Sales and Distribution

Eureka Forbes Ltd:

ManagementManaging Sales Effort

Bhumika Vishnoi - B16076

Harkaran Singh - B16080

Nikhil Shirke - B16090

Rachit Pande - B16096

Uday Sharma - B16117

Group Number 4

Secti on - B
Q 1:Eureka Forbes, comment on the suitability of the new sales performance evaluation plan.
Should this be rolled out? If yes would you recommend some changes to the plan & why?

Though highly successful in their direct sales model, Eureka Forbes banked heavily on using sales
volume as a main driver to judge the performance of its Front Line Sales Representatives. Over the
time this resulted in challenges with respect to sales closure rates and salesforce attrition
particularly at the lower and middle management level in the company. Due to this, new
performance evaluation plan was proposed to focus on process along with overall sales volume.

Following is ourevaluation of new performance review plan with respect to various problems areas
that were identified in Eureka Forbes.

Area Problem Description Proposed Solution per new plan

Process Negligence towards basic Defined activities and points would encourage
sales process (e.g. Demo EuroChamps to remember and follow end to end
piece hygiene, Customer sales process.
doubts, inhibitions Detailed daily activity form would enable
session) management to dig down into root cause of the
Lack of Management problem and take appropriate corrective measure
Visibility in process more effectively.
Customer Lack of interactions and Diagnostic tool Assistance for EuroChamps to refer
Orientation empathy towards and correct course over time.
customer during demo Focus on 40% reference sales would increase
and sales. quality of sales

Motivation/Drive Extensive focus on sales Points for each activity would motivate low
volume leading to high performers.
attrition Gift-a-Smile program would lead to better team
engagement.
Daily Recognition program to motivate regular
performance.
Time High volume of non-value Improving sales productivity would increase
Management activities (3.5+hrs. each customer engagement time by up to 70% and result
day) in more time for EuroChamps to focus on value
adding activities

We recommend the roll out of this plan to improve overall direct sales approach as we expect this to
address most of the baseline issues with respect to sales closure and attritions. Though, there are
some recommendations by which we feel this plan could be further improved.

Area Proposed Description

Recommendation
Daily or Weekly targets for sharing of best practices
Process Best Practice Sharing can be included in new sales performance
targets evaluation process. This would result in better
team collaboration and sales capability building.

Points awarded to sales can be increased to 500 for

Change in Sales Weightage standard product and 700 for high end. This figure
is less than previous sales to demo ratio 6:1,
emphasizing need of focusing on process and high
 enough to pay attention to closure as well.
Inclusion of customer feedback call after the final
Customer Customer Feedback Forms sale is done would result in understating of
Orientation customer perception about entire direct sales
activity and would assist in optimizing it further as
per identified GAPs.
Monthly Monetary rewards presently are not large
Motivation/Drive Increase in Monetary enough to motivate individuals to perform
Rewards exceptionally well over entire month.

Extra reward for End to Also keeping extra rewards for end to end sales
End Sales completion completion would encourage individuals to go for
completion for entire sales activity rather than
Potential to Sales simply collection of points
evaluation
Creating a potential to sales metric and evaluating
performance would help in reducing the bias
towards high potential area and reduce poaching
of territories

Q 2: Explain the reasons for the failure of the current sales process that were observed
by Goklaney in the field.

Major Issue : Inability to shift from transaction based selling to relationship based selling
Ideal way of Sales Adopted Practices
Comprehending the buyer purchase process Mechanical process of sale and demonstration to
and helping the customer advance in the the consumer which lacked empathy and
decision making stages recognition of consumer needs
Helping the consumers assess their needs Visible cues that indicated the interest of the
prospect were missed by the salespersons thus
missing out on the opportunity of closing the deal

Offering products that would satisfy Multiple cases of the demo instrument being
consumer's needs damaged or not clean occurred. This lack of a
proper demo instrument made the company lose
out on prospects as their curiosity could not be
translated into interest in the product

Due to lack of proper training, the salespersons

were not able to address the doubts and queries
Describing products accurately to address all
that consumers had about the product. Thus even
doubts and queries regarding the product
though the consumer was interested in the
being offered
product , it could not be turned into conviction for
making the purchase.
Due to an emphasis on the sales quota and volume,
the EFL managers were not able to identify and
Involvement of sales managers to understand
rectify the on-field problems being faced by their
the on-field difficulties and providing solutions
sales teams. A lack of proper communication and
for the same
training emerged as a determining factor in the
sales problems being faced.

Building a personal relationship with the
prospect by understanding his needs and
communicating accordingly
Territory conflicts resulted in the same prospect
being approached twice on the same day by
different people thus ruining the chance of
establishing a relationship with the prospect and his
conversion to a consumer.

Q 3: Comment on the other sales management practices at Eureka Forbes Ltd. What changes
would you recommend?

Area Issues Changes

No formal territory classification
Territory conflicts due to some
territories being more attractive than
others
Territory
Seasoned sales personnel poaching
issues
on sales in the areas assigned to the
new sales reps
All focus on sales rather than lead
generation
Several EuroChamps calling the same
prospective customer on the same
day
Difficulty in monitoring sales
Lack of formal
activities due to lack of formal
CRM system
customer contact database
Seasoned sales reps had an undue
advantage due to access to referrals
and sales leads
No formal training system during the
start of the career
Reliance on mentoring and pairing
Professional
newcomers with seasoned reps
training
Training is an added chore for the
senior salesperson
Lack of need based training
High component of variable pay-
more than two-thirds of the monthly
earnings in the form of commissions
Lack of non-monetary rewards and
Compensation incentives like awards & recognitions
Commissions linked to the sales
volume lead to high attrition rate due
to sales people not being able to earn
much
Evaluation done on the final outcome
Performance i.e. sales with no weightage for the
Evaluation diverse facets in the selling process
Rotating sales stint for the sales rep to
remove any bias due to lucrative territories
Sharing of incentives in case lead generated
and sale converted are by the different sales
rep
A centralised CRM based server with all the
customer data related to sales and service
The same can be used by the sales rep for
the lead generation and assigning territories
to the sales rep
Performance evaluation becomes easier for
the supervisor with a centralised data
Identifying latent potential for development
as well as to understand the strengths and
areas for improvement of the sales people.
Knowledge Management platform to
institutionalize the learning and training
Customised trainings for the individuals
A tool to track the performance not just on
sales numbers but on various competencies
and developmental milestones as well.
Integration of this data with the Training
function
Various parameters like number of doors
knocked, demos given, leads generated,
percentage conversion and sales achieved
can be used for evaluation and review
Q4: Going forward keeping market conditions in mind what changes you will suggest in the sales
management system?

Change in Sales Considered market Possible implications

Management Systems conditions
More focus on B2B sales Greater Enhancing the revenue stream with attention to
with higher reward and opportunities in the relatively untapped market
recognition B2B market
Salesman as solution Need for consumer Improve interaction with prospective and existing
providers education customers that may lead to better sales
conversion ratio and improved relations with the
customers
ERP system that allows Technology The implementation of such ERP system will the
senior management to advancement management understand the operations of the
track the activities of frontline people to improve the training program
salesmen in the field and compensation system
Latest technology for Technology The implementation of such system can help
knowledge (leads, sales) advancement reduce the instances of conflicts within the
sharing and teams. It can also help generate insights from the
management and other market information and customer feedback.
CRM functions
Focus on the get-a-friend Increasing Focus on this program can help the firm maintain
program for recruitment competition in labor the desired level of sales force It may also result
market in the firm getting the employees that are more
likely to stay with the firm to reduce the
possibility of high attrition rate.
Performance based Technology It can help increase the morale of the sales force.
territory allocations to advancement It can reduce the instances of conflicts among the
teams with strict employees that may lead to increased employee
deadlines satisfaction.

Continue commission Increasing In addition to process orientation the actual sales

based compensation competition done by the salesperson should be incentivised to
with focus on sales keep high performers in the system motivated.
conversion

Formalizing training Increasing Each consumer is different and targeted selling if

process with different competition incorporated in the training will help the sales
scripts for different personnel understand and serve the consumer
customer profiles needs in a better way

Communicating CRM Technology The frontline personnel can have a better

reports to frontline advancement understanding of the needs and concerns of the
personnel consumers to better their response to the
objections to improve sales conversion