Define Sales Management. How a sales manager can be benefited with its application. Put your reasoning.

Sales Management:

Sales Management refers the management of overall marketing activities such as advertising, sales promotion, marketing research, physical distribution, pricing and product merchandising.

According to American Marketing Association sales management refers “the planning, direction and control of personnel selling, including recruiting, selecting, equipping, assigning, routing, supervising, paying and motivating as these tasks apply to the personal sales force”.

Efforts put forth to attain a company’s sales objectives through sales management’s involvement with following activities:

(1) Formulation of sales strategy through development of account management policies, sales force compensation policies, sales revenue forecasts, and sales plan,

(2) Implementation of sales strategy through selecting, training, motivating, and supporting the sales force, setting sales revenue targets, and

(3) Sales force management through development and implementation of sales performance, monitoring, and evaluation methods, and analysis of associated behavioral patterns and costs.

Benefits of Sales Management

 It starts with helping develop the right products, setting the right prices and distributing in the right places, and continues with marketing messaging, customer service and other selling efforts. All of these efforts must be coordinated so one doesn’t interfere any of the others. Setting plans, monitoring them and tracking results lets you continue to adapt, eliminate weaknesses and take advantage of opportunities.

Improves Product Development

A sales management program includes having your sales staff keep in close touch with customers and watching the competition to determine if your product line is as relevant as it can be. Adding a new product to your line, changing or eliminating features or dropping items from your product mix can all help you maximize your sales and profits. Conduct regular reviews of what you sell to make sure you offer the optimal product or service to generate high sales volumes and profit margins.

Optimizes Distribution

Sales reports not only provide you with information about what’s selling and how much you’re selling, but where you are making your sales. A sales management program evaluates your distribution methods and maximizes their use. For example, if your online sales are strong but your retail volumes are lagging, you might find this is because customers get more information when they shop online, helping them buy with confidence. To improve retail sales, you might provide better retailer training, more in-store promotions and change your product packaging.

Better Financial Decisions

Some of your best-selling products, in terms of volume, might provide your lowest profit margins, causing a burden on your production and administration departments. Detailed sales reports provide you with information on your overhead and production costs, cost-of-sales expenses and profit margins. A low-margin item with high sales volumes might provide a nice profit margin, making it a no-brainer item to keep in your line. If you can eliminate this item, causing a corresponding increase in higher-margin item sales, you might want to discontinue selling it. Sales management looks at the profit contribution, opportunity cost and impact of carrying each product on your operations.

Improves Staff Quality

A sales plan is only as good as the people who use it, and a key part of any sales management program is recruiting, training and managing sales staff. This includes developing their product knowledge, coaching them on calls, improving writing and presentation skills and helping them work their territories effectively.