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Planning:
The First Step

We have established that the first step in sound management is planning. As field sales manager, you have planned well when:

1.You and your supervisor have reached agreed-upon objectives to be attained by a specific date, and have charted a course of action for achieving these objectives.

2.Each of your salespeople, in consultation with you, has agreed-upon objectives to be attained by a specific date and has determined upon a course of action for achieving these objectives.

Of course, you must find out what you are expected to do before you can start planning. How should you go about finding this out?

The Responsibilities of a Sales Manager

Consider the sight of a field sales manager undergoing an annual evaluation. Could this be you? You expected to be patted on the back when you first entered the boss’s office, but soon discover that your boss, while crediting you with all your achievements of the past year, has also found a number of shortcomings about which he expresses great concern. You protest: “I didn’t know I was supposed to do that,” or, “How could I tell that you considered this so important?” And your boss replies: “Any fool should have known that this was an important matter to be dealt with.” What is the problem in this scenario? It is that there was no written, agreed-upon set of objectives established at the beginning of the period by you and your boss. Could you have done anything about it? Yes.

The boss knows what he wants his sales manager to do, but you as sales manager must make sure that you know too. Every field sales manager should have a job description, and it should be in writing. If you do not have one, I suggest that you write a letter to your boss that goes something like this: “Dear Boss, I want very much to succeed in my job and want to be sure that I am doing everything I should be doing. So I have made a list of all the things that I think I should do in order to perform my job well. Will you please go over this list, delete what you think should not be there, add what I have omitted, clarify any statement that you feel is not clear or correct, and then return it to me.” This letter and the reply you receive will ordinarily constitute a good job description.

Even this job description may not contain the specifics of the manager’s job. As we have seen, planning has to do with the setting of specific objectives. This cannot be done until two important steps have been taken. First, you must receive from your supervisor those specific objectives that are part of the company’s overall plans. If top management wants greater emphasis put on the sale of a certain product line, then you must be so advised, and this project and its achievement will form a part of your planning. If top management has set a certain minimum increase in sales volume as an objective, you as field sales manager must know what part of that increase you are expected to produce, and this too will become a part of your planning.

Second, as manager you must set objectives with each of the salespeople working under you, and these objectives should be arrived at jointly. When each sales rep has a definite set of agreed-upon objectives, then you can sit down and develop your own plan of action. This will simply be a matter of helping your reps to achieve their own objectives, including for each a share of the manager’s load in achieving the company’s objectives. Let’s now consider how you set objectives with each of your sales reps.

Developing a Plan of Action

There are undoubtedly many methods a field sales manager can use to develop a plan of action. One method may work better for one person than for another. The following method has been found effective when properly employed and is presented as an example of one way of getting this important job done. The procedure is to plan for at least a full day with each sales rep and to work out agreed-upon objectives for that rep’s growth and development during the period ahead. The field sales manager must do some preparatory work for such a meeting, and the following steps are suggested as necessary:

1. As sales manager, you should have before you the company objectives you have been given by your supervisor. These may include a dollar quota or unit sales quota for your district that you will then divide up among your force. They may include a directive from top management to give special emphasis to the sale of a specific product line (perhaps a new, large plant has just gone “on stream” and management wants to make sure that its output is sold). Management may also wish to place special emphasis on sales to a particular class of trade it is anxious to penetrate. These company objectives must be discussed with all sales reps so that they know exactly what contribution they are expected to make.

2. Either your own office or the head office must furnish various kinds of statistical material that you and your salespeople will need during the planning session. These data may include such figures as a breakdown of the sales rep’s sales for the previous year by product or product lines, by classes of trade, or in other ways; a breakdown of sales and sales effort by accounts, showing for each account the total sales, and sales broken down by product or product lines, the number of calls made by the sales rep on each account, the total number of orders placed by each account, and such other information as may be necessary for a sound planning job with respect to each account. In some companies space is also provided on these sheets for the sales rep’s forecast of sales to the account for the period ahead.

3. You must tell your salespeople in advance what is going to take place so they can prepare for it. They too should have a copy of all the statistical material described above; they should also bring to the meeting a diary with space allotted for each day of the period ahead and a card or sheet of paper for each important prospect or customer in the territory regardless of whether they have ever sold the account.

4. As manager you must arrange a place for the planning session. It should be a spot where you will not be disturbed by telephone calls or other interruptions. A hotel room may be the best choice. You should give some thought to the arrangement of the room. For example, if a hotel room is used, each sales rep can sit comfortably at a card table with the work spread out in front; you can be seated away from the table but facing the sales rep so that he or she can participate in an informal and relaxed manner.

5. You should think through carefully how you can develop objectives that will enable you to manage by specifics.

A new term, management by specifics, is being injected here, so perhaps I should stop for a moment to define it exactly. For instance, let’s assume that your supervisor tells you that top management has decided to make a special effort in the year ahead to sell product line B, and he wants you, through the efforts of your staff, to pull your share of the load in getting sales of this product line. There are at least two ways in which this can be done. One way is for you to call your salespeople together in a district sales meeting and explain to them that management wants an all-out effort made to sell product line B. You review the fine qualities of the line, its advantages to the buyer, its profitability to the company, and perhaps the opportunity for greater earnings by the sales force. You try to work up enthusiasm through a dynamic presentation and send the reps back to their territories with a great big “Go get ’em!” Then, periodically, you check with each to see how they are doing with product line B. This is managing by generalities, and all too often fails to produce results satisfactory to top management.

An alternate method is for you to sit down with each sales rep and, as you review each customer and prospect, ask the specific question:

Bill, stop and think for a moment. Is there an opportunity to sell product line B to this account? If so, let’s list this account on a separate sheet of paper along with others that we decide can be sold this product line.

When this review is finished, the end product will be a mutually agreed-upon list of all the accounts in the sales rep’s territory that can buy product line B. Now you will be able to help by calling with the sales rep on some of these accounts, and these calls can be planned in advance.

Using this method, you will know exactly what progress each sales rep is making with the sale of product line B. At any time, you will know how many accounts have been sold this product line, in how many accounts it is under test, what progress is being made toward clinching sales, and exactly which accounts are problems and why. This information will help you to do your job better and will also enable you to give your supervisor an accurate picture of how sales of product line B are coming along in your district and what is being done about it. You are managing by specifics because you know exactly and specifically which accounts can buy product line B in each salesperson’s territory and what progress the sales rep is making with each account. With this kind of information you are in a position to “do something about it.” If a sales rep is not making headway, you can take appropriate action in time to ensure reaching your objective by the end of the period.

At the very start of the planning session, you should make its purpose clear to the sales rep. This session should not deal with such matters as a rep’s personal characteristics, a rep’s eligibility for a salary increase, or a rep’s chances for promotion. A session having to do with the salesperson as an individual should be held at another time. This is important so that sales reps may approach this planning session objectively, in the knowledge that it is intended solely to determine the next steps to be taken in the development of the territory and its important accounts. Its goal is improved performance by the sales rep.

Now, having set the stage for the planning session, you are ready to plunge in. The first step is for you and the sales rep to agree upon where the sales rep is right now. You must go over the statistical material that tells what this rep has accomplished during the period just concluded. You should compliment the salesperson who has done well. You should also make a note of those areas in which the sales rep agrees that he or she requires help for further development. You must keep negative remarks out of this session—for example, “You are doing poorly in selling product line B.” Instead, you should say,

Product line B is an area for your further development, and we will want to work together on this.

When you have completed your review of this statistical material with the salesperson and noted in writing any areas for development that have been revealed, the next step can be taken. This is to identify and agree upon the key accounts; it involves the whole subject of managing a territory.

Territory Management

The principal concept in good territory management is the effective use of energy and, by extension, concentration on the most productive accounts.

Effective Use of Time

The chief cause of salespeople’s failure is their inability to use their time effectively. It has been said that the main difference between a 100,000-a-year sales rep and a 50,000-a-year rep is the way the former uses his time and the speed with which he can make sound decisions. Much of a salesperson’s time is spent in (1) conducting interviews with present and prospective customers and (2) going from one interview to another. I am concerned here with the second of these activities.

Territory Management vs. Territory Coverage

The words territory coverage suggest geographic coverage of an assigned territory. Salespeople route themselves so as to cover every town along a highway or in a geographic area every time they pass through this section. In some companies this procedure is described as a “combing” operation.

In businesses such as those selling to supermarkets and chain stores, this may be thought desirable because of the need to service each store. It is doubtful, however, even in these cases, that such mechanical coverage is the best procedure. Generally, it is not profitable to have a sales rep “cover a territory” if that means routing is plotted without regard to any factor except geography. It used to be said that there were two kinds of men “on the road”—traveling men and salesmen. Most companies want their force in the field to sell.

The Concept of Account Development

What, then, should salespeople be doing? Briefly stated, the job of a sales rep is to develop accounts. This is not a case of simply selling to accounts but of selling to them in such a manner that they may be sold to repeatedly and, in the process, of strengthening the loyalty of the account to the sales rep and company and increasing the volume of business from the account or perhaps selling it additional product lines. In short, only accounts capable of development are “worthwhile” or key. (An exception to this statement is the occasional large but nonrecurring transaction—for example, a big government contract.) In most territories, 80 percent of the potential lies with about 20 percent of the accounts. Sales reps who can secure the business of this 20 percent have it made. Therefore, this 20 percent must be identified and the major sales effort made with them, and the major servicing of accounts must be with them, too. The field sales manager must be involved with the salesperson in this effort, namely in setting the objectives for the development of the account, in helping to solve problems that arise, and, in an emergency, being able to step in and take over. If the sales rep is to be successful, the major effort must be expended on those accounts that have the greatest potential for development.

A prospective buyer must reach five major conclusions regarding a company’s salesperson before deciding to do business with that company or to continue doing business with it. It may take quite a while before these five elements crystallize in the buyer’s mind but, when they do, the sales rep and the company have a good customer. The process is as follows:

1.The customer comes to like the sales rep and is always glad to see and talk with him or her.

2.The customer trusts that the sales rep will never oversell or misrepresent anything.

3.The customer concludes that the salesperson is better informed about his products than any of his competitors are about theirs. He obviously knows his business.

4.The customer concludes that the sales rep understands his problems and can help to solve them.

5.The customer believes that the salesperson has the backing of a solid company that will stand behind its products.

It is the basic job of the sales rep to make the customer think in this way. No one else can bring it about. To accomplish this, the rep must spend a great deal of time in servicing the account even though this is a very expensive procedure. Such service can only be given profitably to companies whose potential volume of business is large enough to warrant it. It cannot be given to every account equally. Salespeople once thought that they had to give this kind of service across the board; however, investment counselors, attorneys, accountants, advertising agencies, and others have long given service to accounts in proportion to each account’s profitability. At this point, a definition is in order. A “worthwhile” or key account is any account whose volume of purchases and profitability on a continuing basis is large enough to justify the salesperson’s rendering a degree of service greater than that given by any competitor. To sum up then, the sales rep’s first job, in trying to cover the territory effectively, is to identify these key accounts, separate them, and plan the territorial coverage around them.

Planning Territorial Coverage Around Key Accounts

There are many ways to plan territorial coverage around key accounts, but let’s first examine one method in detail. The steps are as follows:

1.Obtain a map of the assigned geographical territory.

2.With a marking crayon, place a dot where each of the key accounts is located. Note that these accounts will usually be found in clusters.

3.Draw a circle around each cluster and number each circle as a zone. Thus each zone is formed by a cluster of key accounts.

4.Compare the number of key accounts in any one zone with the number in other zones. For example, assume that, out of a total of one hundred worthwhile accounts in the entire territory, there are forty such accounts in Zone 1, twenty in Zone 2, ten in Zone 3, twenty in Zone 4, and ten in Zone 5. Figure 2-1 illustrates just such a clustering.

5.Obtain a diary, and for the current year (using a pencil so that changes can be made when necessary) mark a zone number next to each working day of the year in such a manner that the proportion of days spent in each zone reflects the relative number of key accounts in each (see Figure 2-2). In the example used here, out of every one hundred working days during the year, the sales rep would assign forty days to Zone 1, twenty days each to Zones 2 and 4, and ten days each to Zones 3 and 5.

6.Write the name of each of the one hundred key accounts in the diary just once, indicating the time when the next call is to be made. This diary entry will alert the sales rep to prepare adequately for the forthcoming interview.

Figure 2–1. A cluster of key accounts showing the density in each of five zones.

Legend: Zone 1—40 key accounts

2—20 key accounts

3—10 key accounts

4—20 key accounts

5—10 key accounts

For every day spent in either Zone 3 or Zone 5 the sales rep should spend 2 days in Zone 2 or Zone 4 and 4 days in Zone 1. This need not be done consecutively, but over a period of time this ratio of time will generally prevail. The sketch at left illustrates a territory like the fingers of a hand. This is usually a more extensive territory or a rural territory where it would not be convenient to cross from one territory to another. The sketch at the right illustrates a more urban territory, condensed, more easily traversed.

7. Immediately after the interview, when your knowledge is fresh, determine when the next call should be made on this customer and why. Then plan the next call and enter its date into the diary. Under some circumstances, the sales rep and the prospect or customer may have agreed upon a date for this next call, which ideally should coincide with a day the rep was planning to be in that particular zone.

8. Never make calls mechanically at regular intervals but only when there is a reason for making the call—a reason that furthers the development of the account. Actually, an account may be called upon forty times one year and only six times the following year, depending on the development work necessary. At the beginning of the year, nobody knows how often any given account should be called upon. Only the calls themselves reveal the desired course of action to be taken by the sales rep and the optimum frequency of contact with the account.

Figure 2–2. Example of a sales rep’s diary with the days marked by zone.

Handling the Smaller Accounts

In every territory there are a number of smaller accounts whose aggregate business constitutes perhaps 20 percent of its total sales. This volume of business is not to be overlooked. When sales reps learn from their diaries that they may have some time free between calls on key accounts, they should prepare a list of smaller accounts located in the same zone so that they may call upon as many of these as time will allow. In this way they can maintain contact with these smaller accounts. In addition, they can use the telephone to talk with them even when they cannot see them in person. These smaller accounts do not expect to be called upon as frequently as larger accounts and will often appreciate a phone call as much as a personal call.

Calling on Key Accounts to Further a Sales Strategy

Sales reps must always have a carefully planned strategy for the development of every key account in their territory. In carrying out this strategy they must deploy their time so that contacts with the account are made only when they expect to take some specific action to advance their development of the account. Above all, they must know the optimum time to make the call. They must be where the business is when it is going to be placed. This includes not only the final transaction but also the preliminaries leading up to it. Sales reps must avoid calling too early to close the deal, thus necessitating an additional call a week or two later. And they certainly will not want to arrive too late and find that the business has been placed elsewhere. Good planning tells them when the customer is ready to take action and signals when they should be there to make sure that the action is favorable to them and their company.

The old-fashioned way of requiring salespeople to follow routes predetermined by their supervisors tends to make coverage of the territory mechanical. It also retards personal development by letting the boss or the home office do the thinking they should be doing—or perhaps nobody is doing any really sound planning for territorial coverage. The method suggested here motivates sales reps by giving them a true sense of responsibility for the effective use of their time. Thus it makes better-thinking, better-performing salespeople of them. Territorial coverage is a tool they they use to improve their performance. When this method is taught and used properly, the company not only gets more effective coverage of the important accounts, with a resultant increase in sales, but better salespeople are developed; employees who are happier, more confident, and certainly more successful.

Improving the Sales Rep’s Ability to Plan Account Development

The sales rep and the field sales manager must plan in depth for the development of each of the important or key accounts. Here is one suggested way of doing this. The important accounts are arranged alphabetically by cities and by name of the account under each city. The first account is selected, and the field sales manager begins to ask the sales rep questions about the account. The questions may be varied, but all have the same objective—to develop a comprehensive plan or strategy for the development of that account.

The questions will run along the following lines:

What have we done with this account up to now?

What items do we sell them and how much of each?

Are we supplying the total requirements of this company? If not, what percentage of its business are we now obtaining? How can we increase this amount?

What are the chief problems that we are helping this company to solve with our product(s)?

In what other areas can we serve the company?

Which of its people do we now deal with? Are these the decision-making authorities? If not, how can we reach the decision-making authorities so that they can hear our story at first hand?

What obstacles stand in the way of our complete development of this account and what can we do about them?

What do you regard as the next step to be taken in the development of this account? When do you expect to take it? Can you estimate the volume of business to be secured from this account during the next period?

Do you believe that this account is a potential purchaser of product line B and, if so, how do you propose going about selling it to them?

These questions are posed in a conversational manner, and time should be allowed for frank discussion between the sales rep and the manager sharing in the planning. This is not a quiz. It is a mental exercise designed primarily to stimulate and improve the thinking of the sales rep so that it results in a plan of action for the development of each account. The results are (1) the setting of objectives for the development of the account; (2) a determination as to how to reach those objectives; and (3) the setting of a date when the first step will be taken.

The sales rep keeps a record of his plan for the development of each account. He enters on the customer card or sheet the agreed-upon objectives for the development of the account and the notes that grew out of his discussion with his manager on how to achieve these objectives (see Figures 2-3 and 2-4). When the final notations have been made on the customer’s sheet or cards and in the diary, the sales rep and his manager are ready to proceed to the next account.

Figure 2–3. A prospect record card with notes indicating action to be taken in developing the account.

Figure 2–4. A prospect record card containing personal information regarding large key accounts.

Reprinted with permission from the 3M Corporation, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Note particularly how the field sales manager ties in with this planning his own and company plans involving the sales of product line B. When this technique is employed in a sound manner, experience has proved that after some twenty accounts have been reviewed in this manner, the sales rep begins to “take over” the questioning and to apply the questioning process to each account without waiting for the field sales manager to ask the questions. This is exactly the desired result of this procedure. It is an indication that the sales rep is learning to think in a sound and constructive manner about the accounts and their development.

Now the sales rep has a plan of action for every key account in his territory. The rep not only knows what must be done, but how to do the job, and when to take the first step. In addition, there is a list of accounts, good potential customers for product line B. Finally, the sales rep and the field sales manager have agreed on what it is that the rep must do to develop himself during the coming year.

Let’s look at this question of development from the manager’s point of view. Since it is your primary responsibility as field sales manager to develop the sales force, it is important that you and each sales rep agree on the nature and means of achieving this objective so that the rep can work at it when you are not present. Therefore, upon the conclusion of a developmental session, you should prepare a written list of a few major objectives that the rep can refer to and work from throughout the year ahead (see Figure 2-5). For instance, one obvious objective will be the quota or sales goal. A second objective will be to increase the sales of product line B, because this is a company objective. It may be found during this session that one of the sales rep’s major problems is an inability to get to the real decision-making authorities. Solution of this problem should be noted as an agreed-upon objective. Thus there are, in this case, three major objectives to be achieved by the sales rep.

The sales rep now knows what his job is and can proceed to the second phase of the cycle of management—doing it. And you as field sales manager know exactly what your job is with respect to this rep—that is, to help him stay on track and keep to the plans he has made, to help him achieve his objectives with his important accounts, to help him get the product line B business he has committed himself to getting, and to help him learn how to reach the decision-making people in the firms he calls on. This is quite a task for any field sales manager, and it will require all your knowledge and experience to perform the function skillfully and finish the year with a better, more seasoned, and more valuable sales rep.

Figure 2–5. List of a sales rep’s developmental objectives.

For the individual sales rep the developmental process accomplishes at least two very important things:

1.With respect to the accounts that can provide 80 percent of the territorial potential, he has a carefully thought out plan that will bring him to each of those accounts at the optimum time.

2.He knows exactly what to do when he gets to the account. He has planned a sound interview that will enable him to be much more effective when he approaches the prospective buyer.

Both these functions can be supervised by the field sales manager. Observation of the sales rep’s performance by the sales manager in the field can be instrumental in improving that rep’s capabilities.

The Field Sales Manager’s Function
With Respect to Distributors

Many organizations in addition to having full-time sales representatives also have distributors to sell and service their customers. In many instances, the immediate responsibility for the development of the distributor rests with the salesperson. The role of the field sales manager is a bit more complex.

The pluses of having a distributorship can be summarized as follows:

The distributor usually knows the buyers of suppliers’ products or services. They are friends of his. He sells them other things. Their door is always open to the distributor. Distributors make it easier to break into the market.

The distributor usually carries a stock of your products and parts necessary for the quick servicing of customers and is a ready source of information and servicing.

The distributor can extend credit to smaller accounts whose aggregate volume may be of value to the supplier.

On the other hand, the distributor who handles a wide range of products lacks the time or ability to aggressively court new accounts and to expand the business within the assigned area. Also, in many cases, the supplier would prefer to perform the entire distribution function. Often, the distributor is dispensed with when the volume of business in an area becomes large enough to support the supplier’s performing all the services. The distributor knows this very well. This can create a barrier between the supplier and distributor. The distributor does not want the supplier to know who the buyers are because of the fear that the supplier may some day take the business away.

Obviously, such a barrier is a great obstacle to the sound development of the area being served. The supplier is really running blind. He does not know the extent of the available business; does not know whether important new accounts are being opened; does not know brand and company acceptance by customers or the degree of acceptance of competitors’ products in the marketplace; and does not know whether accounts are really being serviced in a constructive manner.

As a field sales manager, your first responsibility is to know and understand the policy of your employer respecting distributors and to convey this policy clearly to the distributor as a step in breaking down barriers. Getting the distributor to see himself as part of the supplier’s sales organization rather than as a customer of the supplier, and to think of the customer as the person or organization to whom the distributor sells, is what you want to accomplish.

At least once a year, you, the sales rep, and the distributor should jointly develop agreed-upon objectives that will then serve as the basis for working together and for appraising performance.

The salesperson has the direct responsibility for working with the distributor to achieve objectives. The rep and the distributor will, through personal contacts with key accounts, jointly develop new accounts and stimulate the growth of established accounts. But as field sales manager, you are responsible for making sure that the sales rep and the distributor perform in this manner. The salesperson must be the chief channel through which the distributor remains in contact with the company. Yet, you too must maintain personal contact with the distributor on a continuing and regular basis, though always with the salesperson present.

Through your training and development of the sales rep, you must make sure that the distributor maintains an inventory adequate to service accounts, that assistance of a technical nature is provided when requested, that complaints and other problems are handled promptly, that new products are introduced and promoted, and that important key accounts are developed so that they grow steadily and strengthen in loyalty.

When important business is pending, you must be available to the distributor to work with the account. As field sales manager, you should work to train and develop the distributor just as you have worked steadily with your sales reps to improve their performance.

Dealing With Dealers Who Sell Directly to the Consumer

The key accounts in this area are usually those with retail outlets, and there is no best way to proceed with them. One way is for the field sales manager to contact the central or area buying group of the account and succeed in having his company’s products and services accepted. The sales rep can then contact the individual store manager and the department manager to obtain their order. This order may be an assignment of space to be filled. The salesperson is thus responsible for seeing that the space is filled with products that are selling and that there is an additional supply in the back of the store. The sales rep calls at the store at pretty fixed intervals. In some cases, the main office computerizes the scheduling of the salesperson’s time. The salesperson is also responsible for adding products and for obtaining permission to put the company product in special and advantageous locations at special times of the year (like placing a sage dressing next to the turkeys at Thanksgiving). All these tasks will be supervised by the field sales manager.

Organization and Manpower Planning

After you have completed the planning sessions with your sales reps, you should be in a position to do some fairly accurate estimating with regard to (1) your staffing requirements and (2) the potential of your entire district or region in terms of sales volume.

Estimating Staffing Requirements

First, take a good look at each of your people. Are they all really capable of development—good material to work with? If the answer is negative, then determine the following:

Should the rep be replaced as soon as possible?

Should he or she be retired if at or near retirement age and then replaced?

When age or ill health is an issue, should the rep be assigned a smaller territory or certain special accounts, thus leaving most of the present territory available for another or a more junior rep?

Should a rep’s territory be divided because of its unusual growth or because, for some other reason, the rep is not capable of properly covering all the important accounts?

Should a rep be transferred or reassigned, thus leaving this territory open?

With this information you can determine how many new sales reps you will need during the year ahead and can requisition them so that you will be fully staffed to meet the objectives and goals you have accepted.

Estimating Market Potential

Projecting sales volume can best be done in conjunction with the sales rep in each territory. The rep often knows more about the accounts in a particular territory than anybody else in the company, and in any event probably has a good feel for their potential. The following steps can be helpful:

1.Estimate with the sales rep the potential for every key account in that rep’s territory. The total, with something additional for smaller accounts, will be a fair estimate of the potential for the territory as a whole. Include potentials for accounts not sold as well as for accounts that have been sold.

2.Add up the various territorial potentials within the district, including territories not presently assigned. This sum will equal the total potential of the entire district or region.

This information can be helpful in:

Setting district or regional sales quotas with your boss.

Determining the need to split a territory or to add more territory to a sales rep’s assignment.

Determining the degree to which the company is handicapped by salespeople who, because of advanced age, illness, or some other reason, are not coming close to realizing the full potential of the territory. This may make it easier for management to reach agreement with you as to what steps are to be taken to correct the situation.

Determining the need for additional salespeople within your assigned territory.

Forecasting Sales and Staffing
Requirements at the Field Sales
Manager’s Level

The very word forecast sends a shudder through anyone who spends time out in the field selling or teaching others how to sell. After all, the person in the field is not a technical genius and wasn’t hired as one. In some companies the field sales manager, as a member of the first sales management echelon, is not asked to do any forecasting. It is all done back at headquarters. This often makes the manager unhappy, but probably not as unhappy as trying to do the job alone. In other companies, even though the job of forecasting is done at headquarters, the field sales manager is also involved by being requested to send in his own forecast. As we have seen, field managers who are required to do this often obtain estimates from their sales reps to assist them in arriving at their figures.

It is not uncommon for forecasting to begin at the bottom of an organization and end up at the very top, where the information is digested, reviewed, and reworked into the final form acceptable to top management. Then it filters back down through the entire organization to the very bottom. Such a process usually results in greater acceptance of final forecasts by the sales personnel charged with achieving the goals set by the forecasts and facilitates the attainment of these objectives. And often such forecasts are more realistic than would be the case were they initiated at the top.

How can you as a field sales manager do a good forecasting job? Let’s fall back again on a single example that will provide food for thought and help you to develop a method best suited to your operations. In practice, the job of forecasting is often tied in very closely with the annual planning session. As you and the sales rep consider each key account, you ask the rep to estimate the volume of business he or she will secure from the account in the year ahead, and also to estimate the potential of that account. This is written down next to the name of the account. The total of the estimates for each account is the estimate or forecast of the sales that all the key accounts will produce during the period in question. If these key accounts provide about 80 percent of all the business, then you and your sales rep may add 25 percent to this figure to get a fair forecast for the entire territory. Experience has shown that while sales reps may not be very accurate as forecasters at first, they will become quite proficient by the end of three years. Frequently, a rep’s forecast will be as reliable as one produced by the research people back at headquarters, and occasionally even more accurate. Much depends on the nature of the business; some businesses can measure potential sales with great accuracy; others must do some pretty fancy guessing to make a forecast.

The forecast just described concerns only one territory covered by a particular salesperson. The same territory may produce more or less business depending on who the sales rep is at any given time. The full potential will remain the same regardless of the sales rep. As field sales manager you must consider this in arriving at your forecast for the entire district. As you go through planning sessions with one after another of your people, you add the forecasts together, eventually arriving at a total that represents the amount of business you can realistically expect to obtain for your company in the year ahead. To this figure you must add your estimate of any sales for which you are personally responsible and of such business as you expect to get from territories now unassigned but for which you anticipate finding sales reps during the year ahead. You will increase this by any probable rise in sales resulting from the replacement of below-average sales reps with others from whom you expect better results.

After the planning sessions, you consider each rep’s strengths and weaknesses and evaluate their potential. What does all this have to do with forecasting and staffing development? Simply this. The sales rep may reach a point in the planning session where he throws up his hands and says: “I don’t have enough time. There are more accounts here than I can develop in the way they deserve.” As manager, you may properly suggest at this point that perhaps the territory has become too large and should be subdivided. You may ask the rep to help you find a way to do this that will be fair both to the present sales rep and to the new salesperson.

When sales reps themselves recognize the need for subdividing a territory, it can be done better and without impairing morale. One of the serious mistakes made by sales management in subdividing a territory is to fail to consult the incumbent salesperson. It has repeatedly been found that involvement of the sales rep in planning a subdivision of the territory gets better results and avoids bad feelings. It is a form of recognition that will mitigate any feeling the sales rep might have of being deprived of something.

This brings up another point. Some salespeople actually feel that the territory and the accounts are their personal property. As manager, you must quickly correct this misconception. The territory and the accounts in it are the company’s. The company has divided its area of operations among various field sales managers who in turn have divided their areas and accounts among sales reps who in essence are their helpers. The sales rep may have done a fine job of building up the assigned territory, but you must make this salesperson aware that his or her success could not have been achieved without the help of effective sales management or without the backing of a reliable company with sound policies and quality products.

At least once a year you should take a long look at each of your people to determine what you must do during the year ahead to strengthen the staffing of your district or region. For those who are capable of development, you will set agreed-upon objectives. For others, you will have to decide whether to fire them. You will have to appraise the older reps objectively and see which will be retiring and should be replaced soon and which should have some adjustments made in their assignments to enable them to continue work but at a reduced pace. This may result in a decision to bring in another sales rep.

Good field sales managers can be especially effective in meeting the various problems discussed here. But they must be capable of the kind of basic thinking about the job that leads to the right decisions in such matters as planning, forecasting, and forwarding the development of the salespeople in their charge. Their skill in these matters will grow with the years.