EXAMINING SALES FORCE PERFORMANCE IN ORGANIZATIONS THAT USE BEHAVIOR-BASED SALES MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

A small, but expanding, base of theory and practice points to placing more sales management emphasis on the activities of salespeople such a s call planning and sales presentations to improve their performance. The results of a study of 146 field sales managers in 58 Australian sa les organizations indicate that sales forces with high behavior and ou tcome performance experience a greater extent of sales manager monitor ing, directing, evaluating, and rewarding than those with lower perfor mance. The high-performance sales forces also have greater commitment to their organizations, and their sales managers are mole satisfied wi th their units' sales territory designs.