Conclusion

Summary

The vision of a Dynamic Sales Force Management Process that has been developed throughout this book is a general vision. It recognizes that any sales force management/control system is typically made up of several elements or sub-systems. The two major sub-systems that constitute a manager's command center are a set of control levers (or programs) and a dashboard. Control levers are constantly activated and adjusted as sales managers, the leaders in charge of the process, watch on their dashboard whether they are on track toward meeting their short- and long-term objectives. All the control center elements should be designed so as to help management achieve its multiple selling objectives, and in such a way as to directly or indirectly adjust salespeople's decision spaces, and consequently, their levels of autonomy and initiative.

Every control element may be characterized along one fundamental dimension, that is, its ability to provide a centralized versus decentralized control. The selection by management of a position on the centralized-decentralized continuum generally depends on the firm's specific sales force selling and control objectives, and on the relative availability and costs of obtaining and using the relevant information.

The proposed vision of a dynamic sales force management process has a number of implications for the practice of sales management and for sales research.

Some managerial perspectives

First, this book has proposed a vision of sales management that is still under-used in practice. This is, however, an integrative vision.