Assignment -2 DSSM Batch –4

Student Detail
Registration Number- DSSM-04-902

Examination – 10/2022

KDC Academy of Management – Sri Lanka

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Content

Description Page
I. Executive Summary 2

II. List of Figures and Illustrations 3

1 Overview of Business
1.1. Organization Name 4
1.2. Industry 4
1.3 Business Type 4
1.4 Size of Organization 5
Financial detail of the company ( for the last 5
1.5
years) 5
1.6 Product Portfolio 5
1.3. Customer Type 5
1.4. Available Recourses 5

2 Sales Organization Structure of Mitter

2.1 Sales Organization Structure 6
2.2 Roles and responsibilities 6
2.3 The span of control and decision-making authority 6
2.4 Gaps in the present organization structure 7
2.5 Proposed new structure 7

3 Leadership and Motivation

3.1 Leadership approaches 10
3.2 Best to be used 12
3.3 Sales Motivation techniques 12
3.4 Technique to be used to reach the goal 12

4 Conclusion 13

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(I) Executive Summary

This assignment has been prepared to provide the completion of level -2, Certificate in Strategic
Sales management, of the Diploma in Strategic sale Management course conducted by KDC
academy of management in Colombo Sri Lanka.
It is irrefutable, that the main asset in a company is the sales force. As one of the main
tasks, they interact with the customer, gather customer feedback, and communicate it to the
company. The feedback would be used for many aspects, mainly in fine-tuning of making the
right marketing mix for products or services the company is involved in. Therefore, the sales force
plays an important role in marketing management and customer relationship. As per the request
of the senior management at Mitter International Pvt Ltd, the essay will explain the development
of the sales force following the sales objective of the organization, to increase the sales revenue
by 20%, compared to the previous year. It is required to reach new market segments using the
existing product portfolio to achieve this goal by the 31st of March 23.
To explain how to reach the objective of the organization, the essay will study the existing
organizational sales structure at Mitter for its individuals and their responsibilities and roles, the
span of control, decision-making authority and gaps if there are any.
In conclusion, leadership and motivation are two of the major strategies an organization
can adopt to improve sales management and sales force productivity. I will discuss 2 leadership
approaches and motivation techniques the company can implement to reach the desired goal set
for the year 22/23.

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(II) List of Figures and Illustrations

• Mitter Organization Chart Fig-1, page 4

• Financial Data for the last 5 years- Fig-2, page 5
• Product portfolio Fig 3, page 5
• List of customers Fig 4, page 6
• Competitors Fig 5, page 6
• Present sales organization structure Fig 5, page 7
• Proposed sales organization structure Fig 6, page 9

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1) Overview Of Business

1.1 Organization

Mitter International Pvt Ltd is a telecom industry's Sri

Lankan systems integrator and engineering services
provider. Mitter was founded in 1999 by Mr Mindika
Hettiarachchi, and his brother Mr Mayura Hettiarachchi. Mr Mindika is a versatile and
experienced businessperson, especially in the Telecom and IT sectors. His industry
knowledge and business networking were derived through 10 years of previous
employment at a Japanese multinational corporation named Marubeni Corporation
(https://www.marubeni.com/en/)

Mitter Organization Chart Fig-1

Companies’ key strength is their employees and innovative telecom and IT
solutions providers from around the world. The success of Mitter is their highly skilled,
dedicated, and trustworthy people driven under the leadership of Mr Mindika.
From its inception, Mitter’s strategy has always been to position new technology in
the field. Even though promoting new solutions always is a tough challenge, through
successful implementation and maintenance of a few solutions, Mitter established itself as
a reliable partner and the industry began to give up the fear of investing in new technology.
Today through a partnership with Sri Lanka Telecom, Mitter is one of the largest carriers
of TV and radio signals to several TV and radio stations in Sri Lanka. From a humble
beginning, Mitter has pushed itself successfully through a course that was filled with
challenges and now stands tall celebrating 23years in the business.
1.2 Industry
Mitter Is a telecommunication and IT systems integrator in Sri Lanka. Their solutions
consist of LAN/WAN networks, Microwave Backhauling networks to transport radio and
Tv signals for most of the private tv and radio companies in Sri Lanka.

1.3 Business type

Mitter is a limited liability company registered with the company register of Sri Lanka

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1.4 Size of Organization 1.5 Financial details of the

company (for the last 5 years)
2 technically qualified
pre-sales Executives

3 Senior Tec eng BSC qualified

1Junior Engineer
Financial Data for the last 5 years- Fig-3

1 Accountant

1 HR Manager Note- Financials have been declining over the last 3 years.

Financial Detail Fig-3

1 Logistic op Support

Available Resources Fig-2

1.6 Product Portfolio 1.7 Customers

Product portfolio Fig4 List of customers Fig 5

Note- Harmonic and worldcast contribute Note- 90% of business is derived from Sri Lanka Telecom
mostly to the revenue at Mitter.

1.8 Competitors
Some of the competitors are as large as some of the suppliers we represent, but
as a company providing especially solutions in the radio and tv media market,
Miter holds the largest deployments compared to the other competitors in Sri
Lanka.

Holds 20% market share holds 30% of the market share together holds 10% of the market share
Competitors Fig 6

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2) Sales Organization Structure of Mitter

2.1 Sales Organization Structure

While Mitter is a functional organization, the sales organization is directly
under the CEO and is of a narrow span. Mitter does not have dedicated
salespersons but has pre-sales engineers. The sales structure of the
company is closely connected with the engineering team which has 4
people therefore most of the sales functions are performed together as a
team.

MITTER

CEO

PRE-SALES ENGINEERS
ENGINEERS

2 PERSONS 3 PERSONS

Present sales organization structure Fig 5

2.2 Roles and responsibilities.

The CEO of Mitter acts as the sales director and there are no other sales
managers or any other level between the CEO and the Pre-sales team.
There are 2 pre-sales engineers in the sales structure. They activate their
functions only when there is a requirement known to them through the CEO,
contacts with the customer through previous business relationships, RFPs
or tenders. Their roles mostly involve making pre-call planning, prospecting,
sales presentations, overcoming objections, close the sale together with the
CEO by asking for the orders. Most of the other functions are handled
individually by other departments without much involvement from the pre-
sales team.

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2.3 Span of control and decision-making authority

For the sales department, the CEO’s span of control is the pre-sales
persons and has 2 of them. All decisions are made by the CEO

2.4 Gaps in the present organization structure

According to the present organizational structure, there seem to be a few

gaps. I propose it be changed. CEO may not be able to handle effectively
all the intricate and strategic roles and responsibilities of a sales manager
as he is also involved with other functions of the organization as well. In
2017 their revenue was almost 100Mil, and then it took a dive and ended at
a low of 40 Mil 2021. According to the management, the reason for the
plunge in sales after 2017 was due to the changes in the market dynamics
and increased competition and their pre-sales may not have been equipped
to take up the challenge. Usually, the pre-sales engineers are more
technical-oriented than commercial, and they may not possess certain sales
skills or attitudes of a dedicated salesman. The role of a salesperson
includes Generate sales, Provisioning services to the customer (together
with the after-sales teams), constantly monitoring the market (competitors,
new and existing customers and market changes) and reporting to the
management for strategic planning and preparation of the company strategy
to face any predicted challenges in the market, maintain professional self-
development and groom new blood to take up the future challenges while
performing ones civic duties. According to the present duties of the pre-
sales teams at Mitter, they only partially fulfilling the role of a salesperson.

2.5 Proposed new structure

Reaching an increase of 20% in sales in one year is a huge challenge for

Mitter. Therefore, considering the above condition the organization is
under at this moment, I propose to take the following quick and very
effective changes in the sales organization’s structure at Mitter.

a) To introduce a fully authorized experienced sales manager.

b) Introduce 2 dedicated fully functional salespersons

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MITTER

CEO

SALSE MANAGER

SALES PERSON PRE SALES ENGINEER

ENGINEER

2 PERSONS 2 PERSONS 3 PERSONS

Proposed sales organization structure Fig 6

The newly appointed sales manager will take the CEO’s full scope of
managing sales. And the existing two pre-sales engineers and the two new
salespersons will be under his span of control.

Secondly, presently Mitter approaches only the telecom carrier or the

telecom operators in Sri Lanka for their business. They simply have ignored
approaching the enterprise market that consists of Banks, Large
organizations, small /medium enterprises and many other organizations
requiring telecom solutions. So, I propose to achieve the 20% or even more
by approaching the enterprise market. I suggest approaching banks and
large organizations that are spread all over the country. The ever-changing
technology creates opportunities as the old solution moves out and a path
creates for communication solutions based on new technology. It is known
that Mitter is good at introducing new technologies and that has been one
of its key strengths for the longest time.

The sales manager will deliver a complete strategic role in the sales
department and report to the CEO. He is responsible for performing the
following sales management functions.

• Carry out strategic planning – He can explore the market and strategize
a plan.
• Organize the sales force - The Salesforce can be organized for one
salesperson can approach the banking sector and the other cover large

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organizations. The 3 pre-sales engineers can provide the technical support

the sales guys need.
• Carry our recruitment - If necessary and take necessary steps and
procedures to absorb them into the present setup
• Conduct training and development activities- He may use his
experience and past knowledge in training.
• Motivate his subordinates and give leadership- He can use some of the
detail I have provided n section 3 of the essay for this step.
• Performance evaluation – He may follow his methods or industry
standards to deliver this task,

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3. Leadership and Motivation

Leadership and motivation are significant strategic decisions

in sales management and sales force productivity
improvement. To provide effective leadership and
motivation, the company must make sure the right candidate
is employed and the right incentive provided to him to
discharge his duties productively.

It is important, apart from checking managerial skills, it is crucial to

investigate the following characteristics of the candidate as well.

• Self-Confidence- Candidates must possess high self-confidence to

believe in themselves.
• Initiative: The candidate should be independent and a self-starter who
takes initiative on his own, keeping in line with the overall business
plan.
• Energy: Since the sales target is high, it is important to have a leader
with a high energy level
• Creativity: Candidates need to be creative and imaginative
• Maturity: This trait is very important considering the growth of the
business and the people

3.1 Leadership approaches

There are two types of leadership approaches.

• Transactional leadership

Transactional leadership, also known as managerial leadership, is a

leadership style where leaders rely on rewards (promotions, bonuses, paid
vacation) and punishments (demotions, improvement programs ) to
achieve optimal job performance from their subordinates.
(https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/transactional-leadership)
ref-1

Max Weber was the first person to describe the idea of transactional
leadership. This type of management was born during the Industrial
Revolution as a source of competitive advantage. This type of leadership is

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effective in crises and emergencies, as well as for projects that need to be

carried out in a specific way.

Transactional leaders can keep followers motivated for the short term;
therefore, this approach may not be effective in many of the present-day
business contexts due to many other factors focused on encouraging
subordinates to discharge their duties and deliver optimum results than only
supervising, organizing and performing. Another shortcoming of this kind
of leader is that they are less interested in progressing their worker’s talents,
which I believe is a very important factor in the present-day approach to
business.

• Transformational leadership.

Transformational leadership is a leadership style in which leaders

encourage, inspire and motivate employees to innovate and create
change that will help grow and shape the future success of the company.
(https://www.cio.com/article/228465/what-is-transformational-leadership-a-
model-for-motivating-innovation.html ) ref-2

Unlike transactional leadership, transformational leadership closely works

with teams beyond their immediate self-interests to identify needed change,
creating a vision to guide the change through influence, inspiration, and
executing the change in tandem with committed members of a group.

In addition to the above advantages, there are also a couple of major

shortcomings of this type of leadership. First would be a lack of focus on
essential tasks where even though all members of the sales work towards
a common goal, some of the members may not know the exact measure of
the work and tasks they need to carry out to meet the goal can lead to
internal confusion and decrease productivity.
Another shortcoming would be that this type of leadership can create
favouritism. Transformational leaders spend time with their team members
helping them develop their professional skills and abilities, which may lead
to favouritism. Some leaders may give extra focus to employees that are
more integral to certain projects, leaving others feeling left out or ignored.
This can lead to uneven staff development and once again internal conflicts.

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3.2 Best to be used

In achieving the sales target of Mitter in the next 12

months, the sales force has to be organized properly
through the right leadership. Since it is a new market
segment, the team at Mitter must perform exceptionally
beyond their perceived capability. This calls for sales
team motivation, autonomy over specific jobs, as well as
the authority to make decisions once they have been
trained as it will enable quick recognition and establishment of Mitter
in the new market segment. Also, leadership must carry out rewards
and punishment according to the outcome of the sales force activities
and targeted achievements. Therefore, I recognize what Mitter needs
is situational leadership where he can tailor his leadership style either
transformational or transactional, to the need of the current situation
and the individual salesperson.

3.3 Sales Motivation techniques

Motivation is the driving force within individuals that compels them to

act.

There are two types of motivation techniques. First, would be the

extrinsic type which refers to the behaviour of individuals to perform
tasks and learn a new skill because of external rewards or avoid
punishment. The second would be intrinsic motivation where
individual performance is not for external rewards but individual
pleasure.

Before introducing motivational schemes, the sales manager needs

to understand the motivational forces of the sales team as it would
be the only way to bring the right motivational strategies to the
organization.

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3.2 Techniques to be used to reach goals

I suggest the following motivational techniques be used at Mitter.

o The first action would be to build trust with the people on your
team.- This would be an easy case with the pre-sales executives
because they may not have had the freedom to express their
opinions, especially when working directly with the CEO.
o According to certain chats with the presale teams, they had not
been out even on a trip with the rest of the organization for a very
long time. I suggest organizing a trip to enhance the synergy
between the team’s new team members and the old staff. This
can result in them taking greater ownership of their work, resulting
improves results overall.
o Since Sales have been going down, no incentives have been
offered to the presales. I suggest introducing a commission and
reward schema for achieving sales targets and certain project
milestones.
o As observed, the overall organization structure is flat, where there
is nothing much for carrier growth. So, it is important to note that
salespeople with intrinsic motivation may tend to leave in a short
period. Therefore, efforts must be put in to tie them for a longer
period with reward schemes that would increase belongingness
and pride in working at Mitter.
o Another suggestion would be to send a motivational email.
Reminding them of their good efforts for the organization and how
much the sales manager together with the organization
considered their value.
o Carry our performance sales performance evaluation as it will
help the management to keep the staff on track with the sales
objective.

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4 Conclusion

In conclusion, the sales target of a 20% sales increment is an immense task

and without changing the sales structure at Mitter, it is impossible to achieve
it. The first change I suggest is to get an experienced sales manager who
will adjust to the situation and adopt his leadership style to achieve the best
out of the sales team. The second is to get at least 2 more salespersons
who have experience in the field. And they would make an ideal blend
together with the present pre-sales staff. Also, the sales manager should
be a good motivator who can use some of the described motivational
techniques to deliver his task in line with the company target.

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