Sales Territory Design and Salesforce Performance in the Detergent Manufacturing Companies in Kenya

Abstract

In today’s competitive and dynamic markets, one of the most critical challenges businesses face is how to improve the performance of their salesforce. The role of the salesforce has evolved from just implementing the selling function to become a core value creator for both the customers and the sales organizations. This study sought to establish the effect of sales territory design on salesforce performance in the detergent manufacturing companies in Kenya. The study adopted the positivism approach and a descriptive cross sectional design. The population of the study was the salesforce in the detergent producing companies in Kenya who are members of Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) as at December 2018. There are 557 salespeople spread across the 40 detergent manufacturing companies in Kenya. The sample size was 326 respondents. The study utilized primary data which was collected by administering semi-structured questionnaires. The data was analyzed applying a mixture of both descriptive and inferential statistics to describe the manifestations of the variables in the data collected. Simple linear regression analysis was utilized to determine the extent to which the variables are related. The null hypothesis that sales territory design has no significant effect on salesforce performance in detergent manufacturing companies in Kenya was rejected. Thus, sales territory design has significant effect on salesforce performance in detergent manufacturing companies in Kenya. This therefore indicates that sales territory design is critical in determining salesforce performance in detergent manufacturing companies in Kenya. The study recommended that the detergent manufacturing companies and other stakeholders like Kenya Association of Manufactures should focus on the developing of efficient and effective sales territory frameworks that make it easy and cost effective for the salesforce to reach the customers and ultimately deliver more sales and at competitive prices Keywords: Sales Territory Design, Salesforce Performance & Detergent Manufacturing Companies