Managing a Regional Sales Team (14 hrs) by MDIS

• Understand the overview of regional business operations
• Recognise the patterns of regional options
• Understand the implications of regional expansion choice
• Ability to outline the responsibilities of the regional sales team
• Learn regional sales leadership
• Develop regional price consistencies
• Manage grey market issues
• Build a market development fund
• Take the regional business to the next level

Overview of regional business operations

• This course will begin with a broad perspective of regional businesses and the need to diversify. Unexpected events can occur in certain geographies and it is vital that business risks are mitigated. Distributors, strategic alliance partners as well as direct sales teams will form part of the regional sales planning discussion.

Recognising the patterns of regional options

• Certain parameters are crucial when operating a local business, let alone a regional one. We will examine the vital elements of financial risk and managerial control, as a lead in into the expansion options available to the regional manager.

Understanding the implications of regional expansion choice

• There exists about six fundamental business models for managers to consider when they wish to expand regionally. Each has its own implications, both positive as well as negative. The mapping of each with the participant organisation’s risk and strategic profiles, as well as stage of growth, is a key part of the exercise.

Outlining the responsibilities of the regional sales team

• Regional sales representatives, be they full fledged staff or that of a distributor will have obligations. It is important for the regional sales manager to emphasize these responsibilities, in part to foster a strong relationship, but more importantly to protect their own corporate interests.

Regional sales leadership

• The necessity of sales leadership naturally comes with managing a direct regional team who are staff of an organisation. However, even with distributors and other types of partners, the concept of leadership is still important if we wish to build a long term business in the region.

Ensuring regional price consistencies

• Currency fluctuations, import duties and other miscellaneous expenditures can lead to price discrepancies for a regional company. With increasing cross border transactions from end customers, it is not difficult to arbitrage to the sales organisation’s disadvantage. Pricing strategies will be discussed to balance the diametric pressures of matching competitive pricing with regional price consistency maintenance.

Managing grey market issues

• This topic is a natural follow up to regional pricing issues. However beyond price, regional sales representatives will sometimes endeavor to sell outside their geographic sales boundaries and into another’s territory. We will examine a variety of ways to prevent cheating and violation of sales agreements.

Building a market development fund (MDF)

• An MDF is a powerful platform to incentivize sales teams without setting detrimental pricing precedents. In addition, it allows the regional sales organisation to build a strong brand as a step towards growing the business in different markets.

Taking the regional business to the next level

• Building a business is not simple, but organisations do often thrive, and growth issues will come along with success. Having a larger presence in a foreign market will invariably aggravate the incumbent partner. We will examine ways to assuage this displeasure and endeavor to grow the market together with the existing sales team.

This two day regional sales management course will have managers prepare actively for commercial expansion. Participants will be asked to, even if broadly, ready a business plan for discussion. Each plan will have input from the trainer, as well as fellow participants and be critiqued for fortification. Participants will leave the course with an expanded view of the options available to their firm in their quest to grow their regional business.

This course is meant for regional supervisors who have a direct team and channel managers who oversee distributors and resellers. These sales staff or business partners can either be selling to end users or corporate clients.