Using Contingency Analysis to Select Selling Effort Allocation Methods

AbstractImproving selling effort allocation can produce substantial sales and profit increases for many firms. Several analytical methods are available to help management identify more productive deployment of expensive selling resources. The advantages and disadvantages of these methods are discussed and a procedure to determine the appropriate method for a given firm is presented. The procedure consists of assessing both market factors and company factors as a basis for selecting selling effort allocation methods. Application examples are provided and implementation considerations are also discussed.