What solution would you make as the new sales manager?

Explain the solution/plan in detail and how you would implement it.

shit M om- CASE 4-2 ing me till MICROPLASTICS, INC. Need for Reorganization ew ed ur- erhaps a bit of history regarding our sales orga- Prization will help you in your coming weeks "I remember it well because it scared me to as our new sales manager," said Don Lopez, death," Lopez said. "He said that if we wanted president of Microplastics, Inc., to Katie Curry, the to be a big-time company, we would have to do firm's new sales manager. "The company had been things the way the big boys do them. He insisted organized twenty years ago to manufacture precise, that the key to success was to back up the field small plastic parts that were sold directly to other people with tremendous support from the home manufacturers, particularly high-technology indus- office and supervise them closely in the field." tries." "Well, how did it work out?" Lopez continued, "It seems as if our sales 'Need you ask? Sales stayed about the same force has been in a constant state of upheaval but our costs skyrocketed. We lost our shirts. I for the past five years. A year hasn't gone by but never saw such confusion. No one seemed to that we reorganized it some way or another. But know what they were supposed to do. So we fired nothing seems to work. Let me go back to when the sales manager and promoted one of the sales we started, and trace our troubles for you. Our reps to the job. He immediately cleaned out all of growth had been great in the early days of our the staff the other fellow had hired, so we were industry. We had little direct competition and we back to square one. But not quite." were making plenty of money, sold everything "Oh, did the new manager make some chang- es?" Curry asked. we could make. Then competition came into the "He felt that our real problem was that the market and we hit a recession. Sales dropped 40 reps couldn't sell to all types of customers, so he percent and profits turned to losses. At first we divided them into two groups. The first bunch thought that it was happening to everyone, but of 10 reps was to sell to the large manufacturers, soon we discovered that our competitors were where there was a lot of engineering work to be not being hit as hard as we were. Their salespeo- done with the customer's people. The second ple seemed to be able to sell into accounts where group was to cover the smaller assemblers, where our people couldn't. engineering was not so important and where you "We became most unhappy with our sales dealt with the owner directly," Lopez explained. organization, which at the time consisted of 28 "What happened?" people who reported to one sales manager. We 'Mass confusion! The reps didn't want to fired the sales manager and brought in a man give up their customers, so they held on to them from one of our most successful competitors. It as long as they could. And it didn't seem to help cost some money to get him, but we were willing sales. We didn't sell any more large accounts than to pay it. Well, right off the bat this bozo wants to we were previously selling. The guy got tired hire three assistant sales managers to supervise of managing and asked to go back into the field the sales force, a sales training director to train where he felt he knew what to do. them, a sales analyst for the home office, and a "You can bet that the next sales manager was home-office sales engineer to back up the field selected with a lot more care," Lopez continued. sales force technically." "We interviewed more than 20 people until we That's a lot of money," Katie Curry com- found this fellow who had a terrific record over mented when Lopez paused. "How did he justify at National Plastics. We thought we had a barn it to you ? " 115116 Chapter 4 Sales Force Organization burner in him. He came in, surveyed the situa- to rep tion, and wrote a report for me on what had to be done." for y "You're shaking your head. What went ever wrong?" Curry inquired read "He personally spent a day with each sales prog representative to diagnose what was wrong with the operation," said Lopez. "On the basis of his judgment, 19 of our reps were incompetent, with wha no hope of ever becoming the type of salesperson rev he thought was needed to do the job. He planned it. S to fire them immediately. Then he would call in the remaining nine reps for an intensive train- bee ing program to teach them how to sell the way to he wanted them to. I remember vividly how he Th leaned over my desk with his fists clenched and we sternly said, 'My sales force will sell the way I Th want them to sell or they won't be around.' Well, th we had some words over that report. I just could ty not let him fire 19 people who had been with us ta from the beginning and who had helped us build fo the company. I wanted him to train all of them, but th he said it couldn't be done. They just weren't his h type of people.' That kind of talk really gets my goat. He was putting these people down like they were dirt, and I told him so. Well, one thing led to another, and there went the new sales manager." "And you had no inkling of this aspect of his personality before hiring him?" Curry asked. Lopez drew a deep breath and confessed, "I must say that we did. His previous boss described him as one tough, driving guy who was hard to live with but who really got results. I guess all we wanted to hear was that he got results. We didn't stop to think about how he got them." "And so here we are," Curry summarized. "You want to know what I have discovered and what I intend to do about it."MOSISO command option nization irveyed the situa- "That's it!" said Lopez. "Have you anything on what had to be to report yet?" "It's a bit premature now to lay out a program for you," she replied, "but the seeds eds of it are in 1 Al ead. What went everything that has happened previously. I'll be 2 M y with each sales ready next Friday for a report on my proposed t was wrong with program." n the basis of his 'Fair enough," said Lopez. ncompetent, with Curry had already made up her mind about pe of salesperson what needed to be done, but she did not want to e job. He planned reveal it until she had figured out how to go about he would call in it. She had quickly related to everything that had intensive train- been told her. The sales manager who had wanted to sell the way to reorganize for some staff support was right. vividly how he The span of control was ridiculous, and the reps sts clenched and were getting little support from the home office. ll sell the way I The second manager had been right in seeing that be around.' Well, the reps were not equally effective in selling to all port. I just could types of customers. The third manager was cer- ad been with us tainly correct in his appraisal of the reps. The sales helped us build force had some people with mediocre talents. For n all of them, but just weren't his the most part, they constituted a seedy crew that