SALES FORCE MANAGEMENT

Prof. Vijay Kapoor

FMS, DU

Prepared and Submitted by:-

Siddhartha Sankar Majumdar (S-93)

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Siddhartha Sankar Majumder, Vth Semester, 3rd Year, MBA (PT)- 2010-13 Batch, FMS
South Campus, New Delhi
 SALES FORCE MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 4

Case 4 -1: Tricon Industries

1. Should Tricon consolidate its sales forces?

As per Laura Thompsons arguments, that for the most part, each division continues to
operate fairly independently; as a result Tricon is not taking advantage of the potential
synergies which between the companies. As per my opinion, it will be much better if
Tricon Industries consolidated its sales forces, which will offer it the greatest opportunity
for achieving some of the synergies.

Also it will eliminate some of the negative aspects of the current structure, such as the
duplication efforts that are very expensive and may hindering their customers
relationships.

2. If Tricon were to reorganize its sales force, what are the options and which
structure would you recommend?

If Tricon recognize its sales force, then I will recommend the following sales force
specialization

Geographic Specialization
Most widely used system
Sales organized by geographic territories
Divide the responsibility and the authority over small operations.

Benefits:
Better market coverage
Better control over sales force
______________________________________________________________________
Siddhartha Sankar Majumder, Vth Semester, 3rd Year, MBA (PT)- 2010-13 Batch, FMS
South Campus, New Delhi
 React quicker to changing environment and better able to adapt to local
competition
React quickly to customer issues, better customer service

Drawbacks:
Very little to no specialization of marketing activities (advertising, sales
promotion, marketing research)

Product Specialization
Product Operating Specialization
Used for highly complex, technical products; large product line; and for unrelated
products

Benefits:
Customers receive more specialized attention from sales and sales executives.

Drawbacks:
Often times more than one sales person calls on same customer (expensive and
annoying to customer)
Very little to no specialization of marketing activities (advertising, sales
promotion, marketing research)

Product Staff Specialization

Used for organizations that want specialization by product at the Planning level
not at the Selling level

Benefits:
Eliminates drawbacks of Product Operating Specialization

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Siddhartha Sankar Majumder, Vth Semester, 3rd Year, MBA (PT)- 2010-13 Batch, FMS
South Campus, New Delhi
Drawbacks:
Sales people are not specialized in selling one type of product; they sell all
products

Market Specialization
Sales organized by industry or type of customer. Consistent with organizations
ability to be create long term relationships with customers.

Benefits:
Sales become industry experts.

Drawbacks:
Causes overlap in territories (increases costs)

Combination of Territory, Product and Market Specialization

Many companies use a combination of 2 or more types of sales organization to
better meet customers needs.

Case 4-2 : Microplastics Inc.

1. What Changes should be recommended by the new sales Manager?

The Company had been organized in 1998 to manufacture to specification small plastic
parts that were sold directly to other manufacturers particularly high-technology oriented
industries. Microplastics sales structures consisted of 28 people who directly reported
to one sales manager A line organization.

In the early days Company growth was great. They had little direct competition & they
were making plenty of money, sold everything they could make. Then gradually
______________________________________________________________________
Siddhartha Sankar Majumder, Vth Semester, 3rd Year, MBA (PT)- 2010-13 Batch, FMS
South Campus, New Delhi
competition came in to the market and Company also hit a recession. Sales dropped
40% and profit turned to losses.

Soon after Company had started hiring-firing by recruited no. of new sales manager
and promoting existing sales representative to regain the sales growth. By that time
Company had cam out with number of new proposal from their newly appointed sales
manager but unfortunately were logical to implement.

Recommendation

As the organizations growth increase, sales force also has to grow and the job of the
executive managing the sales force becomes more difficult. The number & complexity of
a Companys products and/or market may also call for some organizational division if
sales effort is to be effective. The most common way to divide the sales responsibilities
is to split the sales force on some basis of sales specialization such as Geographic
specialization, Product specialization, Market specialization and Combination of
organizational bases.

Since, Microplastics Inc. is manufacturing small plastic parts to specification especially

for manufacturer of high-technology oriented industry, they should go for market
specialization sales force. As per market specialization, they should divide the line
authority in their sales departments on the basis of type of customer, classified by the
industry or by channel distribution. Further, sales people should be trained properly
about high-technology products where their small plastic parts could be useful. They
should be well known about their small plastic parts to explain the customer that how
their small plastic parts will be beneficial in the clients high-technology based products.

Finally, the use of Market specialization in sales organizations have increased in recent
years & the trend is expected to continue. Certainly market specialization is consistent
that underlines the market concept.

______________________________________________________________________
Siddhartha Sankar Majumder, Vth Semester, 3rd Year, MBA (PT)- 2010-13 Batch, FMS
South Campus, New Delhi
______________________________________________________________________
Siddhartha Sankar Majumder, Vth Semester, 3rd Year, MBA (PT)- 2010-13 Batch, FMS
South Campus, New Delhi