As implied by his/her title, a sales manager is responsible for achieving targeted sales through the effective management of a sales team. In this activity, you need to identify (from the list below) what tasks that a sales manager actually does.
ACTIVITY/TASK
- Structuring sales bonuses
- Giving ‘motivational’ talks
- Phoning key customers
- Writing newsletters
- Helping with direct marketing activities
- Helping staff with actual sales situations
- Reviewing sales results
- Planning sales campaigns
- Looking to reduce administrative work for sales staff
- Giving feedback to sales people
- Being part of the new products development team
- Conducting product training
- Taking sales people to lunch
- Taking marketing people to lunch
- Dealing directly with customer complaints
QUESTIONS
1. Review the above list and determine how likely a sales manager would be to undertake each of the tasks, using the following scale:
- Likely that a sales manager would do the task
- Maybe a sales manager would do the task
- Unlikely that a sales manager would do the task
2. Would the role of a sales manager vary between a consumer firm and a B2B firm?
3. What sorts of firms are most likely to have a sales manager position?
4. How does the role of sales management fit with marketing management?
