LOYOLA INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ADMINSTRATION

PGDM F13
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT
Take-Home Assignment (Individual)
Submission date: 31/08/2014

Submit handwritten answers (not exceeding 200 words) Marks: 10

1. Discuss the ideal leadership styles for managing sales teams of today.

Most salespeople use their own leadership style to guide a team and get work done by them
effectively. While some appear to be natural leaders, others may use facts and strong analysis to
arrive at decisions. No single style works best in all situations. Therefore it is important for one
to understand his own leadership style and modify it based on different situations. The following
are the various leadership styles in sales:

Controllers
Controllers are identified by their commanding nature with their team. Generally extroverted,
punctual and efficient, they focus on tasks that generate results and keep a close eye on the
bottom line. Controllers prefer to take a straightforward approach to communication with clients.
However, a take-charge attitude can mean a resistance to delegating important tasks to others.
Promoters
Promoters are extroverts, motivating and optimistic leaders who focus on the big picture. Their
weaknesses can include a lack of organization, an inability to focus on details and difficulty
keeping track of time. Networking is their key plus point.
Supporters
Supporters are nurturing and good at developing close relationships with clients. They could be
introverted and disorganized. They have consistent interactions with people and are sensitive to
the feelings of others.
Analysts
Analysts are detail-oriented sales leaders who focus on quality. They are good planners and take
pride in having accurate information. They excel at assessing and managing risk.


2. How has IT helped in managing dispersed sales teams today?

The purpose of IT is to bridge the gap between the needs of a business and the available
technology. While technology is growing at an incredible rate, most salespeople are busy
building relationships and generating revenue. The likely result when salespersons coordinate
with the IT team is that they will use them to their full advantage and uncover more time in their
day to do what they do best: build relationships.
The business benefits promised by IT in sales can be elusive - Customer Relationship
Management (CRM), Sales Force Automation (SFA), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), web
portals, real-time communication, web sites, collaboration, presence, email, voice mail, unified
messaging, mobile web etc.
The usage of IT in sales can be classified into the following categories:
Customer and partner facing technologies- facilitate communication and collaboration
with customers and partners
Field sales technologies- facilitate efficiency and productivity that your front line uses
every day to track progress
Corporate facing technologies- facilitate bilateral communication by interfacing your
sales organization with the rest of the company
Marketing technologies- link Marketing to Sales, facilitate front end pipeline activity,
assist to create demand and ideally, pass that information seamlessly into the sales
organization
3. How are sales objectives aligned with corporate objectives.

The several categories under which corporate objectives are considered are:
Community
Financial
Human Resources
Operations
Products and/or services
Sales & Marketing

Sales will have corporate objectives from other categories in addition to the separate Sales &
Marketing category as mentioned. Some basic objectives incorporates in sales are:



4. What is Sales Audit? Discuss its importance.

A sales audit is a review of a company's entire sales process, from the use of particular types of
software, to the staff, to management strategies. This type of audit is different from a financial
audit in which a company evaluates their operating costs against their sales revenues. A sales
audit evaluates the effectiveness of every aspect of the sales process and helps companies
determine whether or not their methods are cost effective and beneficial in generating revenue.
Some businesses choose to perform this process themselves, often with the aid of
specialized audit software, and others prefer to have an outside consultant objectively carry out
the evaluation.
The Sales Audit is an objective review of the structure, systems, style, staff, skills, strategy, and
shared values of your sales effort, with special emphasis on people and motivation (including
compensation). The focus of a Sales Audit is to advise sales management on how to hire, how to
evaluate, how to coach people, how to develop effective sales strategies, how to design and
implement appropriate departmental structures and systems, how to teach selling skills, and how
to develop effective sales management styles
Sales auditors may begin by analysing the atmosphere in which a company works, both
externally and internally. The external environment refers to the market size in which a company
markets their product, the market demand for that product, and the growth trends in that area.
The internal environment refers to the culture of the company itself, including the ways in which
the sales team interact with one another and the nature of their relationships with their managers.
This typically provides a basis for the sales auditor to evaluate the sales performance a company
desires versus what they are actually achieving.
Auditors may next consider a companys specific goals and the sales tactics used to achieve
those goals, including long-term and short-term goals. The audit can evaluate how effectively
management communicates its sales goals to the sales team, for example. It also can be used to
analyze whether the sales strategies used during the time frame of the audit reflect those goals.
These strategies may include setting numerical goals for sales teams, offering rewards in the
form of contests and commissions to encourage the team to achieve those goals, and monitoring
the achievement of those goals in a timely manner.
A companys sales structure and hiring process may also play an important role in the sales
process, as it relates to the structuring of various departments that work together to assist the
sales team. A company can request that their auditor review the inner workings of their support
staff, such as accounting or billing departments and marketing departments. The sales auditor
may seek to learn how these departments work together with the sales department and whether
they effectively communicate with one another regarding interdepartmental needs. Some audits
may use this facet of the process to help a company evaluate future and potential employees by
constructing hiring guidelines to enable the company to hire personalities that fit well within
their specific sales structure and company culture.
At the end of a sales audit, a company typically receives a report delineating their strengths and
weaknesses and suggested ways in which they might improve their overall sales tactics. The
general goal of a sales audit is the improvement of overall sales performance in regards to
management expectations and the increase in the predictability of results. Repeated, predictable
results in regards to sales productivity typically guarantee the sales process is functioning with a
high degree of reliability and efficiency.
5. Discuss on any new training method adopted by companies for training sales people and
explain how the effectiveness is measured.
There are two types of training that fall under the umbrella of sales training. The first is
teaching the mechanics of sales: how to go about selling in the general sense, with an emphasis
perhaps on the sales techniques that work best for your industry. The second is company-specific
training: details about your products and services, the sales process that your team is expected to
use, tools and resources, etc.
Every salesperson, no matter how experienced, can benefit from both types of sales training.
Learning how to sell is an ongoing process. There are always new strategies and new
technologies that your team must learn in order to sell effectively.
When you bring a new salesperson on board, the priority will be in company-specific training.
Unless your new employee is a rank beginner theyll have at least a basic grasp of the mechanics
of selling, but its likely they wont know much about your own products or how your particular
sales process works.
The easiest way to get started is often to sit the new salesperson down with your customer
service team. The customer service folks are intimately familiar with your products, and will
know what existing customers like most (and least) about them. Let the new salesperson listen in
on a few customer service calls, and give them access to documentation about the products (user
guides, brochures, websites, etc.).
Once your new employee is familiar with your product line, pair them up with an experienced
salesperson. Listening to phone calls and riding along on appointments gives your new
employees an idea of the process. Ideally, theyll get to see at least one sale go through the entire
process.
Finally, switch roles and have the new salesperson make calls and take appointments with a
senior salesperson (or sales manager) observing. Not only will you find out how well they
absorbed your company information, youll also get a look at their general sales knowledge.
Now youll know how much mechanical sales training your new employee needs.
If your new salesperson demonstrates weaknesses in particular areas (for example, theyre great
at getting appointments but choke at the close) then it might be time for some basic training. You
can either train internally (do it yourself or assign a senior salesperson) or externally (signing
your new employee up for a sales training class, for example).
Internal training is cheaper and you can customize it perfectly to your employees needs, but it is
time consuming and can end up costing you more in the long run, if your best salesperson is
spending hours training instead of making sales! An alternative is to combine both approaches:
sign the new salesperson up for an external class, then arrange for them to practice by setting up
roleplaying or sending them out on appointments.
New team members are not the only ones who will need sales training. Anytime you add a new
product or service, your salespeople need to know about it. If you change the sales process (for
example, adding an ecommerce component to your website) your sales team needs to know
about that, too. And if you have the resources its a great idea to periodically set up training for
your salespeople, so they can learn new sales skills and hone existing skills.

6. Comment on a few contemporary distribution systems adopted today.



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