Sales Management Practices at Shield Financial - Assignment Example

?Question Evaluate the senior sales management practices at Shield Financial, based on the case material. Also explain how those practices contributed to Doug Bloom’s problems as a sales manager. Do not evaluate the performance of Doug Bloom as a sales manager. From the case study, we can clearly get an understanding of the sales management practices at Shield Financial. Shield Financial is one of the oldest, recognized and well established insurance companies. The portfolio of the company is vast and satisfactory. In any service or industrial sector, no company can enjoy monopoly; competition always exists. Shield Financial has a major competitor named All-Safe which follows fairly good practices, and Shield Financial also designs and re-designs its products and sales practices in order to compete in a healthy manner. From the case, we have seen that Shield Financial has changed its direction a little in order to stay updated in the competition. Previously, it has always focused on small to medium accounts for generating income, but this time the goal is to target bigger accounts. Focusing on bigger accounts is a challenging task because the sales representatives and managers are quite used to dealing with the small and medium account holders. Shield Financial has named this new approach as the First Plus program. The management practices at Shield Financial are strictly result oriented. The senior managers want to achieve the outcomes of the goals they plan out for the company. In the result oriented approach, the management determines priorities and ensures that the employees have adequate resources available such as workforce, capacity and infrastructure. The employees, on the other hand, are given the authority to take personal responsibility for achieving the goals laid down by the senior management. They have to plan out their time, talent and knowledge so that they can deliver results as per the expectations of the management. In our given case, the CEO holds the philosophy that if the employees keep on adding numbers, everything else will take care of itself, meaning if the sales in figures keep coming in, everything will run smoothly. By following the result oriented approach, the management set out the goals for the sales managers to promote the First Plus program as a means to earn revenue. Managers including Doug Bloom find the task challenging because it is difficult to redirect the efforts of the sales staff to just one initiative, when they are already working hard on their previously set targets. Serving as a sales representative for over four years, Doug Bloom understands that the sales staff will not be happy with the job of taking hold of larger accounts because small accounts are easy to handle and have commission tied up with them too. Furthermore, sales representatives will show clear resentment when the new goal from the corporate would be presented to them. Some might even fail to adopt, and resign, so Doug will have to use management skills (such as motivation, encouragement, or non-monetary rewards) to achieve consent and results from his team. This might be a great problem for Doug who is new at the management position. Another thing that we concluded from the case was that when Doug was being given orientation training for sales manager, he was handed over huge piles of paper in the name of training manuals. Doug became really confused at the approach because it was practically not possible for any person to absorb all the rules, regulations and study material printed in those manuals. The case study also reveals that there is barely a culture of assisting the employees when they are going through issues of performance breakthrough and handling subordinates. When the senior management notices that the performance of any employee is going down, instead of offering him assistance, they send him strict warnings for improvement or firing. When Doug is unable to make the employees adapt to the new First Plus program and his performance falls down, he is given warnings from management and no practical help offer. Question 2: Evaluate Doug Bloom’s performance as a sales manager, based on the case material When Doug Bloom was selected as Sales Manager at Shield Financial, he was very excited about it. His perspective on sales manager was a person who directs the sales representatives on how to bring in sales volume, and enjoys authority and power. It was when he actually started working as a sales manager that he understood what it means to be a manager. From the case study we have seen that Doug Bloom’s performance as a manager has been good. He is not much liked by his sales team either. When Doug Bloom joined the new office, the only thing in his mind was to make all the sales representatives like the new idea of First Plus in the very first meeting. However, this was not the case. He forgot to keep in consideration the fact that change is never welcomed with open arms in any organization. Before actually implementing a change, the benefits associated with the change must be brought to the attention of the employees. Their doubts regarding the new change must be clarified and they must be communicated properly how they will be benefitted by becoming a part of the initiative. Once employee consent and approval is gained, change is followed through (Levasseur, 2010). Doug Bloom did not achieve the approval of the sales team regarding the new program, First Plus. Instead, he forced the First Plus program on them as a strong direction from the senior management. This did not please the employees at all and put them in a state of anger and confusion. The sales staff was already earning commission and contributing to the sales income through small to medium size accounts and they were unable to get convinced on the idea of targeting large accounts. Since Doug Bloom did not have the support and willingness from his sales team, it became difficult for him to promote the new program. In order to get an idea of the skills and performance level of his sales team, Doug carried out a one-to-one meeting with each member. The common concern from the team was regarding the First Plus program. Even the lowest performers had reasons that justified the program failure. Every member was upset because First Plus was ruining the efforts they had made on acquiring accounts and building strong customer relationships. Doug did not make any efforts on communicating to the sales staff on how they would benefit if the sales income of Shield Financial increased. Doug Bloom followed an action oriented approach while dealing with the sales reps, but not in the right manner. He just wanted everyone to put in their time, energy and efforts towards First Plus and forget their past exertions. For instance, he sent memos to all his staff to show sales reports with special attention to First Plus. Tiffany, one of the sales reps, did not present her report because she thought that maintaining her old accounts was more important. Others such as Bill Johnson were unhappy at the rescheduling of tasks, with more focus on First Plus as suggested by Doug. Doug Bloom did not realize that he had to set up a quota before actually beginning the implementation of the First Plus program. He noticed the need after receiving warning from the district head. Not only did Doug set up a quota but also thought of taking responsibility of the accounts himself. He took this step because he was confident of his sales rep skills and knew that he could handle larger accounts better than his subordinates. However, such an approach was not appreciated by his subordinates and filled them with anger and frustration. After one of the sales reps resigned, Doug immediately asked his old friend from All Safe to fill in the position; this action was seen as biased by the subordinates, but Doug was satisfied because he knew that his preferred rep would not disappoint him. Doug was constantly working under pressure and no matter how many hours he invested per week, he remained unable to find time to relax. Defining the quota approach provided Doug with some spare time to rethink the management strategy. Question 3: Explain what Bloom should have done differently after being promoted to the role of sales manager When Bloom was promoted to the role of sales manager, he was assigned the task of selling the new program titled First Plus. But for that he had to first let the sales reps understand the importance of the new program and how it would increase the income level of Shield Financial. When he communicated the details of First Plus to the team, his tone was not convincing at all. He tried to impose the new selling strategy on the team instead of gaining their approval. This angered the employees and they exhibited no interest for promoting First Plus. Doug Bloom did not take any steps to motivate his sales reps for working on the new sales initiative. Kalat (2011) defines motivation as something that not only activates but also directs the behavior. This could mean that motivation is what shapes up a behavior. If an employee is motivated, his efforts will be visible in the form of an outstanding result and the way he interacts with his colleagues. On the other hand, lack of motivation will lead to anger, frustration, depression and stress. Motivation is what makes us want one thing more than the other and this formulates the course of our efforts and direction. Doug did not motivate his sales representatives; instead, he just wanted to use his authority to get results, which was a wrong approach. And this probably is the reason why sales reps did not develop any likeness for their new manager, Doug. Doug’s orders failed to gain approval and consent from the team. Doug must have realized that a manager’s duty is to ensure that his subordinates are motivated because motivation has a significant role in the attainment of organizational goals. Doug Bloom should have offered non-monetary incentives to the employees in the form of recognition, pat on the back, words of appreciation and encouragement or a small get-together to celebrate the achievement of top performers (Yeshin, 2006). Non-monetary or intrinsic rewards motivate the employees psychologically and increase their level of self-esteem (Hurd, Barcelona and Meldrum, 2008). He could have pursued the top management for an increase in the commission and bonus for the larger accounts, as this could help enhance the motivation level of the sales team. Doug Bloom must have designed the work schedule for all the sales representatives after taking into consideration their concerns. Goal setting must be done after receiving consent and agreement from the employees (Schneier, Shaw, Beatty and Baird, 1995). He must have organized their schedule after a short face-to-face meeting with each of them so that any issues could be resolved and the importance of putting effort towards First Plus could be communicated. Question 4: Evaluate the personal selling practices at Shield Financial, based on reasonable inferences that can be made from the case material Shield Financial is one of well reputed insurance companies with a healthy portfolio. The sales representatives make the foundation for the sales income – the talent of sales managers further polishes it. Shield Financial follows the strategy of focusing on small to medium accounts for its profits. This is because acquiring small to medium accounts is not really difficult plus they also maintain a good trust relationship with the company. Also, the commissions offered by these customers account for the bread and butter of the sales representatives. When the sales representatives were presented with the new selling strategy of the company, i.e. targeting larger accounts, they were not really happy. This was because every member in the sales team was satisfied with the small accounts they were handling. They had built good customer relationships over time and were also content with the commissions and incentives associated with it. Shield Financial did not want to keep up with the small accounts it had been targeting, because competitors such as All Safe stood out by capturing large accounts. Shield Financial also wanted to increase its revenue generation by focusing on large accounts. References Hurd, A. R., Barcelona, R. J. and Meldrum, J. T. (2008). Leisure services management. Illinois: Human Kinetics, Inc., pp. 270–273. Kalat, J. W. (2011). Introduction to psychology. 9th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, pp. 12–15. Levasseur, R. E. (2010). People skills: ensuring project success – a change management perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 40 (2), pp. 159–162. Schneier, C. E., Shaw, D. G., Beatty, R. W. and Baird, L S. (1995). Performance, measurement, management, and appraisal sourcebook. Massachusetts: Human Resource Development Press, Inc., pp. 135–139. Yeshin, T. (2006). Sales promotion. London: Thomson Learning, pp. 158–160. Read More