Dominique Rouziès

Sales and Marketing Integration: A Proposed Framework

In this paper, we identify sales and marketing activities and common impediments to their integration. We then discuss the concept of sales–marketing integration and distinguish it from related concepts such as involvement and communication. Following this, we discuss approaches businesses can use to improve sales–marketing integration as well as their potential costs and drawbacks. The paper concludes with a set of propositions identifying the conditions under which sales–marketing integration has the greatest impact on firm performance.

Sales Force Turnover and Retention: A Research Agenda

Identifying, acquiring, and retaining top sales talent remains a priority in many sales organizations because salesperson turnover remains such an intractable management problem. This paper seeks to encourage and enrich continued research on sales turnover by introducing recent methodological and theoretical advances in psychological, economic, and organizational theory. First, we suggest an examination of sales turnover guided by social network theory. Second, we propose the simultaneous consideration of the interplay between variables within a comprehensive, integrated multilevel framework. Third, in keeping with the shift in research designs initiated in management, our model includes the concept of “shocks”—jarring events that could drive turnover decisions. Finally, we propose to examine sales turnover within an international context. The conceptual framework we present outlines how sales organizations might effectively address sales force turnover and, as a consequence, improve productivity. We conclude by suggesting some specific research questions intended to provide direction for researchers interested in identifying and investigating underresearched linkages.

Determinants of Pay Levels and Structures in Sales Organizations

Two key issues in business-to-business (B2B) sales force management are (1) how much a given sales job should be compensated (pay level) and (2) how much of the compensation should be fixed versus variable (pay structure). The authors examine the paychecks drawn by people in more than 14,000 selling jobs and more than 4000 sales management jobs in five B2B industry sectors in five European countries. They show that pay levels and structures reflect an apparent balancing of two conflicting pressures: the economic imperative (to reward better performers by heightening pay dispersion) and the compensation differential compression resulting from high tax regimes. In particular, B2B firms appear to use variable pay as a way to lessen the salary differential compression impact of high tax regimes on salesperson motivation. Furthermore, similar to chief executive officers, sales managers can have an important multiplier effect that justifies paying them at increasing rates as job challenge rises.

Cultural impact on European staffing decisions in sales management

This paper tests propositions derived from the sales and human resource management literature about the adoption of sales personnel recruitment and promotion policies in an international context through a comparative study of managers in six European countries. The results indicate that the regional culture of decision-makers has a strong effect on their choice of recruitment and promotion candidates. This study attempts to identify key sales personnel characteristics for international staffing policies.

Internal Validity Assessment of Conjoint Estimated Attribute Importance Weights

This paper investigates how various conjoint designs (full versus fractional) and estimation procedures (LINMAP, MONANOVA, OLS) may interact with basic characteristics of the “true” utility functions (i.e., their range, shape, and curvature) when estimating attribute importance weights. Substantial weight distortions are found, especially under a fractional design.

Culture and Career Advancement in Europe: Promoting Team Players vs. Fast Trackers

This paper reports the results of a study of the cultural influences on career systems and job promotion. The authors report the conclusions reached during the first phase of a large European study on managerial decision-making. Nearly 300 managers participated in this phase, which surveyed 25 firms from the financial sectors of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Models built upon Sonnenfeld and Peiperls11 career typology and on Derr 12 and Evans et al. 13 cultural career maps are examined. The results of this study indicate that nationality is a good determinant of the choice of internal or external promotion systems. It also finds that individual self-interest remains an important factor in managerial decision-making. The authors conclude that human resource programs designed to standardise career management policy across Europe may fail because of intentional and unintentional barriers.

Optimal sales force compensation plans: an operational procedure

This paper describes an operational procedure for identifying optimal sales force compensation plans featuring salary, commissions and/or quota/bonus. Utility-maximising salespeoples behaviours and reactions to given compensation plans are simulated, and the resulting sales, costs and long-term expected profits are assessed. Then, a search technique attempts to identify the long-term profit-maximising compensation plan structure. Operationally, the simulation model parameters are calibrated so as to reflect those of an actual sales force, and consequently the optimal compensation scheme for this specific sales force can be identified. The concept is illustrated in an actual case study.

The Effects of a Salesperson’s Utilities on Optimal Sales Force Compensation Structures in Uncertain Environments

It has long been held that monetary rewards are the most effective way to motivate salespeople (Ford, Churchill and Walker 1981). Unfortunately, there is no general agreement concerning the level, frequency, and determinants for the distribution of this money. A majority of small business owners contacted in a recent survey report that their sales compensation plans fail to adequately motivate salespeople. A near majority report that the plans overpay poor performers (Ricklefs 1990). While most practitioners and researchers agree that a well designed plan should be good for both the company and the salesperson, the goal of defining such plans in a broad spectrum of market conditions has been rather elusive. However, poorly designed plans may not only prevent firms from reaching sales targets, but may also increase a firm’s selling costs if it overrewards, or increase turnover if it underrewards.

Brand assets and pay fairness as two routes to enhancing social capital in sales organizations

ABSTRACT A growing body of research in sales highlights the importance of intrafirm relationships. Indeed, sales executives are encouraged to manage internal relationships within their sales force to facilitate high levels of performance. In this research, we examine the concept of social capital – its antecedents and consequences – in the context of a B2B sales organization. In particular, we conceptualize and test two alternative means of enhancing a salespersons social capital: the impact of branding and perceptions of pay fairness. We then demonstrate how social capital embedded in sales-force relationships can be leveraged through job satisfaction and used to increase sales performance.

Impact of religiosity and culture on salesperson job satisfaction and performance

This research is a multinational study of the effect of religiosity on salespeople’s attitudes about their jobs, even after controlling for cross-cultural differences and the particular management practices in their sales organizations. We theorize moderator effects between religiosity and the salespeople’s traits and attitudes, as well as interactive effects between organizational factors and the cultures in which the firms are embedded. We test the effects of these joint culture and religiosity influences on multiple facets of job satisfaction and find support for our hypotheses. We also demonstrate financial consequences for both individual salespeople and their sales organizations. We test these effects in a survey of salespeople working in 38 countries operating in diverse industries.