One of the more interesting developments in sales force management is the use of customer feedback

to improve the performance of salespeople. These programs go by a variety of names such

as 360-degree feedback, customer-conscious compensation, and customer satisfaction rewards.

Organizations that have adopted this assessment strategy believe salespeople can benefit from

feedback collected from the customers they serve. Also, the information collected can be used by

the company to improve customer service.

The use of customer-driven evaluation programs is on the increase because of the rising

regard for the role of sales at many companies. Tom Mott, a consultant with Hewitt Associates,

says, "Salespeople who were volume pushers are now becoming the manager of their company's

relationship with the customer." Mott points out that customer feedback is likely to reflect on the

performance of the salesperson and the performance of the company. If problems surface in

either area, customer dissatisfaction may need attention.

Data collection methodology is not uniform at this point. Some companies use telephone

surveys while others use mailed questionnaires. IBM has experimented with a series of in-person

meetings that bring together corporate customers, their IBM sales representatives, and the salesperson's

boss.

Some salespeople have not welcomed the use of customer evaluations. Maryann Cirenza,

senior account executive at Teleport Communications Group (TCG) of New York, said that she

felt betrayed when she saw the questionnaire the company was sending to her customers. One of

the questions asked was "Does your sales rep know your industry?" Cirenza said, "I thought the

company was checking up on me." Later her anger subsided when she learned the survey was not

simply a monitoring system but a trial run for a new compensation plan. After field-testing the

surveys, TCG used customer feedback to set bonuses. Cirenza was actually rewarded for good

customer service by earning a bonus of about 20 percent of her base pay. Greg Buseman, a Chicago-based IBM salesman, believes the shift to compensation through customer feedback hasimproved personal selling at his company. He now spends more time understanding the customer'sbusiness and learning to be a problem solver for his clients.

Questions

1. Should the customer be given a major voice in determining how salespeople are performing?

Explain.

2. Should sales force compensation be linked to customer feedback? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?

3. Assume you are a sales manager preparing to develop and implement a customer feedback system. How might you gain support for this system from your salespeople? What data collection method would you use?

4. Research indicates that customers rank "understanding of our business" as animportant criterion used to evaluate salespeople. Why is this criterion ranked so high?

provide references