Functional organization

We have already discuss some important factor for the organization and those are customer organization, control organization etc…Today we are going to discuss on functional organization which is most important part of any organization and it can useful for any small business. A functional organization can be characterized as giving staff managers line authority for a product, brand, or aspect of the salesman’s performance. Instead or one manager giving him orders, the salesman may have several. Herein lies two deterrents to the functional organization division of responsibility and conflict of interest.

With a functional organization, field sales gets the advantages of specialization. Market plans developed by product managers will carry line rather than advisory authority, thus materially increasing the odds for implementation. By narrowing the scope of the field sales manager’s job to primarily direction and control he can become more specialized. Organizing on the basis of job aspects such as marketing research, advertising, and sales analysis is not nearly as prevalent as it once was with the changing role of field sales as a function of marketing.

Instant Life Insurance rates, Term Life Insurance, Sales Force Management

Span-of-control organization

Firms that use one or more of the other bases of division may combine them with span-of-control organization. This form of organizational structure is predicated on the assumption that there is some ideal or desirable span of control for a field sales manager. The determined number is considered a reasonable maximum for optimizing field sales manager’s performance relative to the selling efforts of salesmen. More than this number and the field sales manager will not have sufficient time for each of the salesmen assigned to his jurisdiction.

One manufacturer has determined that the ideal span of control for their district sales managers is ten salesmen. There is no stated number above ten when splits are made. Rarely, however, will a district be allowed to get any bigger than 15 salesmen. Future sales prospects have a lot of influence of the timing of the split at a lower number than might otherwise be the case.

The main drawback is the inverse relationship of the span of control to the number of tiers of sales management. The narrower the span of control, the more likely will be the necessity of another level of dales management. This increase in executive overhead raises disproportionately selling expenses as a percent of sales. A second drawback is the difficulty that may be experienced in determining when a new sales unit should be broken out.

Customer organization

In our last post we have discussed on sales force management and product organization. Today we are going to talk on customer organization which is most important part of any small business. To orient the field sales organization to the market a firm may make use of a customer basis. The type of industry corresponding to SIC category and the channel of distribution are two widely used classes of customer. For example, if it is for blinds industry where they are selling different products like vertical blinds, roman shades online, than for them channel of distribution is different. While for Instant term life insurance rates company who are providing life insurance quotes online, channel of distribution is different. What a firm seeks to achieve in limiting a salesman’s efforts to selected group of customers is specialization in servicing their particular needs. Market factors conducive to the use of a customer base include:
(1) geographical concentration to facilitate the equating of customer sets with geographical assignments;

(2) substantial sales and profits to justify the assignment of sales personnel; and

(3) distinctiveness in needs to permit differentiation between customer segments.

Organizing of the basis of customers rather than products offers the practical advantage of less territorial overlap with specialization. There is still the added costs of some territorial overlap plus the possibility the salesman may be called upon to sell a diverse range of products.

Product organization

Two conditions are conducive to the use of a product basis in organizing field sales. One is that the firm markets a diverse range of products or product lines. By limiting the product types he is accountable for, a salesman can become more of a product specialist. This may be especially important from a competitive standpoint when products are technically complex in nature. The second is the determination that product knowledge is the primary marketing input for the salesman.

While a product division appears ideally suited to industrial marketers, several prominent consumer-good marketers use this basis of organization for field sales. General Foods, for example, divides up the field sales organization by brands. Another large marketer of essentially grocery products separates its field sales organization into food and nonfood.

A major disadvantage of the product organization is the duplication of effort. Two or more salesmen from the same company will travel in the same geographical area, possibly calling on the same accounts and purchasing contacts. Another disadvantage is the added expense of hiring product or brand managers to provide staff assistance. Still an-other disadvantage is the possible development of insularity among salesmen causing them to lose sight of the other products marketed by the firm.

Sales Force Management

A geographical split by minimizing duplication of travel patterns is usually the most economical basis. Other advantages include enhanced adaptability to local market conditions, greater control, and quicker sales reactions. Working against a geographical basis alone works against this type of specialization. I was talking with the owner of online blinds store who are selling vertical blinds and roman shades blinds. He says that with sales force management it is really easy for them to manage geographically large areas with one location office. To retain the advantages of the geographical basis without incurring its limitations, it is often used in combination with either the product or consumer basis.

Product organization
Two conditions are conducive to the use of a product basis in organizing field sales. One is that the firm markets a diverse range of products or product lines. By limiting the product types he is accountable for, a salesman can become more of a product specialist. This may be especially important from a competitive standpoint when products are technically complex in nature. For instant life insurance rates company who are providing life insurance quotes online, they says that they need term life insurance agents who are expert in their field. More experience they have more business they are going to give. The second is the determination that product knowledge is the primary marketing input for the salesman.

Internet marketing

Internet marketing, also referred to as web marketing, online marketing, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet.

The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media; however, Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems.

Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing does not simply entail building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company's business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.

Ref: Wikipedia