Case Summary:
The central issue Sealed Air Taiwan is currently facing is how to determine if the newly hired, Paul Huang, can produce the necessary sales results and whether he fits the mold for his position as sales manager. Historically, Sealed Air Taiwan was struggling with both stagnant sales and high operating costs. The branch was not adapting well to the Sealed Air’s established business model and there were even talks of shutting the branch down. Bob Kayser was brought in to turn things around and quickly realized that the problem this branch was facing was a cultural divide between Taiwanese beliefs and the current United States business model. After training and extensive work improving the sales team, Kayser was
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There are, however, legitimate concerns if Huang’s personality and management style will fit the Sealed Air mold of what a sales manager needs to accomplish. Huang seems very data and numbers driven, while Sealed Air was really looking for someone who could spend their time in the field managing the representatives rather than analyzing data. Although some of Steinke’s issues with Huang seem to be mere cross-cultural misunderstandings there does seem to be disconnected between Huang’s personal strengths and the desired expectations as a sales manager.
Recommendations:
It is our recommendation to remain with Huang and keep him in his current role as sales manager. The first reason for this recommendation is that in the past Sealed Air and Kayser have made the mistake of trying to solve the problems in Taiwan with American solutions. Steinke’s problems with Huang are primarily based on what is expected from an American sales manager. He is not taking into consideration that Taiwanese employees are motivated by different types of leaders and respond to different types of management styles. Kayser, for example, was only successful when he gave up the idea of employee empowerment and realized that these employees preferred to be given specific instructions.
Huang is also an appropriate fit for this role because he understands Chinese culture. He has already been successful in a Chinese sales environment
Lydell brings fifteen years of sales and sales management experience to the team, and the executives have tasked him with increasing the sales force productivity and name recognition throughout the three-market area by using the newest technology brought to the company the electron beam tomography scanner. Obviously, bringing a new person on board comes with challenges; however, I believe hiring a sales manager will be a huge asset to the organization. Lydell spent his first month with the company spending time with the sales representatives, he spent a day with each of them making sales calls and trying to understand why the productivity was low. Upon reaching the sixth representative, Cindy Minnis, he already had a clear idea of how to increase productivity by the answers given to him when he asked his sales representatives about their workday, and Cindy’s answers were no different from the rest of the employees. Some of the issues that Lydell could conclude about his team by the answers to the questions he asked were poor time management skills, no training, lack of communication or feedback, and not a clear territory for each
Upon learning that most advertising agencies required prior sales experience, he moved to Chicago to accept a job offer with Northwest Airlines as a salesman. During this job, he would report to his designated field office and learn from his supervisor where he would be working that day. His primary task was selling “flight-perk cards” to various businesses for $400. Since this was his first job, most of his communication was in the form of face-to-face interactions with potential buyers. The job security was relatively low considering that there were many other salesmen doing the same work.
It seems clear from the preceding discussion that, although definitely a factor, personality and physical appearance and abilities alone did not adequately account for Mr. Spencer’s success in his role as a salesperson. It seems his dedication and apparent drive to excel, as witnessed by his willingness to sacrifice family relationships, was perhaps a greater factor. There is also some evidence of a motivational and training element within the Tri-American Corporation, as evidenced by the annual company sales conferences, feeding into the findings by Churchill et al. (1985) that influenceable factors had a greater effect on salesperson performance. Finally, one cannot discount the presence of sheer luck in contributing to Mr. Spencer’s success, especially early on in his first year.
A salesperson’s career depends largely on the respect that others have for him. Without respect, Willie cannot sell himself to his family, friends, or clients. Willie understands this, and takes pride in the positive reputation he thinks he has with buyers across the country. In this way, Biff is a client of Willie’s, who purchases the wisdom that his father has to offer.
Leary isolated Chung from the beginning by having him solely manage the Taiwanese market. Instead, Leary should have involved other employees to work on a team with Chung to help develop new business with the Taiwanese market. By building team collaboration, Leary would have helped Chung assimilate into the organization’s culture and feel a part of the team.
The first problem develops when JPF considers the issue of sales force size. Bob Powell notes in the case that he doesn’t believe that a SVP can develop effective relationships with more than 30 IMOs. This suggests a workload approach to growing the sales force. However, the decision to compensate SVPs on the basis of 100 percent commission based on sales in their territories means that the SVPs are reluctant to see “their” territories subdivided. It is human nature to want to keep as much of
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.
The Sealed Air corporation is committed to market leadership through technological innovation. Ten years ago, the company was first to market with a highly successful coated air-bubble packaging protection product, AirCap. However, market trends indicate a rapid displacement of coated bubble by a technologically inferior yet inexpensive uncoated product. Burgeoning demand for uncoated bubble poses a direct threat to the long-term viability of the technologically superior, premium priced AirCap.
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.
of the key issues result from John’s inability to comprehend the difference between sales representative and a sales manager. He was overly enthusiastic about his position and disregarded Phil Jackson’s tips on how to be successful as a sales manager. Sales managers must be multi-taskers who plan, organize and lead the functions of all customer contact and ensures that these methods of contact maximize the profit and sales goals of the company which hires them. A salesperson is responsible only for his/her own territory – a sales manager is responsible for the entire sales force and their productivity and revenue that
Wang organized the senior executives to make an impromptu visit to the head office to express their dissatisfaction with Chu to Cheng. After Cheng met with Liu and Dai of the executive group he was sure that he would have to fire Chu from the GM role. He called her in to go over the problems brought in by the executives under her. Chu explained that she was making headway and first-line employees were realizing the benefits of her approach. However, she would need 3 more months to get the executives on board with her approach. She felt certain the facts would convince them and that she would sit down and discuss this with the executive team if he would give her the extra few months.
One major problem was the resignation of one of the company’s top salesmen who had the most difficult territory (9963), effective at the end of the year. If he shifts one of the more experiences salesmen into that area, it would disrupt service in an additional territory, which was undesirable because it took several months for a salesman to build up a good rapport with customers. This decision would affect the
Assessing the pre-existing organization – Describe the strengths and weakness of the C&B Brokerage division prior to the two changes explained in the case. • The interactions of the New York Office with the regional sales teams • Whether there are misalignments in incentives between these functions. – Salespeople aim to maximize dollar value of sales (hence commission) while product managers aim to maximize profit of sales (overall firm objective as well). – How important is the regional sales manager to the success of the regional office?
Jim Shine’s business model was excellent as per the business’s requirement. He took up the opportunity of Chinese products having very low cost and a high margin of profit. The 80-20 profit model was formed where only 20 percent of the products sold had a 80 percent profit margin. His business model was designed with excellence with a vision very well stated. Jim Shine had his business running with a sales force for a distribution channel. He believed his sales commission structure was well to do till one of his employees Nicole Landis maximized her sales productivity and cracks started being visible in Jim’s commission structure. It was seen, while making the structure Jim put up lucrative commission percentages on high quantity of products sold as he never thought any employee would outperform those sales targets. Jim Shine never realized a sales manager’s role stands very effective if there is an unbalance in the sales force. He found Nicole’s extravagant performance very superb as
This term paper exercise is designed to have you study the specific sales practices of a company