Managerial Style Analysis - Case Study Example

Managerial Style Analysis Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code and Name: University: Date of Submission: Managerial Style Analysis Introduction Management may be described as a role in an organization that involves planning, organizing, motivating and leading, as well as controlling (Adizes 2004, p. 23). Having worked for XY beauty Products Company as a sales manager for three years, had exposed me to several and diverse experiences. Some of the experiences were great and are still fresh in my mind. However, there are other instances that were really challenging. A case in point is when a competitor firm drastically dropped the prices for it products. Our company was going through some hard financial times, and we could not afford to engage in a price war. This meant that even my customers had to take a flight, and purchase from the firm that had over the years threatened to out-market us. The sales team that I supervised started recording poor performance. They could not hit their monthly targets. This exposed me to a lot of pressure from the chief executive of the company. He argued that performance in terms of sales targets was mandatory for me to keep my job as the sales manager. At one point, I did not know what to do. I felt like I was incompetent, and I was beginning to lose hope. This was unique. Previously, I did not react to situations like that. Even if I got scared sometimes, my confidence could always bounce back. Probably, it was the feeling that the entire company which had over the years ridden on the sales team, was looking up to me. One morning, the chief executive officer called me in his office and indicated that, the only alternative the company was left with was to turn around it sales, irrespective of the market competition. The chief executive officer got very candid with me, and told me that the company was facing a closure if the sales took a nose dive. This is when I decided that I had to do something to help salvage the company. Although it was hard, it had its positive side. If I could only manage to turn around the sales, irrespective of the stiff market competition, I would earn credit, and even be recommended for promotion. In my mind, I knew it had to start with me. This is considering the fact that for a manager to be successful, he has to identify correctly his roles, and develop management skills. I also had to develop confidence (Rees & Porter 2008, p. 88). I planned to motivate the sales team, and show them how possible it was for us to turn around the sales. In doing this, I was planning to hold a series of refresher training for the sales team. This would sharpen their prospecting, negotiation, presentation, and closing skills. In addition, I was planning to have a performance review meeting for my sales team every morning. In these meetings, I was planning to make sales people explain their daily targets, give projections, and explain how they would attain the same. In addition, I was planning to change the whole style of selling. This is was probably my last card. I knew if this failed, I was out of the company, and the company would go down, as well. This was about selling solutions instead of selling products. I advocated for selling benefits of a product, and not its features. The essence behind this strategy was purely an attempt to shift clients focus from the price element of a product, and draw them to non price elements. Non price elements are those related to quality and design of a product (Lewis 1999, p. 141). I had so much faith in this last strategy, that I started accompanying the sales team members to the field, just to find out how they were fairing with it. In all these strategies, there were a number of assumptions that I made. For one, I assumed that the sales team would cooperate with me as I tried to implement my strategies. I also assumed that the management would provide facilitation for the sales team, in terms of telephone costs and transport allowances. As I moved on to implement my strategies, I opened the door for more suggestions from team members. This was in accordance with the democratic management style. This is a style that allows for direct participation in decision-making by the employees and subordinates (managerial skills.org 2012). I planned for training sessions that were thorough, and focused on giving the sales team an impetus. This involved skills on how to make cold calls and generate leads. The sales training was also aimed at helping the sales team to overcome objections from the clients. Another key issue that I had included in the training program was how to close sales. As a manager, I had several roles in the training program me. One of my roles was to source for a sales consultant, who gave my sales team a five days training. At the end of the training session, the mood in my sales team was different. Even the ones who had lost hope, started to exude confidence, and I was really glad that at least I had achieved the first bit of letting the sales know that success was possible. The other thing I successfully implemented was the performance reviews. These reviews were daily, and held in the morning. One of the things I pursued most in the review meetings was not to pressurize the sales team, but rather to help them discover their potentials, as well as boost their confidence, even in front of rude customers. This is because; the strongest influence on one’s life is the view one holds for himself (Bolton & Bolton 1984, p. 4). In the morning reviews, I ensured that everyone promised figures that he would deliver during the day. Then the following day, I would make them explain why they had not met their numbers. This was a bit tough, and it required me to be strict with them. One of the sales team members was unable to cope with the review meetings and resigned. This meant that I had to get his replacement. All through training and review meetings, I had started encouraging my sales team to draw the clients to the products’ benefits, rather than the features. I was insisting on identifying the customers’ needs and linking our product benefits to those needs. This is because; customers purchase products for no other reasons, but to satisfy their needs. Product features may be described as the physical attributes of a product, while the benefits are psychological and emotional considerations (Patrick 1997, p. 47). After implementing my three strategies, the sales team started recording a good performance all over again. There was an upward trend in the sales volume. This was a massive achievement for me. Starting to hit the targets all over again in the midst of stiff competition, was a great feeling for me. In terms of how others responded, there was a general feeling that I had managed to deliver the numbers all over again. Although some of the sales team members were complaining of pressure, majority of them started thanking me for putting their carriers on the path all over again. I felt I had done well by employing the democratic management style, which allows participation of the sales team members. This experience differed from the previous similar ones in a number of ways. To start with, the company did not have adequate money to hire extra sales team apart from replacing the ones who could not cope. This meant that I was working within some conditions that I had no influence over. The other reason as to why this experience was different is because, at some point, I was forced to use autocratic leadership style. This is the style that is mostly used with low capability styles. It is also a highly directive style that sometimes is not keen on building relationships (Lussier 2011, p. 37). However, there were similarities between this experience and some others I had experienced before. The similarity was that, in all experiences, I had to deal with turning around a desperate situation. In addition, in all situations, it involved rigorous management of people and trying to align them to goals, as well as mission of the company. What could I have done differently in this experience? Probably it is the preparing of my team members of what I was preparing to take them through. To date, I feel I did not prepare adequately my sales team of the fact that; it was going to be rigorous to overturn the situation. What was stopping me is probably the fear that some of them would freak out. In the future, I would like to practice a laissez faire management style. This is a style that will enable me not be so hard on some of my juniors, but still get results (Frame 2003, p. 73). I would also like to consult more because, in that experience, I did not consult a lot. As a result, all the strategies I was struggling with were mine. I will also seek to consult my seniors for their input and contributions. Although I turned around the situation, I still believe it would have been much easier if I reached out for the guidance of my seniors. In future, I will also plan well to ensure that I do not have some loopholes in the sales cycle. In addition, I would like to employ the collaborative management style that emphasizes on strong working relationships among departments (Solomon & Jacobs 2003, p. 6). Probably, this would have helped to include other departments in the recovery process. For example, I would have asked the employees in other departments to provide the sales team with referrals. What I need to develop myself into a better manager is to read further, and develop my managerial roles. These are roles relating to decision making, as well as interpersonal and informational roles. Decision roles involve making decisions regarding the best options to adopt in every situation (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor 2009, p. 178). If I can become good in decision making, then I can be in a position to make far reaching decisions. In conclusion, the experience at XY beauty Products Company gave me an experience rich in insights and challenges. The experience involved in a sharp decline in sales revenue that was caused by a competitor’s decrease of prices. This was an experience that required, moving to non price elements of a product since our company was not in a position to reduce the prices. This was due to hard economic times our company was going through. Among the strategies, I employed included planning and organizing for a training program for my sales team. Although I did not consult much on the sales training, it delivered excellent results. In addition to that, I started having daily performance review with my sales team. This enabled me to bring the best out of them, although one of them dropped from the team. Apart from that, I changed the way of selling, where much more emphasis was put on the benefits of a product, other than the features of a product. In the end, I delivered excellent results all over again. Everyone was happy in the company including the sales team, whom had worked really hard to overturn the situation. In future I would like to consult more, and try to balance between democratic and autocratic management styles. As for my personal development as a manager, I would like to study more and keep an open mind in management, as well as develop managerial roles towards becoming a better manager. List of References Adizes, I 2004, Management/Mismanagement Styles, The Adizes Institute Publishing, California. Bolton, R & Bolton, DG 1984, Social style/management style: developing productive work relationships, AMACOM Div American Mgmt. Assn., New York. Frame, JD 2003, Managing projects in organizations: how to make the best use of time, techniques, and people, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey. Lewis, BR 1999, The Blackwell encyclopedic dictionary of marketing, Volume 4, Wiley-Blackwell, New Jersey. Lussier, RN 2011, Management Fundamentals: Concepts, Applications, Skill Development. Cengage Learning, Connecticut. Managerial skills.org 2012, Exploring different management styles, Viewed 13th march 2012 . Patrick, J 1997, How to develop successful new products, McGraw-Hill Professional, New York. Pride, WM, Hughes, RJ & Kapoor, JR 2009, Business, Cengage Learning, Connecticut. Rees, WD & Porter, C 2008, The skills of management, Cengage Learning EMEA, Connecticut. Solomon, A & Jacobs, K 2003, Management Skills for the Occupational Therapy Assistant, SLACK Incorporated, New Jersey. Read More