ent requires attention to each of these factors and to additional factors within the framework of a coordinated and cohesive sales management program.
Another factor of great significance is sales training. Prior to the 1960s, the emphasis in sales management was often placed on "locating, identifying, and harnessing the 'natural born salesman' to the task at hand. Where selling ability was concerned, the problem was regarded as relatively simple. You had it or you didn't."9 While this attitude towards sales training has changed in every industry and in most firms, the change was absolutely essential for the manufacturers of industrial products, where significant levels of product knowledge on the parts of sales persons are required, as well as is the ability to translate such knowledge into hard sales.
8W. B. Connor, "Making Field Assignments," in Marketing Strategies. New York: The Conference Board, 1983, 80 83.
9R. D. Crisp, Sales Planning and Control (New York: M
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