J. Clement Sudhahar
A sales force serves as a company’s personal link to its customers. The ultimate objective of sales management is to influence the sales force to get sales orders. The vital stage in sales force management is to evaluate the performance of the individual salespeople in order to suitably reward, evaluate, and retain star performers and keep the cash registers of the firm ringing loudly. This chapter briefly reviews some of the key issues on sales force management.
Sales force management, an important function of marketing, is considered by some to be a very powerful arm of marketing. The sales management process involves planning, implementing, and evaluating sales force activities within the guidelines set by the company’s strategic marketing plan. The tasks of staffing and training a sales force present managerial challenges in several areas. The key to successful sales force management lies in selecting salespeople with the right characteristics. Then plans must be made to assimilate these “go-getters” into the company and to train them. Management must then meticulously set up programs to motivate, compensate, and supervise the sales force.
Sales, a critical function of marketing, is a pivotal point in linking the organization with the customers through product placement. In simple words, marketing creates the platform and selling executes the plan of revenue generation by means of exchange. Marketing stresses the importance of satisfying customer needs and wants through the process of exchange. Sales management plays an important role in marketing, especially for firms in business-to-business markets. Personal selling is the most frequently used promotional technique in business markets and management of the sales force is an important component of any quality selling effort.
The sales force is a key link between companies and customers. Therefore, companies have to be careful in designing and structuring the sales force with a strategic focus. The paramount step in sales force management is deciding the structure of the sales forces, the setup of which is dependent on the strategy followed by the company. Common sales force structures include the following:
• Territorial structure is used where every sales representative is assigned a specific geographical area. This structure is preferred for building relationships with locals.
• Product structure is used for complex and unrelated product portfolios. Here the salespeople are directly associated with research and development of the products.
• Market structure is used if the companies are operating in different industries or market segments. Every sales force specializes in a definite market and helps push a product efficiently in the given market. However, a disadvantage of this approach is if customers are located over a wide geographical area.
• Complex structure is used when companies are in the business of selling complex products to different customers across a large geographical area. Here sales force structure is a combination of the other structures.
Once the structure is designed, companies need to make a decision with respect to the size of the sales force. The size of the sales force is dependent on the market size and the number of customers. The overall success of sales teams, of course, is dependent on the sales manager (different companies designate the Head of Sales in different ways). A sales manager, in order to be effective, must understand customers, appreciate the role of the salesperson, and have the respect of the sales force. The key to success in this realm depends on the efficient execution of the following sequence of steps (Figure 1).
After recruiting a salesperson, virtually all companies put new and inexperienced salespeople through an orientation and sales training program, often lasting weeks or months. Even experienced salespeople need continual training to improve their selling skills, learn about new products, and improve their time- and territory-management practices. A recent survey in India found that 75 percent of the companies give experienced salespeople 1–10 days of training a year, with a primary focus on improving product knowledge. One of the primary training areas for experienced salespeople is in the use of sales force automation and other web-based selling methods.
Salespeople, especially the field sales force, require a high degree of motivation. One key is to determine what motivates the sales reps: is it money, status, control, accomplishment, or something else? People differ in what motivates them, and their motivations change over time. A young salesperson is more likely to be motivated by money, whereas an older salesperson may be more interested in recognition or power.
Figure 1: Managing a Sales Force.
Financial rewards are by far the most widely used tool for motivating salespeople. Consequently, designing and administering an effective sales compensation plan is a big part of a sales manager’s job. Financial rewards may be direct monetary payments (salary, commission) or indirect monetary compensation (paid vacations, pensions, insurance plans).
Supervising a sales force is difficult because salespeople often work independently at far-flung locations where they cannot be continually observed. And yet supervision serves both as a means of ongoing training and as a device to ensure that company policies are being carried out. The most effective supervisory method is personal observation in the field. Typically, at least half a sales manager’s time is spent traveling with salespeople. Other supervisory tools are reports, e-mail, messaging, and sales meetings.
Managing a sales force includes evaluating their performance. Sales executives must know what the sales force is doing in order to reward them or make constructive proposals for improvement. By establishing performance standards and studying salespeople’s activities, both quantitative and qualitative measures should be used to formulate a complete picture of performance. Quantitative evaluation generally has the advantage of being specific and objective as it measures the output in terms of target set versus achievement. Qualitative evaluation often reflects broader dimensions of behavior, but is limited by the subjective judgment of the evaluators. For either type of appraisal, management faces the difficult task of setting standards against which a rep’s performance can be measured.
Organizations today recognize the paramount role of selling functions and set up state-of-the art structures for managing it effectively as it is one among the many functions of marketing where the deliverables can be assessed objectively, precisely, and numerically. The face of any organization is the sales force. Companies spend a considerable amount of time and money on their sales force. However, having a sales force is expensive and companies attempt to manage them in an efficient manner.
The focus of the sales function in the recent period has transformed in many ways and the metamorphosis can be summarized (Evolution of Sales Focus) as:
A Shift From… |
To… |
Transactions |
Relationships |
Individuals |
Teams |
Sales volume |
Sales productivity |
Management |
Leadership |
Local |
Global |
Today, a new philosophy concerning salespeople has gained momentum and stresses the following:
• They work in teams;
• The computer is their primary sales tool;
• They do not sell to customers; rather they partner with them;
• The term salesperson is out; consultant/relationship manager is in.
In recent years, organizations have equipped their salespeople with an increasing array of electronic tools. Mobile phones, laptop computers, tablets, and multimedia equipment allow salespeople to access the internet, e-mail, and various company databases. They also allow salespeople to electronically communicate with their managers, marketers, and others in their organization by providing such things as market intelligence, call reports, credit applications, and customer questions. Today, organizations are moving beyond using these tools only for communication and integrating them with software that allows a salesperson to create customized reports for customers, develop proposals with prices, discounts, delivery dates, and other information critical to making a sale, estimate costs for particular orders, and develop forecasts for customers and territories. This capability of using electronic tools to combine company and client information in real time to enhance the sales function is known as sales force automation (SFA). SFA also equips the firms to control all sales functions through Sales-dashboard, an online monitoring device for keeping tabs on the entire sales activity.
Organizations across the globe recognize that the keys for success in sales management are innovation, technology, and leadership provided at the top. These three aspects, coupled with the latest selling approaches — viz. solution selling, consultative selling, and relationship selling — enable them to deliver the pre- and post-sales functions at desirable levels. Sales jobs today range from order takers through support salespeople (missionary sellers, sales engineers) to order getters (consultative sellers). Some changing patterns in personal selling have emerged in recent years — patterns such as selling centers (team selling), global sales teams, relationship selling, telemarketing, internet selling (sales through web, online, social and interactive media), and sales force automation. The top management must therefore set up foolproof programs to motivate, supervise, and compensate a sales force in order to keep pace with the changing face of people and markets.
CASE 1: SALES FORCE MANAGEMENT
Sustaining Sales Force Performance: AB Controls India Ltd. Auto Component Industry
J. Clement Sudhahar
The auto components industry, being an integral part of the auto industry in India, was expected to grow by 9–11 percent in 2012–2013 with slowing growth in domestic Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) production and moderate growth in exports. Softening input costs will provide some respite but improvement in Original Parts Manufacturers (OPM) is likely to be limited, given the weak outlook for Original Equipment Manufacturing production and continued pricing pressure in the replacement segment. The outlook remains healthy for production of auto components over the next 5 years, with an expected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15–17 percent, driven by a robust forecast for the domestic automobile industry and growing low-cost sourcing by global Original Equipment Manufacturing (Table 1).
Table 1: Domestic Consumption and Growth in the Auto Industry.
The pace of growth in domestic automobile production (in value terms) is expected to slow down in 2012–2013, with sharp deceleration in growth across all automobile segments weighing down volume growth as well as pricing power of auto component manufactures. The most major impact would emanate from the cars and utility vehicles and commercial vehicles segment which cumulatively make up over 70 percent of OEM component demand.
The cumulative production data for March–April 2012 shows production growth of 13.83 percent over the same period last year. In March 2012 as compared to March 2011, production grew at a single digit rate of 6.83 percent. In 2011–2012, the industry produced 20,366,432 vehicles of which the share of two wheelers, passenger vehicles, three wheelers, and commercial vehicles were 76 percent, 15 percent, 4 percent, and 4 percent, respectively.
The growth rate for overall domestic sales for 2011–2012 was 12.24 percent amounting to 17,376,624 vehicles. Only in the month of March 2012, domestic sales grew at a rate of 10.11 percent as compared to March 2011, where the sales figures stood at 1223 vehicles.
The passenger vehicles segment grew at 4.66 percent during March–April 2012 over same period last year. Passenger cars grew by 2.19 percent, utility vehicles grew by 16.47 percent, and vans by 10.01 percent during this period. In March 2012, domestic sales of passenger cars grew by 19.66 percent over the same month last year. Also, sales growth of total passenger vehicle in the month of March 2012 was at 20.59 percent (as compared to March 2011). For the first time in history, car sales crossed two million in a financial year.
The overall commercial vehicle segment registered growth of 18.20 percent during April–March 2012 as compared to the same period last year. While medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCVs) registered a growth of 7.94 percent, light commercial vehicles (LCVs) grew at 27.36 percent. In only March 2012, commercial vehicle sales registered a growth of 14.82 percent over March 2011.
Three-wheeler sales recorded a decline of (−) 2.43 percent in April–March 2012 over the same period last year, while goods carriers grew by 6.31 percent during April–March 2012 and passenger carriers registered a decline by (−) 4.50 percent. In March 2012, total three-wheeler sales declined by (−) 9.11 percent over March 2011.
Total two-wheeler sales registered a growth of 14.16 percent during April–March 2012. Mopeds, motorcycles, and scooters grew by 11.39 percent, 12.01 percent, and 24.55 percent, respectively. If we compare sales figures of March 2012 to March 2011, the growth for two wheelers was 8.27 percent.
During April–March 2012, the industry exported 2,910,055 automobiles, registering a growth of 25.44 percent. Passenger vehicles registered growth at 14.18 percent in this period. Commercial vehicles, three wheelers, and two wheelers segments recorded growths of 25.15 percent, 34.41 percent, and 27.13 percent, respectively during April–March 2012. For the first time in history, car exports crossed half a million in a financial year.
In March 2012 compared to March 2011, overall automobile exports registered a growth of 17.81 percent.
ABC, a leading auto component manufacturer in India, has established itself as a top OEM supplier to prominent auto majors in India, namely, Toyota, Tata, GM, and Hyundai, besides exports. In 2009, the firm received the “Best Managed Supplier” award from Toyota apart from being judged as “Consistent Performer” by TATA. These awards, besides a flurry of certificates received from export markets and quality certification from ISO agencies, speak volumes for ABC’s consistent performance.
The firm achieved milestone successes in every fields in auto component manufacturing, be it OEM, exports, replacement, accessories in retail market and servicing of contracts with auto majors in its relatively small history. Sales revenue has always been heading north without exception on a yearly basis. The top management also never hesitated to go for expansion even once in the last decade.
The salient features of the firm are as follows:
• Specialized: Competence lies in the forged, CNC-machined, assembly and heat treatment of automotive components for specialized applications.
• Scale: One of the largest manufacturers in India of components used in the manufacture of trailer axles, transmission, and air-brake systems.
• Competitive: More than 45 percent of the revenue is derived from exports to quality-conscious US and European markets in addition to Australia, Brazil, and Mexico, among others.
• Customers: Brand-enhancing customers comprise Tier-I and Tier-II companies across the world like Arvin Meritor (USA), Alliance Corporation (USA), Zenus Starker — BMW (USA), and Bosch Rexroth (UK), among others, besides OEM customers.
• Visible: Shares are listed on the Mumbai Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange.
The company with all its focused energy has been very aggressive in expanding its base all the time from being a domestic supplier to being the top Indian auto majors entering export markets and servicing replacement markets. The growth achieved in all three areas of its foray is evidence of its efficient sales force management strategies. The foray made by the company into retail and replacement markets was hugely successful in the initial two years, due to the all-out effort of Mr. Vijay Kumar, Manager-Sales, Retail/Replacement. This fact was strongly endorsed by the Vice-President-Sales, Mr. Mihir Sen.
After a sturdy performance in the first two years, 2009–2010 and 2010–2011, the retail segment of the company saw the sales moving southward in 2011–2012 which had impacted the overall results. And first two quarters of 2012 were also not great as far as sales growth was concerned. When the annual sales review meeting was held in January 2013 at Chennai, India, a minor backlash was feared from the President concerning dwindling sales performance in one specific segment headed by Mr. Vijay, awardee of “Star Performer” of the country, and his teams across the country, especially in South India which is supposed to be the citadel of the firm’s performance zone. Mr. Mihir called his Secretary Ms. Joy asking for all the reports.
What followed was the conversation below:
“Have you collated all the reports from the different verticals?” asked Mr. Mihir
“Yes sir, but…” was the stunted reply from Ms. Joy.
Hesitantly, Mihir quizzed Joy, “Where is the let up happening?”
“This time the lag is from Mr. Vijay and his team only.”
Mihir quickly flipped through the records and asked about the managerial aspects of the super-sales-man turned Manager, Mr. Vijay’s moves in the last one year.
“What is the turnover rate in the retail sales division headed by Vijay?”
“It is 32% in 2011–12”
“Its astonishingly very high”
“On the rise year-on-year, that is 20% to 32% in the last two years”
“Did you ever check the exit views of those sale people?”
“Not much... sir”
Scanning all the information that his Secretary could muster, Mihir turned very thoughtful and wanted to have a candid chat with Vijay who was summoned that evening. Slowly, over a cup of coffee and a bowl full of dry fruits, the discussion began.
Mihir was very objective in his assessment of the decline of a star performer, after acknowledging Vijay’s initial performance spurt. Mihir had no option but to acknowledge and applaud Vijay’s team building efforts, not only in one zone but across the country. He was very appreciative of the fact that building efficient sales teams in particular was a herculean task and categorically said, “Hats off to you Vijay.”
Vijay was steadfast with all the anticipation that the discussion would henceforth center around his downward slump.
On the expected lines, when questions arose on the 2012 downward spiraling sales, Vijay was very calculated in his response as he started listing out the steps taken by him and outcomes.
He gave region-wise actions taken by his managers in arresting the trend and summed up the overall tactical moves adopted by him in countering the situation over the last one year as follows:
– Optimize the sales process
– Optimize the sales pipeline and create effective KPI’s (key performance indicators)
– Build a proper recruiting process
– Develop the sales management team through training and mentoring
– Optimize compensation
– Test and manage talent.
“But all these steps together, surprisingly, yielded counter-productive results,” quipped Mihir.
“That’s really it,” summed up Vijay in a disappointed tone.
The conversation went on for another 15 minutes, and then came a bolt from the blues.
To the utter surprise and dismay of Mihir, Vijay handed over his resignation letter. Mihir did not want to give any knee-jerk reaction but had very little clue on how to proceed further.
1. Comment on the move of AB Controls concerning expansion drive into the replacement market.
2. Consider the status of Mr. Vijay and justify his decision to quit.
3. If you were the Vice-President, Sales of AB Controls, how would you react to the situation posed by Mr. Vijay’s resignation?
4. Comment on Mr. Mihir’s handling of the sales manager prior to the Annual Review Meeting.
5. As the strategic consultant of ABC suggest a modified top organizational chart to ensure sales performance efficiency.
Teaching objectives: This case can be deployed for teaching major subjects like marketing principles, sales and distribution management, human resource management and strategic management. It is capable of addressing learning objectives in terms of:
– The concept of sales force management
– Performance management
– Negotiation management
– Concept of strategic decision making.
While administering this case the facilitator can keep a tab of the following:
• The concept of Product Mix and ANSOFF matrix on market expansion while foraying into new markets.
• Concept on Emotional Quotient and Alter Ego has to be kept in mind while tackling and taking critical decisions.
• Senior Executives of any discipline have to strike extreme balance between task and people management, especially while handling star performers.
• Stereotyped approaches to sensitive issues would backfire more often than not. One has to summon all his hands on experience in dealing with new market conditions.
• A sales-oriented organization, as it avoids top-heavy structure, facilitates the seamless decision making and swift problem-handling. Consequently, the synergy among sales volume, deadlines, and morale of sales personnel may be established.
For answering this question, the students may contemplate about the expansion strategies like concentric, horizontal, or vertical growth strategies. A firm which has been doing so well in OEM market, being into replacement market, the image and timing of the move need to be kept in mind here.
Sales position in any organization calls for extreme dedication and aggression in terms of effort front. Needless to say of the situation thirsted upon Mr. Vijay, a cornered performer, no surprise that he took an extraordinary decision of quitting straight away. The students need to consider the temperament and cognitive skills of such sales employees while dealing with their decisions.
Senior Executives of any discipline have to strike extreme balance between task and people management, especially while handling star performers. Stereotyped approaches to sensitive issues would backfire more often than not. One has to summon all his hands on experience in dealing with this kind of tricky situation of losing an able hand in the midst of expansion.
When organizations venture into new frontiers, they have to mull over apt handling of performance woes at each level. Mr. Mihir has faltered in this realm of assessment of the situation and personnel management. Rather than resorting to old-fashioned hard-post sales reviews, the top management must set up fool-proof programs to motivate, supervise, and compensate a sales force in order to keep pace with the changing face of people management and employee engagement.
While answering this question, the students can keep tab of the following point:
A sales-oriented organization, as it avoids top-heavy structure, facilitates the seamless decision making and swift problem handling. Consequently, the synergy among sales volume, deadlines, and morale of sales personnel may be established.
Appendix 1: Values, Vision, and Mission of AB Controls India Ltd.
Values
• Time is the essence of the business and always values time in meeting delivery requirements of our customer
• Integrity and honesty in our dealings
• Passion for excellence
• We honor the dignity and value of individuals working as a team
• Taking on big challenges and seeing them through
• Accountability to customers, shareholders, partners, and employees for commitments, results, and quality.
Vision
• “To be global leaders in manufacturing of automotive components, assemblies and complete transport solutions by providing cost competitive quality products to the retail customers.”
Mission
• “To provide superior products for the automotive segment and increase its market share through quality, innovation in manufacturing, and cost efficiency.”
Appendix 2: Philosophy and Strategy.
Philosophy
• As a manufacturing company in the automobile industry, we stand for systematic quality management and an open information policy, paying attention to and fulfilling the wishes and needs of our customers.
• Our aim is to continuously increase our company’s competitiveness. We want to be a reliable and flexible partner for our customers. Therefore, all employees, whether in the manufacturing sector or in other sectors of the company, are trained to meet all quality standards of our company in their scopes of duties.
• In order for us to meet these requirements, we built up an extensive quality management system. It fulfils the requirements of the international norm ISO 9001:2000 and the requirements of ISO/TS 16949:2002 and is integrated and in use companywide.
• We are an organization inspired by enterprise, fueled by dynamism, and distinguished by service. As an automotive components manufacturer to some of the best-known brands, globally and in the domestic market, we aim for complete customer satisfaction through quality, reliability, and time-bound performance. As a dynamic, well-integrated company, we believe in keeping one step ahead of the times.
Strategy
• Create a de-risked business model through a combination of scale and product variety.
• Product variety to be widened through continuous improvement and innovation.
• Innovation is to be reflected in cost reduction and increasing production of value-added products.
• Both these initiatives are to be reflected in enhanced margins and profits in OEM and Retail markets.
• The profits are to be aggressively reinvested in scale and product variety leading to sustainable growth.
Appendix 3: Competitive Edge.
At ABC, the competitive edge is derived from the following:
• Values: The highest ethical and professional standards.
• Knowledge: Most specialized product insight within the niche; ability to absorb manufacturing technologies with speed; ability to absorb customer standards for general benefit; motivated team of around 50.
• Mind-to-market: Short tenure makes it possible for business partners to seize the first-mover supply advantage.
• Reference: Collaborative work with some of the largest names across a decade.
• Scale: Globally benchmarked operational capacity and higher than competition.
• Quality/efficiency: Derived from cutting-edge technology, training, and progressive shop floor practices.
• Logistics: Timely product delivery to the customer’s shop floor, ensuring uninterrupted operation at all times.
• Balance sheet: Very low debt and increasing cash flow every quarter.
Appendix 4: Sales Training Programs at AB Controls India Ltd.
Intermittent Training Modules
Employees train themselves through role plays to face tech-savvy customers and demonstrate the feature updates in the products.
• Average per year 10 such training sessions, which focus on the features, demonstration, and customer interaction.
• Day-long training and online tests once a month.
• Training out-turns at the retail outlets has become integral part of the training schemes.
• Other training sessions are organized for the new recruits and the existing employees regularly in different formats.
• Online packages:
Online packages
Classrooms and
Hands on experience of the products.
Induction Training Module
• Imparts the training in the local language.
• Trains the representatives on the:
Device
Services
Experiences and
Conversation skill.
• Adopts the role-play format in a big way in its training modules.
• Communication skills assessment and upgradation.
• Web-based training on products on a continuous basis with focus on the:
Operating system
Hardware
Features.
CASE 2: SALES FORCE MANAGEMENT
Influence of Sales Force Training in Primary Healthcare
Sameer Deshpande
Anurudra Bhanot
Sales training is considered critical in a marketing organization because it improves “sales competencies such as creativity in the sales process, problem solving, ethical decision making, and effective listening skills.”1 According to scholars such as Attia, Honeycutt, and Leach,2 sales force training improves the effectiveness of marketing strategies, specifically to achieve higher sales and consumer satisfaction. Leach and Liu3 report that effective sales training programs improve organizational commitment, sales performance, and customer relations.
Studies have assessed the influence of training from the perspectives of both buyers and sellers to get 360-degree feedback.4 However, previous sales management studies have not explored how training influences knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors of both the sales force and consumers, attributes that are at the core of a consumer persuasion process. We contribute to the sales force training literature by exploring these influences using Donald Kirkpatrick’s model5 for evaluating the effectiveness of sales training. Kirkpatrick’s model recommends carrying out the process in four steps: at level 1 (the reactions stage), trainees provide information on how much they like and comprehend the training program. Level 2 (the learning stage) entails assessment of the skills and knowledge trainees have acquired and how their attitude toward the subject matter has changed. Level 3 (the transfer stage) emphasizes ascertaining whether trainees’ changes in knowledge and attitude transfer to change in sales behavior. Level 4 (the results stage) measures change in sales and consumer performance as a result of sales training.
While the influence of sales training on sales force performance has been investigated in large-, small-, and medium-sized commercial companies6 as well as public sector organizations,7 previous studies have failed to assess the influence of training efforts on social behavior change. Influencing social behaviors (e.g., replacing unsafe sex with condom use or delaying childbirth) is considered to be more challenging than influencing commercial behaviors (e.g., switching brands of soda; Lee and Kotler8), requiring a higher level of personal selling9 and hence increasing the importance of sales force training in the social sector. We thus test the Kirkpatrick model in an under-researched and rapidly growing area of the social sector. Specifically, we look at Project PRACHAR (Promoting Change in Reproductive Behavior) of Pathfinder International India and its efforts to assess the influence of training of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), the frontline health workers, to promote reproductive and child health services and increase their utilization among women of reproductive age.
Health services by social sector are an important component of the health sector in any society. In countries like India, healthcare is delivered by the public healthcare and commercial and noncommercial private sectors. Of these, the noncommercial private and the public healthcare systems are largely under-researched, although they cater to large sections of society, especially the poor. A study conducted in a social healthcare setting, especially among frontline health workers, will potentially benefit both the commercial and social sectors. For the social sector, the findings will help organizations such as the central and state governments, nonprofits bodies, and funding agencies to improve their work.
But these findings also have the potential to contribute to the commercial sector. Health workers play a critical role by providing home visits, forming long-term personal relationships with women and likely the rest of their families, providing services, selling health products (such as contraceptives) at a subsidized price, and offering advice with the intent to persuade their clients to change high involvement behaviors steeped in long traditions. Word-of-mouth publicity can play a vital role in spreading positive and negative information about these workers and their messages. The nature of salesmanship of frontline health workers is comparable to that of investment consultants or pharmacists, who play a similar role when they deal with the old habits of consumers, create awareness, form personal relationships, and try to change people’s behaviors in relation to savings, eating habits, and physical activity. Thus, organizations such as consulting firms and pharmacies could learn from the evaluation procedure used to assess the influence of training on various outcomes.
Investing in frontline health workers in countries like India is considered to be the most cost-effective way to save lives of millions of mothers and children.10 These workers deliver health services to and improve the health outcomes of people living in remote areas of the country who otherwise would not have access to modern medicine.11 Several studies have proposed providing training to such workers to enhance their performance.12
Pathfinder International project PRACHAR invested resources in the frontline health workers in Bihar, India, through training, capacity building, and supportive supervision to achieve the project goal of improving the health and welfare of young mothers and their children by changing the traditional custom of early childbearing. This study examines the role played by the training, capacity building, and supportive supervision provided to ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists), who, as change agents, interacted with underserved populations in rural areas to change their traditional beliefs, norms, and practices related to early marriage and childbearing.
PRACHAR has operated in three phases since 2001, when it received funding support from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation to foster changes in reproductive health among young people in Bihar. The project was designed to change beliefs, attitudes, and practices among adolescents, young married couples, parents, and influential adult figures in the community. The behavior change strategy used a mix of communication channels, including media and infotainment, community outreach activities, and interpersonal communication at the individual, household, and community levels through the ASHAs — a cadre of frontline health workers who act as the interface between the community and the public health system and are responsible for health promotion activities.
In its third phase (since 2009), the project has been working closely with the Government of Bihar’s State Health Society to incorporate successful PRACHAR approaches into the daily work of government health workers, primarily the ASHAs. As part of its intervention activities, the project conducted a performance improvement training of over 1000 ASHAs in the Gaya district. The ASHAs were trained intensively over three days to carry out interpersonal communication to promote behavior change and deliver information about family planning concepts, myths, and misconceptions and the full range of contraceptive methods and products. They were given a set of specific messages to use to communicate about the benefits of delaying and spacing with newly married women with no child as well as married women with one child. Job aids provided to them included flip books and audio-visual material containing messages on reproductive health, family planning, and contraception. A team of male communicators supervised their work and supported them by participating in discussions with community members as well as male members, in particular, of the families of the women who were being served by the ASHAs.
To assess the usefulness of the training, data were collected in December 2011 and January 2012 by Westat India using randomly sampled surveys with 160 ASHAs and 1600 female clients (community women) in the Gaya district of Bihar. Additionally, 10 focus group discussions were conducted with ASHAs to get their detailed views on how different components of the training helped them in their day-to-day work. The survey conducted with community women measured their satisfaction with the services provided by ASHAs after the training program.
We present findings according to the four stages of the Kirkpatrick model.13
Findings revealed that training had a positive influence on the performance of ASHAs, increasing their knowledge and understanding of reproductive and child health topics. The training program’s use of visuals, graphics, and models helped clarify difficult concepts. Similarly, its use of simple language, local dialects, folk music and songs, storytelling, and activities to explain various topics in an entertaining way improved the learning process. These approaches helped ASHAs to understand various issues related to family planning and contraception, to retain the key messages long after the program, and to explain important health issues to their clients through stories that the village women enjoy and understand easily.
The training improved the record-keeping skills of over 90 percent of the ASHAs. These skills helped them in planning and organizing their day-to-day work, identifying and prioritizing important segments to work with, keeping information about clients at their fingertips, and using the register to follow-up with different clients. ASHAs have felt a perceptible difference in their productivity as a result of improved record keeping. Because they could identify and prioritize key client segments from the register, they were able to visit these clients more frequently — thrice a month compared to once a month before the training. Also, recording the background details of every client in the register enabled them to customize the advice to suit the needs of individual clients. ASHAs made an effort to understand the reproductive and family planning needs of every woman based on the reproductive stage of her life cycle and offered advice specific to her needs.
The training also had a noteworthy impact on the communication skills of the ASHAs (79 percent said so). They moved from simply regurgitating health messages to all segments without understanding their background and informational needs to tailoring messages to most individual segments. In the training, they learnt that different segments have different beliefs, priorities, and barriers to change and different ways of processing information — the same argument can appeal to different people in different ways. They learnt the importance of addressing the specific concerns of each segment and using different strategies to persuade different segments. In giving examples of how they address different mind-sets, ASHAs said their strategies now included giving real-life examples from within the community, sharing their own examples when relevant, requesting help from the male communicators to garner support from the male members of a client’s family, and undertaking patient approach with women who take time to make up their minds.
The training also helped ASHAs to understand the role played by the family members of the women — their parents, husbands, parents-in-law, and other family members — in influencing the women’s decisions. As a result, the ASHAs started discussing various issues with the influencers as well in order to create an enabling and supporting environment for the women.
To get a better picture of the influence of training, a survey was conducted with the clients of ASHAs, that is, community women. Nine in ten women knew who the ASHA in their village was, and the majority indicated that the ASHA visited their home two to three times a month. Regarding the level of services provided by the ASHAs, the majority of women reported that the ASHA answered all their questions, willingly spoke to family members when appropriate, used a flip chart to explain things to them, provided them with pills or condoms when needed, and provided them with information on other methods of contraception. They reported that discussions with the ASHA helped them make decisions related to spacing their children, providing better care of their children’s health, delaying their first birth, and observing better hygiene of their sexual and reproductive organs. See Table 2 for a summary of their responses.
In summary, the training program helped the ASHAs to segment their audience (by characteristics of both the audience members themselves and those of their influencers), understand their audiences’ individual situations, tailor their sales messages, improve their communication skills, and form strong and long-term relationships. All these features are essential characteristics of an effective salesperson and are required to close a deal in services marketing.14 These enhanced attributes improved the effectiveness of the performance of ASHAs and changed their clients’ behaviors.
Table 2: Influence of Discussions with ASHAs on Community Women (N = 959; Figures in Percentage).
The contribution of this study is both measurement-oriented and contextual. Measuring the influence of training on the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of the ASHAs and their clients using the Kirkpatrick model enabled the training organization to comprehensively understand the influence of training, which fed inputs back into the quality of the sales training program. These forward and backward linkages in the sales training program will eventually have a positive influence on the effectiveness of the service organization. Contextually, the study contributes to the potential for improving effectiveness in both the commercial and social sectors. In closing, this study fills an important sales force training research gap by systematically assessing the influence of sales training in a social sector context.
Pathfinder’s PRACHAR Project adapted the training to meet the needs of both the salesperson (ASHA) and her clients (community women), the majority of whom have little or no education, are generally confined to the four walls of their houses, and live in traditional societies that do not encourage discussion of reproductive and sexual health matters. By using graphics and visuals to explain the female anatomy; using local motifs, folk songs, storytelling, and dialects; and by providing job aids to the ASHAs, Project PRACHAR showed the way to culturally adapt training efforts to improve the performance of community health workers.
1. What is the Kirkpatrick model? In what commercial and social marketing situations can this model be applied?
2. What is social marketing? How does it differ from commercial marketing? How does it differ from social communication?
3. Why is sales force training important? How does it help organizations achieve their bottom line outcomes?
4. In addition to sales force training, what other strategies should organizations utilize in order to improve sales force performance?
5. In addition to sales force performance, what other strategies should organizations utilize in order to improve organizational performance?
The case study introduces readers to the importance of sales force training in the social marketing context. But before we go any further, students should be educated on the concept of social marketing, which is the application of commercial marketing principles to address social problems. It involves identifying a target audience, understanding their needs, and providing tailored and attractive environmental solutions that provide benefits and reduce barriers and thus make desired behaviors attractive. Social marketing strategy involves providing tangible product or intangible service, thus going beyond communication-only approaches (such as ads on television or circulating brochures), which increases the likelihood of adoption of desired behavior.
This case is about how to effectively provide a social service. One of the issues that arises when promoting a service is weak sales performance. To enhance sales performance, sales force training is essential, but rarely employed in the social sector. This case highlights one of those rare examples of utilizing a sales force and regularly training it. It also highlights the rare attempt to measure the influence of such a training program, especially with a theoretical model in place.
One could end the discussion by asking students the importance of sales force training and other ways to improve sales force in particular and organizational performance in general. A comparison between commercial and social marketing would be relevant again.
Donald Kirkpatrick’s model (1994) of evaluating effectiveness of sales training recommends carrying out the process in four steps. At level 1 (reactions), trainees inform their liking and comprehension toward the training program. At the learning stage (#2), the evaluation procedure assesses what skills and knowledge trainees acquire and how does their attitude toward the subject matter change. In the transfer stage, the emphasis is on ascertaining whether the change in knowledge and attitude transfer to change in sales behavior. Level 4 (results) measures change in sales and consumer performance as a result of sales training.
One could ask students whether this model looks complete; are there any gaps in this model.
The model can be utilized in any situation where sales force was trained and sales force utilized to promote products or services. Although training and employing of sales force is common in commercial marketing setting, it is rarely used in the social marketing situation. The reason for this poor utilization lies in the fact that many social marketing programs lack promotion of tangible good or intangible service. Without goods or services, it becomes difficult to justify use of sales force.
It would be good to first pose these questions with students. They are very likely going to confuse social marketing with social media marketing or with communication-only effort. Then the instructor could proceed to clarify the differences.
Social marketing is an audience-oriented approach to understand why target individuals carry out current behavior and not the desired behavior and what could be done to reverse this situation. The strategy involves offering alternative opportunities that enhance benefits of desired behavior and reduce barriers.
Social marketing begs, borrows, and steals its framework from commercial marketing; however, the objectives of these behavior change initiatives differ. Commercial marketers are interested in maximizing shareholder value. Their bottom line includes maximizing sales and profit. On the other hand, social marketing initiative cares for individual and societal welfare. In commercial marketing, the competition is another brand promoting the same behavior, while in social marketing, the competition is current behavior and individuals or organizations that promote current behavior.
Social communication primarily employs communication strategies to influence behavior. Social marketing goes beyond communication. It additionally influences the environment by offering tangible goods or intangible service, by reducing barriers, and by enhancing convenience and other benefits towards the desired behavior. For example, warning labels on cigarette packets is social communication, while promoting nicotine replacement gums or patches is social marketing. Going beyond communication enables a social marketing initiative to be more attractive and thus more successful.
The discussion could start with the broader topic on the importance of employee training and then narrow it down to sales force training. Sales force training educates the individuals about the products and services, its technical details, about consumers, and ways to promote the offering to the consumers. Training improves motivation and ability of sales force to promote organization’s products and services. Enhanced motivation and ability to promote invariably improves organizational bottom line. A motivated salesperson also improves communication with the consumer and the latter’s involvement and motivation to purchase the product/service and change behavior.
Other strategies include incentivizing sales performance through monetary rewards, promotion, appreciation, and recognition.
Other strategies include incentivizing performance of employees in general, having a positive and motivational internal communication, and conducting continuous research and development to monitor changing audience interests and competition and in response to develop products and services that remain attractive to the audience members.