DESIGN OF SALES PERFORMANCE DASHBOARD BASED ON SALES FUNNEL & SALES FORCE AUTOMATION THEORIES: A CASE OF AN INDONESIAN ISLAMIC BANK

One of the bank management concerns related to sales performance is ensuring sales people perform the sales process correctly. Unfortunately, most sales people have problems in the sales process, which causes their low performance. Islamic banks in Indonesia also experienced this situation, so a strategy needs to overcome this problem. For instance, using surveillance tools such as Sales Force Automation (SFA) with sales funnel theory. An SFA tool is a sales system connected to computers and internet networks. It monitors sales processes and results, manages contacts, forecasts sales, and analyzes sales performance daily and monthly. Additionally, it helps sales forces to measure the ability to achieve targets, plan sales strategies and customer approaches, and increase work motivation. Also, raise awareness of developing skills, and provide up-to-date information to supervisors about sales force performance to determine the proper training. Therefore, the use of SFA tools is expected to increase the productivity of sales people in optimizing the fulfillment of deposit targets in Islamic banking. This paper reports the SFA design in the form of a dashboard model with a visual sales to funnel that shows the function of the salesperson in conducting the sales process ends with the results.

Costs of Sales Forces, Substitution between Competing Products, and Vertical Integration Decisions

This paper analyzes duopolistic firms’ vertical integration decisions with considering costs of sales forces and sales delegation under vertical integration. The main contribution of our research is showing that full vertical integration (separation) is more common when competing products are highly (weakly) substitutable. Second, contrary to conventional wisdom, an asymmetric vertical structure may not only be an equilibrium outcome but may also be optimal for consumers’ surplus in spite of yielding higher retail prices than those arising under full vertical integration. We also examine the impacts of vertical structures on welfare which have vertical merger policy relevance. First, when products are weakly substitutable, keeping vertical merger costs low may induce full vertical integration to be an equilibrium outcome which optimizes consumers’ surplus and social welfare simultaneously. Second, imposing a vertical merger tax increasing with substitution between products on firms may induce firms’ vertical integration decisions to be optimal for social welfare.

Effect of Customer Perception on Salesperson Owned Commitment in Customer-Salesperson Relationship

Selling products and gaining profit is the main mission of a private Sales forces with their specialized relationships can determine the fate of transactions and make companies successful in achieving their ideal goals. Buyer-seller relationships can significantly reduce the marketing costs of the organization. Therefore, the impact of sales forces in an organization is relatively high in the past. A better understanding of the sales professional dimension will lead to the formation of long-term relationships and increase a company's profitability. However, although much research has been done on the issue of company-customer relationships, there have been extensive studies on the perception of consumer behavior by vendors. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of trust, reputation, and reputation of the seller on the commitment to the seller with the mediating roles of good interaction and perceived risk. The statistical population of this study was 250 customers of a retail company. In order to collect the required data, an electronic questionnaire was designed and distributed among the statistical reporters using the available sampling method. Validity of the questionnaire using content and structural methods was determined.

Role of E-Commerce in Insurance Industry

E-commerce consists of buying and selling of products and services over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks. E-commerce is a commercial activity dealing directly with the trading of goods and services and with other related business activities, in which the electronic communication medium plays a central role. These activities include the communication of information, the management of payment, the negotiating and trading of financial instruments and the management of transport. The e-business can be used for three primary processes which help to enhance the business and they are; • The Production Process • Customer Centric Process • Employee Centric Process The production processes is the first which include procurement, ordering and replenishment of stocks; processing of payments; electronic links with suppliers; and production control processes, among others. The second is customer-focused processes, which include promotional and marketing efforts, selling over the Internet, processing of customers purchase orders and payments, and customer support, among others. An internal management process The third includes employee services, training, internal information-sharing, video-conferencing, and recruiting. Generally electronic applications enhance information flow between production and sales forces to improve sales force productivity. The purpose of this paper is to find the benefits, challenges and success of e-commerce with special reference to Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Voice in marketing interactions

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Voice is an intrinsic feature of marketing interactions that varies among individual agents, across encounters, and throughout interactions. Despite the prevalence of voice in marketing interactions and its importance as a communicative tool, it remains one of the least studied elements resulting in limited understanding of how voice contributes to interaction outcomes. This dissertation examines voice through systematic conceptualization of its verbal (linguistic) and vocal (acoustic) features and sheds light on how they shape business outcomes. In two essays, this dissertation investigates this pervasive, yet under-studied feature of marketing interactions and provides empirical evidence of the importance of its consideration in in marketing interactions. Essay 1: Organizational Agent Voice in Business-to-Business Customer Interactions. My first essay takes a crucial initial step in enhancing understanding of agent voice by providing a framework for studying voice through systematic conceptualization of its verbal (linguistic) and vocal (acoustic) cues and how they communicate meaning in B2B agent-customer interactions. Specifically, this paper addresses two research questions: (1) what dynamic customer voice measure can serve as a key diagnostic metric for understanding the impact of agent voice on interaction outcomes? And, (2) how do agent verbal and vocal cues interplay to impact key dynamic customer metrics during interactions? An exploratory empirical investigation that isolates verbal and vocal cues in a naturalistic B2B interaction examines these questions and finds that agents' verbal and vocal cues jointly influence customer receptivity, which in turn, acts as a strong mediator of agent voice on interaction outcomes. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Essay 2: The Role of Voice in Salesperson Lead Calling Effectiveness. In essay 2, I examine voice in a context of growing importance to practitioners: inside sales. Inside sales, or remote selling activities within a firm, are growing at an unprecedented pace due to their ability to substantially reduce selling costs while enhancing efficacy of traditional outside sales forces. Effective lead conversion is a, if not the, critical challenge facing the inside sales force. In this essay, I conceptualize verbal (ask specificity, communicating value, relating knowledge expression, customer-tailored inquiry) and vocal (confidence, affability) tactics relevant in inside sales lead calling and analyze their impact on lead conversion through acoustic and textual analysis of naturalistic inside sales phone conversations. This research draws on persuasion knowledge literature to conceptualize which verbal and vocal tactics are most effective in motivating lead conversion. Given poor conversion rate (20 [percent]) of lead calls, understanding ways to enhance sales efficacy would be welcomed by practitioners.

The impact of organizational social networks on salespeople’s negative headquarters stereotypes

Purpose Extant sales management literature shows that holding negative headquarters stereotypes (NHS) by salespeople is harmful to their sales performance. However, there is a lack of research on how managers can leverage organizational structures to minimize NHS in sales forces. This study aims to know how social network patterns influence the flow of NHS among salespeople and sales managers in a large B2B sales organization. Design/methodology/approach The authors hypothesize and test whether patterns of social networks among salespeople and sales managers determine the stereotypical attitudes of salespeople toward corporate directors and, eventually, impact their sales performance. The authors analyzed a multi-level data set from the B2B sales forces of a large US-based media company. Findings The authors found that organizational social network properties including the sales manager’s team centrality, sales team’s network density and sales team’s external connectivity moderate the flow of NHS from sales managers and peer salespeople to a focal salesperson. Research limitations/implications First, the data was cross-sectional and did not allow the authors to examine the dynamics of social network patterns and their impact on NHS. Second, The authors only focused on advice-seeking social networks and did not examine other types of social networks such as friendship and trust networks. Third, the context was limited to one company in the media industry. Practical implications The authors provide recommendations to sales managers on how to leverage and influence social networks to minimize the development and flow of NHS in sales forces. Originality/value The findings advance existing knowledge on how NHS gets shared and transferred in sales organizations. Moreover, this study provides crucial managerial insights with regard to controlling and managing NHS in sales forces.

The business-to-business inside sales force: roles, configurations and research agenda

Purpose This study aims to explore the changing nature of the inside sales role and the individual capabilities required for success. Additionally, it examines the influence of organizational structure on inside sales force capabilities. Although business-to-business firms are investing heavily in inside sales forces, academic research lags behind this evolution. Design/methodology/approach Using a two-study qualitative approach, the authors examine contemporary inside sales forces’ responsibilities and operational configurations. Study 1 uses a cross-industry sample of sales leaders and professionals to examine roles and responsibilities. Study 2 used the second sample of sales leaders and professionals to explore the impact of various organizational configurations. Findings The study identifies important differences between inside and outside salespeople in terms of job demands and resources; inside salespeople’s greater reliance on sales technology and analytics than outside counterparts; and existing control systems’ failure to provide resources and incentives to match with inside salespeople’s increasing strategic benefits and job demands. The study also explores four distinct inside–outside configurations. The differences among these configurations help to explain the distinct benefits and costs of each configuration regarding the company, customer and intra sales force processes, which, in turn, determine inside salespeople’s strategic benefits and job demands. Research limitations/implications The authors discuss the theoretical implications of these findings for research on the evolving roles and capabilities of the inside sales force; antecedents and consequences of firms’ choice of inside–outside sales force configurations; and the impact of technology and the inside sales force. They propose a research agenda that includes a series of specific future research questions. Practical implications This study informs managers of the unique role of the inside sales force and how it differs from their outside counterpart. The results inform managers of the issues inherent to various inside sales configurations, helping them determine, which configuration best addresses their customers’ needs. Originality/value This research provides a detailed, updated account of the differences between inside and outside sales forces and the benefits/costs of major inside–outside sales force configurations. Drawing from job demands-resources, organizational structure and strategy-context fit theories, the authors develop research propositions about the underlying structural differences of inside-outside sales force configurations; how these differences drive the inside sales force’s increasing strategic benefits and job demands; and organizational choice of inside sales force configurations. A research agenda is then presented.