1. Managing the Multinational
Sales Force
Royal Dutch Shell
Project By:
Aya Ahmed
Lara Azzam
Mostafa Hashem
Amira Zeyada
MKTG 4401
Dr. Omar Ramzy
2. The Company
Founded in 1886
Started as oil refining and lubricant production
Merger with Royal Dutch 1907
International operations with multinational employees
Employs over 24,000 office workers with $2.1B revenue in
2008
Main products: Helix Ultra, Rimula and Gadus
3. Looking at the Main Article
“Managing the Multinational Sales Force” by John Hill
& Richard Still
How involved are MNC’s when it comes to
influencing their overseas sales departments
Looked at 14 companies in the general consumer,
pharmaceutical, industrial and EDP Industries
Companies mostly selective about the sales policies
they influenced
Usually:
International
Planning done in
head office
Plan, administer
and control
sales forces.
4. Factors that affect the transferal of sales
practices over seas
Geographic
Dimension
Degree of
Market
Development
Political/Legal
Environment
Cultural
Aspects
Local Marketing
Circumstances
Looking at the Main Article
5. Looking at the Main Article
Geographic Dimension
Large Market
Specialized
responsibilities
Distributed by territory,
product or customer
Small Market
Split up geographically
Representatives responsible
for a broad range of
products
Degree of Market
Development
Must consider development of technology and human
resource education level
6. Looking at the Main Article
Political & Legal Environment
Compensation packages are always affected by the
programs set by a company
Cultural Norms
Training programs, recruitment techniques and selling
techniques are adjusted to suit the reality
Dialects
Local Market Circumstances
Societies habits affect how things are managed
7. Centralization Decentralization
"International Salesforce Management: a Relationship
Perspective" by Jeffery Lewin & Wesley Johnston
• HQ Decisions: Which sales channels to choose and how
Exporting to
a Third Party
Better and
faster
penetration of
market
Cost Efficient
Developing
a salesforce
Inefficient
when entering
a new market
On the long-run,
gives more
control
to structure the salesforce?
• Local Office Decisions: Decisions of recruitment
compensation, training and organizing the sales
activities.
• Shell Egypt:
• Long history in Egypt Decisions have long been
decentralized in favor of national office
• Only basic strategic decisions left to HQ
8. Organizational Structure Decisions
Determinants of
Decisions
Industry-based
Factors
Corporate-based
Factors
Environmental
Factors
"Organizing the Overseas Sales Force: How
Multinationals Do It"
9. Article ‘Sources of Effectiveness in the Business to
Business Sales Organization
• Geographic and physical dimensions
• The degree of market development
• Salespeople and their methodology in managing
sales
10. “Sales Training: Comparing Multinational
and Domestic Companies”
Should sales training be standardized or localized?
Cultural norms should be taken into consideration
Aligning with the other articles, MNCs must consider the
local reality needs
Tailor the training to suit the education level and needs of
society
11. Shell’s Practices and the Article
Content
• Establishing and managing a sales force in a foreign
market
• The potential problems in the Egyptian Market
• Geographic selling technique
• The political issues
• The recruiting, training, and deploying of salespersons
• The culture of the foreign country they operating or
intending to operate in
12. The Selling Approach - SPANCOP
• Suspect
• Prospect
• Approach
• Negotiate
• Order
• Payment
Key Accounts – Handled by
Shell’s Salesforce
Diamond Platinum Gold
13. Shell’s Practices and the Course
Content
3-4 members extended, multi-level selling team
Egypt’s Office
International members in team for international accounts
Post-Purchase and Technical Support activities as part of
CRM increase chances of cross & up-selling
Organizational Structure: Geographic – Customer
Helix & Rimula
Oriented (Consumer Structure
and
Transportation Vehicles)
Gadus (Industrial Uses)
15. Recommendations
Outsourcing Analysis
Reconsider outsourcing of Silver + Bronze – broaden
horizons
Upselling
All customers are dead in the long run
Scouting for customers - keep customer database
updated for potential upgrades
17. Recommendations
Sales Management Control & Salesforce Behavior and
Outcome Performance
Monitoring Directing Evaluating Rewarding
Improving Management
Result: Best Possible Candidates Leading Salesforce
18. Recommendations
Determine type of employees to cater to their motivations:
Behavioral Motivations Outcome Motivations
Spend time with salespeople in
the field.
Producing a high market share
for your company.
Make joint calls with
salespeople.
Making sales of those products
with the highest profit margins
Regularly review call reports
from salespeople
Quickly generating sales of new
company products/services
Monitor the day-to-day activities
of salespeople.
Identifying and selling to major
accounts.
19. Recommendations
Recognizing who’s doing well and who needs training:
Salesperson Characteristics:
Are the salespeople motivated, and if so, by what?
Which salespeople strive for long-term accomplishment and
which ones focus on the immediate future?
Which salespeople enjoy facing challenging environments
rather than staying in their comfort zones?
20. Recommendations
Sales territory design:
Salesperson effectiveness about more than skill:
Territory needs selling potential
Put most skilled salespeople in areas with most selling
potential maximum effectiveness
21. Recommendations
Trainings
Extensive behavioural training
Sales personnel – first line employees
Weekly/Biweekly trainings
Country Offices plan adminster and control sales force.
Upon entry very involved in the planning part
Consumer goods, EDP,
Common theme amongst the articles we looked at
Recruiting top notch sales caliber people in educationally developed markets is difficult because of how people perceive sales job as not being too reputable.
So, some companies may resort to outsourcing sales activities because it is difficult to hire.
- So if taxes are high, certain packages are set or if the govt benefits such as medical costs and such are supported a company doesn’t need to offer as much benefits
- Each company tailors its packages to the environment its in and this affects the contracts that it has with customers
Bcus, the people have different ways of interacting and different ‘accepted’ acts and so in order to sell most effectively, companies need to know the norms so that they reach and communicate in the right way so they can effectively close pitches
Dialects – companies decentralize activities if theres lots of dialects – hire ppl that speak that dialect so that communication is clear
Eg. Germans get straight to business, Japanese need to socialize to get to know the seller and what they stand for then make a buy.
Eg. Tendancy to go on strike/support environmental issues or others
Influence depends on industry and market reality
Specialization about geographic zones. Routes and territory split up is vital.
How to increase sales (3 ways)
Shell standardized a selling technique – POPSA (purpose, objective,premise, strategy, anticipation) remind sales person to be ready and on top of their game
Building upon what was previously said/relating it to another article we looked at. Shell standardizes its process BUT the question is…
Which we later discuss in more detail when looking at the main article
2- and thus outsourced a significant part of the sales process.
Allocation of sales people – prioritizes profitable customers – and thus the gold platinum and silver rankings
Outsourcing Analysis
Organizational Effectiveness Model
Trainings
Have like a database that contains this info
Specialized sales management system, should be done locally by managers and not by international salesforce.
Bee have ur all
Teach them about other business terminologies that will be useful to them later on (due to reality of Egyptian salesforce where most are not very well educated and thus need more knowledge and so provide them with it – more than just sales. They’ll feel more value and more loyalty? Toward Shell