EFFICIENCY OF SALES LOGISTICS IN OWN AND PARTNER NETWORKS

Background: Sales plays an important and simultaneously specific role in an organization's logistics system. It can be pointed out that it is the connective tissue between the supply and distribution subsystems of a business entity. Sales logistics encompasses all the activities whose core tenet is to provide the customer with the ordered product within the required time, at a satisfactory cost and quality. Additionally, it should be pointed out that sales networks in the telecommunications industry are actively involved especially in distribution. There are three types of sales networks in telecommunications companies. These are own sales networks, partner sales networks - also called external or dealerships, and mixed networks - where both previously enumerated solutions work simultaneously. The conditions for the proper functioning of own and partner sales networks differ significantly in terms of both the formal-legal side and remuneration.  The purpose of the article is to analyze the impact of using sales network partners on the effectiveness of sales logistics.

Methods: The comparative analysis dealt with four entities constituting the telecommunications industry in Poland, considering such parameters as: number of employees, average number of activations per employee, average cost per one employee, average income per one employee, sales profitability,  The analysis period covered the years in which the surveyed entities used own and partner sales networks in parallel (1999-2016).

Results: When comparing the functioning of own and partner sales networks based on the studied parameters, it should be noted that the latter is characterized by a much higher number of employees (by 73.19%). Besides, the profitability of sales in the partner network is much higher than in the case of own network - by 141.69 percentage points.

Conclusions: Partner sales networks are characterized by a higher average sales value and profitability than own networks. At the same time, there are a larger number of employees employed in partner sales networks. It should be noted that in respect of market penetration and income generation by organizations, this solution is more advantageous. The added value of the research is determining the level of sales logistics effectiveness of own and partner sales networks in terms of the telecommunications industry.