Caselet 2: Good, Good Enough, or Not Good Enough? Bob Sullivan works for Transcontinental Imaging Company (TIC) as a regional sales representative covering a five-county area. He has become...


Caselet 2: Good, Good Enough, or Not Good Enough?


Bob Sullivan works for Transcontinental Imaging Company (TIC) as a regional sales representative covering a five-county area. He has become disappointed with his position within the company because he feels he is not getting the help he needs to be successful. Specifically, he feels the sales training given by TIC is not targeting his needs. TIC is a large multinational company specializing in personal digital imaging software applications. Its customer base ranges from small individual retail store owners to large franchised photo finishing operations like Motophoto. TIC has over 1,500 commissioned sales representatives throughout the world. The average sales representative stays with TIC for four years. TIC uses multiple methods to deliver its training, including the Internet, lectures during regional sales meetings, and infrequent regional seminars put on by outside sales consultants. The training is broken down into the following areas:


Professional Development—Building sales skills Work Group Training—Understanding the business unit you work in Systems and Software Training—Understanding the tools to perform your job Compliance Training—Focusing on ethics.


As Bob sees it, TIC’s existing training program has not been focusing on individual strengths and weaknesses. Bob expressed a need for additional training during his annual performance review, but nothing has happened. He has had three different sales managers in the past year and feels neglected. Each sales manager handles 40 to 50 salespeople. Bob keeps posting average sales numbers based on his existing customer relationships (most of which were given to him when he took over his territory three years ago), but he has difficulty penetrating new accounts. His entire pay structure is based on a commission percentage of his sales, and no benefits are offered by the company. Bob called TIC’s corporate office and expressed his concerns to Claire Boston, the corporate sales training supervisor. Her advice for him was to read some books on salesmanship and to work with his direct supervisor on any specific training needs he may have. Fed up with the lack of attention and answers, Bob decided to resign and look for another job.


Questions


 1. What potential areas of weakness can you identify in TIC’s approach to sales training?


 2. Do you believe that TIC’s sales training is appropriate for its type of business and the number of salespeople it has?


 3. Did Bob Sullivan do the right thing in resigning? What other steps could he have taken to improve his current situation?


4. In this case, who should take responsibility for a salesperson who needs help to perform at a higher level? What do you think of Claire Boston’s advice to Bob? What would you have said?

May 04, 2022
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