Centralization within the management structure can be best described as
a. the degree to which important decisions and tasks are performed at higher levels in the management hierarchy.
b. definitive in nature, as organizations are either totally centralized or totally decentralized.
c. the extent to which lower-level managers have become responsible for important decisions and tasks.
d. the amount of task specialization that takes place within the major branches of the sales organization structure.
e. characterized by the decision to divide sales efforts on the basis of products or related lines of products.
Answer: A
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Sales Management Chapter 4
- Software is available that allows sales managers to evaluate many possible territory designs and to assess the impact of territory design changes easily.
- Advances in computer hardware and software have made the task of territory design much simpler and less time consuming than in the past.
- When finalizing territory design, the objective is to achieve the best possible balance between opportunity and workload for each territory.
- In general, management should use the largest planning and control unit that is feasible.
- The planning and control unit is some entity larger than a territory into which the firm's total market area is divided.
- The first step in territory design is to analyze the planning and control unit opportunity.
- Research suggests that salespeople who are satisfied with the design of their sales territory work harder.
- Outsourcing the salesforce is an attractive option if a company needs salespeople quickly.
- Increasing salesforce size at the right time can provide a firm with a competitive advantage.
- Salesforce size decisions must also be consistent with the organizational strategy being implemented by a firm.
- Accounts are more attractive the higher the account opportunity and the weaker the competitive position.
- The allocation of selling effort is one of the most important salesforce deployment decisions.
- High cost is one disadvantage of the market specialization sales organization structure.
- Strategic accounts can be served in only one of two ways: have the regular salespeople handle the account along with their other accounts or assign these accounts to sales executives along with their regular duties.
- A strategic account is generally considered as one yielding a large amount of sales dollars and having a complex buying process.
- The terms strategic account, key account and major account can be used interchangeably.
- Market specialization will result in customer duplication, but not geographic duplication.
- In product specialization, salespeople are assigned specific types of customers and required to satisfy all needs of these customers.
- In a firm with geographic specialization, there is no attempt to specialize by product, market, or function.
- If the firm has customers with similar needs and the firm sells a simple product offering, geography-driven specialization is recommended.
- If the firm has customers with similar needs and the firm sells a complex range of products, a product-specialized salesforce is recommended.
- One of the most important factors in determining the appropriate type of specialization is the similarity of customer needs.
- One of the most important factors in determining the appropriate type of specialization is the complexity of products offered by the firm.
- Centralization is most appropriate when sales organization activities are routine and repetitive.
- Sales management can focus on selling skill rather than selling effort by employing a generalized salesforce.