Vaibhav Chaurasia

PGMB1950

SESSION – 18
TOPIC – PERFORMANCE MEASURMENT

Q.1 - Identify problems, if any, with Capital District and salespeople

The main problem which was being faced by the Milford Industries in the Capital
District was that the sales force comprising of 8 salespeople in this district was not
living up to its potential and the sales of the district had been falling significantly. This
low sales growth was despite the fact that the Capital District area had been touted
to be growing and vibrant. The reason for this was that the predecessor of Oates,
who was Sam, had not managed the sales force properly and did not supervise them
effectively which resulted in indiscipline and lack of control. If we prioritize the three
main challenges, which had been faced by the Capital District, then these would be
as follows:
 Bad Management by the previous manager of District
 Bad Performance by the salespeople of Capital District
 Management of Capital District

Q.2 - Which salespersons are not performing well, as they should? Is the sales force
organized and deployed properly?
Sonny Caplan is an under performer, Doug Eaton is slowing down due to his health
conditions and age and finally Tom Furness, also is facing some family problems
which are negatively affecting his performance.
Sales force was not organized and deployed the reason was Oates did not have any
prior experience for managing the salespeople and he had been tasked to revive the
performance and the growth of the Capital District. Along with this, the challenge
became more critical as the incumbent regional sales manager was also about to
leave and thus, Oates would have no source to receive any guidance or clues. The
newly appointed regional sales manager had also given a free hand to Oates for
running the show. Therefore, the final challenge lies with Oates himself and he has to
make all the decisions individually based on the data provided to him.
Q.3 - Recommend what Mr. Oates should do to eradicate problems that you have
identified?

1. Sales targets, allocation of the areas and the compensation packages should
be decided on the basis of these performance metrics.
2. Currently, the sales per salesperson are lower than the country’s average
therefore, again training of the sales team would play an important part here.
3. Oates needs to conduct webinar training for his sales team in order to
increase the level of the skills of the sales team. Oates can consider using
simulation for training the employees as this would enhance their level of
skills and the sales per salesperson.
4. Oates needs to adopt a Management by Objectives (MBO) approach where
the sales people and the sales manager would work together to set their
targets, and then review the performance of each sales person, discuss the
reasons for potential gaps with each sales person individually. In addition to
this, the remedial measures could then be implemented to fill in the
performance gap.
5. He should visualize the mission of the company in front of them and match
their commissions strictly with their performance metrics.

90000

80000

70000

60000
Sum of Salary
50000 Sum of Commissions
Sum of Total Compensation
40000 Sum of Expenses
Sum of Total Compensation plus
30000 expenses

20000

10000

0
Alderson Burke Caplan Durfee Eaton Furness Gibson Harlow
800

700

600

500
Sum of Eaton
400 Sum of Burke
Sum of Durfee
300 Sum of Harlow
Sum of Furness
200
Sum of Gibson
100

0
Hand tools Mansosn Measuring Portable Stationary Stationary
instruments power Metal Wood working
Working

90000

80000

70000
Sum of Sales
($000)
60000 Sum of Calls

50000 Sum of Salary

Sum of Commission
Sum of Total
40000 Compensation
Sum of Active
Accounts
30000 Sum of Expenses
Sum of Total Compensation Plus
20000 Expenses

10000

0
Alderson Burke Durfee Harlow