Zugl.: Tübingen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 309-322).

Digitalisering bidrar till utveckling för svenska företag. Regeringen pushar för digital innovation så att företag ska få tillgång till de senaste digitala systemen. Om företag inte digitaliserar sig riskerar de att hamna efter. Ett område som har påverkats av digitaliseringen är försäljningsbranschen. En bransch som använder digitala system för att minska manuellt arbete, fysiska säljprocesser och ökad försäljning. Digital Sales Room är en ny digital helhetslösning som behandlar hela säljprocessen från första kundkontakt till stängt affär. I ett Digital Sales Room finns det olika funktioner som tillsammans skapar ett värde för både användaren och kunden. Eftersom det är en ny digital lösning är det viktigt att undersöka till vem ett Digital Sales Room anpassas till.  Syftet med uppsatsen var att forska kring värdet av funktionerna i ett Digital Sales Room som är mest värdefullt för säljare, säljchefer och VD. Vidare ta reda på om ett Digital Sales Room är attraktivt för försäljningsföretag.  Digital Sales Room är en ny kategori inom försäljning som innehåller ett antal olika funktioner för att effektivisera företags säljprocesser.  Det kan brytas ner i olika funktioner: Dokumentutskick, redigera efter utskick, Videofunktion, chattfunktion och digital signering.  Från en kvantitativ enkätstudie på fem företag med olika roller sammanställdes resultatet i olika diagram som även kodades och analyserades. Analysen utfördes genom en jämförelse mot litteraturstudien samt hur de olika rollerna ansåg varje funktion värdefull för sin arbetsroll. Därifrån identifierades var värdet i ett Digital Sales Room fanns och hur helheten kan fungera för ett försäljningsföretag. Studien resulterade i att det finns ett stort värde av ett Digital Sales Room för de olika rollerna där vissa funktioner var mer värdefulla än andra. En stor majoritet ansåg att helheten med ett Digital Sales Room som värdefullt för deras roll. / Digitalization helps organizations in Sweden to evolve. The Government pushes for digital innovation to the extent that companies can access the latest digital technologies. If organizations don’t digitalize, they risk being left behind. An area that has been highly affected by digitalization is sales. It’s an industry that has begun to use digital systems to minimize manual work, create quicker sales processes and increase sales. A Digital Sales Room is a new category that helps efficiently the whole sales process. From first customer interaction to signed agreement. There are a couple of functionalities in a Digital Sales Room that creates value for both the user and the customer. Because it's a new digital solution, the importance of discovering who a Digital Sales Room is adapted for is highly relevant. The purpose of this essay was to study about what functionality of a Digital Sales Room that is most valuable for sales reps, sales managers and CEO:s. Thereby to discover if a Digital Sales Room is attractive to sales oriented organizations. Since a Digital Sales Room is a new digital solution, we are breaking down the system into smaller functionality, which is: Document send out, edit after send, video integration, chat function and digital e-signing.  From a quantitative survey on five different titles, we gathered the results and created diagrams that also were analyzed. The analysis of this study was made to compare the results with the literature on the different roles to find out what different functionality is valuable for each role. Therefore, the most valuable part of a Digital Sales Room was identified and how the whole system can be used in a sales-oriented company.  The conclusion is that a Digital Sales Room generate a value for the different roles where some functions are more valuable than others. The majority considered the whole totality of a Digital Sales Room valuable.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The economic downturn in South Africa since mid 2008 has transformed the motor vehicle industry into a seriously competitive marketplace. Both large and small dealerships are finding their volumes and margins under increasing pressure. Sandown Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd has a new vision to become the finest motor group in the world. An openness to ideas and to the external environment in the learning organisation means that it can excel by exceeding customer expectations and benchmarking against the best in the class (Clarke & Clegg, 2000:5). In this light, Sandown Motor Holdings needs to adopt certain strategies, policies and practices that allows for the implementation of new ideas and quick reactions to changes in the external environment. They need to know what customer expectations are and then exceed them to enable Sandown Motors to make this vision a reality. This research report analyses the external and internal environment of Sandown Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd in the Western Cape in an attempt to gain insight into the realities facing the company. The report becomes more focused on Mercedes-Benz Claremont as a dealership and its pre-owned vehicle sales department as the key department which serves as an outlet for trade-in pressures, but also as a profit centre which needs to be developed. Much work is done around market segmentation, product profiling and trading policies that would positively influence both pre-owned and new vehicle sales. The pre-owned strategy that emerges also highlights the necessity for an e-commerce strategy to serve as another platform from which to trade even more pre-owned vehicles. This strategy specifically aims to establish an online auction system open to traders only. The report concludes by taking a look at the new vehicle sales department. The approach taken is customer centric and relies heavily on the customer experience as a source of competitive advantage over competitors. Processes and performance indicators are reviewed and an action plan is compiled and put in place. A detailed twelve-month marketing plan is also developed and is included as an appendix. The author believes these strategies are crucial for short-term profitability, long-term survival and the satisfaction of all stakeholders. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die ekonomiese afplatting in Suid-Afrika sedert die middel van 2008 het die motor-industrie in ‘n streng kompeterende arena omskep. Beide groot- en kleinhandelaars ondervind toenemende druk op hulle volumes en winsmarges. Sandown Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd het ‘n nuwe visie om die beste motorgroep ter wêreld te word. ‘n Openheid teenoor idees oor die eksterne omgewing in die leergierige organisasie, beteken dat dit kan presteer deur kliënteverwagtinge te oortref en hulself te kan meet teen die beste in die klas (Clarke & Clegg, 2000:5). In die lig hiervan moet Sandown Motor Holdings sekere strategieë, beleidsrigtings en praktyke aanvaar wat die implementering van nuwe idees en vinnige reaksie op veranderinge in die eksterne omgewing moontlik maak. Hulle moet weet wat die kliënte se verwagtinge is en dit dan oortref ten einde Sandown Motors se visie ‘n realiteit te maak. Hierdie navorsingsverslag analiseer die eksterne en interne omgewing van Sandown Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd in die Wes-Kaap in ‘n poging om insig te verkry in die realiteite wat die maatskappy in die gesig staar. Die verslag fokus op Mercedes-Benz Claremont as ‘n alleenstaande handelaarskap en sy Gebruikte-Voertuie Verkoopsafdeling as die sleuteldepartement wat dien as ‘n uitlaat vir inruil druk, maar ook as ‘n winssentrum wat verder ontwikkel moet word. Baie werk is gedoen rondom marksegmentasie, produkprofiele en handelsbeleid wat positiewe impak op beide nuwe en gebruikte verkope sal hê. Die gebruikte-voertuig strategie wat hieruit spruit beklemtoon verder die behoefte aan ‘n webgebaseerde strategie wat as ‘n verdere afsetpunt kan dien vir nog meer gebruikte-voertuie verkope. Hierdie strategie is spesifiek gemik op die daarstel van ‘n op-tyd aanlyn veilingstelsel, uitsluitlik vir die gebruik van motorhandelaars. Die verslag sluit af deur te kyk na die Nuwe-Voertuig Verkoopsafdeling. Die benadering wat gevolg word is kliëntgesentreerd en berus op die kliënt se ervaring as ‘n bron van kompeterende voordeel bo die kompetisie. Prosesse en indikators om prestasie te meet word hersien en die nodige aksieplan word opgestel en toegepas. ‘n Gedetaileerde twaalf-maande bemarkingsplan is ook ontwikkel en word ingesluit in die aanhangsels. Die skrywer glo hierdie strategieë is krities vir korttermyn winsgewendheid, langtermyn oorlewing en die bevrediging van alle belanghebbendes.

This study sought to determine whether a relationship existed between individual salesperson's levels of goal-directed cognition and motivation and their professional success as determined by the percentage of sales goals achieved. Salespersons represented two companies with national sales forces: one from the financial services industry and one from the apparel manufacturing industry. Both groups of salespeople were responsible for complex selling tasks. The skill sets for these professionals included high levels of communication skills, extensive product knowledge, and competitive market knowledge. Survey research, both paper and pencil and online, was conducted using the Hope Scale developed by C. R. Snyder and associates (1991). Hope is defined as a two-dimensional construct of goal-directed thinking: resourcefulness, thoughtful planning to overcome obstacles to goals, and motivation, cognition to sustain momentum toward goal achievement. Theoretically, upon assessing salespersons' Hope scores, organizations would be better prepared to assist those with low Hope Scale Scores (HSS) in one of the two areas. Those with low resourcefulness scores could be trained in cognitive techniques to overcome obstacles to goal achievement. Those with low motivational scores would be identified for further analysis, from a developmental perspective, to better determine what personally initiates and sustains motivation to attain their goals (Snyder, 1991). This study affirmed two of three parts of the hope theory with regard to salespeople. High Hope scores showed significant correlations with high goal achievement, as did one of the subset scores, motivation. The resourcefulness subset score did not correlate significantly with high goal achievement, and also produced low reliability scores.

This thesis consists of two central Parts. Part 1 examines the extent to which an agent s transaction-specific investments (TSIs) in a customer relationship increase his/her concerns for opportunism by his/her own co-workers. Thus, unlike prior research in marketing that examines opportunism by the recipient of TSIs, I show that agents become concerned with opportunism by non-recipients of TSIs. I then introduce novel moderators that shape the relationship between TSIs and concerns for internal opportunism. Importantly, I also show that in response to concerns for internal opportunism, agents will engage in internal safeguarding behaviors. Notably, unlike external safeguards between firms which tend to benefit firms (e.g., relational norms), I show that internal safeguarding has a deleterious effect on performance. I test the set of hypotheses with data collected from two sources: account managers and their supervisors. In Part 2, I advance the emerging view on customer solutions by simultaneously examining the networks within and between selling and buying teams involved in the development and deployment of complex customer solutions. Such a concurrent within-and-between perspective helps to bridge research on buying and selling teams, which prior research tends to examine only in isolation of each other. This research also extends the literature by showing how within-team network characteristics interact with between-team network characteristics to affect solution effectiveness. Notably, I advance the literature by moving beyond firm-level and individual-level dyads to team-level dyads and introduce a new network characteristic mirrored ties to help our understanding of the interactions between these dyads. I develop my hypotheses in the context of a sales team selling a complex customer solution to a buying team and test the hypotheses using an innovative, picture-based conjoint field experiment from 233 purchasing managers.

Bakgrund: Den pandemi som drabbade världen under 2020 tvingade många organisationer att ställa om till arbete på distans. Denna typ av plötslig omställning skapar många olika utmaningar, två av dessa är hur en säljkår skall styras samt hur själva försäljningsarbetet behöver anpassas. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att öka förståelsen för hur Covid-19 pandemin påverkade säljprocessen och säljstyrningen i B2B säljkårer samt vilka lärdomar som kan dras från detta. Metod: Studien utgår från den kritiska realismen och har ett abduktivt angreppssätt. Vidare använder studien sig av en kvalitativ metod där fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer har utförts med individer som arbetar med B2B försäljning. Studien är designad som en tvärsnittsstudie där fokus ligger på att hitta mönster och samband mellan de olika fallföretagen. Val av respondenter skedde genom ett målstyrt urval från författarnas professionella nätverk där krav utformades för att säkerställa att relevanta företag ställde upp. Slutsats: Studien mynnar ut i att hur säljkårer förändrar sig beror till stor det på vilken typ av försäljning som bedrivs samt vilka externa och interna faktorer som finns. Samtliga fallföretag genomförde någon form av förändring i styrningen, för att öka mätbarheten eller tydligheten i arbetet. Den sociala styrningen påverkades negativt och är en mycket viktig aspekt i styrningen av en säljkår som behöver hanteras när arbete sker på distans. Digitala möten fungerar bra för de flesta företag och kommer troligtvis vara något de fortsätter med i framtiden, i alla fall till en viss grad. Vid komplex försäljning fungerade digitala möten inte alltid lika bra på grund av den höga grad av tillit som krävs för sådana affärer / Background: During 2020 the world was struck by a pandemic, forcing many organizations to switch to remote work. A sudden change like this creates many different challenges, two of these are how a salesforce should be managed and how the sales-process should be adapted to this new scenario.  Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how Covid-19 affected the sales process and sales management control systems in B2B salesforces and what lessons can be drawn from this. Method: This study is based on critical-realism and has an abductive approach. Furthermore, the study uses a qualitative method for which four semi-structured interviews were executed with individuals working with B2B sales. The design of the study is cross-sectional were the focus lies on discovering patterns and connections between the different case-companies. The participants of the study were chosen from the authors professional networks where requirements were formed to make sure the participants were relevant.  Conclusion: The study shows that how salesforces change is largely dependent on what kind of sales they are performing and what internal and external factors are present. All investigated companies went through some type of change to increase the measurability or clarity of the work. Social control was affected in a negative way, it turns out that this is a very important aspect of sales management that needs to be addressed for a salesforce working remotely. Digital meetings worked well for most companies and will most likely be something they will be doing in the future, at least to some extent. However, during very complex sales, digital meetings did not work as well because of the high grade of trust required in that type of business.

Independent manufacturers' representatives (IMRs) are companies that sell products on behalf of manufacturers (principals), typically on a commission basis. IMRs offer principals specialized knowledge about product areas or markets, and they can function as attractive supplements or replacements for in-house sales units. The literature on IMRs' allocation of resources to their principals and the downstream impact on performance is underexplored. A paucity of published research exists using actual IMR sales and commission data, likely because this data is difficult to collect due to its sensitive nature. This dissertation fills this gap by exploring the influence of principals' use of sales controls, how these controls impact the psychological climate that arises between IMRs and their principals, and the downstream impact on IMRs' allocation of sales resources and the sales volumes actually produced. Furthermore, this dissertation answers the call for research on the impact of principal's use of house territories and house accounts, through the lens of the IMR. The dissertation features three essays. The purposes are: to identify gaps in existing IMR research in order to provide directions for future research in this domain; to explore the influence of the principal's sales controls on the psychological climate between the principal and IMR and the downstream impact on IMR allocation of sales resources and sales performance; and to develop theoretical and practical insights about the impact of principals' use of house accounts, i.e. customers served by an in-house sales organization, inside or outside IMRs' territories.

This study is based on Partner X's challenges in launching an innovative replacement for rebar on the Swedish market. Swedish Construction Sales AB is working to introduce the product and the study aims to help Swedish Construction Sales AB develop an effective sales process to spread this innovation. Many companies face similar challenges, often due to a lack of sales experience. This research has focused on the application of diffusion of innovation theory in a sales process to see how it can help spread innovative products. To answer this question, one experiment with two parts was conducted and then analyzed and compared with each other. It turned out that offering the customer the opportunity to test the product, highlighting its benefits in a clear way, and demonstrating that the product is compatible in the customer's area of use and that it is not complex to use increases the commitment to the product. However, more research is needed to see if the increased response actually leads to increased sales over time. The researchers' study illustrates how theories can be applied practically to improve the sales process, contributing to a deeper understanding of how diffusion of innovation theories can be used to promote commercial success in spreading innovative products to new markets. / Denna studie grundas i Partner X:s utmaningar med att lansera en innovativ ersättning till armeringsjärn på den svenska marknaden. Swedish Construction Sales AB arbetar för att introducera produkten och studien syftar till att hjälpa Swedish Construction Sales AB utveckla en effektiv försäljningsprocess för att sprida denna innovation. Många företag står inför liknande utmaningar, ofta på grund av brist på försäljningserfarenhet. Denna forskning har fokuserat på tillämpningen av diffusion of innovation teori i en försäljningsprocess för att se om det kan hjälpa till att sprida innovativa produkter. För att få svar på denna fråga blev ett experiment genomfört med två delar som därefter analyserades och jämfördes med varandra. Det visade sig att genom att erbjuda kunden möjligheten att testa produkten, lyfta upp dess fördelar på ett tydligt sätt, visa att produkten är kompatibel i kundens användningsområde  och att den inte är komplex i användningen ökar engagemanget för produkten. Dock behövs det mer forskning för att se om den ökade responsen faktiskt leder till ökad försäljning över tid. Forskarnas studie ger en bra överblick för att se om teorier kan tillämpas praktiskt för att förbättra och underlätta försäljningsprocessen, vilket bidrar till att fördjupa förståelsen av hur teorier om diffusion of innovation kan användas för att främja kommersiell framgång för att sprida innovativa produkter till nya marknader.

Companies worldwide are facing a severe competition from an increasing number of domestic and foreign competitors, who put extra pressure on the achievement of market efficiency and performance. In this context, research and transference of managerial tools aimed at increasing performance has become decisive for organizations. One particular tool, the coaching of the sales force, has been largely praised by practitioners and scholars alike as a central managerial activity increasing employee's performance. As salespeople's performance is a key antecedent of organizational performance, research on sales coaching as a tool for increasing performance is critical. Despite its importance, research on coaching has been scarce and inconsistent, and published work has been predominantly practice-driven and guru-led, lacking solid theoretical basis. Additionally, the relationship between coaching and performance has not received conclusive support, and the mediating variables linking coaching with performance have not been studied; these restrictions limited the explanations and predictive capacity of present models. This research tries to close the gap between what is presently known about coaching and what should be known in the opinion of both practitioners and scholars, by answering two general research questions: 1) does coaching by the sales manager have an impact on salesperson's performance?; and 2) what are the mediating mechanisms that turn coaching by the sales manager into salesperson's performance? This dissertation presents a model based on two institutionalized' theories, Leader-member Exchange (LMX) Theory and Goal-setting Theory; LMX is a dyadic, relational theory, useful to explain the high quality relationship developed between coach and coaché during the coaching intervention, and some of the proximal outcomes of this relationship; goal-setting theory is particularly useful in sales contexts, where salespeople have clearly defined goals, to understand how the coaching intervention can mobilize salesperson's cognition and motivation in order to achieve the goals. The model explores the motivational and cognitive process enacted by the coaching intervention that have an impact on salesperson's performance, and proposes different ways through which coaching could be translated into increased performance; according to the model, the coaching intervention helps the salesperson to develop new task-specific strategies , which increases his capacity of adapting to different selling situations; additionally, the characteristics of the coaching intervention increases his goal commitment and his self-efficacy ; in consequence, the salesperson will spend more effort , with greater persistence , and will choose better strategies; as a consequence of increased sales adaptability, new strategies, goal commitment, self-efficacy and effort, salesperson's performance will also increase. The model was tested using data collected early in 2011; a local Latin-American branch of a global industrial company and a Canadian bank accepted to participate in the study, and invitations to take a web-based survey were sent to their sales forces. I received 186 complete, usable responses, for a total response ratio of 40.43%, which were used to test the model using Structural Equation Modeling. Results supported the main hypotheses; the conclusion of the dissertation is that the coaching intervention actually enacts motivational and cognitive mechanisms in the salesperson that allows him to increase his performance. These mechanisms are increased effort, adaptive selling, sales planning, new strategies, goal commitment and self-efficacy. The dissertation contributes to the solution of the research problem in several ways. First, it proposes a model of coaching mediators, an issue that has not been addressed by previous research. The model represents an original perspective that advances the field of coaching research by enlarging our understanding of the processes addressed by the coaching intervention. Second, the model proposes two complementary ways for achieving performance; one that considers the motivational aspects of the coaching intervention, where an increased performance is achieved through increased goal commitment and effort; the other one considers the cognitive aspects of the coaching intervention, where an increased performance is achieved through increased adaptive selling and sales planning behavior, and the development and implementation of new task-related strategies. These two ways are consistent with present research on adaptive selling and sales performance. Third, the model is based on two institutionalized theories: LMX and Goal-setting Theory. The use of these theories is an original approach, useful to understand how coaching work in sales contexts. As the proposed model is not based on any particular practitioner's model or set of experiences, it can potentially be generalized through a large series of organizational settings. Finally, the results of this research contributes: 1) to the advancement of scientific knowledge through the development of an original, theory-based model of coaching mediators, as well as 2) to the solution of a managerial problem by providing practical insights to practitioners willing to implement successful coaching processes in their organizations.

It is important for a selling company to have a motivated sales force. The motivation and what employees is motivated by have occupied the interest of human resource researchers for decades. There has been a large amount of research within motivational psychology, which has produced several theories regarding human needs and motivation factors. This study focused on sales professionals within business-to-business (B2B) with the purpose to explore and describe sales professionals’ perceptions regarding financial incentives and their motivation. The study also answers the questions of how sales professionals perceive that financial incentive affects their motivation and how the financial incentives relate to sales professional motivation. This study utilizes a qualitative approach, where the empirical data was gathered by six semi-structured interviews. By analyzing the findings, the researchers have concluded that financial incentive can both work as a motivator and a demotivator. Financial incentives can increase stress and pressure for the sales professional especially for individuals new to the profession. The study has found that this is something that the individual have to cope with since the organization is not providing support for this. If the sales professionals can cope with the stress, it will work as a motivator. Lastly, the study presents practical and managerial implications for sales organizations. They need to be aware of the business environment to ensure that financial incentive achieves the desired effect.