I. Scenario: The case describes the condition at the Arapahoe Pharmaceutical Company and its sales management structure. In the case, the Arapahoe Pharmaceutical Company has encountered important changes in the management structure of the sales division which has concerned the operations of the company. The change was started in order to beat the sales challenges that the company had been facing in relation to the low volume of sales and a retiring sales management.
John Ziegler was the one who replaced the management of the sales operations for the Arapahoe Pharmaceutical Company. His selection was made to make use of his expertise and capability in the field, dedicate his talent in the business and also to express new and unique view point into the management of sales at Arapahoe Pharmaceutical Company. Yet, the company faced important problems after John Zeigler was selected. John Ziegler was not able to understand the difference between sales manager and a sales representative.
He felt too much excitement about his new position that he did not mind Phil Jackson’s tips on how to be a successful sales manager. A sales manager is the one responsible for the success and failure of an organization. He is the one who does the most critical role in reaching the sales targets and sooner or later creates revenue for the organization. A sales manager must be very clear about his role in the organization; he should be able to know what his role is about at the workplace.
While a salesperson must make sure that every customer receives a great service by providing a friendly environment which includes greeting and recognizing customer and maintaining a solid product understanding. So it means that a salesperson and a sales manager are two different positions that John Ziegler failed to understand and John Ziegler’s disorganization within the past year had been the critical downfall. II. Problem Statement: Overall, the problem was John Ziegler was not able to understand the difference between a sales manager and a sales representative.
He felt too much excitement about his new position that he did not mind Phil Jackson’s tips on how to be a successful sales manager. III. Alternative Solutions: 1. ) John Ziegler should pay attention to the wise advice from his colleagues. 2. ) John Ziegler should simply make a plan on how to be an effective sales manager. 3. ) John Ziegler should focus on the problem, not the person. IV. Discussion: Advantage of #1: Good listening skills can lead to greater productivity with fewer mistakes, increased sharing of information that can lead to better outcome.
John Ziegler will be able to make use of time effectively because John Ziegler wasted too much time coaching and drilling Larry Palmer when he should have just been spending time with his more productive sales representatives. Disadvantage of #1: Poor listening cause a lot of problems like misunderstandings, misconceptions, misinterpretations and misperceptions that will lead to a weak base of relationship between people in the organization. Advantage of #2: Planning on how to be an effective sales manager will serve as a guideline in making decision and in acting.
In the case of Jared Murphy, John Ziegler will be able to strengthen successes and positive efforts to support desirable behaviours; he can be able to lead by being an example and by representing a professional attitude. If Jared Murphy will feel like he is noticed and that he is important to the organization then there will be a possibility that his performance will improve. And then regarding Marty Nakai, he will be able to explain to him that he is doing all the good things but he will need to develop his patience and self-discipline skills more.
John Ziegler will be able to differentiate between the right amount of coaching time and when that person is not going to get better no matter how much coaching time he will put in so if his sales representative does not improve then he would know if it is time to let that person go. He will be able to tackle his problems with Marty Nakai up front as being a good leader; he will be able to give Marty Nakai a strong positive verbal feedback for his excellent performance. Disadvantage of #2: Planning can be time consuming especially during emergency or crisis when quick decisions are required.
Advantage of #3: In the case of Larry Palmer, he was the most promising applicant, he had a great personality but had difficulty obtaining the required product knowledge and his scientific communication skills were not very good and these were all the things that were not easy to tell from his interview so it is possible that it was not completely John Ziegler’s fault for hiring Larry Palmer. Fortunately, John Ziegler made up for his mistake by hiring Peggy Doyle who seems to be very productive and she is doing very well in her region.
John needs to find out on how to allocate his time in an even way because he spent too much time in the recruitment process for both Larry Palmer and Peggy Doyle when he should have been spending more of his time with his sales representative so John Ziegler will be able to reduce risks and uncertainties, of course, nothing is sure in this world and there is always a risk when you do something but again, with good planning, John Ziegler can reduce the chances of bad things to happen.
Disadvantage of #3: When focusing on the person and not on the problem, it will cause disagreement that will lead to name-calling and picking on each other’s personal traits. V. Evaluation/Implementation: * We are choosing alternative number 3 which is John Ziegler should focus on the problem, not the person. * The alternative we chose will be long term, John Ziegler should make sure that the salespeople are accountable for their results in the analytics computer program they have in place.
He should take the numbers into account and call each representatives into a meeting to discuss options to improve, creating realistic goals for each quarter and meeting those negative attitudes towards Dick McClure and Jared Murphy or Mary Nakai, is very important to the success of their district. Once John Ziegler is able to know each individuals traits, concerns, questions, comments, or even just each representative’s need for guidance in the field, he will then be able to understand on how to benefit from the strengths of each sales representatives and improve any weaknesses or disagreement in performance.
VI. Reality Check: We interviewed the assistant marketing of Centennial Guarantee Assurance Corporation last February 13, 2013 and we found out that they have the same strategic planning regarding the alternative solution that we chose for the Arapahoe Pharmaceutical Company case study. Centennial Guarantee Assurance Corporation is a domestic corporation organized and incorporated on December 15, 1961 under the original name of Fieldsmen’s Guaranty Company, Incorporated. Since its incorporation, three changes have been made on the company’s corporate name.
On January 24, 1963, it was changed to Eagle Guaranty Assurance Corporation, on January 3, 1976 to Filriters Guaranty Assurance Corporation and on October 26, 2000 to Centennial Guarantee Assurance Corporation. Centennial as a non-life insurance company carries the following product lines: Fire and Allied Perils, Motor Car, Accident and Health, Electronic Equipment, Medical Malpractice, Marine Hull, Marine Cargo, Merchandise Equipment/Equipment Floater, CAR/EAR and Bonds. Centennial is committed to: The creation of long term shareholder value, and profitable growth by practicing sound underwriting. * Development of well motivated employees * Development of wide range of products and service at reasonable cost * A fast and efficient claims handling and settlement procedure Today, with its authorized capital of P100 million and paid-up capital of P75 million, Centennial has 5 branches and more than 50 agents nationwide and continuously expanding to provide reliable and quality service to its policy holders.
