A decentralized sales force constitutes of people placed at various strategic points across locations. These strategic points might be across a region, across a state or across a whole country.
By decentralized sales force we mean regional or local offices, which many top brands and companies have to increase sales and reduce pressure on the central office. There are many advantages of Decentralized sales force as can be seen below.
1) Reach – The number 1 advantage of decentralized sales force is the reach and penetration in the market. As you have local sales team, the sales team can reach all corners of the market and increase your presence in the market. Plus, you can hire more people in more territories to expand your presence.
2) Better control – If the sales executives were reporting to the head office, there would less control over them because you don’t know what they are doing on the field. Consequentially, with 1 senior member appointed in each team at each decentralized location, these senior members are responsible to check at the local level the performance of the sales executives. Thus, you have better control over your ground staff.
3) Improved customer service – Your dealers and retailers are your internal customers. Both your internal customers as well as normal customers get better service if you have a local contact point present. This overall makes a huge difference in the market’s acceptability for the products.
4) Executive’s performance – Because the sales executives are independent and are given a free hand to work in the market, the morale is generally high. An aggressive sales executive will always like to be independent so that he can do his own work. If on the other hand, the performance is low of the executive, then that can be tracked too and the right executive can be placed in that area. This builds enough pressure on the executive and gives him enough freedom so that he performs.
5) Traveling time – A basic factor in the sales executives energy on the field is the time taken to reach the field. If the travelling time is less, then the energy is high and more productive work can be done in the market.
6)Traveling expenses – When the executive is directly leaving to the market, the travelling time as well as the travelling expenses are saved for the company. These expenses saved go into hiring more sales executives. But ultimately, a penny saved as a penny earned.
7) Requires a management system in place – One of the critical thing to ensure that the decentralized sales force is effective is to keep the right management systems in place. In this system, you can record of what competitive brands are doing and how your brand is performing in the market. This management system can also indicate when you losing market share in a particular region.
8) Overall market growth – Naturally, when you have localised presence, the confidence of your company increases because you are able to reach end retailers and dealers. You are also able to solve their problems and build their confidence in your brand. The overall sale and the market growth rises when you have a decentralized sales force.
The above are all the advantages of decentralized sales force.
Thanks for sharing the valuable post!!