Setting standards of performance requires consideration of the nature of the selling job. In other words, sales job analysis is necessary to determine job objectives, duties and responsibilities, and the like. Performance standards are designed to measure the performance of activities that the company considers most important.
Some unique sales jobs exist. The mainframe computer “salesperson,” for example, is both a management consultant and a system analyst. Evaluating the job performance of a computer salesperson requires standards that measure not only skill in new-business selling but, even more basically, effectiveness as a management consultant and skill as a system analyst. It is important to recognize the nature of the selling job before selecting standards of performance.
Setting sales performance standards requires considerable market knowledge. It is important to know the total sales potential and the portion that each sales territory is capable of producing. Marketing intelligence must provide evaluations of competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, practices, and policies. Management must know the selling expenses in different territories. These items all bear on the setting of performance standards, especially quantitative standards.
Sales management takes still other factors into account in setting performance standards. Sales planning is reappraised to assure that it is the best possible under the circumstances. The policies and procedures being used to carry the personal-selling portion of the marketing program into effect are reviewed for appropriateness. Adjustments are made for the strengths and weaknesses of the individual sales personnel and for the differences in their working environments. Sales management puts together a combination of sales performance standards to fit the company’s needs, its marketing situation, its selling strategy, and its sales organization.
Purpose of Salespersons Performance Evaluation
- To ensure that compensation and other reward disbursements are consistent with actual salesperson performance
- To identify salespeople that might be promoted
- To identify salespeople whose employment should be terminated and to supply evidence to support the need for termination
- To determine the specific training and counseling needs of individual salespeople and the overall sales force
- To provide information for effective human resource planning
- To identify criteria that can be used to recruit and select salespeople in the future
- To advise salespeople of work expectations
- To motivate salespeople
- To help salespeople set career goals
- To help salespeople set career goals
