FACULTY OF COMMERCE
DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING
NAME SUNDAWO ISRAEL
REGISTRATION NUMBER R11401J
MODE OF ENTRY VISITING
MODULE TITLE SALES MANAGEMENT AND FORCASTING
LECTURER MRS NGWENYA
WITH THE AID OF EXAMPLES DISCUSS HOW THE MICRO AND MACRO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS HAVE AFFECTED SALES FORCE MANAGEMENT FROM 2000 TO DATE IN ZIMBABWE
Sales force management is defined by Kotler (2010) as the analysis, planning, implementation and control of sales force activities. This also shows us that it is a management activity because it comes includes all the aspects of management and if not handled/managed properly might lead to serious consequences in the organization.
There are a lot of factors that affect the sales force management. These include the internal factors as well as the external factors in an organization. These pose threats as well as opportunities to the sales force management.
The internal factors sometimes called the micro environment consist of the customers, employees, competitors, shareholders, media, suppliers. These factors can be minimized and sometimes can be controlled because their one at the disposal of an organization.1mark
The customers are the main players because they are the reason why companies exist so they are the ones with the major factors affecting sales force management because…………………….
The employees are the drives of an organization because they are the ones who assist in designing and distributing the products of an organization. These are also the sales force and if they are not properly managed an organization cannot be profitable.
There are also the shareholders of an organization these maybe silent players but the policies that they put in place will affect the operations of an organization in many different ways and those policies do not spare the management of the sales force.
The media also affects sales force management through their news articles about organizations as well as their advertisements which help the sales people when executing their duties.
Then also the supplier as an internal factor. These mainly affect sales force management through the prices that they charge their products as well as their price changes. Also their supply of goods or services which might be either swift or erratic. A slightest delay in receiving supplies can result in customer dissatisfaction as well as reducing the morale of the sales force leading to sales force management difficulties.
The competitors are also part of the internal factors these are companies with similar offerings of goods and services. A company must strive to gain a strategic advantage against/over their competitors.
There are also some external forces that affect organizations. These are also referred to as the macro environment. And to be understood the PESTELI Analysis is used to analyze the external factors of an organization. The factors are or cannot be easily controlled because they are not at the disposal of an organization but managers can find opportunities in the threats that they pose.
The PESTELI analysis is the -
Political factors
Economical factors
Sociological factors
Ecological factors
Technological factors
Legal factors
International factors 1mark
The political factors of a country affect the organization and the sales management through many factors that are brought up because of the political policies put in place. These provide opportunities for some organizations while providing threats for others. Even the political atmosphere affects the mobility of the sales force of moving from area to area in search of prospects as well as for deliveries.
The economical factors include the monetary policies that were put in place by the reserve bank of Zimbabwe from year 2000 to 2008 as well as the fiscal policies, interest rates, economical inflation level and the level of disposable income that the sales force have. The policies that are being implemented in the country like the use of the U.S.D introduced in the year 2009 in Zimbabwe.1mark This has both its advantages as well as its disadvantages which lead to the uncertainty in the sales force.
The sociological factors are the factors in connection with the society these include the ethics and conduct of the sales force as well as the types of products an organization can bring to a specified target market. These also include the demographics, lifestyle, values, and beliefs.……………………
The technological factors focus mainly on the new technologies and product innovations that an organization introduces. An organization needs to move with the time and invent new ways of doing things as well as train its sales force according to the times like the introduction of computers in Zimbabwe led to the laying off of a huge number of the sales force as well as the introduction of mobile phones that led to different ways that needed to be adopted of supervising the sales force.
There are also the ecological factors that may affect sales force management like natural environment, global warming, drought that was witnessed in Zimbabwe since the year 2000 as well as the availability of natural resource. The availability of resources in Zimbabwe like the Marange diamonds as well as the Gold deposits led to more job opportunities coming up and better remuneration packages.1mark
The legal factors are also a very critical aspect that affects sales force management because of some legislation put in place by the government as well as by the local governments that include the selling permits to vendors etc. Also the taxation policies and all the other laws that regulate business like the contract law intellectual property low pricing controls.
There are steps that are taken by a sales force manager so that he easily manages his sales force.
According to Kotler et al (2010) these steps are to be followed for good sales force management
1. Designing sales force strategy and structure
2. Recruiting and selecting sales people
3. Training sales people
4. Compensating sales people
5. Supervising sales people
6. Evaluating sales people
In Zimbabwe the macro and micro environment has been affecting the sales force management throughout the various stages of sales force management. This affects either positively or negatively.
When designing a sales force strategy and structure there are many structures than an organization may consider. There is the territorial sales force structure where an organization assigns each sales person to an exclusive geographic territory in which the sales person sell the company’s full line of1mark products. In Zimbabwe this is the mainly used type of strategy because it is economical. This type of sales force management technique is being used by companies like British American Tobacco (B.A.T) and Delta beverages where they send their sales representative with motor vehicles and stocks to different territories within1mark Zimbabwe. The main disadvantage of this technique that was caused by some of the macro and micro environment factors mainly the political and the economical factors.
The political factors affected the sales people in such a way that the sales people would not go to specific areas because they would be victimized because of the most popular political party in that particular area.1mark The economical factors were affecting the sales personnel because of inflation the prices were changing all the time so the sales people were no longer being trustworthy like when they would hear of news of a future price change since they would be working away from the office they would go and give one customer all their stocks and tell him not to sell until a new price change comes so that they get a cut or kickback from the windfall due to the price change.1mark
In Zimbabwe you can also see that since year 2000 there have been so many improvements in different organizations and evolution of new products and services. Some companies are now using the product sales force structure where sales people specialize in selling or attending to specific products of an organization. Econet wireless has been introducing many products since the year 2000 which include the Buddie line, Libertie line, internet broadband, Eco cash just to mention but a few. You could notice that if you go to an Econet shop with an enquiry of a specific product, the assistants who will help you would have the general product knowledge of all the brands but there would be one with the detailed information about a particular product or service whom you would be referred to. This is helped in reducing the training budget for staff in organizations because only one person would then have to go for training of a particular product or service and all the future improvements that would be taking place.2marks
When it comes to the second step which is recruiting and selecting sales people. These have been a challenge in Zimbabwe since 2000 because many companies were laying down workers and reducing the sales force so that they reduce their expenses because of the economic challenges that the country was facing these included companies like Zim Alloys, Bata, ZIMASCO some even went to the extent of closing down operations. At the same period some companies were recruiting people who were not specifically trained for the specific job of marketing but because they have a degree or they are known to the manager. This led to many sales persons being unqualified for their jobs leading to a less poor performing sales force.11/2marks This was also due to the political situation as well as the economical situation which was leading to a brain drain in Zimbabwe with all the qualified people moving outside the country where they could be paid better for their services or to greener pastures. This led to the sales management being disadvantaged.
The training of sales people as well as workforce in general has become a major issue in many of the organizations in Zimbabwe. Apart from recruiting well educated personnel organizations like B.A.T Zimbabwe do hold seminars periodically to educate and brainstorm their workforce because of the new technologies introduced. 1mark
Since 2000 in Zimbabwe many organizations have been sending personnel to different areas, schools and some outside the country for work related training seminars so that the workforce becomes more educated so that they cater and be able to assist the highly educated customers who now demand the best and all the technical specifications of a product.
In Zimbabwe the compensating salespeople stage in the one that is a major setback in sales force management because of inflation that raised to a record 230 Percent? between year 2000 and year 2008 This led to the depreciation of the Zimbabwean dollar leading to the use of bearer cheques. This made it difficult for organizations and managers to keep up with the ever changing figures whilst making profit. This made the sales people to take home cash that had already depreciated or they could not access it from the banks because the banks were also not able to cope with the demand for money that was being caused by the economic and political in Zimbabwe.11/2marks
Also the talented and most experienced people were leaving other organizations to join organizations that were paying big bucks. Organizations like Econet wireless were among the organizations that were offering competitive remuneration packages and they rose up to being big because all the qualified and skilled salespeople all wanted to be part of the Econet family.
Supervising and motivating sales people also a major activity for some organizations like British American Tobacco because their people work on a salary so they have to be monitored when in the market and had motivators like targets put in place. Compared to organizations like old mutual life assurance were the sales people work on commission, so they need less supervision because the more they sale the more money that they make 1mark. This gave a disadvantage to organizations that do not operate on commission like B.A.T because they have to employ supervisors who have to follow after the sales people to see if they are doing the right thing.
Organizations like British American Tobacco have put in place methods that help in evaluating sales people and sales force performance that include computers linked up using the internet so that the sales force forwards reports to management of sales, competitors and enquiries on daily, weekly basis as well as on a monthly basis. This guarantees good feedback and decision to be made on time. Since 2000 some companies before the introduction of the internet in many organizations in the late 2000s were having their reports on a monthly basis which led some information to be outdated and sometimes to be overtaken by the competitors.2marks
Since the year 2000 sales force management has been taking several ups and downs due to the changes that were happening in the country from both economically, socially and politically. Some of the economic changes made it difficult to sales force managers to efficiently manage the sales force because the remuneration and the profit were being erased by inflation. Socially people were beginning to accept some cultures from other regions like South Africa which made it easy for sales force to enter different segments because different products were now being accepted some which were not acceptable before the year 2000. Also the political changes some made selling better like the Government of National Unity that brought together different people and different political parties together leading to one nation and new brighter opportunities.2marks
Bibliography
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3. Kotler, P. and Keller, K. (2000): Marketing Management 12th Edition Pearson - Prentice Hall.
4. Kotler, P. et all (2010) : Principles of Marketing 13th edition, Pearson Prentice hall New Delhli
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6. Lake, L (2011): The Sales Guide. Available @ www.mktingabout.com (accessed 25 January 2012).
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