IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormksc/v9y1990i4p279-298.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Integrated Model-Based Approach for Sales Force Structuring

Author

Listed:
  • Arvind Rangaswamy

    (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)

  • Prabhakant Sinha

    (ZS Associates)

  • Andris Zoltners

    (Northwestern University)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the problem of designing the structure of multiproduct sales forces selling in an environment where purchase decisions are made on a straight rebuy or modified rebuy basis. It addresses two key issues pertaining to structure: How many sales forces should the firm have and which products should be assigned to each sales force? First, the key determinants of sales force structure are identified and described. Next, a mathematical programming model is formulated that can aid firms in designing the structure of their multiproduct sales force. An application is then described in detail including sales response specification, parameter estimation, solution procedure, and model implementation. Insights from several of the numerous implementations of the model in the pharmaceutical industry are also summarized.

Suggested Citation

  • Arvind Rangaswamy & Prabhakant Sinha & Andris Zoltners, 1990. "An Integrated Model-Based Approach for Sales Force Structuring," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 279-298.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:9:y:1990:i:4:p:279-298
    DOI: 10.1287/mksc.9.4.279
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.9.4.279
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mksc.9.4.279?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Darmon, Rene Y., 2002. "Salespeople's management of customer information: Impact on optimal territory and sales force sizes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 162-176, February.
    2. Murali Mantrala & Sönke Albers & Fabio Caldieraro & Ove Jensen & Kissan Joseph & Manfred Krafft & Chakravarthi Narasimhan & Srinath Gopalakrishna & Andris Zoltners & Rajiv Lal & Leonard Lodish, 2010. "Sales force modeling: State of the field and research agenda," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 255-272, September.
    3. Panagopoulos, Nikolaos G. & Avlonitis, George J., 2010. "Performance implications of sales strategy: The moderating effects of leadership and environment," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 46-57.
    4. Guenzi, Paolo & Sajtos, Laszlo & Troilo, Gabriele, 2016. "The dual mechanism of sales capabilities in influencing organizational performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3707-3713.
    5. Ho-Taek Yi & Young-Bong Cha & Fortune Edem Amenuvor, 2021. "Effects of Sales-Related Capabilities of Personal Selling Organizations on Individual Sales Capability, Sales Behaviors and Sales Performance in Cosmetics Personal Selling Channels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-21, April.
    6. Haase, Knut & Müller, Sven, 2014. "Upper and lower bounds for the sales force deployment problem with explicit contiguity constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(2), pages 677-689.
    7. T. S. Raghu & B. Jayaraman & H. R. Rao, 2004. "Toward an Integration of Agent- and Activity-Centric Approaches in Organizational Process Modeling: Incorporating Incentive Mechanisms," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 316-335, December.
    8. Fabio Caldieraro & Anne T. Coughlan, 2009. "Optimal Sales Force Diversification and Group Incentive Payments," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(6), pages 1009-1026, 11-12.
    9. Feng, Cong & Fay, Scott, 2020. "Store Closings and Retailer Profitability: A Contingency Perspective," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 411-433.
    10. Johannes Habel & Sascha Alavi & Nicolas Heinitz, 2023. "A theory of predictive sales analytics adoption," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 13(1), pages 34-54, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:9:y:1990:i:4:p:279-298. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.