Newswise — The first study to compare sales management practices in developed and undeveloped countries on several continents finds compelling evidence that differences in processes across countries are diminishing, even disappearing.
The study was designed to examine whether the theory expressed by foreign-affairs commentator Thomas Friedman in his book "The World Is Flat," that globalization is "flattening" away the dissimilarities between countries and regions, holds true regarding sales management processes and effects for international companies in business-to-business sales.
"Our key findings support Friedman's thesis," says Dr. David W. Cravens, marketing professor and holder of an endowed chair in the M.J. Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
"We found some variation between individual countries, possibly due to differences in culture, political stability, and economic wealth, but were surprised to find no major differences between developed and undeveloped countries."
"Globalization of the Sales Organization: Management Control and Its Consequences," by Dr. Cravens and fellow TCU professor George S. Low, and Nigel F. Piercy of the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, appears in the current issue of Organizational Dynamics, an academic journal.
The research also was presented in August in Chicago at the 2006 Marketing Educators Conference of the American Marketing Association.
"More than anything else, our research indicates that managers and executives need to evaluate their sales strategies to make adjustments to better operate on a global basis. They should recognize the trends and reexamine their global strategies in light of those observations," says Dr. Cravens.
"There seem to be more similarities in international sales management practices than there were 10 or 15 years ago. This is not necessarily good or bad, it's just the trend," he says. "This doesn't eliminate the need to recognize certain country differences, but there are definite sales management advantages in not treating each country as a unique situation."
The study combined and analyzed the results of previous studies, examining information provided by more than 1,000 field sales managers who supervised salespeople focused on business-to-business sales. Included was a wide range of companies and industries in Austria, Bahrain, Greece, India, Israel, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom.
"There hadn't been any prior major studies of sales management practices in countries beyond the U.S., Europe, and Australia other than our own earlier research. The trends had been investigated in developed countries only," says Dr. Cravens.
"We studied just a few countries, but it was an interesting, diverse group," he says. "Even in these nations that are very different from each other, we found a number of similarities."
For example, the strongest and most consistent evidence of converging similarities across countries was seen in the relationship between sales managers' behavior control techniques with their salespeople and the positive results of salesperson success and performance, and sales unit design and effectiveness.
"We looked at how managers manage their salespeople, specifically related to monitoring, directing, evaluating, and rewarding," Dr. Cravens explains. "The study did not address managers' particular tactics but rather their quantitative levels of behavior control activities."
Convergence also was indicated by the intriguing lack of impact that incentive pay had on salesperson performance, although the reasons for incentive compensation not inspiring improved sales are unclear.
A number of other sales management processes were found to have strong similarities in some countries and dissimilarities in others, but these differences did not correspond to whether or not the countries were considered developed or undeveloped. Overall, however, the observed tendencies seemed clearly headed toward increased similarity and away from dissimilarity.
The implication, according to the study, is that global account management rather than country-based or region-based account management is becoming crucial to the success of many companies.
Sales managers can use the study's findings to benefit their companies through seeking to understand the changes in global markets, taking advantage of emerging opportunities, effectively disseminating information throughout their organizations, and forming strong outsource networks.
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