Improving the effectiveness of field series organizations - A European perspective

For companies competing in rapidly changing business environments, the sale sforce can be an important source for improving organizational effectivenes s. The results of a study of 159 field sales managers in 79 Austrian compan ies point to higher effectiveness in organizations utilizing sales manageme nt directing and evaluating activities to a greater sales extent than manag ers in less effect ive organizations. Moreover, the effective sales organiz ations place more emphasis on their sales territory design, and additionall y their sales forces show significant differences in both personal characte ristics and performance dimensions. Salespeople in the more effective sales units display higher levels of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, sales s upport orientation, and customer orientation. Both salesperson behavior and outcome performance were rated higher by managers in the organizations wit h more effective sales units. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.