3rd lecture, week 8 “The evolution of the strategic sales organization” Flashcards
Why is is important to address an organization’s ability to manage customer relations? (OX, ch. 2, 2.1.)
Because the customer power and buyer concentration is escalating in many markets. This means that selling is increasing becoming a matter of satisfying the customer’s needs. The shift in power from buyer to supplier also includes a shift from headquarters to the field, meaning that the sales force can no longer passively accept and execute plans produced by corporate marketing (OX, ch.2 , 2.1.).
What is the core responsibility of the strategic sales organization? (OX, ch. 2, 2.1.)
The core responsibility of the strategic sales organization is strategic customer management (OX, ch. 2, 2.1.)
How has the customer relationship requirements changed with the shift of power from the seller to the buyer? (OX, ch. 2, 2.2.)
The shift of power from supplier to buyer has increased the demand for service, new types of relationships and greater added value by business to business customers (OX, ch. 2, 2.2.)
What are the desires characteristics of a supplier relationship? (OX, ch. 2, 2.2.)
The salesperson to be:
- Personally accountable for the buyer’s desired results
- Able to understand the customer’s business
- be accessible, problem solving and deliver creative solutions to meet the needs of the customer.
(OX, ch. 2, 2.2.)
Describe the old and new approach to sales tasks? (OX, ch. 2, 2.2.2)
Old approach:
- Getting new accounts
- Getting the order
- Pressuring the company to cut prices
- giving service to get sales
- managing all accounts in the same way
- selling to anyone
New approach:
- retaining existing accounts,
- becoming the preferred supplier
- pricing for profit
- understanding cost implication and managing each account for maximum long term profitability
- Concentrating on the high profit potential accounts
(OX, ch. 2, 2.2.2.)
What causes the growing important of strategic sales capabilities? (OX, ch. 2, 2.2.3)
- The complexity of Customer Relationships
- Customer sophistication
- Commoditization
- Corporate Expenditure on Sales organizations
(OX, ch. 2).
Name the three roles, that today’s salespeople often engage in (OX, ch. 3, 52)
- Competence deployment
- Competence modification
- Competence definition
(OX, ch. 3, 52).
What is competence deployment? (OX, ch. 2, 52)
Competence deployment is activity designed to support the existing strategic plan. Sales people must conform to the formal strategic plan and implement established strategies and processes. Competence deployment is the most important role of sales people in organizations where the competition is stable. (OX, ch. 3, 52).
What is competence modification? (OX, ch. 3, 52).
Competence modification refers to the fact that salespeople are often encouraged to engage in adaptive bheavior or emergent strategy. E.g. question exisiting strategy and respond to environmental challenges. Competence modification is the more important role of the sales person in cases where the organization faces changes in the product market and greater flexibility is needed and when the existing routines and the established strategy are no longer working. (OX, ch. 3, 52).
What is competence definition? (OX, ch. 3, 52).
Competence definition is leaning and improveing, initating anonymous initiatives and experient and take risks. Competence definition is most important in organization that are unable to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage and constantly renews its strategies in order to temporarily differentiate from competitors (OX, ch. 3, 52).
Which of the three roles are more important? (OX, ch, 3. 52).
It depends on the environmental conditions that the sales organization faces (OX, ch. 3).
What are the common operational role of the sales person and are these responsibilities common to all sales people across organizations (OX, ch. 3)
The typical role of the salesperson focuses on the salesperson’s interactions with the customer and includes a range of activities such as customer retention, database management, building and maintaining customer relationships, problem solving and satisfying customer needs. These tasks are common to most sales people across organizations.
(OX, ch. 3).
What are the secondary roles of the sales person? (OX, ch. 3)
Whereas the primary roles of the sales person are characteristic of almost all sales people, the secondary soles are likely to vary across individuals and organizations. The extent to which the salesperson participates in these forms of extra-role behavior is likely to vary depending upon the organization as well as the individual. While in some organizations the role of the saleperson may remain consistent with tradition perspective( Competency deployment as the main role), contemporary sales organizations have expanded the role to include additional competencies, making the sales job more difficult. These competencies include tasks and concerning strategic decision-making (competence definition and competence modification).
(OX, ch. 3, 54).
How does the role expectations influence the job demands or difficulty of the job as perceived by the salesperson (OX, ch. 3, 55).
As the role expectations of sales people increases or as the operational role come to include more tasks (other than competency deployment) the perceived difficulty and demands of the salesperson increases (OX, ch. 3, 55).
How is job demands defined? (OX, ch. 3, 55).
Job demands is defined that the extent to which the employee is required to work hard, work fast, has many activities to perform, has too little time to complete the activities etc. Job demand includes two dimensions:
Quantitative demands: The persons workload, how large the salespersons territory is, how much time does the salesperson have to complete activities? This dimension captures the overall degree of difficulty that the salesperson experiences.
Qualitative demands: Qualitative demands include the sales person’s perceptions of role ambiguity and role conflict. This dimension captures the extent to which the salesperson is conflicted about which of these activities is most important or which of his or her constituents needs should be met first. Role conflict and role ambiguity are both sources of salesperson job stress.
(OX, ch. 3, 55).
Why is it important to study job demands in a sales context? (OX, ch. 3, 55).
It is particularly important to study job demands because the expanded role demands provide a guide for how to best manage or lead sales people under the expanded role demands.
(OX, ch. 3, 55-56).
How do the roles of competence deployment, modification and definition relate to the relational exchanges between manager and salesperson? (OX, ch. 3, 56-57).
When engaging in competence definition, the salesperson initiates the process and explores new possibilities and experiment with new ideas, before the manager decides which ideas to champion and pursue. The direction of strategic exchange between manager and sales person thus originates with the salesperson, i.e. the sales person offers an idea or initiative to the manager.
When engaging in competence deployment, the salesperson receives his or her orders from the manager, and is then expected to implement and carry out the order. The objective of competency deployment is to effectively implement existing procedures, programs and strategy. The exchange of strategic information thus flows from the manager to the sales person unidirectionally.
Competence modification implies that the sales managers provides direction to the salesperson and the salesperson then adjusts the initial direction to respond to new information. Competence modification thus begins with a flow of strategic information from the manager to the salesperson and then it is balanced with the assessment of new environmental and customer information.
(OX, ch. 3, 57).
Explain how the changing roles of salespeople and sales managers impact the system of exchanges between manager and sales person (OX, ch. 3, 58).
As the role expectations of salespeople change, so does the role of the sales manager. These shifting roles have consequences for the system of exchanges that exist between a manager and a sales person.
(OX, ch. 3, 58).
What is the main difference between leaders and managers? (OX, ch. 3, 59).
Leaders change the way people think about what is desirable and necessary while managers are concerned with the day-to-day tasks and routines.
What are the main aspects of sales leadership?
OX, ch. 3, 59
- Trait approaches
- Style approaches
- Contingency leadership
- Functional Team Leadership
- Shared team leadership
- Flexible team leadership
(OX, ch. 3, 59).
What does leadership research on trait approaches focus on? (OX, ch 3, 59).
The personality traits and characteristics of existing leaders. Mainly concerned with identifying the set of characteristics that distinguish the leader from followers. (applies the general belief that leaders are born, not made)
Research has found that extraversion, self-esteem, creativity and openness to experience strongly correlate with leader effectiveness and leader emergence (the extent to which an individual is viewed as a leader by others)
(OX, ch. 3, 59-60).
What does leadership research on style approaches focus on? (OX, ch 3, 59).
The style approach to leadership research is mainly concerned with the behaviors of leaders. This approach provides some practical guidelines regarding the behaviors that are likely to result in effective leadership. . In other words, it emphasizes the trainability dimension of leadership.
Literature distinguishes between the “consideration” style, in which the leader cares about the employee as a person and the Initiating structure style, in which the leader clearly defined the schedule and tasks and requirement of his employees. Whereas the first style often leads to enhanced employee satisfaction, but decreased performance, the initiating structure style is associated with poor satisfaction but higher group performance.
(OX, ch. 3, 60).
What does leadership research on contingency approaches focus on? (OX, ch 3, 60).
This approach stresses the importance of matching the leader’s style to the situation and tasks and hand, the complexity of the environment and the characteristics of the individual employee (OX, ch.3, 60)
What does leadership research on functional team and flexible team leadership approaches focus on? (OX, ch 3, 61).
- The functional team leadership approach points to a distinct set of activities that a sales manager should perform to achieve success.
The flexible team leadership approach relies on the idea that leaders who are socially flexible are better to respond to changes .These leaders interpret the demands and requirements specific to a given organizational problem and tailor responses quickly.
(OX, ch. 3, 61).
