Selling and sales management 369
security of higher value than the level of
remuneration. Other studies into the effects of
pay on the motivation of salespeople have
found, for example, that older salespeople with
larger families valued financial rewards more,
whereas younger, better educated sales staff
who had no family valued the so-called higher
order rewards, such as recognition, liking and
respect, and sense of accomplishment (Church-
ill and Pecotich, 1982). The variety of payment
plans in operation, even within similar industry
and sales situations, suggests that management
do not fully understand the effect of payment
on their employees’ motivation. If a company’s
main objectives were on relationship building
and long-term customers, a higher salary and
lower incentive component would be recom-
mended. The difficulty with such rules is that,
within any one salesforce, there is no one
remuneration package that suits everyone and
we have to settle for one that best meets the
needs of most of our salesforce.
Evaluation and control
Setting targets and quotas for salespeople has a
direct effect on their motivation. Targets not
only direct sales effort and provide evidence for
performance evaluation, but they can also act
as an incentive and motivator. It is not only the
target and system of control that is important,
but the way the target is determined, communi-
cated and applied. For this reason, a system of
management by objectives based on the partici-
pation and involvement of salespeople them-
selves is an appropriate option (Donaldson,
1998b).
A problem already identified is that sales
tasks and sales effort often can have an indirect
rather than a direct effect on sales performance.
Missionary or specification selling, such as
pharmaceuticals, is particularly prone to this
difficulty. For others, organizational complexity
or dual effort with intermediaries may confuse
the sales process and its effect on performance.
Nevertheless, accurate and timely feedback for
salespeople has a positive effect on job perform-
ance and job satisfaction (Doyle and Shapiro,
1980). At one level evaluation of salespeople is
easy – they either make target or they don’t!
The problem with the link between sales effort
and sales response is that it is neither simple
nor direct. Most companies do conduct some
form of evaluation, but few do this in a formal
way that evaluates causes as well as outcomes.
Part of the problem with evaluation is that to
do it properly, far from being easy, it is time-
consuming, costly and downright difficult. At
the individual salesperson level evaluation, it is
necessary to identify above and below average
performers, to identify possible candidates for
promotion or dismissal, and to identify areas of
weakness in salespeople in carrying out their
tasks in meeting sales objectives. For manage-
ment, evaluation is necessary to assess the
efficacy of sales management practices such as
territory deployment, recruitment, training,
remuneration and so on. Again, our starting
point is an audit of current performance.Conclusion
Personal selling and sales operations are still
key to the effective implementation of market-
ing plans. The role of personal selling is
changing as new and different ways such as the
telephone, electronic interchange and the Inter-
net can be found to inform and persuade
customers. The salesperson must adapt and
there is evidence that marketing and sales roles
are becoming not only interdependent, but also
interchangeable. Positions such as business
development manager, customer account man-
ager and category manager reflect that sales-
people must be better trained and qualified,
able to work in teams and be capable of co-
ordinating within their firm and at the bound-
ary between the firm and their customer. The
traditional sales process still applies in many
exchange situations, but the key role for sales-
people is to build, maintain and promote long-
term profitable relationships with customers.