potential, workload, and travel; watch for the classic trade-off between equal potential and equal workload.
- Compensation: straight salary, straight commission, and combination plans. Understand the behavioral effects: commission drives volume and prospecting but weakens service and team selling; salary supports non-selling duties but dulls incentive.
- Control metrics: activity (calls, demos), pipeline (conversion, cycle time), and outcome (quota attainment, margin, share).
Traps
Questions often invert the workload formula, confuse sales-force composite with executive opinion, or attribute service failures to commission plans when the fix is a hybrid. Watch for answer choices that maximize one metric at the expense of margin or retention.
Worked rule of thumb
If 1,000 accounts need 12 calls each at 1.5 hours per call, and each rep has 1,200 selling hours, required hours = 18,000; reps = 18,000/1,200 = 15. Add a coverage buffer for travel and admin before finalizing.