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Sales Force Effectiveness: A Framework for

Researchers and Practitioners

Article in Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management · April 2008

DOI: 10.2753/PSS0885-3134280201

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 SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS: A FRAMEWORK FOR
RESEARCHERS AND PRACTITIONERS
Andris A. Zoltners, Prabhakant Sinha, and Sally E. Lorimer

This paper presents a Sales Force Effectiveness Framework that organizes the complexities of sales organizations, pro-
viding a holistic approach to defining and assessing sales force effectiveness. Sales practitioners can use the framework
to diagnose sales force issues and develop multidimensional solutions, either when responding to external and internal
events or when striving to improve. Sales researchers can use the framework to discover ways to expand their research
focus to benefit practitioners. The framework is supported by an inventory of sales force effectiveness issues from sales
leaders and recent academic publications.

The sales force represents a significant investment for most interest in maximizing the effectiveness of their sales organi-
businesses. By current estimates, there are at least 20 million zations. Corporate initiatives aimed at increasing sales force
people involved in sales in the United States. About 3.6 million effectiveness, with labels such as “sales force effectiveness
salespeople are involved in business-to-business selling (Bureau review—winning for the customer,” “global sales force effec-
of Labor Statistics 2006), another 4.3 million are involved in tiveness benchmarking,” and “sales effectiveness and growth
retail sales (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2006), and over 15 mil- initiative,” are common.
lion participate in direct-to-consumer sales for organizations Despite a strong level of corporate attention, the concept of
such as Avon and Amway (“America’s 500 Largest Sales Forces” “sales force effectiveness” is not well defined, having different
2006, p. 73). This sales force investment can be as high as 40 meanings for different people. A vice president of sales might
percent of sales, with the average company spending about view effectiveness as “adding value to the customer beyond the
10 percent (Heide 1999). In total, the U.S. economy spends product by changing the sales process from transactional to
conservatively $800 billion on sales forces each year—close to consultative.” A sales compensation analyst might view it as
three times the $285 billion that Robert J. Coen, Senior Vice “increasing sales force morale and motivation through better
President of Forecasting for Universal McCann, estimates was incentive compensation programs.” A sales training manager
spent on advertising in 2006 (Johnson 2006). might view effectiveness as “increasing salesperson competency
The significance of the sales force goes beyond its cost. The through innovative training programs.” A finance manager
sales force is perhaps the most highly empowered organiza- might view it as “increasing sales per salesperson” or “holding
tion within many companies. Usually working alone and sales force costs below a benchmark percentage of sales.”
unsupervised, salespeople are entrusted with a company’s most As sales leaders struggle to define sales force effectiveness
important asset—its customers. Because of the sales force’s and make improvements that increase the bottom line, there is
critical impact on customer relationships, its effect on top-line considerable opportunity for research. Surprisingly, there has
performance is significant. Sales leaders agree that every sales historically been less academic focus on sales than one might
force has the opportunity to improve sales revenues through expect. The Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management is
enhanced sales force effectiveness—projected increases of at the only academic journal focusing primarily on sales force
least 10 percent are common. Most companies take a keen issues. An electronic search of articles published in this journal
between 2001 and 2006 reveals that over 82 percent of the
articles are directly related to sales. An electronic search of
Andris A. Zoltners (Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University), Profes- other scholarly marketing journals for the same time period,
sor of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern including Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, and Journal
University, Cochairman, ZS Associates, andy.zoltners@zsassociates of Marketing Research, shows that less than 4 percent of articles
.com. are sales related. Sales-related articles were identified by search-
Prabhakant Sinha (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts), Cochair- ing on relevant subject key words, such as “salespeople,” “sales
man, ZS Associates, [email protected]. management,” and “personal selling.”
Sally E. Lorimer (M.M., Kellogg School of Management), North- Emphasis on sales in graduate-level business education has
western University, Consultant and Business Writer, ZS Associates, historically been less than one might expect as well, although
[email protected]. that situation seems to be changing. Among the 2007 U.S.

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, vol. XXVIII, no. 2 (spring 2008), pp. 115–131.
© 2008 PSE National Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISSN 0885-3134 / 2008 $9.50 + 0.00.
DOI 10.2753/PSS0885-3134280201
116 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

News & World Report top 25 ranked graduate business schools, view of sales and providing a consistent way for researchers
almost half currently offer MBA elective courses in sales man- and practitioners alike to view the selling world and the sales
agement or business-to-business marketing with a sales force system. The framework defines and articulates the numerous
component. In 2002, only about one-quarter of these schools components and linkages that exist within sales organiza-
offered such courses. tions, highlighting the interdependencies of different sales
There are three major reasons that academic focus on sales management decisions and demonstrating the need to achieve
has not matched the level of practitioner interest. First, sales compatibility across the decisions and consistency with sales
force research is difficult because it cuts across many differ- and marketing strategies. Often, the operationalization of sales
ent disciplines. Because sales forces rely on people to deliver force effectiveness efforts, both by practitioners and academics,
marketing messages, the linkage between a sales force and its focuses on a single sales management decision, such as sales
customers is unpredictable and difficult to model (sales force training, sales incentive compensation, or the use of technol-
investment and strategy → salesperson behavior and activ- ogy in the sales force. By providing a comprehensive picture
ity → customer response → company revenue and profit). of the sales function and of the boundary between sales and
Organizational behavior and psychological theory become the rest of the organization, the framework highlights the
intertwined with economic theory and quantitative methods, need for alignment and integration across sales management
requiring a wide range of research perspectives. The diversity decisions and encourages multidimensional solutions for
of sales force issues is very high, ranging from the activities of improving sales effectiveness.
salespeople to the salespeople themselves, and to the manage- Second, the framework helps sales practitioners diagnose
ment decisions that influence the people and their activities. and address sales force issues and concerns covering a wide
Second, many consider the sales function to be somewhat range of themes. Sometimes, the focus is on external events—
of an art and a mystery. Best-selling books on sales are filled “our customers are consolidating,” “the economy has weak-
with anecdotes and tips on how to be successful in sales, ened,” or “a competitor just launched a major new product.”
yet rarely does the popular press portray sales as a discipline Other times, the focus is on results–“we are not making our
backed by research, data, or frameworks. Finally, academics numbers,” “our cost of sales ratio is too high,” or “our customer
generally have poor access to sales organizations. Companies satisfaction scores have declined.” Other times, the focus is
are reluctant to let researchers experiment with salespeople, on sales activities—“we are not spending time with the right
most of whom are highly action oriented and preoccupied types of customers” or “face time with customers is too low.”
with achieving their revenue goals. Still other practitioners focus on the salespeople—“turnover
This paper is a first step toward identifying and closing the of good salespeople is too high” or “the sales force lacks the
gap between practitioner interest in sales force effectiveness skills necessary for success.” Finally, some practitioners focus
and the focus of academic research. The paper proposes a on the decisions, processes, systems, and programs that they
Sales Force Effectiveness Framework that organizes the many are accountable for—“our incentive compensation plan is
components and complexities of the selling world and the broken,” “our CRM system is too complex,” or “our training
sales system and provides a consistent approach to view sales program is not aligned with strategic priorities.” The frame-
force effectiveness. An initial version of the framework was work organizes the issues that sales organizations face; specifies
published previously (Zoltners, Sinha, and Zoltners 2001), the lines of causality; and helps practitioners see solutions to
and the framework has been enhanced and adapted continu- difficult problems, discover ways to avoid future problems,
ously as it has been evaluated and challenged through our and understand the impact of change throughout the sales
interactions with sales leaders at over 400 sales organizations organization.
that we have personally worked with, and also through class- Finally, the framework helps researchers identify opportuni-
room discussions with over 1,000 executive-level students. ties for additional research that will advance the field. Much of
The framework is further vetted using two recently developed the sales-related research to date has focused on the outcome
inventories. The sales executive issue inventory reflects the of a single sales management decision, process, system, or
practitioner view of sales and consists of data gathered from program. The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Special Issue of the
721 sales leaders. The sales academic research inventory reflects Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management (Brown and
the academic view of sales and consists of data gathered by Jones 2005) provided many innovative ideas for future direc-
reading and analyzing abstracts of recent sales-related articles tions in sales research, yet the majority of articles published in
in leading academic journals. that issue focused on either a single sales effectiveness driver
The Sales Force Effectiveness Framework together with the such as customer relationship management (CRM) (Tanner
results of the two inventories contribute to sales force theory et al. 2005) or leadership (Ingram et al. 2005); or on a subset
and practice in three ways. First, the framework organizes of closely related drivers such as salesperson selection, training
the complexities of the sales function, presenting a holistic and development (Cron et al. 2005), or motivation, control,
 Spring 2008 117

Figure 1
The Selling World

and compensation (Brown et al. 2005). By broadening the The Selling World
sales perspective, the framework helps researchers expand the
focus of their research beyond a narrowly focused decision area The sales organization is affected by forces and decisions
to potentially solve some of the most challenging and complex that originate within the company, as well as by forces that
sales force issues faced by today’s practitioners. For example, originate externally. Forces external to the company help to
what is the best way to motivate a sales organization that shape company strategies, which, in turn, affect marketing
has grown complacent? How does a sales organization adapt and sales strategies, which affect choices that determine what
effectively to selling process change? How does a company the sales force looks like. At the same time, companies hunt
prevent its best salespeople from leaving and taking business for effectiveness improvement opportunities within their sales
to competitors? The framework highlights a need for multi- organizations. Together these forces and decisions influence
disciplinary studies that can capture the complex relationships customer and company results. The Selling World shown in
that exist within sales organizations in order to solve these and Figure 1 illustrates the role of the sales force within the context
other salient and challenging sales management issues. of the larger company, industry, and business environment.
The components of the Selling World are described here,
moving from left to right in the figure.
THE SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS External forces include customers, competitors, and the
FRAMEWORK environment. Opportunities can arise, for example, when
new customer segments emerge, competitors go out of busi-
The Sales Force Effectiveness Framework has been used to ness, helpful technologies appear, or a booming economy
successfully diagnose problems, recognize opportunities, and creates new possibilities. On the other hand, companies can
adapt sales forces appropriately. In developing the framework, be threatened, for instance, when sales strategies become dated
we have balanced a desire to create a simple picture that is as customers change their buying processes, competitors at-
understandable and memorable with the need to be complete. tack profitable market segments, or an economic downturn
Hence, although the framework does not contain every nuance reduces customer demand.
that exists in every selling organization, the major components Company strategy includes decisions such as the setting
and relationships evident in most sales organizations have of company business goals and objectives; product portfolio
been captured. strategies such as the launching of new products, redesign and
The framework is presented in two views. First, the Selling relaunch of existing products, and entry into new markets; and
World provides a broad view that describes the role of the sales decisions to merge with or acquire other companies.
force within the context of the business. Second, the Sales A marketing and sales strategy defines who the company
System provides a detailed, decision-oriented view of the sales sells to, what the customer offering is, and how the selling is
force and its role in driving results. done. Sales and marketing teams are primarily accountable for
118 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

these decisions. Marketing and sales strategies are developed as customer satisfaction or retention rates. Results measure-
and continually fine-tuned through four primary activities ment is discussed further in the Sales System view of the
(Zoltners, Sinha, and Lorimer 2004). First, the market is framework.
segmented into meaningful, actionable customer clusters. When analyzing the Selling World, sales organizations
Second, the company determines the best product and service focus on those components of the framework relevant to
offering and value proposition for each segment. A successful their particular circumstances and set of issues. For example,
marketing and sales strategy focuses the company’s resources company strategy changes occur not only in response to ex-
on customers and product/service offerings that have strategic ternal events but they can also originate within the company,
importance and good long-term profit potential. Third, the as organizations seek better strategies and shareholders push
most appropriate process for selling the right product/service for higher performance. An external event, such as customer
offering to each market segment is defined. This process consolidation, may affect sales and marketing strategy without
includes the activities required to sell, deliver, and service requiring change to overall company strategy. We represent
the company’s offerings. Finally, a go-to-market strategy is the components of the Selling World linearly and aligned with
developed that specifies which sales and marketing channels the major lines of causality, yet the issues that sales organiza-
are best suited for delivering the sales process. This includes tions face can originate within any framework component or
defining the role that the sales force plays in executing the sales in multiple components simultaneously.
process. Marketing and sales strategy decisions influence what Some companies have a sales force that includes not only
the sales force should look like. salespeople who are employed by the company but also selling
The sales force implements the marketing and sales strategy. partners. Selling partnerships can take many forms. Depend-
The sales force consists of an organizational structure with ing on the industry, a selling partner can be an agent, a broker,
salespeople in defined roles performing selling activities that a distributor, a manufacturers’ rep, an independent contractor,
enable the company to meet customer needs and achieve a wholesaler, a dealer, a value-added reseller, or another type
financial goals. The sales structure, salespeople, and activities of independent selling organization. Some selling partners
are an outcome of a set of basic decisions, processes, systems, sell a company’s products and services exclusively, whereas
and programs that we call the sales force effectiveness drivers. others also sell complementary or competitive products from
The sales organization has primary accountability for these other manufacturers. In the framework, an exclusive partner
drivers. Examples of drivers include the sales force size and is viewed similarly to a company’s own sales force. The partner
structure, the sales force recruiting process, the performance organization is part of the company’s sales force. The company
management system, and the sales force incentive compensa- and the partner work together to make sales effectiveness driver
tion program. A more complete list of drivers is provided later decisions that create a sales structure, attract and retain sales-
within the Sales System view of the framework. Together, the people, and drive sales activities that are right for the company’s
drivers determine the sales force structure and roles and the products and services. When selling partners also sell products
composition and personality of the selling team, and influence and services of other manufacturers, the dynamics get more
the activities and behaviors of salespeople. complex. As illustrated in Figure 2, the company’s sales force
An additional force that affects sales organizations origi- works in tandem with the partner’s sales force. The partner
nates within the company: the effectiveness hunt. The best makes sales force effectiveness driver decisions that optimize
sales organizations seek constant and consistent performance performance across its entire product and service portfolio.
improvement. Many familiar performance challenges do not The company can influence those decisions and affect how
require immediate attention, but if left alone, they can escalate sales time and other assets are used by the partner to support
into bigger problems. This includes issues such as “the turnover the company’s products and services. The company might use
of the best salespeople is too high,” “sales are not growing partner incentive programs, marketing programs, or partner
fast enough,” “we are not developing enough new accounts,” managers who are skilled at assuring contract compliance or
or “the sales force is too complacent.” In addition, new op- the meeting of company goals by providing encouragement,
portunities may arise. For example, new sources of customer sales process assistance, sales analytics, and end-user pull-
value may be discovered that can be incorporated into the through. The company and partner sales forces work together
sales process or sales leaders may conclude that upgrading to create customer and company results.
their sales force quality has substantial positive impact on
performance. The Sales System
Results are the outputs of the sales force’s efforts. Company
financial metrics such as sales, profits, market share, or return The Sales System view within the Selling World breaks down
on investment are examples of results measures. Results can the sales force and the results it creates into components to
also be measured at the customer level, using metrics such enhance decision making regarding sales effectiveness. The
 Spring 2008 119

Figure 2
The Selling World in a Company That Uses Nonexclusive Selling Partners

dynamics are shown in Figure 3. The major components of effectively and efficiently to perform the right activities that
the Sales System are represented by the shaded shapes and will drive results.
arrows. The components affect one another in a largely se- The nonshaded boxes in the bottom half of Figure 3
quential fashion. Sales force activities affect customer results, summarize how a successful sales system functions, creating
and customer results have an impact on company results. customer and company results. Environmental and company
Meanwhile, the skills, capabilities, values, and motivation factors outside the sales force are also shown in the framework
of the salespeople influence their behavior and activities. (top right corner), because these factors also affect results.
Salespeople work within a given structure and defined sales The sales force effectiveness drivers are the final components
roles. The sales force effectiveness drivers define the sales force of the Sales System. As described previously in the Selling
structure and roles and help to shape the salespeople and World view of the framework, they are the basic decisions sales
influence their activities. organizations make and the processes, systems, and programs
The components of the Sales System are described here, they use to influence the structure, makeup, and the behavior
starting with the results components and working backward of the selling team. The drivers fall into five categories. The
(right to left) within the framework. Company results are the definer drivers determine sales force structure and roles; the
company financial outputs of the sales force’s efforts. They shaper drivers influence the salespeople who are part of the
can be measured in many different ways, using metrics such organization; and the exciter, enlightener, and controller drivers
as sales, profits, market share, and return on investment. They affect sales force activities.
can be measured in terms of absolute levels, percent of goal at- The five sales force effectiveness driver categories were
tainment, or growth over last year. It is useful to evaluate these developed using two approaches that produced similar re-
statistics from both a short-term and a long-term perspective, sults. The first approach involved observing salespeople and
because sales force decisions affect both time frames. Customer sales organizations to understand what salespeople need to
results affect company results. Companies assess customer re- be successful. Five major categories of needs for success were
sults using measures such as customer satisfaction scores and identified; these needs are shown in the first column of Table
customer retention rates or repeat sales. 1. The second approach to developing the driver categories
Sales force activities drive customer results. Salespeople’s involved listing the various decisions that sales leaders are
activities are typically organized into a sales process that in- responsible for and clustering those decisions based on the
cludes steps such as lead generation, needs analysis, solution nature of their impact on the sales force. The clusters parallel
development, proposal presentation, negotiation, installation, the five needs identified through the first approach and are
customer service, and account maintenance and expansion. shown in the second column of Table 1. The third column of
Salespeople execute the sales force activities. Hence, companies the table shows the five driver categories that emerged from
seek to employ competent, motivated salespeople and to estab- this process.
lish a success culture so that salespeople demonstrate the right The definer category of sales force effectiveness drivers
behaviors and engage in the right activities. An organizational contains decisions that define the sales job by clarifying roles
structure and defined sales roles encourage salespeople to work and territories. Good definer decisions are consistent with, and
120 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Figure 3
The Sales System

therefore reinforce, company marketing and sales strategies. to work hard to achieve challenging goals. Compensation and
Generally, the definer decisions precede decisions about the incentives are also controllers because by placing incentives on
other sales force effectiveness drivers. Consequently, decisions the right products or customer segments, the company influ-
regarding subsequent driver categories should be compatible ences how salespeople spend their time. Finally, compensation
with, and therefore reinforce, the definer decisions. The shaper and incentives are shapers because an effective compensation
category of sales force effectiveness drivers has an impact on plan attracts the right type of person to the sales job. The in-
the salespeople. These drivers consist of the processes that fluence of most of the drivers cuts across multiple categories;
influence the skills, capabilities, and values of the sales team. however, for simplicity, we have listed drivers only in categories
The remaining categories of sales force effectiveness drivers where they have significant effect.
primarily affect sales force activities. The enlightener category
includes processes that provide the sales force with customer TWO SALES-RELATED INVENTORIES:
knowledge, enabling salespeople to understand the market- COMPARING PRACTITIONER AND
place, prioritize opportunities, solve customer problems, and ACADEMIC VIEWPOINTS
use their time more effectively. The exciter category of drivers
affects the selling organization’s inspiration and motivation. In order to better understand how researchers and practitioners
The controller category includes the drivers that direct sales view sales and selling organizations, we developed two sales-
force activities and performance. related inventories. One inventory focused on the practitioner
Note that some of the drivers are included in more than view of sales (the Sales Executive Issue Inventory), and the
one category. For example, compensation and incentives have other focused on the academic view (the Sales Academic
been placed in three categories. They are an exciter because the Research Inventory). The results of the two inventories were
right compensation and incentive plan motivates salespeople organized according to the Sales Force Effectiveness Frame-
 Spring 2008 121

Table 1
Two Approaches Leading to the Development of the Five Sales Force Effectiveness Driver Categories

Approach 1 Approach 2 Sales Force

What Salespeople Clusters of Sales Management Effectiveness
Need Decision by Impact Driver Category

Clear roles and territories Sales force design Definers

Structure and roles
Sales force size
Territory alignment
Skills, capabilities, and values Recruiting Shapers
to succeed Training
Coaching
Culture formation
Leadership
Sales managers
Compensation and incentives
Customer knowledge Customer research Enlighteners
(know-how) necessary Targeting
to succeed Data and tools
Customer relationship management
To be motivated and Culture Exciters
inspired to succeed Leadership
(incentives) Compensation and incentives
Motivation programs
Meaningful work
To have their activities Culture Controllers
directed in appropriate Sales managers
ways (control) Compensation and incentives
Performance management and measurement
Goal setting and forecasting
Coordination and communication

work for the purpose of comparing and contrasting the two tiveness Framework. Figure 4 shows the percent of responders
viewpoints and identifying research gaps. mentioning issues related to each Selling World component,
along with some examples of the responses. Because the sales
The Sales Executive Issue Inventory: The Practitioner executives who participated in the inventory have primary
Point of View accountability for the Sales Force component, the majority of
responses fall within that category. These responses are further
The Sales Executive Issue Inventory consists of data gathered broken down into the various components of the Sales System
from 721 sales leaders who attended our Accelerating Sales in Figure 5 and Table 2.
Force Performance executive education program at North-
western University’s Kellogg School between 1995 and 2005. The Sales Academic Research Inventory: The Academic
The participants were upper- and upper-middle-level sales and Point of View
marketing executives who came from over 400 different com-
panies in over 20 countries, in a wide range of industries, and The Sales Academic Research Inventory consists of data gath-
with varying sales force sizes. Prior to attending the program, ered by reading and synthesizing abstracts of 143 sales-related
the executives were asked to complete a short questionnaire. articles published between 2001 and 2006 in four academic
Included on that questionnaire was an open-ended question journals—Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research,
asking, “What sales productivity issues are you currently faced Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Market-
with?” The executives identified 2,051 sales productivity is- ing Science. A researcher categorized each article according to
sues (many reported facing multiple issues). These issues were the various sales force effectiveness drivers mentioned in each
organized and analyzed by a researcher who categorized each article’s abstract. Articles were included in zero, one, or mul-
response according to the components of the Sales Force Effec- tiple driver categories, depending on their scope and content.
122 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Figure 4
Sales Executive Issue Inventory Responses and the Selling World

Note: 1 Percentages sum to over 100 percent because many respondents provided multiple responses.

Figure 5
Sales Executive Issue Inventory Responses and the Selling System
 Spring 2008 123

Table 2
Sales Executive Issue Inventory Responses and the Sales Force Effectiveness Drivers

Percent of
Responders* Example Response

Sales Force Design/Structure and Roles 12 “Should we have product specialists?”

“We have changed our structure five times in two years.”
Sales Force Size 8 “I suspect our team is not large enough.”
“We need to reduce headcount.”
Territory Alignment 8 “Large differences in territory potential create unfairness.”
Recruiting 5 “How to recruit top sales talent.”
“Ensuring that we hire the ‘right’ person.”
Training 6 “How to train the sales force over time.”
“Need better training for sales managers.”
Coaching/Culture Formation 3 “Blending two cultures after a merger.”
“How to create a success culture.”
Customer Research/Targeting 9 “Better target certain customer segments.”
“Need to improve ability to qualify leads.”
Data and Tools/CRM 14 “Need better information on competitor’s offers.”
“Informational gaps due to information technology
problems.”
Leadership/Sales Managers 5 “Inexperienced first-level sales management.”
“Company leaders need to reinforce sales force focus.”
Compensation/Incentives/ Motivation Programs 18 “The comp plan doesn’t reflect our business priorities.”
“Not enough opportunities for top performers.”
Meaningful Work 2 “Sales force turnover is high because salespeople face
considerable customer rejection.”
Performance Management and Measurement 13 “How to fix underperformers.”
“Can’t measure sales performance accurately.”
Goal Setting and Forecasting 6 “Low morale due to targets that are too high.”
”Hard to forecast sales of new products.”
Coordination and Communication 5 “Poor sales and marketing coordination.”
“Need to improve communication with technical staff.”

* 65 percent of responders mentioned at least one sales force effectiveness driver. Many responders provided multiple driver responses.

For articles in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Manage- are studied more qualitatively. Sales force structure, the final
ment (87 percent of inventory articles), an online search of driver that falls below the line, can be studied using a mix of
the journal’s topical index was performed to augment and qualitative and quantitative approaches. A caveat to consider
check the researcher’s work. The results of the categorization when interpreting the academic data is that the data reflect
are summarized in Figure 6. only the number of articles written about each topic; no at-
tempt was made to assess the impact of the articles.
Comparing the Practitioner and Academic Viewpoints
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE
Figure 7 compares the results of the practitioner and academic FRAMEWORK
inventories. For each sales force effectiveness driver, a percent-
age reflecting frequency of mention in the Sales Executive Issue The Sales Executive Issue Inventory along with our teaching
Inventory is plotted against a percentage reflecting frequency and work with companies reveal that sales force issues and con-
of article publication in the Sales Academic Research Inven- cerns arise in two different types of situations. The framework
tory. The data on both axes are shown as percentages sum- can be applied in both. First, sales organizations are challenged
ming to 100 percent across the drivers; this allows the axes to to respond quickly and appropriately as events, such as signifi-
be shown on a consistent scale. Interestingly, the majority of cant environmental shifts or new product launches, require
drivers that fall below the line, such as compensation, target- them to take action. Events occur in the “external forces” and
ing, sales force size, territory alignment, and goal setting, are “company strategy” components of the Selling World shown
typically studied using quantitative approaches, whereas many in Figure 1. Second, successful sales organizations engage in
of the drivers above the line, such as culture and training, ongoing effectiveness hunts, seeking constant improvement in
124 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Figure 6
Academic Articles Published January 2001–October 2006 and the Sales Force Effectiveness Drivers

Note: The percentages do not sum to 100 percent because some articles do not focus on any sales force effectiveness drivers and others focus on more
than one driver.

their performance even when there is no event requiring sales while, but eventually the sales system begins to break down
force change. This is the “effectiveness hunt” component of and major change is needed to align sales force effort with
the Selling World shown in Figure 1. Although the dynam- evolving customer needs and company strategies.
ics and challenges of initiating and implementing change Two brief illustrations of events that created a need for sales
are quite different in these two types of situations, the Sales force response are presented here within the context of the
Force Effectiveness Framework provides a structured way for Selling World and Sales System. The Shell Energy example
sales leaders and researchers in either situation to diagnose shows response to an external event, and the Kinko’s example
problems, recognize opportunities, and develop effective shows response to a company strategy change.
solutions. The remainder of this paper describes ways that
the framework can be used to fashion successful sales force Shell Energy Responds to Government Deregulation
change when responding to events and when making constant
improvements. Deregulation of the U.S. utility industry had dramatic impli-
cations for the industry’s sales forces. Utility companies that
Responding to Events were once regulated monopolies with captive customers had
to, for the first time, actively sell to customers in a competitive
Major events compel companies to react. For example, when marketplace. Prederegulation sales forces that were activity
a major new product is launched, a new government regula- oriented, risk averse, reactive, and technical had to transform
tion is enacted, or a merger or acquisition occurs, sales force themselves into postderegulation sales forces that were sales
response is required. Some events lead to more gradual change, oriented, risk taking, proactive, and relationship focused. Fig-
for example, when customers begin to consolidate and alter ure 8 uses the Sales Force Effectiveness Framework to examine
their buying processes or the economy slows down or picks how in 1999, Shell Energy responded to deregulation of the
up. In such cases, the status quo can be maintained for a natural gas industry in the State of Georgia by establishing a
 Spring 2008 125

Figure 7
Sales Force Effectiveness Driver Emphasis—Practitioners Versus Academics

Figure 8
Shell Energy Responds to Government Deregulation of the Natural Gas Industry in Georgia
126 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Figure 9
Kinko’s Enters New Markets

corporate sales organization (Greene and Brooks 2001; Perin may need to change. Once this determination has been made,
1999; Quinn 1999). the impact on the sales force can be assessed, beginning with
sales force structure and roles, followed by salespeople’s skills
Kinko’s Enters New Markets and capabilities, and finally, the drivers of sales force activity.
Figure 11 suggests a decision-making process consisting of
In the late 1990s, management at Kinko’s, the provider of questions to ask while using the framework to develop a plan
document solutions and business services, made a strategic for successful sales force adaptation.
decision to proactively seek out larger corporate customers Occasionally, companies feel pressure to implement change
(Cohen 2000; Marchetti 1997). Historically, Kinko’s custom- quickly and do not have time to make all decisions in the ideal
ers were mostly business travelers, college students, or employ- sequence. This occurs often, for example, when two sales forces
ees of small businesses who periodically visited the company’s merge. If merging companies already have sales forces in place,
24-hour copy and business service centers. Through the new there are usually redundancies in coverage, the companies seek
strategy, Kinko’s hoped to establish longer-term, profitable cost reductions, and downsizing is likely. There is pressure to
partnerships with large corporations by providing comprehen- create a merged sales organization as quickly as possible to
sive printing and copy services. Figure 9 uses the Sales Force minimize negative effects of the merger on customer percep-
Effectiveness Framework to examine how the Kinko’s sales tions, employee morale, and company profits. The need for
organization responded to this change in corporate strategy. speed provides little time to reevaluate sales and marketing
strategies or to find the best sales force design. Decision mak-
A PROCESS FOR RESPONDING TO EVENTS ing moves quickly from the “sales force structure and roles”
component of the Sales System (how much do we downsize?)
The Selling World shown in Figure 10 suggests a process for to the “salespeople” component (who stays and who goes?).
effective sales force response to events.
An event occurs within the “external forces” or “company Making Constant Improvements
strategy” components of the framework. The way in which
the sales force should adapt to the event is determined by a Progressive sales forces establish processes for making constant
series of decisions suggested by moving logically from left improvements and enhancing their performance, even when
to right within the framework. Hence, assessment begins by there are no events that necessitate change. In time, a sales
understanding the impact of the event on marketing and sales force’s strength will slowly erode if the sales force effectiveness
strategies, with particular emphasis on how the selling process drivers are not continuously adapted. Selling processes can
 Spring 2008 127

Figure 10
The Selling World and Event Response

Figure 11
A Decision-Making Process for Sales Force Adaptation to Major Events
128 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

become dated. Sales managers’ skills can atrophy. Recruit- training program for the sales organization. At a presentation
ment processes can fail to produce consistently high-quality to analysts in September 2003, the company showcased the
hires for a new selling environment. The sales compensation fact that the company’s salespeople who had been trained on
plan can become misaligned with company priorities, causing the behaviors of top-performing salespeople were chosen by
strategic products or valuable customers to receive too little physicians as the best salespeople they see 46 percent of the
sales effort. Sales force issues that appear minor today, if left time, compared to only 22 percent of the time for salespeople
alone can escalate into bigger problems in the future. who did not complete the training. This preference among
Most sales force issues, concerns, challenges, and opportu- physicians was also linked to better sales results.
nities can be addressed by leveraging one or more sales force
effectiveness drivers. This can be accomplished by redesigning Prioritizing Drivers Using the Sales Force Performance
an existing driver; initiating a new process, system, or program; Scorecard
or executing a current driver more effectively. The process of
constant sales force improvement begins with diagnosis to Because diagnosis of sales force issues can lead to a large list of
identify the driver or drivers that are at the root of any issue. driver improvement candidates, companies are typically most
Because the list of driver candidates can be quite large, the successful at enhancing sales effectiveness if they prioritize the
drivers will need to be prioritized according to their likely drivers and focus their improvement efforts on a small number
impact on sales effectiveness. As the highest priority drivers of the most important ones first. The sales force performance
are revised, a check for compatibility and consistency with scorecard provides a mechanism for assessing the sales force
company goals and strategies encourages the desired outcome. effectiveness drivers and prioritizing initiatives according to
Most companies make some sales force effectiveness driver their likely effect.
improvements intuitively every year. The best companies use The sales force performance scorecard profiles each driver
a structured approach for continually assessing sales force ef- in terms of two measures—performance and strategic impact.
fectiveness and making driver enhancements. A performance score reflects how competent or how capable
the selling organization is at each driver. Effective methods of
The Novartis Approach for Constant Improvement deriving performance scores include
• Quantitative approaches: Data analysis is used to mea-
Novartis, a leading multinational manufacturer of pharmaceu-
sure driver effectiveness. For example, the territory
tical products, uses a structured process supported by analytic
alignment driver is assessed by evaluating territory
tools and approaches in an ongoing effort to enhance global
workloads and comparing them against each salesper-
sales effectiveness. As of year-end 2006, the process had helped
son’s capacity. Many quantitative approaches to assess-
drive six consecutive years of double-digit top-line growth in
ing performance have been developed (Zoltners, Sinha,
the United States, well ahead of the industry average. The
and Zoltners 2001);
company conducts an annual sales force effectiveness review
• Qualitative approaches: Sales leaders provide a thorough
using a sales force performance scorecard (described in the next
and consistent evaluation of each driver’s performance
section) to identify high-priority sales force effectiveness driv-
using a questionnaire to assess current practices relative
ers. An annual improvement plan is built around the highest-
to defined context-specific best-practice standards.
priority drivers, the plan is executed, and progress is measured
year after year. Several initiatives have produced significant sales Strategic impact reflects the importance the driver has for
force effectiveness enhancements. For example, an analysis of the organization’s ability to succeed. Most companies rely on
customer targeting revealed that sales force time was scattered management judgment or outside experts to derive strategic
across too many physicians. By strategically concentrating sales impact scores for the drivers.
activity on approximately 35 percent of the highest-valued The sales force performance scorecard provides a snapshot
physicians, the company realized a significant sales increase and of the organization’s performance on the various drivers and
a large sales productivity improvement. In another initiative, the strategic impact of the drivers at a particular point in time.
high-performing salespeople (who were identified through a An example scorecard is presented in Figure 12.
combination of data analysis and sales manager input) were The position of each driver on the scorecard suggests an
observed on typical sales calls in order to identify the levers that action. For example, an effectiveness driver with low strategic
they used to influence the customer-buying process. Average impact but high performance, such as sales force size in the
performers were observed on calls as well, and their behavior example, can be maintained at current levels for the time be-
was contrasted with that of the high performers. A set of ing. Effectiveness drivers with high strategic impact and high
success principles differentiating top-performing salespeople performance, such as motivation programs in the example,
was identified, and these principles were incorporated into a need to be monitored closely to ensure that their performance
 Spring 2008 129

Figure 12
A Sales Force Performance Scorecard

stays high. Those with low strategic impact and low perfor- World and the Sales System, the Sales Force Effectiveness
mance, such as indirect marketing support in the example, Framework provides a holistic and consistent view of sales
can be monitored in case the impact of the driver increases organizations that sales practitioners and academics can use to
over time. Top priority for management attention goes to assess sales force effectiveness and diagnose and address sales
effectiveness drivers with low performance and high strategic force issues and concerns.
impact, such as training, sales manager development, target- The framework suggests three opportunities for additional
ing, and sales force tools in the example. These areas present research. First, broader, issue-based research is needed to ad-
the greatest opportunity for effectiveness gains. dress the issues that practitioners find to be most salient and
The sales force performance scorecard is very specific to challenging. Several illustrative examples are
the company and its condition at the time that the assessment
• What is the best way to motivate a sales force that has
is conducted. Drivers move to the right as the sales force’s
grown complacent?
performance increases or to the left as performance decreases
• How do you prevent the best salespeople from leaving
when changes in the environment render current practices
the company and taking business to competitors?
less effective. Drivers also move up or down as their strategic
• How do you get a sales force to allocate time appropri-
impact changes due to changes in environmental conditions
ately across products and customer segments? When
and company strategy. Insights are gained when assessments
are structure, incentives, or performance management
are conducted on a regular basis and changes are tracked over
the most appropriate solutions?
time. Figure 13 compares the performance scores in Figure
• How do you create a culture of responsibility and ac-
12 to last year’s scores. The company has improved its per-
countability?
formance on several drivers, but performance has slipped on
• How do you overcome a weak sales management team?
some others.
• How do you manage poor performers effectively?

SUMMARY AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS Research can help to establish theories and build practical
processes for adjusting the sales force effectiveness drivers to
Sales practitioners and researchers alike benefit from a sys- address these and other critical sales management concerns. This
tematic and comprehensive approach to assessing sales force research can be particularly challenging and also very powerful
effectiveness. By organizing the complexities of the Selling because addressing these issues requires multidriver solutions.
130 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Figure 13
Changes in Sales Force Effectiveness Driver Performance from Last Year

Second, research is needed that helps companies better as- DC (available at http://stats.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat
sess and track sales force effectiveness driver performance and .htm#b41-0000).
measure the return on investment of different drivers. Analytic Cohen, Andy (2000), “Copy Cats,” Sales and Marketing Manage-
tools can be improved and extended through research, result- ment, 152, 8 (August), 50–58.
ing in more accurate sales force effectiveness assessment. Cron, William L., Greg W. Marshall, Jagdip Singh, Rosann L.
Spiro, and Harish Sujan (2005), “Salesperson Selection,
Finally, more research is needed that focuses on individual Training, and Development: Trends, Implications, and
sales force effectiveness drivers to define best practices or best Research Opportunities,” Journal of Personal Selling & Sales
processes, to reveal what works and what does not, and to Management, 25, 2 (Spring), 123–136.
develop driver improvement methods. Interestingly, the big- Greene, Kelly, and Rick Brooks (2001), “Georgia’s Gas Deregula-
gest effect is likely to come from blending the quantitative tion Proves Messy—Surge of Complaints May Offer Lessons
and qualitative disciplines. The framework provides a starting for Other States,” Wall Street Journal (January 15), A2.
point upon which multidisciplinary studies can be built. Heide, Christen P. (1999), Dartnell’s 30th Sales Force Compensa-
tion Survey, Chicago: Dartnell Corporation.
Ingram, Thomas N., Raymond W. LaForge, William B. Locander,
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