An Integrated Framework to Derive Optimal Number of Sales Personnel for a Retail Store

Abstract

In brick-and-mortar retailing, sales personnel play the most important and complex role whereby they are the ones who are connected to consumers directly on a real-time basis. It is observed that majority of bricks-and-mortar retailers in India assume;(a) store size, (b) average monthly store revenue, (c) store operating hours, and (d) standard store employee cost as a proportion of store revenue are the key factors to arrive at the number of sales personnel required for a store. Such an assumption and widely followed practices have created a predisposition and mindset in store managers and they believe that their store delivers revenue and profit to the best of its potential and more importantly, all the consumers are completely satisfied and happy with the level of service offered by the sales personnel. In this research, we have analysed the existing policies and methodology of arriving at a number of sales personnel for a store, attempted to design a new framework and applied the same through an experiment to evaluate the change in (a) overall store profitability, and (b) sales personnel’s attitude towards consumer orientation.