Sales force control in the area of value-based selling and Industry 4.0: smart self-control based on salesperson business model

The purpose of this paper is to extend the literature on sales force control systems (SFCSs) by showing that they can benefit from Industry 4.0 technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), the business model framework, and the marketing analytics to manage salespeople in value-based selling (VBS) approach. Specifically, we suggest that each salesperson manage his/her sales business model, and based on this, we introduce the Smart SFCS (SSFCS) in VBS. Four elements of the SSFCS are presented: (1) types of SFCSs included in SSFCS, (2) components of IoT, (3) interconnection between SFCSs based on IoT, and (4) implantation conditions. In this latter element, we highlight marketing analytics' ability to perform intelligent data analysis to effectively manage the salesperson in real time. This research addresses important theoretical issues of sales management control that have not been considered in previous studies and that can help sales managers adequately control salespeople using VBS logic.