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HP - Overhauling A Vast Corporate Sales Force
HP - Overhauling A Vast Corporate Sales Force
Overhauling a Vast
Corporate Sales Force
Imagine this scenario: You need
a new digital camera. Youre not sure
which one to buy or even what
features you need. So you visit your
nearest electronics superstore to
talk with a salesperson. You walk
through the camera section but
cant find anyone to help you. When
you finally find a salesperson, he
yawns and tells you that hes
responsible for selling all the
products in the store, so he doesnt
really know all that much about
cameras. Then he reads some
information from the box of one of
the models that you ask about, as if
he is telling something that you
cant figure out for yourself. He then
suggests that you should talk to
someone else. You finally find a
camera-savvy
salesperson.
However, after answering a few
questions, she disappears to handle
some other task, handing you off to
someone
new.
And
the
new
salesperson seems to contradict
what the first salesperson said, even
quoting different prices on a couple
of models you like.
That imaginary situation may
actually have happened to you. If so,
then you can understand what many
business
buyers
face
when
attempting to buy from a large
corporate supplier. This was the case
with
business
customers of technology giant
Hewlett-Packard before Mark Hurd
took over as HPs CEO a few years
ago. Prior to Hurd assuming
command, HPs revenues and profits
had flattened, and its stock price
had plummeted. To find out why,
Hurd first
talked directly with 400 corporate
customers. Mostly what he heard
were gripes about HPs corporate
sales force.
Customers complained that
they had to deal with too many
salespeople, and HPs confusing
management layers made it hard to
figure out whom to call. They had
trouble tracking down HP sales
representatives. And once found, the
reps often came across as apathetic,
leaving the customer to take the
initiative. HP reps were responsible
for a broad range of complex
products, so they sometimes lacked
the needed depth of knowledge on
any subset of them. Customers
grumbled that they received varying
price quotes from different sales
reps, and it often took weeks for
reps to respond to seemingly simple
requests. In all, HPs corporate
customers were frustrated, not a
Reference:
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2012). Personal Selling and Sales
Promotion. In Principles of Marketing (14th ed., pp. 491-493). New
Jersey: Prentice Hall.