How U.S.-based companies manage sales in foreign countries

Controlling the foreign-based sales force is an increasingly important part of multinational sales management. U.S. firms favor tight, numerically based methods of evaluating sellers whereas non-U.S. tendencies are toward qualitative measures. This 14 multinational, 135 subsidiary study of salesperson evaluation methods in affiliates of U.S.-based firms shows that most U.S. companies “do as the Romans do” in foreign markets and de-emphasize quantitative ratios in favor of softer qualitative measures.