Book Preface

The new edition of Management of a Sales Force is coming out in the early years of a new century. The market environment in the new century is dramatically different. The age and ethnic mixes of the population of the United States are changing considerably; the population is getting older and less white. Many Americans are part of a minority group. People's values are changing as we show more concern for our social and physical environments and our overall quality of life. Along with these changes, we now expect that leaders in government, business, and other institutions adhere to higher standards of ethical and social responsibility than in the past. In this century, most businesses will be internationally oriented, buying from and/or selling to the global markets. Today the U.S. market has reached the saturation point for many consumer and industrial products; but new markets such as Eastern Europe and China have opened up. European, Asian, and U.S. trade agreements have made it easier for companies to sell products and services in Europe, Asia, Central and South America, and Canada. Growth for many American companies in the twenty-first century will come from the Asian, European, and South and Central American markets. At the same time, competition in the United States from foreign competitors has greatly intensified.

New developments in communication and information technology are changing our everyday lives and our business practices. Most salespeople now use some type of computer technology to assist them in serving their customers, and most sales managers use computer technology to assist them in managing their salespeople. Customers too are using new technologies, such as the Internet, to assist them in gathering product information and in making purchase decisions. Today's customers demand higher quality and greater levels of service.

As a result of these economic and competit ive pressures and the social and cultural changes, companies are being forced to become more market oriented-more responsive to the customer. The role of the sales force is expanding greatly. The salesperson of the twenty-first century is a professional who is as much a marketing consultant as a salesperson. These new salespeople are engaged in consultative relationships with their customers. They are expected to solve customer problems, not just sell products. Their focus is on building long-term relationships with their customers. In many cases, companies respond to their customers' needs by using selling teams, rather than a single salesperson.

As the nature of personal selling changes, so does the role of the sales manager. Today's sales managers are viewed as team leaders rather than bosses. They empower and collaborate with their salespeople rather than control and dominate them. Managers in this century are being asked to manage multiple sales channels, such as telemarketing and electronic marketing as well as field salespeople. They are also assuming a greater responsibility for directing and coordinating the marketing efforts of their firms.

Your career success will depend greatly on your ability to adapt to the environmental challenges and changes that will occur throughout this decade. The contents of this book can be valuable to you because you will use the knowledge contained in your sales course fairly immediately. Within a very few years many of you may well be some type of sales force manager, perhaps at a district level. Even as salespeople, you may be called upon to use material covered in this book. The year following your graduation, you may come back to your alma mater as a member of your firm's employee recruiting team. Or you may be called upon for suggestions regarding a proposed compensation, expense, or quota plan. We wrote this book to help make the transition from college to a professional selling career easier for you.