Increasing salesforce size at the right time can provide a firm with a competitive advantage.
Answer: True
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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.
- 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.