SALES FORCE AND INTELLIGENCE STRATEGIC IN SMES PERFORMANCE: CASE STUDY OF BATIK’S ENTERPRISES IN BRINGHARJO YOGYAKARTA

The purpose of this study is to investigate how small & medium scale companies in managing Sales Forces owned & strategic intelligence in obtaining information amid complex competition with all its limitations. The context of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Sales Force is the key to the strength of organizational success. Frequent interaction with consumers & competitors brings up a dynamic concept which is defined as routine regulating other routines, that is, besides its function as a salesperson, it is tasked to gather the information. Activity in searching information through intelligence from sales is called activity intelligence. External information obtained by the company through the Sales Force will lead to strategic planning so as to encourage organization performance to be able to flexibly adjust current business trends. This study used a case study to answer the research questions. Four enterprises were chosen as cases in this study. The result shows that the Sales Force's role will have an impact on organization performance, but organizations that implement activity intelligence through sales forces will be far more flexible & active in adjusting the business before the competition starts. In addition, this study also found strong linkages for organizations that grow through Sales Force & Activity Strategic Intelligence in terms of improving organization Performance.


Introduction
The important point in developing effective strategic planning is to scan the environment to find opportunities and threats (Anshof, 1975). In strategic management, the flow of information in the external environment is very important for the sustainability of the company in order to continue to survive crying out the business (Thitart, 1981). At present, the companies are required to continue to update the information in order to be able to compete (Javalgi et al, 2005;Joly, 2008). In the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the role of the sales force is the main capital that should be managed to control the flow of information (Joly, 2008). Therefore the role of it (sales force) that can represent the company when dealing with consumers and competitors (Thitart, 1981;Anderson, 2012). As a strategic key to the success of a sales force the company is also able to determine the company's performance (Douglas, 1990;Javalgi, 2005).
In facing very high competition pressures especially that is seen in the traditional market with various aspects, Beringharjo Yogyakarta market is a market whose location is made into an area with homogeneous product sellers. For some SMEs in the market, the function of the sales force is not only as sellers who only sell products, but also their proximity to consumers makes sales force as collecting of information (Thitart, 1981). In this situation, a concept emerged which was defined as the routine of managing other routines, the main role of the sales force was as a seller, but another important role was to become espionage in seeking information (Verona, 2013). Keegan (1974) states that the sales force will be a source of information that is very dependent on the characteristics possessed because not all sales are able to contribute to the search for information in the external environment (Keegan, 1974). In other words, the main key that determines the ability to improve company performance is in the sales skills possessed (Churchill et al, 2000). The better the sales force capability that a company has in absorbing information, the better the company's performance in facing competition. This activity in searching for information is called as good as strategic intelligence activity (McDowell, 2009).
History of intelligence activity is often used in military activities to find the information related to an opponent or enemy in order to formulate a competitive strategy or even be used as a problem solver in the organization (McDowell, 2009). Nevertheless, studies have noted that intelligence activity has attracted many managers' attention to be applied as competitive strategies, understanding consumer behavior, planning strategies by looking at current trends and detecting opportunities, and threats (Natalia, 2013;Sheen, 2017). For small and medium enterprises (SMEs) problems arise mainly in information related to products, distributors, and suppliers. Strategic intelligence can be used to overcome this limitation as a tool that can be used by companies with their own resources. But it is different for companies that only use sales forces as salespeople without strategic intelligence, of course, they will be far behind their competitors.
Although the study noted that the role of the sales force was able to improve company performance, it would be better if the company also included strategic intelligence as a supporter of business operations. Therefore sales force and strategic intelligence are important to be applied in the scope of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to improve performance so that the company is quick in responding to changes.
The problems that would be discussed in this study are: Does better managing sales force and intelligence strategic activity lead to an increase enterpises performance?; How the manager could lead sales force capable of integrating strategic intelligence?

Literature Reviews Sales Force
In the company, sales force is the spearhead for achieving sales success. Its role represents the company to be able to interact with consumers. Besides conducting sales activities, the sales force also acts as a strategic approach to obtain external information (Li & Nicholic, 2000). In high market competition, the approach through sales force is a strategic choice for companies in obtaining the information related to the external environment (Sharma et al, 2009). This information is certainly very useful for companies to detect opportunities and threats that come (Thietart, 1981). Kotler (2011) defines sales force as all people who work in an organization whose job is to sell products and services directly and provide information related to ongoing business operations (Kotler & Keller, 2011).
The sales force is considered as an important component of integrated marketing communication so that companies can achieve goals in the form of profits (Anca & Moise, 2012). Getting a competitive position in business and winning a greater number of loyal customers is the main goal for the company. If the company is ambitious in selling orientation, the sales force will take a leading role in gaining competitive advantage in a market. The characteristic of a sales force is the sales contact process directly with consumers, serving and understanding consumers (Anca & Moise, 2012). Although the role of the sales force is seen as a strategic key, the manager must understand which sales behaviour is capable of producing accurate information (Anderson & Olover, 1987). however, the ability of a sales force in a company to be influenced by its knowledge, the higher the knowledge possessed, the faster the ability to capture the information needed by the company (Flatten et al, 2011). The sales force dimension was popularized by Churchill et al (2000) which included: skills, technical, marketing, and knowledge. This dimension illustrates that not all salespeople are able to contribute to collect the information.
Direct relationships, services provided, and receiving complaints from consumers are important tools of information resources. Therefore this information will be a strength for the company to provide products or services and be able to ahead its competitors. The importance of information makes sales not only serve sales but also takes on the role of espionage in their environment. Espionage in information seeking is referred to by McDowell (2009) as an intelligence activity. For some companies, sales may function as salespeople who are active in offering products, but the very high demands of competition require sales forces to switch from hard sales to smart sales (Langerak, 2001;Shervani, 1998;Kumar, 1994).

Strategic Intelligence Activity
The role of the sales force is acknowledged as the key to the success of a company in carrying out business activities. But without the information obtained, the company will be far behind its competitors, because the external information provided by the sales force will help the organization to provide products and services before the competition starts (Sheen, 2017). Especially for small and medium enterprises SMEs, if they are unable to obtain external information properly, it will certainly have an impact on the sustainability of the company's business (Dursi & Freenhof, 2014). This explanation can be underlined that SME-based companies need information in order to survive in face of competition and be able to adapt business trends that change frequently (Sheen, 2017), or even when they find opportunities to diversify products, acquire and merge ( Keeny, 2009). Maccoby (2011) suggests for every manager when competing, managers should strive for the sales force to have a future review through searching for information around (Maccoby, 2011).
Strategic intelligence is a systematic information search through resources that are owned (McDowell, 2009). In history, intelligence activity is often used in military activities to find information related to enemy opponents or even used as a problem solver in an agency or institution (McDowell, 2009). however, studies have noted that intelligence activity has attracted much attention for managers to implement in understanding their competitors (Sheen, 2017). In this activity, each company must involve the resources it has, then processes it so that the results can be used to complete the needs in strategic planning and provide answers to the problems faced (McDowell, 2009). Sheen (2017) states that intelligence activity is a means of searching information through intelligence possessed from what is known, integrated with new information and finally interpreted its meaning. The purpose of this activity is to fill the needs at the management level in achieving the assigned mission. In developing a strategy that is sustainable the need for information to give the contribution to the organization that can be flexible in adjusting the business to the current conditions. Maccoby (2001) mentions three processes, (1) Companies should be able to understand the current situation that might present threats or opportunities for the organization. (2) Conceptualizing future conditions by involving resources to implement it. (3) Develop alliances to obtain information. The model mentioned by Maccoby will lead to a conclusion that is as strategic planning (Natalia, 2013). But in the process, of course, it must be structured and systematic that demands data collection, receives relevant data at this time, analyzes, directs, implements and then reviews (

Performance
Performance is a measure for the level of success of a company in carrying out its objectives. Armstrong & Baron (2007) suggested that performance is the result of work that has a strong relationship with strategic objectives. Management should create communication links to resources for the success of company goals. Performance as something that should be managed to get good results for the organization (Baron, 2007). in the context of SMEs usually performance focuses on each sales force activity to obtain greater sales (Alwi, 2008). Max & Moullin (2007) stated that performance will provide information to assess the extent of excellence of an organization (Max & Moullin, 2007). In measuring organizational performance, Booci (2004) divided into two things in measuring performance, the first measurement based on finance and second non-financial measurements. In formulating a strategy based on finances needed are only stakeholders, but in formulating non-financial strategies will involve innovation, motivation and services provided so that sales are increasing (Booci, 2004).

Descriptive analysis
Every organization may be measured by financial performance, where to be able to achieve this will also depend on the volume of sales made. However, sales volume cannot be achieved if the company cannot adjust the product to the trend that is in demand by consumers. Therefore to be able to compete, companies should accommodate as much information as possible about the product and its competitors (Palanisamy, 2005). Organizational flexibility is one of the measurements of company performance because if a company cannot adjust business with a growing trend, it will be far behind its competitors and this will have an impact on sales volume (Palanisamy, 2005). Activities to improve corporate control in order to have good performance, companies must be able to respond to information that exists in the environment. Ozer (2002) mentions the importance of flexibility in improving company performance given the changing business environment. So flexibility in business strategy is a requirement for an organization in achieving company sales growth (Bhandari, 2004) This is a concern for academics and practitioners as a source of competitive advantage (Dreyer & Grounhoug, 2004).

Research Methods
This study used qualitative research and using a case study method, which did not use statistical generalization but rather with logical and replicative generalizations (Yin, 2011). To maintain validity and help to avoid researcher bias, this study used multiple cases with varying characteristics as research subjects (Creswell J. W., 2014). The previous case was filtered using certain criteria as follows: 1. SMEs that carry out their business activities in the Beringharjo market, Yogyakarta. 2. SMEs have sales force in carrying out their business activities 3. SMEs have been running for at least 10 years 4. SMEs is the leader in its market share The selected cases are 4 (four) SMEs (Beby Collection, Murti Collection, Sekarlathi Collection, dan Ponirah Collection).
This study used three methods of data collection are: interview, observation, and documentation methods to maintain data validity and reliability (Yin, 2014). The data validity test used data triangulation, member checking (informants/respondents will function as examiners throughout the analysis process and compare the researchers' interpretations with information from respondents to ascertain the correctness of the data), repeating observations at the research location, checking data with members of the researcher, involving respondents to examine interpretations and conclusions and clarifying research biases (Creswell J., 2014) The case analysis process in this study uses three stages are: descriptive analysis (analyzing the results of research conducted on cases in general), within case analysis (analyzing all findings in each case), and crosscase analysis (analyzing and comparing findings between cases) (Edmonson, 2007).
Further analysis can be done by comparing the findings of each sample and then identifying patterns for generalization (Yin, 2009)  x. How is the company's strategy in increasing sales?

Results And Discussion
The company profiles are as follows: The results and discussion in this study were carried out with descriptive and within case analysis to get a general description of the company. The next is cross case analysis to find patterns that appear in the case study in the field as follows: 1.

Sales force
The importance of information encourages every company to be able to move its resources. The role of the sales force in a company is certainly very important for the operations of the business being run. This company has a number of 6-10 sales managed by managers. from these six sales, they have expertise that is different from one another. The findings obtained at the four companies related to the sales force and its dimensions (skills, technical, marketing and knowledge) appear in the following The knowledge that is owned by sales in this company in making rapid jumps related to the product is very slow, this is due to the little variation in the products they have. The ability to sell sales to this company is quite good. 4

Company 4 (Ponirah Collection)
Knowledge Confirmed The knowledge that is owned by sales in this company in making rapid jumps related to the product is very good.

Strategic intelligence activities
Strategic intelligence is an activity based on knowledge in collecting the information about a product and competitor before the business competition begins. The findings obtained on strategic intelligence and their dimensions (foresight, system thinking, visioning, motivating, and partering) appear in the following tables:

Performance
Performance is the ability of an organization to achieve its stated goals and become a measurement and success of the company. In looking for excellence, performance is usually focused on every resource that is owned. The ability of an organization will be seen when it is able to adjust to changes to products that are of interest to consumers and able to respond to information. The results of the findings on four companies related to performance and their dimensions (flexible and increased sales) appear in the following tables:

Company 1 (Beby Collection) No
Dimension Result analysis Case findings from supporting literature 1 flexible Confirmed Flexible in an organization is the ability to adjust the business situation, it is able to adapt to the environment (Palanisamy, 2005). Through the response of information obtained from sales, the flexibility of this company is quite good. 2 Improvement sales Confirmed The success of the strategy in a business will have an impact on sales growth (Bh & ari 2004). This company is quite good at formulating strategies by doing partners with its suppliers, thus impacting sales growth.

Company 2 (Murti Collection)
No Dimension Result analysis Case findings from supporting literature 1 Flexible Not Confirmed This company is still lack of ability to adjust the business or trend of a product. This is because it is still dependent on other stores, so the trend follows other shops 2 Improvement sales Confirmed Even though it is said that the company has restrictiveness in terms of products, Bu Murti has a strategy to expand his shop as well as a reasonably good pricing strategy.

Company 3 (Sekarlathi collection)
No Dimension Result analysis Case findings from supporting literature 1 Flexible Not Confirmed This company is still considered to be unable to adjust to the business situation. 2 Improvement sales Not Confirmed This company is fairly slow to increase its sales. It can be seen from the products sold and limited to only a few items so that consumers prefer to choose stores that are considered to be many variants of items.

Company 4 (Ponirah collection)
No Dimension Result analysis Case findings from supporting literature 1 Flexible Confirmed It is quite good at adapting to the current business situation 2 Improvement sales Confirmed This company is quite slow in increasing sales because it is not brave to expand its business network and only focus on one own store.
Based on the good experience of the owner, the information obtained through the company's sales role is very different, there are who are able to adapt to the growing business trends and some who are slow to respond to information. Information is related to the sales given to the owner includes products that are in demand by consumers where this information is predicted to be trending in the future. In this case, the four companies also have good relations with their partners.
After doing the descriptive and within-case analysis. The researcher concludes that the case study that will be seen in the next table to ensure that the findings are appropriate and confirmed by the findings will be marked (√√√) for the strongest findings, (√√) for moderate findings, and (√) for weakest findings which refers to the results of the within-case analysis. By conducting within-case analysis researchers will explore the patterns that arise based on case studies in the field where these results will be seen in the following table:  (1) and Ponirah companies (4) are the highest compared to Murti collection and Sekarlathi companies (2 & 3). It is because sales in both companies have enough experience in interacting with consumers and understanding the market environment so that the capabilities of the company (1 & 4) are more outperform. As for technical among the four companies, Ponirah collection (4) is higher, considering their good skill and insight. Marketing among the four companies is very good, but when viewed from the number of sales, the Beby collection is higher, it is because the company always provides product stock, as well as knowledge, sales in both companies always rise in understanding every consumer demand. The three companies A, B and D provide the same motivation to the sales owned, but in terms of giving trust to the sales differently. If company A, B and D give trust to sales to manage their shop, it is different from the case with company C that does not give trust to sales. Every organization is certainly not detached from its main goal of earning profits, increasing sales and being able to survive in the face of competition. In understanding the business environment of each company will certainly be different in mindset. It could be seen in the table above, Beby collection (1) and Ponirah collection (4) have a good understanding in reviewing a trend requested by the consumer, while Murti collection (2) is at a moderate level while company 3 is still left far behind. System thinking at the Beby collection company is superior to other companies. The partnering carried out in each company is very different, if companies 2 (Murti) and 3 (sekarlathi) they are partnering with companies that are not competitive, other than companies 1 (Beby collection) and 4 (Ponirah collection) they partnering with companies that compete one another. Finally, regarding motivation, all companies give encouragement to their sales by providing incentives if their sales exceed the target. However, the flexibility in managing the store, company 2 (Murti collection) and 3 (Sekarlathi collection) give limitation so that this prevents salespeople from making transactions. It is different from company 1 (Beby Collection) and 4 (Ponirah) which provide flexibility and trust in sales as long as they are able to increase sales and this became a strategic effort given by the two companies.

No.
Analysis Phases Case findings from supporting literature The ability to adjust a business that is owned by Company A is very good, this is because the flow of information received from suppliers who are becoming their partners is running well. Company B, although it has four stores assisted by their employees is still lacking adjusting their products, this is due to the desire of owners who are reluctant to move from their products, as well as C companies that are slow to respond due to information and capital constraints. While company D in adjusting products with a fairly good trend. 2 Confirmed Improvement sales Company A outperforms other companies because it is proved in the increasing sales volume. The information provided by the sales force through strategic intelligence will lead to the organization to take action. Company 1 (Beby collection) and 4 (ponirah collection) with their capabilities and the flow of information from sales and partners outperforming the other two companies in terms of products. Whereas the company 2 (murti collection) and 3 (sekarlathi collection) the love of batik motifs favoured by the owner, it makes difficult to be able to adjust to the interests of consumers, and also the information flow is relatively lacking. While company 3 (Sekarlathi), although it has been established for a long time and has four employees, it is still unable to adjust the product due to limited capital, but it has alternatives to overcome its weaknesses depending on company 1 (Beby collection). As for the increase of sales which is seen in the opening of branches. currently, company 1 (Beby collection) is superior to other companies. Although the effect of the sales force is recognized as the key to the success of the organization, it will be far better if the company is able to adopt strategic intelligence as a support to improve performance.

Conclusion
The findings in the field as a whole the company was able to manage the sales force well, but the contribution given by sales in providing information was very dependent on the sales character itself. Likewise the application of intelligence strategic. From the facts was found in the field, researchers obtained several conclusions regarding the process of managing sales force (skills, technical, marketing, knowledge) and strategic intelligence. Company 1 (beby collection) could outperform its competitors, namely company 2 (murti collection), 3 (sekarlathi collection), and 4 (ponirah collection). Companies that have not implemented strategic intelligence which include (foresight, system thinking, visioning, partnering, motivating) it is because the capacity and capability of the company's ability is still lacking. Companies that adopted strategic intelligence in carrying out their business operations would outperform their competitors because the access to information was so good so that it would have an impact on company performance where companies would be able to adjust business trends before the competition begins. If being noticed more specifically, the limitations of this study situated in the selected cases in the same field of SMEs and their location is limited to certain areas. Suggestions for further development, given the rapidly changing market trend, it is necessary to consider network performance variables (network performance) that could improve business performance and help companies to fulfil future information needs.