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Selling in practice

4 What differences would you expect to observe in a sales organisation that follows the TQM process
from one that does not?
5 Some managers suggest that benchmarking is too expensive in both time and resources to be of
real value to the sales organisation. Discuss.

Case study A G Barr

Barr’s Soft Drinks Ltd (www.agbarr.co.uk) is one of the significant companies in the booming
UK carbonated soft drinks market and is best known for its brand IRN BRU. They have
manufacturing plants and offices located in the north of England and Scotland, with distri-
bution depots in all parts of the United Kingdom. In terms of market share Barr is number
three in the United Kingdom, a long way behind Coca-Cola and Britvic (Pepsi) who dominate
the market, although in Scotland Barr is number one with 52 per cent market share. In terms
of competition, there are also many strong regional companies and literally hundreds of
small localised concerns. Sales have a significant seasonal bias and the market is split into
colas, other carbonated and mixer drinks. Barr’s have traditionally been strong in the other
carbonated sectors with its Irn Bru brand and to a lesser extent Tizer. In distribution terms,
they are also popular with smaller types of outlets (cafes, fish and chip shops, confectionery,
tobacco, newsagents [CTNs] and independents).
In their traditional areas, particularly Scotland, distribution has not been a problem. In
England, penetration into new areas has been with low unit sales per outlet and relatively
high selling and distribution costs. Penetration of south-east-based chains has been difficult
and somewhat costly – low margins and service problems. Management have adopted this
policy in an effort to gain wider recognition as a national rather than a regional company.
Sales, relative to market share, are high in some English regions (
20%) but low in others
( 2%), averaging 5 per cent across the United Kingdom. Customers are split into key
accounts handled by senior salespeople or otherwise into an ABC classification by size. A are
usually wholesalers or retail chains; B and C customers are varying sizes of outlet.
Salespeople are paid a salary plus commission, with a new accounts bonus scheme.
1 Outline the problems of assessing individual salesperson performance in this company.
2 What approach to evaluation would you recommend sales management to adopt in this
situation?

Key terms
■ activity measures ■ daily report evaluation
■ behaviourally anchored rating scales ■ meta-analysis
■ control ■ sales analysis
■ cost analysis ■ sales management audit
■ customer record

References
Adair, C. and Murray, B. (1994) Breakthrough Process Design AMACOM: New York
Anderson, E. and Oliver, R.L. (1987) ‘Perspectives on behavior-based versus outcome-based
salesforce control systems’ Journal of Marketing 51 (Oct): 76–88

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