What Is Marketing?

8.

Personal Selling and Sales Management

SALES FORCES REPRESENT A MAJOR INVESTMENT for many firms, accounting for 1 percent to 40 percent of sales revenues.¹ Sales forces are employed by more than 70 percent of firms worldwide and account for approximately 10 percent of the global workforce. In the United States, more than a trillion dollars is spent annually on the nearly 12 percent of the total workforce employed in full-time sales positions.

Because the success of any marketing strategy depends on implementation, the fortunes of firms that employ the personal selling approach can rise or sink with the performance of their sales forces. Such firms need to carefully understand and manage their salespeople (personal selling) and sales organizations ...