Kardan University
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International Marketing
15th edition
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Overview
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Designing the sales force
Recruiting marketing and sales personnel
Selecting sales and marketing personnel
Training for international marketing
Motivating sales personnel
Designing compensation systems
Evaluating and controlling sales representatives
Preparing U.S. personnel for foreign assignments
Developing cultural awareness
The changing profile of the global manager
Foreign-language skills
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Recruiting Marketing
and Sales Personnel (1 of 2)
• The largest personnel requirement abroad for most
companies is the sales force
• Expatriates
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Numbers are declining
Important for highly technical or involved products
High cost
Cultural and legal barriers
Limited number of high-caliber personnel willing to
live abroad
• Virtual expatriates
– Manage operations in other countries but don’t live
there
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Recruiting Marketing
and Sales Personnel (2 of 2)
• Local nationals
– Transcend both cultural and legal barriers
– Familiar with distribution systems and referral
networks
– Headquarters personnel may ignore their advice
– Lack of availability
– Sales positions viewed negatively
• Third-country nationals
– Expatriates working for a foreign company
• Host-country nationals
– Work restrictions
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Selecting Sales
and Marketing Personnel
• Management must define precisely what is expected of
people
• Prime requisites
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Maturity
Emotional stability
Breadth of knowledge
Positive outlook
Flexibility
Cultural empathy
Energetic and enjoy travel
• Mistakes can be costly
• A manager’s culture affects personnel decisions
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Training for
International Marketing
• The nature of the training program depends on:
– The home culture of the sales person
– The culture of the business system and foreign
market
• Continual training is important in foreign
markets
• Companies should provide home-office
personnel with cross-cultural training
• The Internet now makes some kinds of sales
training much more efficient
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Salespeople’s Distribution
of 100 Points among Rewards
in Terms of Their Importance
Exhibit 17.3
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Designing Compensation
Systems for Expatriates
• Fringe benefits
• Compensations comparisons between the home
office and abroad
• Short-term assignment compensation
• Using a compensation program to recruit,
develop, motivate, or retain personnel
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Evaluating and Controlling
Sales Representatives
• In the U.S., emphasis is placed on individual
performance; it can easily be measured by sales
revenues generated
• In many countries evaluation is more complex
where teamwork is favored over individual effort
• In the U.S., the primary tool used by sales
managers is the incentive system
• In other countries, corporate control and
frequent interactions with peers and supervisors
are the means of motivation and control
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Preparing U.S. Personnel
for Foreign Assignments
• Cost of foreign assignments
– Typically from 150-400 percent of the annual
base salary
– Cost increases if the expatriate returns home
before completing the scheduled assignment
• The planning process
– Must begin prior to the selection of those going
abroad
– Must extend to their specific assignments after
returning home
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Overcoming Reluctance
to Accept a Foreign Assignment
• Concerns for career
– An absence will adversely affect opportunities for
advancement
• Concerns for family
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Education of the children
Isolation from family and friends
Proper health care
The potential for violence
• Special compensations packages deal with
concerns
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Reducing the
Rate of Early Returns
• Evaluation of an employee’s family
– 75 percent of families sent abroad experience
adjustment problems with children or marital
discord
• Cross-cultural training for families as well as the
employee
• Local ombudsmen
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Successful
Expatriate Repatriation
• Commit to reassigning expatriates to meaningful
positions
• Create a mentor program
• Offer a written job guarantee stating what
company is obligated to do for returning
expatriate
• Keep the expatriate in touch with headquarters
through periodic briefings and headquarter visits
• Prepare the expatriate and family for repatriation
once a return date is set
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The Changing Profile
of the Global Manager
• Fewer companies today limit their search
for senior-level executive talent to their home
countries
• Some companies believe
– It is important to have international assignments
early in
a person’s career
– International training is an integral part of their
entry-level development programs
• Many companies are active in making the foreign
experience an integrated part of a successful
corporate career
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Foreign-Language Skills
• Many believe:
– Learning a language improves cultural
understanding and business relationships
– To be taken seriously in the business community,
the expatriate must be at least conversational in
the host language
• Many companies are making stronger efforts to
recruit people who are bilingual or multilingual
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