Clearly, different companies have different objectives for their sales forces. These companies spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually on personal selling, more than they spend on other promotional methods. And this is true for both profit and non-profit organizations.

No one debates the importance of the sales force in the marketing mix, especially for big ticket items (also known as high-touch items). However, maintaining a sales force has costs (salaries, commissions, bonuses, travel expenses and benefits) associated with it. It becomes extremely important to ensure healthy sales force management practices.

Your organization’s management carefully must consider when and how to use its sales force within the context of the marketing mix and not separate of the mix. Productivity of the sales force constantly must increase by offering institutional value so that the sales force in turn can turn around and offer better customer value to the end user. Many companies are turning to relationship selling, consultative selling, team selling and sales force automation.

What institutional value do you offer your sales force?