Chapter 17 Personal Selling and Sales Management

1. International Marketing 15th edition Chapter 17 Personal Selling and Sales Management Philip R. Cateora, Mary C. Gilly, and John L. Graham

2. Overview • Designing the sales force • Recruiting marketing and sales personnel • Selecting sales and marketing personnel • Training for international marketing • Motivating sales personnel • Designing compensation systems • Evaluating and controlling sales representatives • Preparing U.S. personnel for foreign assignments • Developing cultural awareness • The changing profile of the global manager • Foreign-language skills Roy Philip

3. Recruiting Marketing and Sales Personnel (1 of 2) • The largest personnel requirement abroad for most companies is the sales force • Expatriates • Numbers are declining • Important for highly technical or involved products • High cost • Cultural and legal barriers • Limited number of high-caliber personnel willing to live abroad • Virtual expatriates • Manage operations in other countries but don’t live there Roy Philip

4. Recruiting Marketing and Sales Personnel (2 of 2) • Local nationals • Transcend both cultural and legal barriers • Familiar with distribution systems and referral networks • Headquarters personnel may ignore their advice • Lack of availability • Sales positions viewed negatively • Third-country nationals • Expatriates working for a foreign company • Host-country nationals • Work restrictions Roy Philip

5. Selecting Sales and Marketing Personnel • Management must define precisely what is expected of people • Prime requisites • Maturity • Emotional stability • Breadth of knowledge • Positive outlook • Flexibility • Cultural empathy • Energetic and enjoy travel • Mistakes can be costly • A manager’s culture affects personnel decisions Roy Philip

6. Training for International Marketing • The nature of the training program depends on: • The home culture of the sales person • The culture of the business system and foreign market • Continual training is important in foreign markets • Companies should provide home-office personnel with cross-cultural training • The Internet now makes some kinds of sales training much more efficient Roy Philip

7. Salespeople’s Distribution of 100 Points among Rewards in Terms of Their Importance Exhibit 17.3 Roy Philip

8. Designing Compensation Systems for Expatriates • Fringe benefits • Compensations comparisons between the home office and abroad • Short-term assignment compensation • Using a compensation program to recruit, develop, motivate, or retain personnel Roy Philip

9. Evaluating and Controlling Sales Representatives • In the U.S., emphasis is placed on individual performance; it can easily be measured by sales revenues generated • In many countries evaluation is more complex where teamwork is favored over individual effort • In the U.S., the primary tool used by sales managers is the incentive system • In other countries, corporate control and frequent interactions with peers and supervisors are the means of motivation and control Roy Philip

10. Preparing U.S. Personnel for Foreign Assignments • Cost of foreign assignments • Typically from 150-400 percent of the annual base salary • Cost increases if the expatriate returns home before completing the scheduled assignment • The planning process • Must begin prior to the selection of those going abroad • Must extend to their specific assignments after returning home Roy Philip

11. Overcoming Reluctance to Accept a Foreign Assignment • Concerns for career • An absence will adversely affect opportunities for advancement • Concerns for family • Education of the children • Isolation from family and friends • Proper health care • The potential for violence • Special compensations packages deal with concerns Roy Philip

12. Reducing the Rate of Early Returns • Evaluation of an employee’s family • 75 percent of families sent abroad experience adjustment problems with children or marital discord • Cross-cultural training for families as well as the employee • Local ombudsmen Roy Philip

13. Successful Expatriate Repatriation • Commit to reassigning expatriates to meaningful positions • Create a mentor program • Offer a written job guarantee stating what company is obligated to do for returning expatriate • Keep the expatriate in touch with headquarters through periodic briefings and headquarter visits • Prepare the expatriate and family for repatriation once a return date is set Roy Philip

14. The Changing Profile of the Global Manager • Fewer companies today limit their search for senior-level executive talent to their home countries • Some companies believe • It is important to have international assignments early in a person’s career • International training is an integral part of their entry-level development programs • Many companies are active in making the foreign experience an integrated part of a successful corporate career Roy Philip

15. Foreign-Language Skills • Many believe: • Learning a language improves cultural understanding and business relationships • To be taken seriously in the business community, the expatriate must be at least conversational in the host language • Many companies are making stronger efforts to recruit people who are bilingual or multilingual Roy Philip