Final answer:
The planning phase of sales management is the step concerned with environmental factors, striving to align sales efforts with a firm's broader marketing strategy. It takes into consideration the production conditions, market structure, and involves a participatory approach with various stakeholders.
Step-by-step explanation:
The step in sales management that is concerned with environmental factors and attempts to organize the overall selling efforts as well as integrate them with other elements of the firm's marketing strategy is typically the planning phase. During this stage, strategic decisions are made regarding the product mix, production processes, pricing, labor requirements, and output levels. These decisions are influenced by the production and cost conditions each firm faces as well as the market structure, which includes considerations like market power, product differentiation, and barriers to entry. An effective sales management process will consider these factors to ensure alignment with the wider corporate strategy, and will seek to collaborate with other departments to achieve sustainable success.
Moreover, in the context of developing sustainable management strategies, it is essential to take a participatory and multidisciplinary approach, that encompasses a wide range of stakeholders including conservation biologists, agroecologists, agronomists, and social scientists among others.