Sales plays an important role in allowing a business to maintain long-term relationships with customers. Sales force structures can be critical in allowing companies to distribute their products to their customers effectively. Typical sales force structures include territorial, customer, or product structures. Each structure has pros and cons. In addition, a sales force should be routinely evaluated to determine how effective it is in reaching company sales goals. The choice of how to compensate a sales force, whether through incentives, bonuses, or even contests, may also impact how effective a sales force is.

Imagine that you are the sales manager for a company that makes cabinet hardware, which it has traditionally sold to large contractors who build homes and offices. Your company has built a solid reputation and grown its business regionally, and it is now looking to sell its products to end consumers through national retailers such as Home Depot and Lowes. Your challenge is to create a sales force structure that will meet the expanding role of sales in your company.

Explain how you would:

- structure the sales force. Explain why the structure you recommend is better than alternative approaches.

- compensate the sales force. Explain why the approach you recommend would provide the right incentives for the sales force.