DESIGN A SALESFORCE FOR CRYSTAL PEPSI Crystal Pepsi was a caffeine-free soft drink made by PepsiCo from 1992 to 1993 in Canada and the United States, and for a brief time in Australia. Crystal Pepsi was sold for a longer time in Europe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Pepsi http://www.therightbrainstudio.com/snatching-defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory-the-crystal-pepsi-story/ And, at the end of 2015 Pepsi announced they were going to bring back Crystal Pepsi: http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/08/news/companies/crystal-pepsi-return/ This assignment should contain the answers to the following questions: How should salespeople and their tasks be structured? How big should the sales force be? Should salespeople sell alone or work in teams with other people in the company? Should they sell in the field; by phone; using online and social media; or some other way? Discuss the recruitment and selection process. Discuss training, compensation, supervision, and motivation. How do you evaluate individual and sales force performance? Example: P&G: lt's Not Sales, lt's Customer Business Development. For decades, Procter & Gamble has been at the top of almost every expert's A-list of out- standing marketing companies, The experts point to P&G's stable of top-selling consumer brands, or to the fact that year in and year out, P&G is the world's largest advediser. Consum- ers seem to agree. You'll find at least one of P&G's blockbuster brands in 99 percent of all American households; in many homes, you'll find a dozen or more familiar P&G products. But P&G is also highly respected for some- thing else-its top-notch, customer-focused sales force. P&G's sales force has long been an American icon for personal selling at its very best. When it comes to selecting, training, and managing salespeople, P&G sets the gold standard. The company employs a mas- sive sales force of more than 5,000 salespeo- ple worldwide, At P&G, however, they rarely call t "sales." lnstead, it's "Customer Business Development" (CBD). And P&G sales reps aren't "salespeople"; they're "CBD managers" or "CBD account executives," All this might seem like just so much "corp-speak," but at P&G the distinction goes to the very core of how selling works. P&G understands that if its customers don't do well, neither will the company. To grow its own business, therefore, P&G must first grow the business of the retailers that sell its brands to final consumers. And at P&G, the primary responsibility for helping custom- ers grow falls to the sales force. ln P&G's own words, "CBD is more than mere 'selling'-it's a P&G-specific approach which enables us to grow our business by working as a 'stra- tegic partner' (as opposed to just a supplier) with those who ultimately sell our products to consumers." Says one CBD manager, "We depend on them as much as they depend on us." By partnering with each other, P&G and its customers create "win-win" relationships that help both to prosper. Most P&G customers are huge and complex businesses-such as Walgreens, Walmarl, or Dollar General-with thousands of stores and billions of dollars in revenues, Working with and selling to such customers can be a very complex undertaking, more than any single salesperson or sales team could accomplish. lnstead, P&G assigns a full CBD team to every large customer account. Each CBD team contains not only salespeople but also a full complement of specialists in every aspect of selling P&G's consumer brands at the retail level. CBD teams vary in size depending on the customer. For example, P&G's largest customer, Walmart, which accounts for an amazing 20 percent of the company's sales, commands a S5O-person CBD team, By con- trast, the P&G Dollar General team consists of about 30 people, Regardless of size, ev- ery CBD team constitutes a complete, mul- tifunctional customer service unit. Each team includes a CBD manager and several CBD account executives (each responsible for a specific P&G product category), supported by specialists in marketing strategy, product de- velopment, operations, information systems, logistics, finance, and human resources. To deal effectively with large accounts, P&G salespeople must be smar1, well-trained, and strategically grounded. They deal daily with high-level retail category buyers who may purchase hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of P&G and competing brands ann-- ally. lt takes a lot more than a friendly sn- ; and a firm handshake to interact with su:- buyers. Yet, individual P&G salespeople ca-' know everything, and thanks to the CE- sales structure, they don't have to. lnstea: as members of a full CBD team, P&G sae:- people have at hand all the resources tr: need to resolve even the most challeng-; customer problems, "l have everything I n*: right here," says a household care accc--- executive, "lf my customer needs help from ,- with in-store promotions, I can go right dc,,,- the hall and talk with someone on my tear - marketing about doing some kind of pror:- tional deal. lt's that simple," Customer Business Development volves paftnering with customers to jointly identify strategies that create shopper value and satisfaction and drive profitable sales at the store level. When it comes to profitably moving Tide, Pampers, Gillette, or other P&G brands off store shelves and into consumer shopping carts, P&G reps and their teams often know more than the retail buyers they advise. ln fact, P&G's retail partners often rely on CBD teams to help them manage not only the P&G brands on their shelves but also entire tire product categories, including competing brands. Wait a minute, Does it make sense to let P&G advise on the stocking and placement of competitors' brands as well as its own? Would a P&G CBD rep ever tell a retail buyer to stock fewer P&G products and more of a :cmpeting brand? Believe it or not, it happens all the time. The CBD teams primary goal is to help the customer win in each product category. Sometimes, analysis shows that the best solution for the customer is more of the other guy's product,', For p&G, that,s okay. lt shows that creating the best situation for the retailer ultjmately pulls in more customer traffic, which in turn will likely lead to increased sales for other P&G products jn the same category. Because most of p&G brands are market share leaders, it stands to benefit more from the increased traffic than competitors do. Again, what,s good for the customer is good for P&G -it's a wln-win situation. Honest and open dealings also help to build long-term customer relationships. P&G salespeople become trusted advisors to their retailer-partners, a status they work hard to maintain. "lt took me four years to build the trust I now have with my buyer, says veteran CBD account executive. lf I talk her into buying P&G products that she can,t sell or out of stocking competing brands that she should be selling, I could lose that trust in a heaftbeat." Finally, collaboration is usually a two_ way street-P&G gives and customers give back in return. "We'll help customers run a set of commercials or do some merchandis_ ing events, but there's usually a return-on- investment," explains another CBD manager. "Maybe it's helping us with distribution of a new product or increaslng space for fabric care. We're very willing if the effort creates value for us as well as for the customer and the final consumer," According to p&G, ,,Customer Busi_ ness Development is selling and a whole lot more. lt's a P&G-specific approach [that lets usl grow business by working as a ,strategic partner' with our accounts, focusing on mutu_ ally beneficial business building opportunities. All customers want to improve their business; it's loud role to help them identify the biggest opportunities," Thus, P&G salespeople aren,t the stereo- typical glad-handers that some people have come to expect when they think of selling. P&G's "salespeople"-its CBD managers_ are talented, well-educated, well-tralned sales professionals who do all they can to help cus_ tomers succeed. They know that good selling involves working with customers to solve their problems for mutual gain. They know that if customers succeed, they succeed