Sales organization

On a smaller scale, a facility manager may rely on participatory management techniques, such as quality circles or task teams, or may pursue a more traditionally hierarchical approach. Similarly, a division may display entirely different management styles in several different function areas the sales organization may be highly structured, while research and development is more collegial and informal. 

Apart from the four Business Units, Philips DAP has two Corporate Centers, four Centers of Competence (centers where development and production take place) and about 40 National Sales Organizations, which are organized in regions. DAP employs some 10,000 people worldwide. The DAP division markets about 400 different products, selling around 70 million units a year. Some of the appliances they make and sell are very straightforward, while others have been given... 

Let s suppose we are starting a company that sells office equipment. There will be no showroom—only a catalog mailed to customers—and we ll have a warehouse and a telephone sales organization. We want to put together a system to assist its operations. 

The key problem with buying lumber for use in the yard is that so much of it—posts for outdoor use, fence panels, and compost bins, for example—is routinely treated with some sort of preservative before sale. Organic gardeners should, if possible, avoid treated lumber and products, unless a relatively environmentally friendly product has been used. 

The business with synthetic dyes forms the starting point of BASF s success story in China. Expansion of the company s sales organization prompted the company s first activities in China in the mid 1880s, when it sold and marketed the magenta dye fuchsin to the flourishing cotton cloth market (Sung, J. K.). 

In the near future quality assurance elements as recommended by the quality guidelines ISO 9000-9004 will certainly also be applied to pharmaceutical developers, manufacturers and to sales organizations. A formal accreditation of compliance with these standards requires the implementation of quality assurance schemes, covering for example the following aspects of a business ... 

CME and associated credit requirements have to be earned by health practitioners in most westernized countries to ensure that physician knowledge and practice are up to date. The providers of this education may be universities, professional associations or not-for-profit firms or departments that are separate from sales organizations within pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical manufacturers may provide funding for these events, but may not be involved in other aspects of the programs. In the United States, the courses must comply with the relevant accrediting bodies, and are subject to scrutiny and monitoring. 

As described previously, the medical information department can provide learning tools to enable the sales organization to remain current on their product line. 

In the words of a senior executive who advocated the purchase, Marion Laboratories had the premier sales organization in the United States. But, he added, It had no research worth the name, and fairly mediocre manufacturing facilities. Reality struck quickly. By 1993, earnings per share dropped sharply. Senior managers had become fully aware of the basic weaknesses due to the expiration of patents in its major businesses. Brandt, Growth Company, pp. 555-557, 560-564, provides an excellent review of the weaknesses of Marion Merrell Dow that led to its sale to Hoechst. See also Derdak, ed.. International Directory, vol. 9 (1994), pp. 32S-329 Hoover s Handbook (1996), p. 313. 

Decade, it is not difficult to foresee an even more incredible growth for the plastics industry—The Golden Decade will spill over its dynamic surge into the Soaring 70 s. An industry whose growth rate of 13 to 15% per year will continue into the 70 s, (compared with all other industry of 4-5% a year), presents a formidable challenge to the plastics sales organization. It will demand flexibility in sales policies and procedures and it will, of necessity, require a specialization that we have talked about but hesitated to do much about. 

But looking into the Soaring 70 s, this right team, with its proper direction, needs in addition the added characteristic of change. We cannot cling to the stereotyped sales organization with its fixed areas, covered on routine basis, if we are to sustain this tremendous growth and add new products to be sold at a reasonable and fair profit. 

The change to meet the challenge of the 70 s will add a new dimension to the plastics sales organization it shall couple foresight with action. 

The greatest challenge, I feel, will be for the sales organization itself. It will be customer oriented—but oriented in a special way—so that the larger volumes of plastics raw materials and products of the 70 s can be sold profitably. I strongly feel that properly organized, the plas-... 

The sales organization is the one group which can best guide management as to the most strategic location for bulk storage and processing... 

I believe the computer and computerized techniques will come into prominence as a sales aid in the 70 s—with its proper application being, for example, to advise when to and when not to sell direct and which areas to emphasize. Utilization of computer-generated data by competition will prove a strong challenge to the domestic plastics sales organization in the 70,s. Skilled programming of computers can provide in short time periods your complete costs of solicitation in one area vs. another, which are the most profitable areas, which are the least profitable, and what variable can influence each of these. 

With a well-staffed, aggressive sales organization, the distributor needs a strong service group to follow through and to provide the customer with the many benefits available from this kind of organization. 

In 1967 it is estimated that 20-25% of industrial chemical sales (organic, inorganic, specialty chemicals, etc.) will be sold by chemical distributors. This approximates 5.1 billion dollars. 

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