بررسی استفاده از عملیات مدیریت نیروی فروش Examining the use of sales force management practices

Introduction Over the last thirty years, the challenges facing sales managers and sales organizations have changed dramatically. Numerous authors over the years have listed and discussed these challenges (e.g., Anderson 1996; Anderson et al. 1999; Rackham and DeVincentis 1999; Deeter-Schmelz et al. 2002; Ingram 2004; Ingram et al. 2005; Jones et al. 2005; Colletti and Fiss 2006; Trailer and Dickie 2006). Some of the many challenges they have identified include a more complex work environment, globalization, increasing customer expectations, flatter sales organizations, more diverse customer bases, and increases in the number of channels. A summary of the major challenges/changes identified by these authors is provided in Table 1. The table should not be construed as a complete list of challenges/changes, but represents what the various authors listed and considered in their view to be worthy of discussion. These challenges/changes can be grouped into five categories: customer, technology, financial, sales process, and environment. While some of these issues might be easily dealt with individually, taken in total, these challenges may be enough to stymie many sales organizations. Clearly, sales managers and sales organizations have had to respond and adapt to these changes in order to remain competitive. Figure 1 provides a timeline of the challenges/changes as introduced in the sales management literature. However, while there have been a few studies (e.g., Wotruba 1991; Anderson 1996; Marshall et al. 1999; Jones et al. 2005) that have examined the impact of these changes on salespeople; the research examining the impact of these challenges on sales managers has been virtually nonexistent – a significant exception being the study by Dubinsky and Barry (1982) discussed in the next section.