A Guide to Sales Management: A Practitioner's View of Trade Sales Organizations

The sales function is increasingly becoming more and more strategic. This change is being driven on the one hand by modifications in the customer base, due to mergers, acquisitions and internationalization, and on the other hand by the centralization, regionalization and globalization of the manufacturers marketing and supply chain functions. These days, many multinational companies, not only those of the fast moving consumer goods industry develop most of their brands and activation programs with a global scope and feed their markets through international supply networks. As a result, their operating units national or transnational are asked to act as selling machines, that must be capable of both implementing locally global corporate strategies and providing structured feedback to improve the local efficacy of the international brand portfolio. In this context the challenge for the sales function is to develop effective sales strategies and to deliver excellent sales operations. The purpose of the book is to provide a guide to sales management, with the ambition to offer help in managing sales strategy and operations. This is the reason the book is not limited to the discussion of the classic topics of sales force management, but will also introduce other related themes such as route to market and distributive strategy, trade terms and account management, trade marketing, field marketing, sales operations and customer service. The idea at the heart of the guide is that there is a prerequisite route to market and four pillars of sales management that must be well governed: sales strategy, key performance indicators, organization and processes & IT tools. The book is conceived as a guide to sales management. Across every topic theory and practical tips are balanced keeping in mind not only the what, but also the how of the implementation. The book seeks to be an affordable offering in sales management that covers all aspects of sales with a holistic approach that at the same time speaks the practitioners language and is easy to read.