Sales Organization:

Session 9
Sanjeev Varshney

Purpose of Sales Organization

Division

and Specialization of Labor

Stability and Continuity of Organizational
Performance
Coordination and Integration

Basic concepts in sales

organization
Division of work
Degree of Centralization
Degree of specialization
Line or Staff Function
Marketing Orientation
Effective Co-ordination
Span of Control
Unity of Command
Unity of Direction
Scalar Chain

Basic types of Sales

Organisation
Line

sales organisation
Line & staff sales organisation
Functional sales organisation
Horizontal organisation

Specialisation within sales

organisation
Geographic

specialisation
Product specialisation
Market specialisation
Matrix sales organisation
Alternative sales organisations for major
customers:

Major account management team

Modern retail management team
New markets management team

Framework
Preferred in

Advantages

Disadvantages

Small Organisation with

small no of sales man

Clear authority &

responsibility
Less costly
Quick decision making

Too much dependent

on Head of sales
No support of
specialized people

Line & staff

Medium and large sized Co.
sales
Number of customer is
organisation large
Market coverage is wide
Large and wide product line

Better marketing
decisions with specialist
staff
Better focus of sales
people

Higher cost & coordination

Slower decision
making
Situations of conflict

Functional
Large sized companies with
Sales
large product portfolio
organisation

Qualified sales force

guiding the sales force
High degree of division of
labor

Situations of conflict
Very high cost of coordination

Horizontal
Large sized companies with
organisation multiple customers. Work in
teams

Reduction in supervision
and costs
Improvement in
efficiency

Possible in self
motivated teams only

Line sales
Organisatio
n

Changing Forms of Sales

Organisation

Large sales organization vs smaller sales

organisation structures (push vs pull strategy)
Increasing specialisation
Project Team Based sales organisation structure (IT,
BPO, KPO)
Customer Based sales Organization structure
(Large Sales account like Wal-mart for P&G)
Outsourcing the Sales Function
Dynamic Sales Organisation Structure: Increasing
role of Manager as Change Agent

Assignment 3
For Case titled Eureka Forbes, comment on the
suitability of the new sales performance evaluation
plan. Should this be rolled out? If yes would you
recommend some changes to the plan & why?
Explain the reasons for the failure of the current
sales process that were observed by Goklaney in
the field.
Comment on the other sales management
practices at Eureka forbes Ltd. What changes
would you recommend ?