personal finance Dr John Treasure of the British Market Research Bureau has wisely said on this subject: Knowing why people buy does not in itself solve the manufacturers' problem of what to do any more than knowing who buys. ... The true 'end and purpose' of all kinds of market research is to predict what will happen to sales if a certain policy is decided upon: and, by comparison, to enable management to decide which policy or what combination of policies should be adopted to maximize sales. .. . Good research, whether concerned with behaviour or motivation, should be accompanied by a sketch of the implications of policy decisions which may be made on the basis of the research. ... Market research need not be a rigidly technical operation ; the primary need is a resourceful and flexible approach. Emphasis may have to be changed quickly in the light of new disclosures as the research task proceeds. Thus a management may be convinced that the goods it is responsible for possess a certain limited application. It advises those who are undertaking the research of the limits to which they should confine themselves, but, as happens so often, the researchers may discover a highly promising application for the goods outside their traditional field which management has hitherto unquestioningly accepted. Consumers' buying habits govern the selection of distributive channels by management, but restricted resources can impose limitations; thus a small concern may merely appoint selling agents. It must be remembered that the agent and the distributor, although they are not on the payroll, are in a very real sense part of a selling organization. The number and the geographical dispersal of distributors, whether wholesale or retail, decides the size of a manufacturer's sales force. Each salesman is typically allotted to a certain area or territory; the extent depends on the number of distributors whom he can be expected to serve, the average duration of calls, and the required frequency of calls. If many distributors are utilized throughout the United Kingdom, there may be so many salesmen that some of the sales managers' responsibilities have to be delegated to regional supervisors. Several concerns selling more than one distinct category of goods find that they can achieve more success by using two or more sales forces, each of which specializes in a particular category. This kind of sales organization is particularly convenient when each category of goods is sold to a different set of customers. However, although the characteristics of customers differ, all may purchase the full range of the company's products, in which case organization by type of customer may be desirable. Responsibilities of sales managers vary considerably. They make significant decisions on policy in some companies but in others they are left to administer policies dictated from above. homemoney to purchasehow