INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR SALES MANAGERS

Industrial sales managers must accomplish a variety of tasks within a highly competitive environment. One crucial responsibility is to devel op and maintain a marketplace advantage. An important new source for s uch an advantage, and the focus of this study, is the information prov ided by the organization to the industrial sales manager Empirical evi dence from 108 firms indicated a tendency to provide sales managers mo re internal than external information. Despite future opportunities fo r firms to improve their account analysis process, it was also found t hat firms furnish very limited managerial training in methods that are designed to assist in the gathering of information. These findings su ggest that marketing staff managers may need to examine and enhance th eir informational offerings and support to sales managers.