Sales Organization and Sales Force Management
Sales organisation and sales force management covers structures, recruitment and selection, training, compensation, motivation, supervision and evaluation. Expect questions on territory design and quota setting.
Core rules
- Sales organisation structures: line (simple, direct control), line and staff (specialists advise), functional (by activity), and territory, product or customer-based divisions.
- Management cycle: sales planning, recruitment, selection, induction and training, deployment, motivation, supervision and evaluation.
- Compensation: straight salary (security, service work), straight commission (aggressive selling, poor service risk) or combination (most common).
- Motivation mixes financial incentives with recognition, career path and healthy targets.
- Evaluation uses quotas, call reports, conversion ratio, average order value, customer retention and territory coverage.
Worked example
A FMCG firm has three districts and eight salespeople. It creates three territories, sets monthly quotas by past sales and outlet potential, and pays a salary plus 2% commission above 80% of quota. Reasoning: territory design assigns responsibility; the quota is not uniform because district potential differs; the commission starts above a threshold to protect base selling. Call reports reveal whether low sales come from poor coverage or weak conversion. A pure commission plan might push staff to overload retailers with stock.
Traps
Do not set quotas only from last year’s sales; consider potential and market changes. Do not assume commission always raises performance; it can distort behaviour. Do not confuse recruitment with selection. Do not widen a territory without checking travel time and coverage.