Sales people build long-term relationships with their clients. They are also tasked with negotiating the final sales terms. A B2B sales force structure includes sales professionals that specialize in territorial, product, industry and integrated sales. Internal sales people conduct their sales responsibilities from their offices. External sales people travel to the customer site for sales presentations. B2B line and staff organizations consist of a hierarchy of regional sales managers with direct reports. The sales managers create the sales strategy and oversee its implementation. The organization is typically supported by specialists in market forecasting. B2B functional organizations are divided by function. Each function is managed by an expert that specialized in that function.
Instructions
1. Determine whether the B2B sales force organization is a functional or line organization. Talk to a manager within the organization and ask him if he manages a region, a customer account or a specific function within his organization. This provides an indication of whether the sales force is specialize by product, customer or geographic territory.
2. Determine whether the organization has a separate support department that focuses on market forecasting. This provides a sense of the depth of the company's market strategy.
3. Evaluate whether the sales organization operates independently (decentralized) or is influenced by the company headquarters (centralized). A decentralized B2B sales structure indicates that the sales organization is fairly large.
4. Analyze the company's internet and social media B2B marketing strategies to understand the role of B2B Internet sales within the sales structure.
Tags: sales force, whether sales, Determine whether, market forecasting, sales managers, sales organization, sales people