Marketing 412
Week 2
Case 3.2
Global Positioning Products
JoAnn Calderon
Kendra Clay
Ungenetta Green
Amber Morse
Heather Smith
Brenau University
Executive Summary
The following report analyzes whether or not Andy Chulrane, the national sales manager for Global Positioning Products (GPP) should propose a restructure of the current sales strategy to the CEO in an effort to lower the current cost of sales. There are many factors that need to be examined in order to determine whether or not there is a need for a restructure. Currently the cost of sales for GPP is running at seven percent and the target cost of sales is set at five percent. Despite Andy’s efforts to cut costs, he has been unable to achieve the
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Andy should present the historical data showing that the cost of sales has been steady at seven percent for the past several years in an effort to convince the CEO to revise the five percent target and set a new and more realistic target percentage. Andy should also present a restructure plan that allows some, or all of the following: key sales representatives to manage the larger retail accounts, implementing new technology such as the Cisco System to allow for more direct sales relationships with customers, offer a different commission structure to the sales team to include new membership incentives and lower commission splits on already established accounts, incorporate regular training opportunities for the sales representatives, redistrict the sales territories, consider lay-offs, use an online customer support medium within their website, and also offer an option for assistance in buying products through the web.
Should Andy request a revision of the 5 percent cost-of-sales target? If so, what sort of information would he need to convince his CEO?
Yes, Andy should request a revision of the 5 percent cost-of-sales target because numbers don’t lie. It is clear that the CEO is not aware of the cost of sales running at 7 percent and the effect it has had on the loss of certain team members. Andy should inform the CEO of the decrease in volume of sales when there is a departure of employees who play a
Chris should find ways the increase the revenue of the company without taking away from the
3. On the topic of capitalizing line costs, critique the rationale included in CEO Scott Sullivan's
Although the company did show an increased gross profit of $8,255,000 with $6,358,000 less Net Sales in 2013 versus 2012, that increase is due to the reduction in product Cost of Goods Sold by $14,613,000. Since increases in product price will negatively affect sales, one of management’s primary goals is to keep prices stable. This objective is achieved through implementation of cost cutting programs, investing in more efficient equipment, and automation of more steps in the production process.
1. Why are Houston Fearless 76, Inc. (HF76) managers unhappy with the company’s existing sales incentive plan? Are weaknesses in this plan a major cause of the company’s performance problems?
While it is true that Ms. Forthright had always exceeded her budgeted sales, the extent to which she diverts away from the managers projections does not necessarily means that she is violating honesty and integrity. Her decision on what her budgeted sales for the year is highly relevant to the data available to her. Her projections tends to lie between the field manager and the marketing manager’s predictions, which can be reasonable because in the past years, the field manager’s projections tend to be over what the actual sales of the year will be.
1. (TCO 5) In this digital age, setting up shop online is vital for most retail businesses. But having only an online presence that customers can access at home isn’t enough anymore. Now consumers have an array of smartphones and digital tablets that can get them online from anywhere. For social networks and retailers alike, the mobile market has already enjoyed tremendous growth. Given this information as a sales manager for Always Better Car Sales (ABCS), your concerns include which of the following? (Select all that apply.)
The board of directors met to discuss the possibility of changing our pricing and making a couple changes to the policies. The board decided to make the following changes:
A major issue is since reducing the price 20% reduces the profit margin to 15%, to maintain the same profit while reducing the price, the sales must be $28 million for this year. This is an increase of 233% in one year to justify reducing the price this much. This is a highly unlikely target.
The VP of Operations has suggested a 20% decrease in price to better compete with the mass merchants who are gaining a
The vice president of advertising suggested that we go another route, and that we neglect advertising and focus on sales price and volume. She suggests that we can achieve parity with our competitors if we cut prices by 20 percent.
Best Buy, a familiar retailer in the technology world, is struggling to stay on top. Online and mass stores have cornered the market in terms of convenience, customer service and price matching. The recent closing of over two hundred stores alongside falling sales has experts predicting that the giant won’t be in business long. Using a results-only work environment (ROWE), Best Buy has removed the customer from the equation and forced many employees out. A marketing disaster, Best Buy must change its marketing strategy from sales-based to a customer-based to stay afloat.
These transformative changes to the selling environment are ultimately forcing the salesperson to reengineer and rethink how they approach their business accounts. Failure in adapting to these changes can result in many adverse situations but ultimately revolves around ineffective team selling.
* any other issues you believe should be brought to the attention of the CEO and the board
Low sales numbers, fraudulent sales data, and improved employee communication methods were several big issues plaguing the organization and the HR Department. PAC 's reliance on one customer for the majority of sales leads to low sales as the company cut back on purchases. In light of these sales, PAC should work to increase marketing activities in its present markets while working towards expanding to new potential ones. This course of action benefits PAC as it collectively helps generate more contracts and a stronger customer base for sales.
After analyzing the results from the previous quarter, it was determined that the prices set for each segment were not sufficient. Product sales priority were also not properly adjusted. With the R&D investments, sales priorities needed to be changed for the main focus to become the most profitable market segments. Prices were not competitive which in turned decreased revenue, market share, and profitability. To become more competitive we altered the prices in each market segment. The Workhorse product was the first to change, the price was lowered to $2500 in an attempt to increase sales; at this price Team 4 was still making a profit on this product, as well as making the price much more competitive. The Workhorse sales priority was also lowered to 3rd in Americas and 4th in APAC and EMEA. This product was not selling as well as we had hoped, and was no longer as profitable as it once was which led to this decision. Next, the Innovator product’s price was adjusted; this involved a price increase to $4100. This price was adjusted to include the new