sales management homework
Group 9:
May 8, 2017
Phase 2: Sales Interview Summary
Industry analysis (Size, Competition, key players)
Business insight global lists MarketSource as a management consulting agency. Information about this industry includes:
Size: Competitive growth since 2010, and a 223 billion dollar industry currently. Highly competitive industry with around 700,00 management consulting agencies worldwide (IBIS 2016)
Competition: Though, only 19.3% of these are focused on marketing and sales, like MarketSource.
Key players: Accenture (with 3.4% market share) and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (2.9%). Approx. 93% of the remaining market share is split between smaller companies than the two listed. (Highly saturated market)
HP is the largest customer. T-mobile is also an important customer for MarketSource..
Macro Environment (Trends and drivers)
Management and marketing consulting is considered to be at the Mature lifecycle stage. Growth in this industry relies on the economy overall doing well. There has been growth in this industry for the past 5 years due to increases in digital technology changing the way business is done. More companies are hiring advisors and consultants in an attempt to keep up.
Company analysis (Profile, performance, marketing)
Profile: The company offers customized outsourced sales support, training, and recruiting, as well as various marketing services. Offering business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales expertise, the company serves clients in the information technology, automotive, consumer electronics, and telecommunications industries. Market Source’s marketing services, including merchandising, market research and analysis, lead generation, and brand strategy, are intended to improve clients' sales processes.
Performance:
Improved customer retention exceeding 90%, generating $18M in additional revenue.
By optimizing coverage and resources, we were able to increase sales by 150% over the previous six weeks.
Our client experienced a 30% increase in the category sell-through in the first six months. (Improving the sales, 2017)
Marketing: MarketSource marketing services, including merchandising, market research and analysis, lead generation, and brand strategy, are intended to improve clients' sales processes.
Sales strategy (organization, sales process, staff/training)
Organization: The MarketSource has the regional sales managers, and above him, there’s a national sales manager, and right above her, there’s a program director that works for HP, and above him, there’s another director that oversees 3rd party programs within MarketSource.
Sales Process: The relationships the brand repres make with their clients (Frys, Best Buy, Staples, etc) are what give MarketSource a competitive edge. Reps start by asking discovery questions to find out what the customer is looking for and then are able to direct them to the best product for their needs.
Staff/Training: Training is done often in the slower season after the holidays. management continuously goes through new training modules. Staff is often brought on through recruitment.
Sales operations (compensation, territories, quotas)
Compensation: Sales Associate $23728/year; Technology $37466/year; Retail Merchandiser $24465/year
Territories: There are separate territories for each sales manager (the one we interviewed is in charge of sales reps in 3 different states).
Quotas: Quotas to be met every quarter and other goals such as ink attachments to printers sold.
Sales Management (leadership, forecasts, evaluation)
Forecasts: MarketSource put 35% on their forecasting. They are viewing reports from every store, and comparing with previous years and quarters in order to meet metrics.
Leadership: Depends on the leaders. Team do have specific position. Different team leader has different leadership types.
Evaluation: Sales manager systematic approach to evaluating salespeople. It is to make sure salespeople rated and meet specific goals and metrics.
Secondary Research Conducted
The homepage of MarketSource
Business Insight: Global
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
Preliminary findings
Market Source’s training modules leave something to be desired. Training takes a long time, and one of the interviewees does not think the current training program is as effective as it could be.
Next steps
Looking closer at MarketSource training methods/materials.
Client interview results
Sales Manager:
What are our competitors? Strengths and Weaknesses?
Epson, Brother, Canon, biggest is between epson and canon, and they compete with products that we have. But it’s not as good as our platforms. We’re in store, brand representatives, we are there representing HP, and other competitors do the same thing, but our people are in more stores, more of the time. It gives us more of a competitive edge. This is a big company and we’re 3rd party vendor, there are a lot of players that take care of recruiting. Relationships are the most competitive edge.
What markets are we serving?
Fry's, Microcenter, Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples.
How do your customers make buying decisions and what is the sales cycle like?
People are usually looking for bargains, and we teach our reps to ask discovery questions, and make sure they’re getting what they need. At the beginning of the year, it’s pretty slow, we’ve just come out of holiday, and we’ll put out new items. We’ll go into a low over the summer, and back to school is usually when it picks up and is more busy, and back into.
Are the quotas fair to the sales reps throughout the year with the seasonality?
It’s fair because it’s always based on volume of hardware sold, because it’s based on sales volume. Which uses a ratio to do the calculations versus specific quantities.
Is there any specific training time in MarketSource?
Training metrics are different because in the busy season, there’s no time to train, but during the slower times we do have more opportunities to sell.
How fair are the metrics and quotas that MarketSource expect?
As a company, all metrics are fair and designed to be consistent. When you have different leaders putting out different quotas, that’s where the issue arises, but as a company it’s consistent.
Does MarketSource have any quotas?
Company has quotas, and it needs to be hit every quarter and the company has goals for instant ink objectives.
What does the vertical management look like?
The company that I work for is called MarketSource, but has a regional sales manager, and above him, there’s a national sales manager, and right above her, there’s a program director that works for HP that works for HP, and above him, there’s another director that oversees 3rd party programs within MarketSource.
Are there good communications and relations between sales and marketing?
Yes
Are there sufficient resources for you and your reps to be able to do their jobs?
Most of the time there’s sufficient resources to accomplish our objectives. But they’re expectations continue to rise with the same amount of resources.
How organized is scheduling at your firm?
Less people need to be on the scheduling side of things.
Do we have a high level sales executive to direct the sales management efforts?
Yes
Is the organization structure(span of control) effective?
Yes
How effective are our management recruitment and selection efforts?
It depends on the manager and the teams.
Do you bring in new managers, do they need additional trainings?
Yes, there’s always additional trainings to do.
Do we have adequate source from which to recruit?
Yes
What is our turnover rate and what are we doing to change it?
Yes
Do we use a battery of psychological tests in our selection process?
Yes
What is the biggest client for MarketSource?
MarketSource works with HP as a client.
What is the territory that the DSM covers in this region?
It’s organized by territory (3 states, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska)
How many salespeople do we have? How to size it?
16 salespeople, needs more coverage. But the coverage is adequate for what is required during the slow visits, however, during the busy season, it’s going to be not adequate because there’s too many require events to do.
Do you think you are sufficiently staffed? Why don’t you hire more people?
It would be easier if sales cycle wouldn’t change so much. There’s a situation where sales reps will not have hours if too many are hired.
What do you do during an interview? Is it important to tell them about what the job actually entails?
When I interview people I try to talk them out of the job. This is because we need reps that know what they’re getting themselves into because the job isn’t easy.
What is the most important part of the interview process for new hires?
This position is all remote so it’s important to ask questions, and visualize what the reps can do based on a single phone call. When the interview is done and we’re not convinced they fit in the company, we’ll move on to the next.
Do you have high turnover rate? If you did in the past, how did you lower it?
Being more selective lowered the turnover rate. Get really friendly with recruiters.
How long does it typically take for a new rep to start?
Ramp time can be as fast as 4 days, as long as a month, it depends on the person. Average would be around a month. From start to finish.
Do you think the pay is fair for both management and employees?
Pay is fair.
Is our salesforce moral high?
Salespeople have high morale.
How do you use forecasting?
Forecasting: viewing reports from every store, and comparing with previous years and quarters in order to meet metrics.
What are some seasons where you and your team focus on the most?
Black friday + holidays are seasons to focus on sales in order to meet forecasted.
What kind of training methods you prefer? Do online trainings work?
Role play is something that’s believed in. Online trainings can’t fulfill everything.
Do you use budgeting within the company? Is it fixed?
We use budgeting to ensure that budgets are maintained because they’re fixed. It’s fixed but a little flexible.
Systematic approach to evaluating salespeople?
Managers do it to make sure they’re rated and meet specific goals and metrics.
Challenges of being remote?
Making sure the people are actually working and people are doing what they were suppose to be doing.
Perks of being remote?
Not seeing everyone everyday. Not glued to the desk.
Sales Representative:
What different markets are you involved with?
Customer care, technology and retailing.
Sales strategy?
Hit and miss on personality,
How are the trainings at MarketSource?
The trainings are targeted towards a type of people.
Do you learn most the stuff on the job?
Yes, after you become more confident, you learn a lot faster and become
How do customers feel about MarketSource and the sales reps?
Depending on how knowledgeable customers are, they may or may not be excited to see them.
How are management practices?
Ethical as well as reasonable with requests.
Will all the customers feel satisfied with sales reps’ service?
Some customers complain to brand reps when they see them when they only focus on sales.
How many percentage will MarketSource spend on forecasting?
35% attach rate is forecasted, and the forecasting is off because.
How are recruitment practices?
It’s great and people should be more aware of job requirements as well as
Who are the rivals?
Microsoft rep and windows reps rival HP, it's sold but store reps sell them on something else.
How often do you experience poaching?
Very prevalent. Eat or be eaten.
Compare of manager and Leader, which role will you choose?
Leader because it’ll be more effective to the masses especially the HP team.
When facing some employees that do not reach the requirements of job description, you will choose coaching or firing?
Used to think it’s easier to can than to coach. A good leader will build up the team.
Bibliography
Improving the sales funnel starts with MarketSource. (n.d.). Retrieved May 09, 2017, from http://www.marketsource.com/
