Case 3.2 Hanover-Bates Chemical Corporation Study

3.2 Hanover-Bates Chemical Corporation - Case Study Example In looking at a different angle of sales a profit performance, District 3 and District 7 were compared side by side, as District 7 was the most highly revered district in Hanover-Bates. District 7 outperformed district 3 in gross profits in their â€Å"B† category of accounts, which are their medium-sized accounts that generate only $11,000 to $19,999 each year in sales. Despite the fact that this is the only facet of the three account categories that District 7 outperformed District 3, District 7 still had higher gross profits than District 3 by $106,500. This is the reason that Sprague was hired on to Hanover-Bates, to utilize his skills in sales and profit analyses to improve the performance of District 3 through reallocation of sales. District 3’s performance was very poor in comparison to the others, and as such needed to be assessed. Either the basic reasons for this poor performance was due to misallocated efforts from that district from customers or the product lines itself that was being sold. Although Hanover-Bates does not produce chemicals, it is important for their customer base to see a variable in the quality of the products that they are buying from Hanover-Bates versus their competition. The lack of performance of District 3 versus other districts is the sales representative’s lack of knowledge, motivation, or both. Most of their sales representatives had previously worked for a customer of Hanover-Bates and did not have a college education. This could most assuredly be a major cause of the lack of sales in the company, as the representatives simply did not have the proper education to pursue sales with the right language, persuasion and vigor for success. This could seriously affect Hanover-Bates’ ability to prospect further into different sectors and affect the closing of new sales for the company. This leaves the sales staff with a lack of competence, confidence, communication skills and understanding of Hanover-Bates’ organizational strategies for sales and growth. Given that most of the sales representatives in the company are also older and fairly experienced, they may feel that they have the skills and repertoire that are required to succeed in sales for Hanover-Bates, and thus are unmotivated to learn new approaches to the sales media. The North East district’s sales and performance are due to the lack of college-educated individuals with the proper knowledge and skills of a new and ever changing market place. They also are in great need of implementation and training in the newly developed sales program created by the national sales manager. It the sales representatives were able to undergo further trainin g and implementation of his program, Hanover-Bates and its customers alike would be of benefit. In this new sales program, Hanover-Bates sales volumes for each account would be higher, thus selling costs would decrease. These higher sales volumes would be justification for a sales representat