SALES MANAGEMENT

Case Analysis #02

School Suppliers, Inc.: Leading a Diverse Sales Force

School Suppliers, Inc. (SSI) is a national distributor of elementary and secondary school supplies.
The company has fifty salespeople located in eight regional offices throughout the United States.
The salespeople call on purchasing agents or principals at elementary and secondary schools in
their assigned regions. Primarily because of the increasing population in Florida, SSI’s
Southeastern region has led the company in sales and is projected to be the strongest region for
the next several years.

Howard Larsen, one of SSI’s top sales reps over the past several years, was recently promoted to
sales manager of the premier Southeastern region. Howard, age twenty-eight, was at first very
pleased and excited to be managing one of the most promising regions within the company.
After only four months as sales manager of this region, however, he began to question his ability
as a sales manager. Howard believes that he is having problems managing his salespeople.

Howard recently met with his close friend, John – who manages a large resort in the Orlando
area – to discuss his problems with the sales force. He gave John a brief rundown of the
situation: “Well, my problem concerns the way I’m leading my salespeople. Things seem to be
going fine with five of my seven people. Melissa and Jeff, who I just hired six months ago, are
going great. They are both young and eager to learn. Both have been progressing well, with
slight increases in sales volume over the last two months. They both have very little sales
experience, so they do make a few mistakes now and then. However, both will take constructive
criticism very well, as they continually want to improve their selling skills. Melissa and Jeff are
both about my age. Therefore, they relate to me very well. I have no problems with my two new
salespeople.

“Rhonda is perhaps one of my best salespeople. Everyone enjoys being around her. Rhonda can
give other reps a lift when they’re down. Her own sales performance is exceptional. Rhonda
regularly surpasses her quotas and actively seeks out new customers. Rhonda accepts my
leadership as if I were the VP of marketing. I wish all my salespeople were like Rhonda.

“Robert is also a fun salesperson to manage. He’s been out of college for only about two years.
He’s young and wants to do well in the company. Robert reminds me a lot of myself when I first
started with SSI. He is very competitive and readily accepts my constructive feedback since he
constantly wants to improve. I made a few sales calls with him last week, and he must have
asked over twenty questions after each call about how best to handle selling activities. He sort
looks on me as a big brother, and that makes him very easy to manage. To be honest with you,
Robert is good for my ego.

“George is about my age, and if he has a problem, it’s that he likes to goof off too much. George
is good at bringing life and laughter into the job. He is well liked by everyone. However, he
spends too much time bullshooting with virtually everyone he encounters during the work day!
Every so often I have to get after him to manage his time better. When I do, George picks up his
pace and usually reaches his annual sales quota. George’s lapses keep me on his case but I don’t
think he really minds being supervised. Actually, I think he realizes that a little bit of leadership
now and then will help his sales performance.”

“It sounds like things are going pretty well for you, Howard,” John observed. “Five of your seven
salespeople seem to be doing fine. Is it the other two salespeople who are causing you all that
grief? I can’t wait to hear about these two!”

“Well, Fred is probably my biggest problem. He’s a veteran salesperson who has been with the
company for over thirty years. Fred started out by selling the liberal arts textbooks. In fact, he
has been the top salesperson in the company several times in past years. However, since he’s
been working for me, his performance has fallen off sharply. His performance is not quite bad
enough for me to recommend that he be fired. However, if it gets any worse, I’m going to have
to do something.

“The biggest problem with Fred is that he doesn’t listen to me. He is very hard-headed and
seemingly feels insulted every time I tell him to do something. For example, the other day I told
him that he wasn’t spending enough time with some of his best customers. He angrily fired back
that he was selling textbooks before I was born and that he has forgotten more about “real
world” selling than I’ve learned from textbooks.

“Recently, I’ve been going out of my way to work with Fred. I’ve asked him to go on recruiting
trips with me, and I’ve tried to help make his job easier by offering to train him to do several
sales-related tasks on a laptop computer. In both instances, he rejected me by making up some
feeble excuse. He refuses to listen to me, no matter how hard I try to win him over.

“Fred also shows me very little respect. He will sometimes address me as ‘college boy’ in sales
meetings. Last week, he called me by that name in front of one of our largest accounts. I don’t
know how much more I can take from him.

“Warren is my other problem. Warren is about forty-eight years old and has been with the
company for about ten years. He is a hard worker and normally reaches his sales quota. I think
he resents me for having this managerial job at such a young age. It may sound paranoid, but I
have the feeling that he wants my job and will do whatever he can to get it. Warren is very
competitive and seems to be trying to undercut me and show people that he can do a better job
managing the sales force than I can. Given his attitude, I have a difficult time being a leader to
Warren because he’s not a good follower.

“The way I look at it, I’m a fairly effective sales manager because five of my seven salespeople
accept my leadership and are doing well. However, it really disturbs me that I can’t do a better
job with Fred and Warren. These two guys have the potential of being top salespeople. If they
would change their attitudes and significantly improve their sales volume, I could have the best
sales district in the company. I just don’t know what to do to be more effective leader to these
guys!”

“I personally feel that you have nothing got worry about,” said John. “You definitely have the
ability to manage this salesforce, or your company would never have promoted you. Howard,
you need to build up your self-confidence so that these old guys don’t bother you. Don’t be
afraid to boss them around. Remember, your company’s future is with the younger and
currently more successful people. I didn’t become manager of a resort hotel by being afraid to
boss people around.”

Questions

1. Comment on Howard’s leadership style. What kind of leader is he?

Howard is a supportive leader. A supportive leader attempts to reduce

employee stress and frustration in the workplace by being concerned with the welfare
of his employees. He is supportive, friendly, and sensitive to the needs of each team
member. It shows when he goes out of his way to help and work with Fred, who is rude
and very hard-headed towards him. He offered to go on recruiting trips and train him to
use a laptop computer to make his job much easier; however, Fred would purposely
make up an excuse to not go with him. He is also considerate since he will actually give
an individual a chance to perform their tasks and will not fire them on the spot without
trying to work with the problem. Lastly, he discusses with John that Warren and Fred
have the potential for being the top salespeople if only they changed their attitude
towards him.

2. Do you agree with John’s advice? Why or why not? Is John’s leadership style different
from Howard’s? If so, how?

Yes, I agree. John's advice is best for Howard's situation. It is what he lacked as a leader
of that team. Being a supportive leader is good but some circumstances need more than
that. Howard needs power and authority. Leaders always make decisions and they stand
by them. Also, when they are wrong, they admit it. This will allow the leader to show
that they are in control and that the team members will realize this and follow the
leader in success. John’s leadership style is different than Howards'. John’s leadership
sounds like an authoritarian leader where he bosses around his employees to get what
the company wants to achieve.

3. Should Howard take John’s advice? Why or why not?

Yes, Howard should take John’s advice. He already did everything to accommodate and
understand them but they are still the same. Although they are good salespeople, their
behaviors can negatively affect the team's performance in the long run. It is time for
Howard to take a major step and admonish the two to change their bad attitudes.

4. Should Howard change his leadership style in an attempt to be more effective leader to
Fred? To Warren? Why or why not?

No, he doesn't have to change his leadership style. He is already an effective leader but
he just lacked something. He needs to be more authoritative at times when
circumstances ask for it. Just like with Fred and Warren.

5. Would a transactional or transformational leadership style help Howard? Explain.

Transactional leadership is primarily based on processes and control, and requires a
strict management structure. On the other hand, Transformational leadership focuses
on inspiring others to follow, and it requires a high degree of coordination,
communication, and cooperation. For me, both leadership styles can help Howard. I
think Howards current leadership style leans more on Transformational. But with Fred
and Warren's situation, a little bit of transactional leadership is needed. Admonishing
bad employees is also part of being a good leader.