Forecasting, Budgeting, Territories, Evaluation and Legal/Ethical Issues

In the fourth part of the Sales Operations/Management Specialization, students will explore the purpose and methods for forecasting and budgeting in a management role. Next, we will learn how to develop territories and evaluate sales performance. Finally, we will explore the legal and ethical issues facing sales managers.

• Sales Forecasting and Budgeting
• This week we will spend some time learning how to define the overall potential of the market in terms of sales volume. We will then use this information to develop a sales forecast for our market. We will next describe three approaches to calculating market potential. Once we have arrived at our sales forecast, we will discuss some of the key issues that may influence our sales forecast. We will finish up our week with a discussion of the 9 commonly used forecasting methods along, the data used in each and some of the pros and cons of each method.
• Territory Management
• In this module, we will address sales territory management. We will discuss why sales territories are created and two approaches used to develop a sales territory.
• Sales Performance Evaluation
• In this module, we will discuss sales performance evaluation. We will identify the components of performance evaluation. As part of that, we will introduce something called the Pareto Principle or as you might know, the “80/20 Rule.” We will show you five options for analyzing sales volume. Finally, we will address cost analysis/evaluation. As part of that, we will discuss some of the problems with analyzing marketing costs and how marketing cost analysis is applied to business decision making.
• Legal and Ethical Issues
• In this module, we cover ethics and legal issues that a sales manager must be familiar with. We will begin with distinguishing between ethics and legal issues. We will review the kinds of issues and legal issues that confront sales administration and how you should deal with this. We will also discuss what a code of ethics is and why this is important. Finally, we will wrap up with a discussion of some legal issues that face sales managers.