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Chapter 15: Professional Sales
Chapter Objectives
1. Explain the role and nature of personal selling and the role of the sales force.
2. Describe the basics of managing the sales force, and explain how to set sales force
4. Discuss supervising salespeople, including directing, motivation, and evaluating
performance.
Teaching Suggestions
The following explanations and suggestions are outlined based on the Chapter Objectives.
1. Explain the role and nature of personal selling and the role of the sales force.
customers. The sales
representative is the company to many customers and in turn brings back much needed
customer intelligence. Personal selling is the most expensive contact and communication
tool used by the company. Sales representatives perform one or more of the following
tasks for their companies:
Prospecting: Sales representatives find and cultivate new customers
Servicing: Sales representatives provide various services to the customers
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2. Describe the basics of managing the sales force, and explain how to set sales force
strategy, how to pick a structure territorial, product, customer, or complex and
how to ensure that sales force size is appropriate.
Hospitality companies typically establish objectives for the sales force. Sales objectives
are essential to ensure that corporate goals are met and to assist sales force members to
plan and execute their personal sales programs.
The diverse nature of the hospitality industry means that different types of sales force
structures have evolved. These include:
Territorial-Structured Sales Force: This is the simplest sales organization. Each
Market-Channel-Structured Sales Force: The importance of marketing
Combination-Structured Sales Force: Proponents of this believe it encourages the
After determining the type and number of desired customers, a workload approach can be
used to establish sales force size:
(1) Customers are grouped into size classes according to their annual sales volume
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3. Identify the key issues in recruiting, selecting, training, and compensating
salespeople.
A good assignment for this topic could be having your students interview a salesperson
about the recruiting process they went through and any training they have undergone
(many salespeople might be reluctant to discuss their compensation).
Recruiting: Careful selection is important. At the heart of a successful sales-force
4. Discuss supervising salespeople, including directing, motivation, and evaluating
performance.
The majority of sales representatives require encouragement and special incentives to
5. Apply the principles of the personal selling process, and outline the steps in the
selling process: prospecting and qualifying, preapproach and approach,
presentation and demonstration, negotiation, overcoming objections, closing, and
follow-up.
A good class activity for this section is roleplaying the selling process. Break students
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Selling today is a profession that involves mastering and applying a set of principles,
including:
Prospecting and Qualifying: Sales representatives need skill in screening out poor
Approach:
follow-up remarks
Presentation and Demonstration: The salesperson now tells
Chapter Outline
I. Management of Professional Sales [Slide 15-4]
II. Nature of Hospitality Sales [Slide 15-5]
III. Sales Force Objectives [Slide 15-6]
O. Sales volume [Slide 15-7]
1.Sales volume by selected segments
Z. Upselling and second-chance selling. Excellent profit opportunities exist for
hospitality companies, particularly hotels and resorts, to upgrade price and profit
margins by selling higher-priced products such as suites through upselling. A
related concept is second-chance selling.
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IV. Sales Force Structure and Size [Slides 15-8 to 15-9]
A. Territorial-structured sales force. Each sales representative is assigned an
1.Territory size. Territories are designed to provide either equal sales
B. Market-segment structured sales force. Company structures its sales force based
on market segments.
C. Market-channel structured sales force. The importance of marketing
D. Customer-structured sales force. A sales force is organized by market segment,
F. Sales force size [Slide 15-9]
2.The desirable call frequencies (number of sales calls on an account per
V. Organizing the Sales Department [Slide 15-10]
A. Inside sales force. The inside sales force includes technical support persons, sales
VI. Relationship Marketing and Strategic Alliances. The art of creating a closer working
relationship and interdependence between the people in two organizations.
A. Strategic alliances. Alliances are relationships between independent parties that
VII. Recruiting and Selecting Sales Representatives. [Slide 15-11] The effective salesperson
has two basic qualities: (1) empathy, the ability to feel as the customer does, and (2) ego
drive, a strong personal need to make the sales.
A. Importance of careful selection. Effective salespeople have two basic qualities:
VIII. Managing the Sales Force [Slide 15-13]
A. Selecting sales strategies. The following are six general sales strategies:
4.Prevent erosion of key accounts
B. Sales force tactics: principles of personal selling. [Slide 15-14] These are
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C. Motivating a professional sales force [Slide 15-15]
2.Supplementary motivators
D. Evaluation and control of a professional sales force. [Slide 15-16] There are
IX. Social Selling: [Slide 15-17] Online, Mobile, and Social Media Tools. The use of online,
Answers to Discussion Questions
1. Why should companies be concerned about key or national accounts?
Key or national accounts are major accounts that provide a bulk of the business. While all
2. What are the most common methods of structuring a sales force?
This will depend on the type of operation and on any current trends. If you require your
students to interview a salesperson (see Teaching Suggestions #3 above), you can have
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3. Discuss the importance of establishing sales objectives and the various kinds of sales
force objectives common to the hospitality industry.
Sales objectives are essential for two reasons: they ensure that corporate goals are met
and they assist sales force members to plan and execute their personal sales programs.
Although sales objectives are custom designed, there are general objectives commonly
employed by members of the hospitality industry:
Sales Volume: Bring in as many customers as possible
4. Many people feel they do not have the ability to be successful salespeople. What role
does training play in helping someone to develop selling ability?
This is a great topic for class discussion. For example, training can provide someone with
5. Discuss the process of negotiation and how sales force members can use it
effectively.
6.
What would you do if your company expected you to sell a product that you thought
was inferior to the competition s? Why?
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7. It has been said there are two parts to every sale: the part performed by the
salesperson and the part performed for the salesperson by his or her organization.
What should the company provide for the salesperson to help increase total sales?
This is another great topic for class discussion. It could also be an interesting question to
8.
average salesperson costs our company $40,000 in compensation and expenses. Why
-page ads in Time magazine and use the money to
hire more people? Surely one individual working for a year can sell more products
than a one-page ad in one issue of Time.
This is yet another great topic for class discussion. You will most likely have students on