CASE ANALYSIS:

“To say that I am exceedingly upset by what I witnessed in one of our dealer's offices, the other day
would be a gross understatement. I saw one of our sales representatives trying to sell to a dealer and he
did not know what he was talking about. He could not answer some of the simplest questions of the dealer
about our product and kept saying that he would find out the answer from the head office. Needless to say
he didn't make the sale," opined Mr. Khurana, President of the Innova Computer Company. Mr. Roy, the
newly hired sales manager for the company, decided to take note of this and asked "Is this representative
of the entire sales force or an isolated case?" "Mr. Roy, that's what I am paying you to find out and do
something about." Said Mr. Khurana. As Roy, walked back to his new office to deal with a multitude of
other sales operation problems, he saw his task unfolding as two major activities.

a) To determine how much the present sales force really knew about the computer products and how
they are used.
b) To develop an effective programme to equip the sales force with the required product knowledge.

On reaching his desk, Roy, called his assistant Vinod. Vinod had been with the company since its
inception eight years ago. Vinod started as a part time worker, while he studied for his graduation, and
when he graduated, joined the company full time. He was little frustrated that he hadn't been promoted to
Sales Manager. Roy called Vinod and said that- "I've just been in a meeting with Mr. Khurana and he has
rather firm conviction that the product knowledge of our representatives’ isn't what it should be. He wants
us to do something about it. How do you feel about this?" "Oh, don't pay too much attention to the old
man. He's been on that trip ever since he started the company. As far as he is concerned, no sales
representative ever knows enough about the product or knows enough about the customer's problems. It
doesn't make any difference to him that we are selling fairly well and sometimes exceeding quotas. In his
eyes, that's just because the product is so good. He thinks he is the only one in the company who really
knows about the product. It doesn't matter what you do, he'll still be saying the same things to you, every
time he sees one of the representatives making a presentation," replied Vinod. Roy thanked Vinod for his
opinions but couldn't help wondering whether he could afford to ignore Mr. Khurana's comments.

Questions
1-How can Roy determine- how much the sales representatives know about the product and its
applications?
Soln- Roy determine- how much the sales representatives know about the product and its applications in
the following ways -
Product knowledge is an essential sales skill. Understanding your products' features allows you to present
their benefits accurately and persuasively. Customers respond to enthusiastic sales staff who are
passionate about their products and eager to share the benefits with them
Use conventional and creative sources of information to learn about your products or services, including:

● your own experiences using the products

● product literature such as brochures and catalogues
● online forums
● feedback from customers
● trade and industry publications
● internal sales records
● your team members
● visits to manufacturers
● sales training programs
● competitor information

2-How should he plan to develop the desired degree of expertise among salespeople?
● Soln-·One-on-One Coaching.
● · Encourage Continued Learning.
● · Use Technology. .
● · Streamline the Sales Process.
● · Establish a Good Company Culture.
● · Understand Your Sales Team's Differences.
● · Inspire Your Team.
● · Drive Competition

Submitted by Prayag Das

Regno -FMS/MBA/2020-22/057
Is Your Sales Organization Good or Great?

What separates great from good sales organizations?

After working with over two-hundred different companies, the evidence suggests that the best business-to-business
sales organizations share specific patterns of organizational structure and behaviours.

These similarities can be defined into the seven different attributes listed below.

1. Strong Centralized Command and Control with Local Authority.

• There is no single greater influence over the success of the sales organization than how the sales leadership
creates the sales culture and environment for the people who will work for them.
• In this regard, the best organizations have strong leaders who exercise authoritarian control, dictate team
direction, and establish the codes of behaviours that all team members must abide by
• . Although these tenets are similarly used within military units to enforce chain of command, sales leaders
prefer to use motivation and the force of their personal character before employing the power associated with
their title.
2. Darwinian Sales Culture. There are two different aspects of a Darwinian sales culture.
• The first is in regards to hiring. In essence, the next hire by the organization is of such high quality and
capability that it actually “challenges” the more tenured sales team members to perform at the highest level
(so that they are not resting on their laurels).
• The second aspect is that the sales Is Your Sales Organization Good or Great?
• organization is continually “culling the herd” and comparing each member’s performance against stringent
criteria. Weaker sales team members who do not contribute their revenue share are quickly let go.
3. United Against a Common Enemy.
• we have found the best sales organizations, those who are driven to succeed against all obstacles and odds, have
an archival competitor whom they both resent and fear.
• This is actually a very important differentiator since it drives individual behaviours. As a result, there is a higher
win ratio because accounts are pursued with greater preparation, higher intensity, and a life-or-death
seriousness.
4. Competitive but Cohesive Team.
• In one sense, a sales organization is an amalgamation of cliques. For example, a sales organization may be
comprised of three areas that include North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe/Middle East/Africa. Furthermore,
North American sales may include three regions: east, mid-west, and west. In great sales organizations there is
 more than a friendly rivalry between the various regions.
• Each region is on a mission to prove it is the best. Although all the salespeople and their sales leaders are
intensely competitive individuals by nature, they will support their area and regional teammates when needed.
• It is highly likely that the key sales management leaders have worked with each other before at prior companies.
They know, like and respect each other.
5. DIY Attitude.
• Many underperforming sales organizations share something in common. The sales organization tends to blame
the other areas of the organization (engineering, marketing, support, etc.) for the own failings. Members of top
performing sales organizations not only take ownership for their own success, they have a “Do It Yourself”
attitude.
• For example, they will not solely rely on marketing to provide their leads but build their own pipeline without
any expectations of leads from marketing. When troubles arise at customer accounts, they will spearhead
problem resolution efforts.
6. They Suspend Negative Belief Systems.
• The company whose account you worked so hard to close may want its money back because the product isn’t
working right. The funnel of deals you may have been counting on for months Is Your Sales Organization Good
or Great? could disappear in a few minutes.
• The sales team members in great organizations live “in the moment,” meaning they do not fixate on negative
thoughts that prevent them from moving forward and taking action. They are not debilitated by bad news or
self-defeating rumours heard through the grapevine.
7. There is Energy and Esprit de Corps!
• While all sales organizations can be defined as a collection of individuals trying to succeed as a team, there is a
tremendous amount of peer pressure inside great sales organizations.
• If a member doesn’t achieve his revenue targets, not only did he fail personally, but he also let his team down.
On the other side of the coin, when sales team members post great numbers, they are honoured and respected
by the team.
• This type of sales culture is very different from an individualistic “every man for himself” environment because it
fosters team cohesiveness, morale, and a continually high energy level. .
Does Your Company Have the Right Number of Salespeople?

For sales managers, this is not an easy question to answer. The number of salespeople affects
profitably by impacting both revenues and costs.

• It’s easy to estimate costs by looking at historical compensation, benefits, field support, and travel
costs per salesperson. But it’s much more difficult to predict revenues, as it requires understanding
how complexities such as customer needs, the economy, and the effectiveness of your and your
competitor’s salespeople, influence a sales force’s ability to generate sales.

Split a Territory as Soon as Its Sales Hit a Threshold Level

• The current salesperson’s “reward” for working hard to build business is to have his territory reduced. Over time
too many salespeople are placed in geographies where salespeople were successful initially and too few are
placed in other geographies where considerable market potential remains untapped.

• Another downside is that salespeople in territories with sales approaching $3 million have incentive to stop
selling in order to keep their territories intact.

Keep Sales Force Costs at a Constant Percentage of Sales

• A sales force stays affordable by keeping costs in line with industry or company benchmarks for a sales force cost-
to-sales ratio. But this is not the same as maximizing profits. Although it’s counterintuitive, when a sales force is
undersized, adding salespeople increases the cost-to-sales ratio and also increases profitability.

• You can always reduce the cost-to-sales ratio by cutting headcount, but the impact on profitability is positive only
if the sales force is already too large. Maintaining an industry average cost-to-sales ratio is especially harmful to
small-share companies that want a competitive share-of-voice.

• Sustaining a historical ratio is also dangerous during a business downturn; it may result in excessive downsizing
that amplifies the impact of the downturn and leaves the company poorly positioned for a turnaround.

A Better Approach

Financial decision rules alone are not enough for figuring out the right size number of salespeople. A better approach
requires three steps.

• Step 1. On the other hand, if customers avoid returning your salespeople’s calls if salespeople feel they don’t
have enough opportunities if sales activity emphasizes too many non-critical tasks and low-value customers, and
if competitors are downsizing their sales forces, it’s likely your own sales force is too large.

• Step 2. Do analysis that focuses on customers, not financial constraints. This requires understanding and
segmenting customers according to their needs and potential, and determining what sales process and how much
sales force time is required to meet those needs and realize the potential

• By aggregating the time required across customer segments, you can estimate the number of salespeople
required to effectively cover your customer base.

• Step 3-When expanding the sales force, it takes new salespeople time to get acclimated and make sales, and for
the new customers, they acquire to make repeat purchases.
 Alternatively, when downsizing a sales force, loyal customers may continue to buy for a while despite reduced
sales force coverage.

Why Sales Organizations Fail

What prevents a sales organization from achieving success? After studying hundreds of sales organizations, I have
found the answer to this question is directly related to the challenges associated with their development stage.

• The Build stage is when the sales organization is first establishing itself.to a high-growth Compete stage and then
to Maintain stage that is contingent upon stable, in the Maintain stage is pulled into new sales opportunities
because of its market position. Different sales organization challenges in the Build, Compete, Maintain, Extend
and Cull stages are,

The Challenges of the Build Stage

• The top sales challenge in the Build stage is creating sufficient sales coverage to push the product into the
market. It takes time to hire, train, and build a critical mass of capable salespeople who can penetrate new
accounts. It is during this stage that the sales model is first established, whether the sales organization will sell
directly via outside field salespeople, over the phone with inside salespeople, or through channel partners. “

The Challenges of the Maintain Stage

• The sales challenge changes radically during the late Compete stage and into the Maintain stage. The focus shifts
from scaling the organization to maximizing sales productivity by lowering the cost of sale and increasing the
average sales price. This may result in moving business from outside sales to inside sales or less expensive
partner and distributor channels.
• Another challenge revolves around the predictability of revenue and the size of the sales organization. Since the
sales organization is fully staffed and the territory coverage model is complete, the challenge is where to find the
additional revenue to meet the growing annual target. Since territories have been split numerous times, the
answer revolves around specialization. The sales force is segmented by size of company to be called upon,
national accounts are segregated, and industry vertical sales specialists covering finance, government, retail,
distribution, healthcare, etc., are created.

The Challenges of the Cull Stage

• In the Cull stage the company has been leapfrogged by competitors who provide superior offerings. How does a
demoralized and marginalized sales force revitalize itself? The Darwinian answer is to cull the herd and remove
 the bottom performers and those with disenfranchised attitudes. The attitude of entitlement must be eliminated
for the spark of the competitive spirit to be reignited.
• Equally important, key existing accounts whose run rate revenue is central to the survival of the company are
separated out and placed in "Revenue Care" programs where they receive dedicated account management,
customer support, and executive level access.
• “The other shift we are making is getting some of our more experienced and seasoned salespeople who really
know the industry and solutions well, to be a little bit more provocative in their approaches. We want them to
add more value to the sales cycle. We have a successful older sales team that is kind of set in its ways. The
business and times dictate that we shake this model up".

Submitted by Prayag Das

Regno FMS/MBA/2020-22/057
Four Steps to Forecast Total Market Demand

Forecasting is an “inexact science” that relies on the data available to you, the math you
use, and how you implement the forecast. There are libraries full of algorithms that are
relatively easy to implement in software, but the math is only as good as the data it’s
applied to. And better demand forecasting is fundamentally impacted by your
understanding of that data, its strengths and limits.

In this case we review four data concepts that drive forecast results, and we provide some
practical recommendations on how to address them. Better forecasting implementations
relate to:

• Preparing data for analysis;

• Measuring data currency, coverage and accuracy;
• Understanding how order fulfilment impacts your forecasts; and
• Managing spikes in the data that may or may not be real demand.

1. Preparing data for analysis

How you roll up your data for forecasting fundamentally impacts accuracy. Managers are
usually rolling up a large number of very specific transactions and will need to analyze these
transactions at some higher level to get a picture of meaningful sales activities and trends.
Usually they want to create several dimensions for study.

AGGREGATION
DESCRIPTION
DIMENSION
Add up all sales by time of day, day of week, month, quarter,
Time
etc.
Place Add up sales by facility, region, country – or territories
Product By item, SKU, product, category
Supplier By manufacturer or brand
Organization By rep or team

Managers will want to summarize by several of these dimensions simultaneously. For

example, a category manager wants to track products before and after a promotion, by
region and manufacturer. Business intelligence software plays an important role here – a
data warehouse or database can support multiple types of aggregations and enable flexible
analysis across dimensions instantly.

When forecasting demand, the higher the level of aggregation, the more accurate the
forecast. In an over-simplified explanation, forecast errors decline as the level of
aggregation grows, and, more specifically, the standard deviation of the noise terms grows
as the square root of the number of units being aggregated declines.
However, the relevance of greater accuracy depends on the business situation. While a
quarterly forecast for a chain may be mathematically easier to achieve than a weekly
forecast for a store, if your company requires weekly forecasts you’ll need to work harder to
understand how to use and communicate disaggregated forecasts that have more volatility
and lower accuracy.

Recommendation: Understand the level of granularity required for your business purpose
and the relative accuracy you can achieve at each level of aggregation. Here are some
examples:

• Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP): High level of aggregation for strategic
planning
• Inventory Management: Low level of aggregation to support SKU level decisions
• S&OP and Inventory Management reconciliation: S&OP plans roll down to inventory
decisions – thus, a top-down forecast must disaggregate to a SKU level forecast. Use
a methodology that allows for reconciliation. (This requires a specific database
structure.)

2. Measuring data currency, coverage and accuracy

In short, sales history is the best measure of future demand. There are dozens of models to
analyze sales history, from simple moving averages to advanced regression methods that
can measure trends, seasonality and cyclic characteristics of your data. Before you decide
on your models though, you need to know whether your sales history is the same as
demand for your product.

Using sales history to portray demand assumes that your inventory has always been
available for sale. However, for most businesses out-of-stock situations are a fact of life.
Research shows that most grocers have about 8% of items out of stock* – and considering
an average store has 25,000 stocks items, that means 2,000 are not available at any given
time!

The data around ‘missing demand’ will misrepresent the actual demand in the market. A
business won’t know what a customer did when they didn’t find the product – did they buy
something else, buy somewhere else, or just pass up the purchase?

Therefore, if we don’t address the gap between sales history and ‘true demand’, we are
underestimating demand. And if we underestimate demand in one period, we are likely to
set our inventory targets too low for the following period, thus creating a cycle that will
frustrate customers.

Recommendation: Create a measure of true demand by making an adjustment to account

for stock-outs. Specifically, adjust for the time the product was available. A simple approach
would be:

• True Demand = Observed Demand / Fraction of Time in Stock

 • While this requires you to blend data from different sources (CRM and ERP) and
create a new measure, it should lead to a better view of your market opportunity.

3. Understanding how order fulfillment impacts your forecasts

Most businesses have situations where stock shortages occur but sales are fulfilled through
alternate channels, such as an expedited order from a different location. The customer is
happy, but this can create chaos in the forecast because data collection can’t easily track
this kind of exception. In this case, the company may record the transaction at the regional
facility but would need to record the demand at the alternate facility.

A second situation of bias occurs when items aren’t available and the customer buys a
substitute. For example, a customer wants a 12-pack of beer in cans but the store is out.
Instead, they buy bottles. This distorts the demand estimate, potentially driving down
inventory for the preferred cans and driving up inventory for the less preferred bottles.

Recommendation: Some slippage is going to occur in any large inventory system if

inventory is not 100% on the shelf. To resolve this, simply record the place, time and item
where the transaction actually occurred, along with availability.

4. Managing spikes in the data that may or may not be real demand

Most businesses see occasional “spikes” in their sales. Sometimes they are data errors, and
sometimes they reflect real sales. Unfortunately, spikes tend to ‘pull’ the demand
distribution in their direction, possibly skewing inventory planning.

From a forecaster’s perspective, we are most interested in typical demand that is recurring.
Spikes should be researched separately to understand what caused them and whether they
are recurring or one-time events. In a forecasting system, then, we would generally want to
eliminate the spikes from our estimates.

Recommendation: Currently, it’s common to eliminate the spikes and replace the data
points with a more typical observation, like the average volume for the previous and
subsequent time periods. Another approach relevant to an industrial situation would be to
record transactions as ‘recurring’ or ‘non-recurring’.

For example, a transportation company may operate vehicles from various locations. When
repairs or maintenance are done at an alternate facility while a vehicle is in transit, the
purchase of spare parts should be recorded as one-time events so that the facility does not
begin to stock parts for future repairs.

Forecasting is more than big volumes of data and elegant statistical models. By focusing on
data context, you will understand your business situation more fully and present forecasts
and explain results with more confidence.

Submitted by- prayag Das Regno-FMS/MBA/2020-22/057

MAHA RESEARCH LABS: SALES FORCE EXPANSION
Problem Statement:

Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study Analysis had actually been rather
different and is tough to intimate, but the thing it lacked included the high expense of the
items which was due to the use of materials from the House of Japan and the participation
of total personnel of native Japanese in the shop. The service were lengthy thus do not have
fast service responses with a long time of queuing.

Operations in the organizational success:

Dining space:

Usually, the typical restaurant requires 30 percent of the total space of the restaurant as
your home back. While, Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study Solution
included just 22 percent of the total system area as the house back that includes workplace,
dressing spaces of employees, dry and cooled storage and areas of preparation. This was a
significant increase in the flooring area percentage committed to dining area to be
productive.

Hibachi table arrangement:

The removal of traditional cooking area requirement with the arrangement of hibachi style
gave Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study Solution an uncommon mindful
service quantity and kept the cost of labor at the gross sales of about 10 to 12 percent. This
was dependent if the unit was at complete volume.

Reduction in menu:

Through decrease in the menu to just 3 basic entrées of Middle America that included
Shrimp, Chicken and Steak. There had been significant storage of food and essentially no
food waste. This had actually cut the costs of food by 30 to 35 percent of the sales of food
depending on the meat cost.

Historical Authenticity:

The ornamental lights, artifacts, beams, ceilings and walls of Maha Research Labs Sales
Force Expansion Case Study Solution were all from Japan. The product of structure was
collected from old homes which were dismantled in a mindful manner and delivered in
pieces to the U.S. where reassembling was done by one of his father's 2 crews of carpenters
of Japan.

Site Selection:

Due to the lunch break organisation value, one basic principle of Maha Research Labs Sales
Force Expansion Case Study Solution was its selection of site i.e. high traffic. Lease was
usually at 5 to 7 percent of sales for the location of about 5000-- 6000 square foot for the
area of flooring. A number of the units of Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case
Study Solution were located in business districts with a simple access to the areas of
residency.

Advertising Policy:

One of the crucial factor in the success of Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case
Study Analysis was its considerable financial investment in public relations and creative
marketing. The investment of organization of about 8 to 10 percent of its gross sales in
order to be approachable to public. Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study
Help used entirely different technique for advertisement. As they had visual items to offer.
Therefore, it used impressive visuals in its advertisement. The complimentary copy was
modern but often off-the-wall. This was on the basis of marketing research to be
knowledgeable about their prospective consumers.

Training:

The chefs of Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study Analysis were a great
essential to its success as all the chefs were extremely trained. All the chefs were accredited,
native Japanese speakers, single and young significance that they had actually completed
their official apprenticeship of three-years. They were then provided with a course of three
to 6 months in period in the English language about the good manners of American design
and the Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study Solution cooking style which
was primarily showmanship in Japan.

Training chefs was a continued process in the United States. The chefs were not usually
worried with resignation of their job due to the reason which consisted of the possibility to
increase in the Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study Analysis operation of
America in contrast to the stiff hierarchy on the basis of education, age and class they might
experience in Japan. Similarly, other factor included the Maha Research Labs Sales Force
Expansion Case Study Solution's paternal mindset which took forward all the workers.

As an outcome, personnel turnover in the United States was rather low, however, many
eventually returned to Japan. For full appreciation of success of Maha Research Labs Sales
Force Expansion Case Study Solution, the uncommon combination of paternalism of Japan
in the setting of America had actually appreciated.

Imitation:

The restaurants of Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study Help adopted
precise and well-defined methods during the choice of sites and chefs training which helped
the organization in decreasing the typical time of dinner turnover and the special mix of
paternalism of Japan in the setting of United States of America which made it challenging
for other organizations to intimate.
Effective Training:

Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study Help invested heavily on the
programs of training for the chefs:

• Training of official apprenticeship for a period of 3 years with accreditation in the

• Three to 6 months course when it comes to the American manners mentor and training in
English language.
• Use of training program as a continuous procedure to be followed.
Employee Satisfaction:

Complete satisfaction of workers as the community for assistance readily available for every
employee:
• Complete satisfaction of workers increases development opportunities of efficiencies of
both staff members and organization.
• Paternal attitude-- served as the secret to the bonding on basis of culture with efficient
management.
• Offering staff members with good-looking wages and incentives such as plans of benefit.
• Supplying employees with intangible advantages like security of job and employees'
wellness.
• Pride of staff members works as the key factor in the motivation of staff members.

Effective and Aggressive Marketing:

Investment of Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study Solution at significant
level in the maintenance of public relations and advancement of advertisement:

• Financial investment of about 8 to 10 percent in advertising from the gross sales.

• Organization lead in regards to its uncommon technique of advertising.
• Advertisement was exceptional, modern, off the wall visuals in the ad.
• Maha Research Labs Sales Force Expansion Case Study Solution significantly kept its policy
word of mouth in a constant way.

Customer Satisfaction:

Research of market to examine the potential consumers and their expectancy:

• Quality of food drive the customers' complete satisfaction the most i.e. usage of food of
prime grade.
• The essential chauffeurs worked as the factors of clients' satisfaction was primarily
environment and service.
Submitted By -Prayag Das Reg no- FMS/MBA/2020-22/057