Page 162 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

154 Marketing: the Basics
in a manner congruent to the goals of the corporation, which is to build long-term relationships with customers through satisfying current, and anticipating future, needs.
TeRRiToRiaL saLes foRce
The simplest method of dividing responsibilities is to devise a territorial sales force (TSF) structure. To construct a TSF, the manager divides the region in which the target market resides into smaller units. One salesperson is assigned to each unit, bestowed with the exclusive right to promote the full product-line and maintain local business relationships. The company in turn creates ancillary support services including technical support and customer service. In short, the salesperson sells, the company supports. From a customer-oriented perspective, there are three advantages of implementing a TSF structure. First, by assigning one salesperson to a particular region, thereby creating a mutual dependence between the salesperson and the customer, concerns raised by clients will be heard by a sympathetic ear. Second, it fosters higher customer satisfaction because the salesperson can devise product bundles tailored specifically to meet customer needs. Finally, by transferring the responsibility of support to the company, the customer receives assurances that technical and customer service related issues are handled by highly trained and competent staff whose primary task is to provide support. With a TSF, the argument goes, specialization breeds customer assurance.
The belief that specialization will always breed customer assurance is unfortunately idealistic. Granting exclusivity to the salesperson can hinder the process of building customer relationships because there are no checks to see if the salesperson is making reasonable attempts at finding new customers. But who can blame the salesperson for not wanting to solicit new business? With the constant travelling, low success rates and the salary correlated to performance, it is natural to avoid such stress once a stable client base is secured. Finally, if the product-line is diverse or highly technical in nature, unless properly trained, the salesperson will have difficulty communicating the benefits of each product of the product-line to potential customers.