Quiz 16: Managing Within Your Company

Business

It took you four months to find a job, and you were almost out of money when you finally landed your position. But today your boss asked you to do something unethical. You aren't sure what the corporate culture is yet because you are new at the company. How do you respond?

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Essay

Ethics play a major role in making business decisions that includes selling products legally and ethically, and also imparting knowledge and skills to the salespeople in a proper manner and at appropriate time. Mr. Y strived for four months and was almost out of money before he landed up to a job. Today his boss asked him to do something that he finds unethical, and the boss assures him that this type of action is quite normal in this firm and in this industry. But still, Mr. Y is not sure of the task he is expected to undertake following the work culture of this firm being new to this company. In this situation, Mr. Y should politely refuse to that job that he finds unethical and not sure of performing. This is because no matter how much new he is to this firm, but if he finds that undertaking the task that the boss has asked is not fair, good or ethical, then he should simply deny to undertake it and mention the reason to the boss. He should simply make the boss understand that he does not want to do anything that is unethical and inappropriate in any form no matter whether doing this type of work is the culture of this firm.

Q 2

Reread "From the Buyer's Seat 16.1." As a salesperson, what are the implications for how you might sell to Ben? How could you help Ben sell to others in his organization? Is his approach something you would welcome from your prospects or worry about? Why?

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Essay

Buyer B believes in pilot test for everything before complete transition so as to judge its impact and effectiveness. The desirable result would then initiate the need to adapt the new technology. As a seller the intention of the buyers needs to be understood as B believes in results from tests. The seller should show demonstrate facts and figures of effectiveness of the product. Also they should provide pilot product first to make them satisfied about the product performance. Excellent after sales service to make the users adapt to the product and an ease of use while transiting to the product is what the seller should ensure. For this B has to communicate with the customer service team, support teams, production, delivery and make them all understand the customer's needs and satisfy them by providing apt product. The approach seems to be suitable one for any organization as this will allow the decision makers to make the decision based on the data and facts about the benefits of using a product. Also it will ensure that the purchase made will be beneficial for the organization as a whole and they will get the true partner as their seller.

Q 3

Your company pays straight commission based on gross margin and you have the ability to determine price, thereby influencing gross margin. The product, though, is standard and changes are not made to it when it is sold. What should determine how much you charge someone?

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Essay

Ethics play a major role in making business decisions that includes selling products legally and ethically, and also imparting knowledge and skills to the salespeople properly and at appropriate time. Mr. Y's company pays straight commission to the salespeople based on gross margins. Mr. Y possess some ability to influence price of the products that he sells to the customers and thereby he influences the gross margin of the products affecting the commission received by him. The product he sells is standard and changes are not made to it when it is sold. In this situation, Mr. Y should charge customers that much that constitutes the fair price for that product. The price should be such that is a mix of cost price of the product plus the profit percentage of the firm. This price should not be changed depending upon the customer type, but it could be changed with the number of units bought by the customer. If a particular customer buys large number of units of the product, then discounted price should be given to that customer. This way Mr. Y should not change the price of the product for every customer and should charge similar to them depending upon the units they buy.

Q 4

A company that rents office equipment to businesses pays its salespeople a commission equal to the first month's rent. However, if the customer cancels or fails to pay its bills, the commission is taken back, even if the customer cancels 10 months later. Is this policy fair? Why or why not? Why would the company have this plan?

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Q 5

Reread the chapter-opening profile of Kristen Scott and "Building Partnerships 16.1." What have they done to make their performance easier in working within their organization? What are some other things you can do to build stronger internal partnerships?

Essay

Q 6

What is the role of the geographic salesperson in a national or strategic account? Assume that you were a NAM.. What would you do to ensure the support of geographic reps? How would that support differ if you were a product specialist and worked in a team situation? As a product specialist, how would you get the support of the account manager?

Essay

Q 7

Consider your own experience in group work at school. What makes groups effective? How can you translate what you have learned about group work into working as part of a sales team? Reread "Sales Technology 16.1." What do you think are the characteristics of effective sales teams that have to operate virtually? Could you use any technology tools to collaborate in school work groups more effectively?

Essay

Q 8

Some companies are using contact management software to observe salespeople's activities and to supervise salespeople more closely. Some salespeople, though, are not supervised closely-as long as they close enough sales, the company is satisfied. To what extent should salespeople be allowed to manage themselves? What risks do you take as a sales manager when you allow self-management among salespeople? How can you minimize those risks?

Essay

Q 9

A sales manager gets one too many complaints about pushy salespeople, poor follow-up after the sale, and a lack of customer care, and wonders if the compensation plan is to blame. What can a manager do with compensation to promote greater customer service? Are there other ways to motivate good customer service?

Essay

Q 10

Many wise people, such as Steven Covey, say to worry about the things you can control and not to worry about the things you can't control. What does that mean for a salesperson, when so many promises a salesperson makes are actually fulfilled by someone else?

Essay

Q 11

An experienced salesperson argues against salaries: "I don't like subsidizing poor performers. If you paid us straight commission, we'd know who could make it and who couldn't. Sure, it may take a while to get rid of the deadwood, but after that, sales would skyrocket! Explain why you agree or disagree with that statement.

Essay

Q 12

Salespeople are paid more than just about everyone in the company. This compensation difference can create jealousy, particularly among those who don't trust salespeople anyway and think salespeople just play golf and entertain their way to the big bucks. How can you combat these misperceptions? Does it really matter what others think about sales, or will the need to serve customers and thereby serve the company be enough?

Essay

Q 13

Energy Master Controls, a manufacturer of heating and air-conditioning control systems for commercial properties, has the following compensation program. Reps are paid a $3,500 draw per month, with straight commission paid on a point system and a bonus based on quota performance. The SmartMeter, Energy Master's newest product, does much the same thing as the older Flex- Meter but 30 percent faster and with greater accuracy. The point system is shown in Table 1 Table 1 Reps are paid $5 per point, or $5,165 plus a bonus of $500, if they sell quota for each product, for a total of $6,675. The total number of points to reach each month is 1,035, but reps have to reach quota for each product to get the bonus. Tables 2 - 4 show the performance of the district. Table 2 Table 3 Table 4: Total Sales Calls Evaluate the district's sales performance. Draw conclusions ("Just where are we doing well? Doing poorly?") but don't fix anything yet. Justify your conclusions.

Essay

Q 14

Energy Master Controls, a manufacturer of heating and air-conditioning control systems for commercial properties, has the following compensation program. Reps are paid a $3,500 draw per month, with straight commission paid on a point system and a bonus based on quota performance. The SmartMeter, Energy Master's newest product, does much the same thing as the older Flex- Meter but 30 percent faster and with greater accuracy. The point system is shown in Table 1 Table 1 Reps are paid $5 per point, or $5,165 plus a bonus of $500, if they sell quota for each product, for a total of $6,675. The total number of points to reach each month is 1,035, but reps have to reach quota for each product to get the bonus. Tables 2 - 4 show the performance of the district. Table 2 Table 3 Table 4: Total Sales Calls Compare the performance of Smith and Longoria. What are some possible explanations for the poor SmartMeter sales?

Essay

Q 15

Energy Master Controls, a manufacturer of heating and air-conditioning control systems for commercial properties, has the following compensation program. Reps are paid a $3,500 draw per month, with straight commission paid on a point system and a bonus based on quota performance. The SmartMeter, Energy Master's newest product, does much the same thing as the older Flex- Meter but 30 percent faster and with greater accuracy. The point system is shown in Table 1 Table 1 Reps are paid $5 per point, or $5,165 plus a bonus of $500, if they sell quota for each product, for a total of $6,675. The total number of points to reach each month is 1,035, but reps have to reach quota for each product to get the bonus. Tables 2 - 4 show the performance of the district. Table 2 Table 3 Table 4: Total Sales Calls The VP of sales says the problem is a compensation plan problem. How would you fix it?

Essay

Q 16

Energy Master Controls, a manufacturer of heating and air-conditioning control systems for commercial properties, has the following compensation program. Reps are paid a $3,500 draw per month, with straight commission paid on a point system and a bonus based on quota performance. The SmartMeter, Energy Master's newest product, does much the same thing as the older Flex- Meter but 30 percent faster and with greater accuracy. The point system is shown in Table 1 Table 1 Reps are paid $5 per point, or $5,165 plus a bonus of $500, if they sell quota for each product, for a total of $6,675. The total number of points to reach each month is 1,035, but reps have to reach quota for each product to get the bonus. Tables 2 - 4 show the performance of the district. Table 2 Table 3 Table 4: Total Sales Calls The company is planning to create a new position called product specialist. This salesperson will work with territory salespeople and will have a sales quota for SmartMeter only. The product specialist salesperson will work with one sales team (8 to 12 salespeople), and once a territory rep has identified a SmartMeter prospect, the rep will bring in the product specialist. How should the compensation plan be adjusted? Why?

Essay

Q 17

Energy Master Controls, a manufacturer of heating and air-conditioning control systems for commercial properties, has the following compensation program. Reps are paid a $3,500 draw per month, with straight commission paid on a point system and a bonus based on quota performance. The SmartMeter, Energy Master's newest product, does much the same thing as the older Flex- Meter but 30 percent faster and with greater accuracy. The point system is shown in Table 1 Table 1 Reps are paid $5 per point, or $5,165 plus a bonus of $500, if they sell quota for each product, for a total of $6,675. The total number of points to reach each month is 1,035, but reps have to reach quota for each product to get the bonus. Tables 2 - 4 show the performance of the district. Table 2 Table 3 Table 4: Total Sales Calls The VP of sales managed to get the product specialist idea approved by the CEO, even though the CEO argued that the salespeople were just too lazy to make the effort to sell the SmartMeter. "Lower the compensation on it to the territory reps, and everyone will sell the FlexMeter at its lower price," the CEO says. "The best way to get more SmartMeter sales is to cut compensation on the FlexMeter to 20 points." What do you think should be done? Why?

Essay

Q 18

Answer Rick's questions as if you were Karen. To help you with your answer, consider that she and the service reps are in Kansas City, distribution is in St. Louis, and the corporate office (where credit, payroll, and other such functions are located) is in San Francisco. Regarding KHR, would it matter to your answer if they were a new customer versus a long-time customer? Why or why not, and if so, how?

Essay

Q 19

What should or could Rick do to help her? Assume her sales performance is pretty good and he doesn't consider firing her an option.

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