Valter Afonso Vieira Danny Pimentel Claro About the authors Show ABSTRACTSales management is an integral part of virtually all market exchanges. Marketing team, sales opportunities, salesperson skills, firm sales resources, digital platforms, and sales compensation plan create a marketing-salesperson-firm dynamic underlying the sales prospecting framework. Firm’s managers continuously strive to deal with these manifold elements of such dynamic context. This article offers an overview of the sales prospecting effort and sheds light on how firms generate superior performance by managing three interconnected elements. The marketing team (e.g., generating leads), salesperson competence (e.g., individual and team competence), and the firm being ready to deploy sales structure (e.g., sales platform) result in superior performance. By thinking outside the box, the authors propose the Salespeople Prospecting Framework with multiple associations based on previous marketing, sales, and retail research. The authors discuss implications for managing the sales funnel and offer suggestions for further research investigation. Keywords: Keywords: With changes in the business landscape in recent years due to social media sales, consumers’ online purchases and in-store pick up, inbound marketing activities (Vieira, Almeida, Agnihotri, Silva, & Arunachalam, 2019Vieira, V. A., Faia, V. S., Boles, J., Marioti, B. R., & Pereira, R. C. (2019). The
role of self-regulatory mode on acquisition-retention ambidexterity. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 34(8), 1813-1826. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-03-2018-0114 Following sales literature, sales management refers to firm’s sales operations that include managing salespeople and their managers, implementing technology tools to assist multiple activities,
such as delivering, ordering, and managing customer account (Weitz & Bradford, 1999Weitz, B. A., & Bradford, K. D. (1999). Personal selling and sales management: A relationship marketing perspective. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 27(2), 241. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070399272008 Figure
1 While sales prospecting follows a course of action from the consumer’s need to the marketing intelligence records, and from the salesperson-customer approach to firm processes and resources, there is a lack of comprehensive outlook on how sales prospecting develops because existing literature is disperse (Hartmann, Wieland, & Vargo, 2018Hartmann, N. N., Wieland, H., & Vargo, S. L. (2018).
Converging on a new theoretical foundation for selling. Journal of Marketing, 82(2), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.16.0268 MARKETING TEAMProspecting marketing team manages lead generation, dissemination, and creation of market response to customer and competitor movements. Previous investigation found that this team influences long-term future shareholder returns and short-term return on assets (Feng, Morgan, & Rego, 2015Feng, H., Morgan, N. A., & Rego. L. L .
(2015). Marketing department power and firm performance. Journal of Marketing, 79(5), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.13.0522 When firms have
a customer-oriented marketing team, they can identify new leads and aid qualify leads into prospect buyers leveraging salesperson competence, planning the sales approach, and using processes (Andzulis, Panagopoulos, & Rapp, 2012Andzulis, J. M., Panagopoulos, N. G., & Rapp, A. (2012). A review of social media and implications for the sales process. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), 305-316.
https://doi.org/10.2753/PSS0885-3134320302 First, lead generation encompasses sales funnel processes (Figure 1, Panel B-left) of discovering and developing awareness of potential buyers about products and services (Sabnis et al., 2013Sabnis, G.,
Chatterjee, S. C., Grewal, R., & Lilien, G. L. (2013). The sales lead black hole: On sales reps’ follow-up of marketing leads. Journal of Marketing , 77(1), 52-67. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.10.0047 Based on Figure 1 (see Panel B-right), research suggests that the use of marketing developed sales influences tactics in customer encounters to increase lead generation and qualification and facilitate the flow into the sales funnel (Pöyry,
Parvinen, & McFarland, 2017Pöyry, E., Parvinen, P., & McFarland, R. G. (2017). Generating leads with sequential persuasion: Should sales influence tactics be consistent or complementary? Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 37(2), 89-99. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2016.1275973 By being customer-centric, marketing team facilitates the customer journey through a variety of touch points across online and offline channels on his/her paths to
purchase (Venkatesan, Petersen, & Guissoni, 2018Venkatesan, R., Petersen, J. A., & Guissoni, L. (2018). Measuring and managing customer engagement value through the customer journey. In R. W. Palmatier, V. Kumar, & C. M. Harmeling (Eds.), Customer engagement marketing (pp. 53-74). London: Palgrave Macmillan.). Along the customer journey through touch points in manifold channels and media, marketing and salespeople need “to
integrate multiple business functions, and even external partners, in creating and delivering positive customer experiences” (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.15.0420 Second, sales planning as a prospect marketing focus refers to the process of stimulating potential buyers with the main goal of moving them down the sales funnel (Jolson & Wotruba,
1992Jolson, M. A., & Wotruba, T. R. (1992). Selling and sales management in action: Prospecting: A new look at this old challenge. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 12(4), 59-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.1992.10753928 SALESPERSON COMPETENCEAccording to the extensive meta-analysis conducted by Verbeke, Dietz, and Verwaal (2011)Verbeke, W., Dietz, B.,
& Verwaal, E. (2011). Drivers of sales performance: A contemporary meta-analysis. Have salespeople become knowledge brokers? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39(3), 407-428. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-010-0211-8 First, individual
and team salespeople competence of assessing customer knowledge increases new consumer buying behavior (e.g., omnichannel cross-buying), cross- and up-selling (Johnson & Friend, 2015Johnson, J. S., & Friend, S. B. (2015). Contingent cross-selling and up-selling relationships with performance and job satisfaction: An MOA-theoretic examination. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 35(1), 51-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2014.940962
Second, managing sales opportunity is critical for sales prospecting activities. The number of sales opportunities opened is intimately related to the quality of lead generation. Only about 30% of the number of opportunities identified by marketing converts into an effective sale (Michiels,
2009Michiels, I. (2009). Lead lifecycle management: Building a pipeline that never leaks (Research Report), Aberdeen Group. Retrieved from https://www.ontargetpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Building_A_Pipeline_That_Never_Leaks_by_AberdeenGroup.pdf SALES STRUCTURETo promote sales prospecting activities, firms devoted considerable attention to sales structure. In recent years, it has become feasible to
invest in electronic sales platforms fostering automation and integration of systems, and also effectively tracking sales cycle time and salesperson compensation (Basu, Lal, Srinivasan, & Staelin, 1985Basu, A. K., Lal, R., Srinivasan, V., & Staelin, R. (1985). Salesforce compensation plans: An agency theoretic perspective. Marketing Science, 4(4), 267-291. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.4.4.267
Firms need to assure the provided resources are fully automated and integrated such as the ERP system with CRM sales platforms. By implementing smart CRM functionalities, salespeople gain time not having to enter data into the system. For instance, the salesperson’s calendar and customer visits can be integrated, as well as
geolocalization can serve as a way to check in the salesperson in the customer office. Business reports show that CRM system is relevant and can change the way that salespeople “are spending a mere 37% of their time actually selling and 63% on everything else” (Voskresensky, 2019Voskresensky, V. (2019, April). How sellers can accelerate their sales cycles with a more human touch. Forbes . Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/04/02/how-sellers-can-accelerate-their-sales-cycles-with-a-more-human-touch/#35774f6de5c0 Firm processes and resources may also influence performance because of opportunity
sales cycle time. The cycle time refers to the time since the first contact with the potential buyer or when identifying a sales opportunity for an existing client to converting it into a win. The earlier the sales cycle time ends, the earlier salespeople achieve their quota, goals, and attain firms’ performance (Bradford et al., 2016Bradford, W., Johnston, W. J., & Bellenger, D. (2016, September). The impact of sales effort on lead conversion cycle time in
a business-to-business opportunity pipeline. Proceedings of the International Engaged Management Scholarship Conference, Paris, France, 6. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2866954 Attempting to reduce sales cycle time may eventually have negative effects on salesperson’s compensation and
consequently on performance outcome (Chung et al., 2013Chung, D. J., Steenburgh, T., & Sudhir, K. (2013). Do bonuses enhance sales productivity? A dynamic structural analysis of bonus-based compensation plans. Marketing Science, 33(2), 165-187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2013.0815 FUTURE DIRECTIONSTo account for recent business developments and advance firm performance outcome, we propose and discuss a sales prospecting framework including key elements of (a) marketing team, (b) salesperson competence, and (c) sales structure. We recognize, and elaborate on previous sections, the interplay between these elements and how firms can generate greater levels of revenues and profits. The interplay between these elements happens because marketing team generates leads and develops sales plan that is leveraged by salesperson’s competence on sales knowledge, adaptive selling, cross-functional collaboration, and abilities for multi-task activities, such as social media, prospecting, and customer acquisition. The marketing team and salesperson rely on the sales structure to use the sales platform, processes, and resources. The sales structure is in turn designed by the marketing team and based on the salespeople’s knowledge. Such intertwined elements result in more effective sales prospecting efforts and consequently increase firm performance. Further research can dedicate additional work to empirically test specific effects of the elements or the entire framework. We identify three main streams of research opportunities for future investigation. First, research into digital sales platforms could deepen our understanding of how salespeople gain effectiveness into prospecting efforts. As such platforms have become popular in sales organizations, researchers have the opportunity to collect long historic data to shed light on particular tactics and sales prospecting best practices. For instance, identifying how timely salesperson responds to the lead and what kind of customized content has the most performance impact. Matching salesperson prospecting efforts with customer and market specificities can help researchers and managers plan and effectively execute the prospecting strategy. This additional research can contribute to sales management literature by showing how social media platform boosts sales via effective lead generation effort. Second, business social media has offered vast promise for quite some time and those promises are just beginning to be realized. The
dynamic movement of records in the sales funnel has never been so easy to collect. Many firms now use social media like LinkedIn to find and approach contacts as potential customers. Salespeople have been active in gathering critical information to warm the cold call approach. Researchers can draw historical behavioral data from such social media and enrich that with customer, salespeople, and market data. This may help predict interesting pattern of sales funnel progression and, most
importantly, inform sales research and managers on how to efficiently manage sales prospecting efforts. This steam of research opportunity will shed light on how firms need to manage their echoverse social media model to increase sales touch and conversion (Vieira, Almeida, et al., 2019Vieira, V. A., Faia, V. S., Boles, J., Marioti, B. R., & Pereira, R. C. (2019). The role of self-regulatory mode on acquisition-retention ambidexterity. Journal of Business
& Industrial Marketing, 34(8), 1813-1826. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-03-2018-0114 Third, it remains a challenge for firms to integrate software systems (e.g., CRM, ERP) as they are hardly implemented as one full piece. These systems can have positive impact on customer relationship, whether offline or online. Firms in consumer-packaged goods
targeting traditional medium and small retailers have developed automated self-service online order platforms. This releases salesperson from transactional duties and enables them to improve customer service. Such system integration suggests a host of research possibilities. Studies could pursue a better understanding of the short- and long-term benefits and consequences of different software systems supporting sales prospecting efforts. This steam of research can contribute to sales management
literature by suggesting how software can be designed to leverage network connection (Claro et al., 2013Claro, D. P., Laban Neto, S., & Claro, P. B. D. O. (2013). The enhancing impact of friendship networks on sales managers' performance. Brazilian Administration Review, 10(2), 158-175.
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1807-76922013000200004. ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors would like to thank the editor, the associate editor and the referees for their constructive comments. REFERENCES
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