West Midlands Restaurant Appliances (WMRA), headquartered in Birmingham, UK, sells large, industrial appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, and dishwashers to restaurants all over Great Britain. For several years, the company has been second in UK market share to industry leader Thames Restaurant Services, but it has been gaining share in recent years. WMRA is especially optimistic about catching Thames this year because of the rise of its star sales manager, David Epstein, an energetic 31-year-old who has been with the company since he was 22. Epstein is popular with the sales staff, but he also is aggressive and demands high performance. One of his initiatives is to make all salespeople accountable by strictly evaluating performance using ratios as well as purely objective measures. In particular, he has collected performance data for each of his seven sales representatives as follows:

Epstein would like to see an analysis of salesperson performance using the following ratios: sales growth, sales to quota, sales per account, average order, sales expense, calls per day, orders per call.

Most of the salespeople are happy to be evaluated, but a few are dubious and fearful of the consequences. Robert Smythe, for one, feels that his territory, which includes some of the more rural areas in western England is more difficult to sell in because there are fewer restaurants and he has only been a salesperson for about a year. In addition, one of Derek Francona’s largest customers recently went out of business, and he feels that his numbers slipped as a result. Both are close to quitting because they feel they are being evaluated unfairly.

Epstein wants to beat Thames very badly this year and feels that improving salesperson performance is the key. Therefore, his performance evaluation system is of the utmost importance.

Questions

1. Using the data given, calculate the performance ratios requested by Epstein and rank the salespeople accordingly.

2. What advice or guidance should Epstein give to each of the salespeople to improve performance?

3. What are the limitations of this evaluation system? What adjustments or additions could Epstein make to more accurately evaluate salesperson performance?

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Sales Rep Derek Francona Johnny Schilling Daphne Gellar Robert Smythe Jennifer McCarver Manuel Lopez Samantha Kerrey Erin McCloud Previous Current Current Number of Number of Expenses Number of Number of Sales Sales Quota Accounts Orders Calls Days Worked £480,000 £481,000 £575,000 1,100 750,000 883,000 835,000 1,600 576,000 613,000 657,000 1,150 745,000 852,000 850,000 1,350 765,000 860,000 850,000 1,300 735,000 835,000 825,000 1,400 665,000 670,000 720,000 1,600 775,000 925,000 875,000 1,700 780 1,970 1,020 1,650 1,730 1,790 960 1,910 £9,300 1,300 12,300 1,800 7,500 1,650 11,000 1,700 11,300 1,750 11,500 1,750 10,800 1,550 12,800 1,850 235 223 228 230 232 220 200 225