Training in sales force management and an application in service sector

Firms have grown due to technological, economical and social advances occurring in our day, and modern sense of marketing has started gaining importance in an environment not all goods and services produced may be sold.Firms have started establishing a successful sales force by attaching more importance to the sales in order to achieve their objectives and purposes, and to survive in the fierce competition environment. Because, they realized that the best source was manpower in an environment where producing the best goods and services was not sufficient; and that it was necessary to train and improve that force on every subject. In this point, in order for firms to have a successful sales force, it is of great importance that they plan, develop, implement training programs suitable to their needs and evaluate results of those programs in best way possible. The reason is that sales force training has gone beyond being merely an activity to ensure survival of firms and their adaptation to developments and changes, and become one of their objectives affecting present and future market positions of firms. To this end, it is imperative to train the salespeople who play a key role in creating customer satisfaction and loyalty. It is possible to say that the salespeople, who have benefited from sales trainings, would carry firms to the future in the best way possible.This thesis study with the subject ?Training in Sales Force Management and An Application in Service Sector? is discussed in three chapters. In the first chapter; ?sales and personal sales? concepts in service sector, decisions of sales force and sales management in sales force are included.Under the title of training of sales force, the second chapter contains, importance, purpose and benefits of sales force training; tasks and attributes of a sales force trainer; the concept of training and training process for sales force.The last chapter presents a subject-related application. For this purpose, a questionnaire was applied to call center representatives who work for credit card and credit sales department of the firm Atos operating in Düzce province, in order to reveal training process of the firm, the benefits they have provided from trainings, their expectations from trainings, their performances and whether or not they work in a customer-oriented manner. Data gained from the questionnaire study were analyzed using Cronbach Alpha reliability test, frequency and percentage tables, factor analysis, one-way analysis of variance, bonferroni test, t-test and regression analysis; the findings obtained were evaluated; and conclusions and recommendations were presented. In consequence of analyses conducted, it is possible to suggest that customer-orientation and the benefits provided from sales force training positively affect salespeople?s performance and their expectation from the training, in other words, enhance salespeople?s efficiency and effectiveness.