Chapter 1 Statement of the Problem In this case study, the problems involve both the representatives and the management. Dough is not working well with the representatives, and he is not doing everything he can to communicate with them. The representatives are not motivated to work on gaining the larger accounts because they don’t understand why they have to change from the small accounts where they have had success to the big accounts that are mysterious and not as profitable in the short term.
Summary of the Facts There are several facts about this case study. The representatives are unhappy that they have to change from working with smaller accounts to working with larger accounts. The manager is not listening or communicating effectively with the representatives. The information given to the manager during his orientation was way too much information for one person to read on their own. The company appears to be focusing on money and numbers and is not spending enough time focusing on their employees. The representatives do not appear to have any kind of teamwork or cooperation in place. There is an “ every man for himself” thought process parading through the office.
Analysis The analysis of Shield shows that there are strengths and weaknesses within the company. The strengths include a strong team of representatives with good work history and experience. The weaknesses include a lack of communication between each representative, and between the representatives and management. There are opportunities available for this company to grow with larger corporate accounts. It would widen their company’s client list. The threats to this company include a chance that their competitors will gain the business from large corporations because the representatives are not working hard enough to gain the business themselves.
Recommendations The recommendations I have for this office is to greatly increase the communication between the manager and the representatives. This can be done with more one-on-ones, more team meetings, or memos. The representatives need to know why the company is changing its focus and they need to understand their role in the process. Management need to do a better job listening to the representatives when they have issues and concerns. Management needs to work in cooperation with the representatives to get their issues and concerns resolved.
The company needs to work harder to get their manuals rewritten and condensed so that the managers will actually read them. If that is not possible, offer seminars so that the information can be taught to the managers in a group setting instead of telling them to discover the information on their own. The manager needs to discover what motivates each of the representatives, and create a fun and exciting way to motivate each individual rep. This will increase the attitude level and the productivity level so that the quota can be met every month.
Conclusion The conclusion for this case summary is that the management and representatives for this company need to work together better in order to achieve the goals set by the company. If the weakness of communication is strengthened, then the threats from other companies will be minimized. The company will be able to meet its quota every month and the representatives will earn their commissions just like they did for the smaller business accounts.
Chapter 2 1. How fundamentally different is the role of the sales force in addressing these new customer needs from that of addressing the needs of more traditional brokers? The needs of the new customer include working with each office individually on a smaller scale level than working with the corporation as a whole. The business is decentralized. There is no large committee that comes up with decisions for everyone.
2. How will the selling effort change when addressing these new broker needs? The selling effort will change by looking at individual needs instead of a large corporation need. There will probably be multiple people assigned to the same broker in order to accommodate all of their smaller office needs. There is a lot more people to work with, a lot more contacts, and a lot more work to be done.
3. How will the changes affect sales management? The changes will affect sales management because they have recently been putting all their efforts into large corporate accounts. Going back and forth between large accounts and small accounts can be difficult to go back and forth between because of the difference in mindset on how the accounts have to be handled.
4. What are the threats and possible downside of addressing these emerging broker needs? The threats are that these needs would take up more time that an account without as many needs. This could cause the company to lose money in the long run since they have to spend more time on fewer accounts.