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CASE 13-2 ATHENIAN PRESS, INC. Redesigning Sales Territories merchants. The salespeople report directly to Steve Womble, the sales manager for the Athen- the sales manager. Each salesperson is assigned ian Press, was reviewing the quarterly sum- to a specific territory. Within their territories, mary for advertising sales and was concerned salespeople are given a great deal of indepen by the results, which showed a slight decrease dence and freedom. Athenian also employs from the previous quarter. More important, ad three inside salespeople who are responsible for revenues for the past two years were showing a serving those who place ads in the classified disturbing trend. Not only had the company not section. These salespeople also report to the made its targeted growth of 2 percent, but sales sales manager. were down over the past two years by 7 percent. Competition for retail advertisements is While Womble felt that a small part of this strong in this area. The Athenian papers com- trend might be attributed to more intense com- pete with several other papers for the adver- petition in recent years, he felt that most of the tisements. The Knoxville Journal currently decrease in sales was due to the need for change holds about 8 percent of the market, while the in the sales organization. The market had been Chattanooga Free Press has 4 percent and the changing in terms of both rapid growth and in- Tennessean, published in Nashville, has 2 per- creased customer expectations. Womble, who cent. The paper also competes against local ra- had recently been promoted to his current posi- dio and television stations for the ads of the tion, felt that Athenian Press had not responded retail stores. However, its greatest competitor is to these changes. ADCO Mailing. ADCO is a company that pro- Athenian Press, Inc., founded in 1945, pub- duces advertising fliers distributed by mail. To lishes a daily newspaper and a Sunday paper compete with these fliers, the Athenian Daily that serve the community of Athens, Tennessee, prints a weekly newspaper insert that contains home of the company's main office. The target coupons from the local merchants. market contains the central Tennessee counties A salesperson for the Athenian Press has of McMinn and Meigs plus major portions of three main responsibilities. The first and most Monroe and Hamilton counties. These counties important is to meet with the customers on a comprise a market of more than 300,000 people. regular basis to solicit their advertising. Each The Athenian Daily has a circulation of salesperson is expected to make 10 to 15 calls a 49,582 subscribers. In an average day, more day and to spend 30 to 60 minutes per call. For than 60 percent of the adults in the area read the very active accounts (approximately 50 this paper. The Athenian Sunday Journal has a cent of the accounts), the salespeople ar 434 circulation of 83,621 and is read by approxi- posed to schedule regular weekly meeting mately 89 percent of the market adults at least to discuss the weekly order. For the less au... . once per month. accounts, the salespeople are expected to stay in As with most newspaper publishers, a major regular contact by making appointments once source of Athenian's revenue is the amount of ad- or twice per month. Each salesperson is respon vertising sold. Generally, advertisements com- sible for approximately 100 of these active prise more than 60 percent of any newspaper, accounts. For accounts that advertise only infre- and the size of the paper is determined by the quently, salespeople are directed to make un- number of advertisements it includes. Most of scheduled calls when they have time available. these advertisements are purchased by retail The sales reps' second responsibility is to make store merchants to increase customer aware- all of their customers aware of upcoming pro- ness and to advertise special promotions. The motions. If the newspaper is running a special Athenian Press has 800 active accounts and section on dining out, the sales force is respons employs eight retail salespeople to call on these sible for contacting all local restaurant owners CHAPTER 1 Sales 411 to suggest that they may want to be included. the 15 or 20 minutes it takes to travel between The reps' third responsibility is to look for new each account also limits t amount of time accounts in their territories. The salespeople they can spend with each customer. As a result, must meet with the owners and/or managers of most customer calls are brief and less frequent any new stores as than they should be, ery little time is de- struction to inform them of Athenian's services voted to calling on new accounts. and encourage them to advertise. Once an order has been taken by a salesper- Convinced of the need for change, Womble came up with several options that he discussed son, the salesperson is in charge of making pre- with his boss, Linda Gruhn, and with his sales- liminary sketches of the ad according to t people. One alternative was to assign the task specifications of the customer. These sketches of creating preliminary sketches t someone are then sent to the art department, which other t the salesperson, thus freeing up a develops the final copy. The business ment is responsible for all billing s depart- significant amount o unt of the salesperson's time. billing and account- Specifically, art department personnel could ing; but if a problem arises with bill collection, perform this task. However, the salespeople felt the salesperson contacts the cu strongly that the sketches were often needed to resolve the issue. close the sale, and they wanted to keep that The compensation for the salespeople con- part of the sale under their control. They also sists salary and commission plus a yearly worried about the necessity increased c bonus based on performance. Salary makes up ordination between themselves and the artists. 60 percent of their total income, and commis- Finally, as one rep said to Womble, "I really sions account for the remaining 40 percent; the enjoy that part of my job because it requires cre- bonuses a ativity and imagination. Take that a compensation of $32,00 ered competi- won't be as much fun." tive for this size newspaper, and the salespeople Another possibility was to hire additional are relatively satisfied wi salespeople and realign the t territories so that levels. S trainees are paid straight salary. each salesperson would be responsible for fewer New reps are given a brief indoctrination to the accounts. The e salespeople's reaction to this company before being assigned to "shadow" an option was not surprising: They all felt that this experienced sales r this was a threat t ad thus to period of observing an ex , they are their commissions a Additionally, Linda assigned to a territory. Gruhn told Womble that he must be able to jus- Steve Womble establishes yearly quotas for tify hiring any additional salespeople before she e salespeople and conducts would approve it. ations. On a continuing basis, he monitors their A final possibility was for Womble to take call reports and meets with each salesperson at over selling to several of the largest accounts, least once a month to discuss hi thus giving the salespeople more time with the Each week, the entire sales force has a breakfast remaining accounts. would decrease at which they share problems and ideas. time Womble could spend on his managerial du- Recently Womble had completed a careful ties, but he felt he could handle 8 to 10 of these analysis of the salespeople's current activities. accounts and still provide the salespeople with He concluded that the sales force was not an adequate amount of supervision. Needless to spending enough time with its customers. First say, the reps were not in favor of this option. of all, y about which they saw as a 60 percent of his or her time in the field because of the reps' responsibility o of creating the pre- Question: 435 liminary sketches of the ads. Second, because of 1. What action should Steve Womble tane: ue the number of accounts salespeople must ser- sure to support the decision you recommend vice, they are not spending as much time as with the appropriate analysis. they should with each customer. Additionally
