A commercial department in the industry needs to adhere to some principles in its organization and take into account risk factors. In this article follow some of the recommendations that the author makes about it.by: Adhir Uzcátegui
The organization of the commercial department is given by the various alternatives that a security company has to structure the different commercial activities; it will always be conditioned by a series of internal and external factors, such as the size of the company, the philosophy to be followed, economic resources, future projection, the type of market and product or service, etc.
Its main achievement lies in the realization and achievement of the commercial objectives given by the company. Just as there is no "type vendor" in commercial organizations, there is also no series of standard organizational models, mainly due to the enormous diversity of customers and markets in our Latin American countries. The studies carried out on commercial organization have resulted in a series of premises that in principle are necessary:
- Business, departmental and individual objectives must be clearly defined and communicated.
- Responsibility (and necessary authority) for achieving results should be delegated as much as possible.
- The people to whom power has been delegated must be able to exercise it and believe in what they are doing, otherwise no organizational structure will serve any purpose.
The general management with the support of the commercial management mark the organizational instruments that they consider most appropriate, although in principle we recommend a manual with the detailed description of the jobs, the precise operational manuals to carry out their management and the "sales manual", an essential tool in any commercial department that is considered competitive. Because of their importance, their elaboration and usefulness we deal with them independently in chapter 7.
Principles of commercial organization
- Command unit: each salesperson will depend on a single boss and will work directly with him. The bosses will know the number of collaborators in their charge.
- All functions will be defined in writing down to the last details.
- Supervision must be timely and constant to be effective.
- The delegation of tasks must be perfectly defined.
- Stability of personnel: we must achieve as low a turnover of commercial staff as possible. Be able to withstand staff losses without great losses of efficiency, profitability and adequate customer service.
- Flexibility: the organization must be able to adapt to changing market situations, preventing them and coping with business changes, without losses in performance.
- Expansion: when an expansion is carried out with the consequent increase in the number of sales and work, it is necessary to provide for the expansion of personnel to be able to adequately serve customers.
- Coordination: harmonize the actions of the various commercials, so that no interference or duplication is created in the work. Adapt the commercials according to the delimitations of the sales areas, so that all are attended and covered.
- Creation of the junior figure: in any commercial team it is interesting to have the presence of junior staff, so that they act as a wild card in substitutions or specific needs; they will subsequently be promoted.
Factors affecting a vendor structure
When designing the sales organization we must study the following factors:
- Volume of the company: the greater the number of people who make up the workforce, the greater the efforts must be devoted to control and monitoring. In large companies it is necessary to divide or group the staff by geographical areas, types of customers, types of products, etc.
- Number and nature of products: the type of products and ranges implies the need for staff specialization. Differences have to be made between product lines.
- Distribution methods: determine the appropriate type of distribution and the necessary means and infrastructure.
