Sales Management Assignment

Submitted by- Zoya Singh

Roll no- 150 B

This case analyses the changing environment for newspaper companies with the emergence
of large, popular websites on the internet. Prior to 1998, newspapers were still the chief
source for advertising space. Following ’98 however, Internet websites began generating
advertising revenue by selling banner ads. Initially, the cost of Internet advertising was not
generating a high return on the investment that the advertisers made, and most other mass
media sources were still more dominant. However, when the Internet started expanding
online advertising space became more available and drove online marketing prices down.

The style of ads changed to more innovative forms, websites started targeting customers
and all this led to them becoming an extremely viable advertising option. Internet websites
hence became more and more popular and site owners started spending more of the ad
revenue generated on promoting their website and increasing its popularity, thereby
siphoning of a significant chunk of business from the stagnating newspaper industry.

It is in the above mentioned scenario that the case is set. Wilma Collins is a Sales Manager
for The Sarasota Journal, fast approaching her age of retirement, and longs for the days
when the business was less cutthroat and employees were not worried about job security.
Under the leadership of Bob Bowen, the editor in chief and president of the paper, Sarasota
journal has fought to stay in the market through the following strategies-

 Cutting back on staff

 Tailoring their products
 Purchasing new technology to increase efficiency
 Creating a news Web site

Wilma is extremely computer savvy and up-to date with all the trends that exist in the net
sector. She is in tune with both market and competitors. And because of her constant
analysis she had come to the conclusion that there was no way an existing model of
newspaper business could compete with these new, nice internet start-ups in terms of ad
revenues.

Bob Bowen however, while keeping in mind that there has been a definite decline in sales
(even more that some of the other newspapers) takes an optimistic view, stating that
advertisements in newspapers are still considered far more credible and can lead more
reliably towards some purchase inducing behaviour. He does however; state that they will
need to invest far more in the firms online capabilities. He asks the managers to come up
with three year plan on how to restructure their departments so as to reap maximum
benefits from the changes in environment.
Questions-

Q1. Is Wilma Collins the right person for the sales manager position at Sarasota Journal?
Given her background, health issues and age, does she have the qualifications and energy
to identify what changes need to be made and to implement them within the sales
department?

Wilma’s age is simply a number when it comes to her. She is clearly a dynamic person who
takes an active interest in not only the organisation that she works in but also in finding
more about the competition, environment and so on. She started her career as a
telemarketer selling classified advertising, moved on to being a circulation manager and has
now had a 35-year career in the newspaper business. Clearly, she is fairly qualified to do the
job. In her role as sales manager she leads eight teams, and given her vast experience, it is
only wise to have her continue.

Some of the features that make her such a good manager are-

1) She is flexible, and can handle many tasks at one time. This is shown through the fact that
she performs her own task of supervising sale of ad space while also creating a competitive
map to analyse the market.

2) She works for the good of the team in the sense that she is always worried about her co-
workers and wishes she could instil in them a sense of job security.

3) She is quite obviously a trustworthy individual since she has worked with the organisation
for so long and has built a rapport with almost everyone.

4) She is knowledgeable about the domain which leads her to make astute observations on
the current market situation. For example- her analysis led her to discover that completion
from local television and radio station were the firms main competitions for retail
considering.

Q2. Compare Bob Bowen’s optimism and leadership to that of Wilma Collins. How
important is it for a sales manager to provide a positive outlook when leading a sales
team? Explain.

Some of the typical characteristics of Bob Bowen’s leadership style are-

1. Intelligence- He is smart enough to acknowledge the fact that sales are dipping and
changes in organisational structure are required. Yet, he keeps in mind the fact that
newspaper advertisements are still a significant medium. This trait is also portrayed through
his being an Ivy League graduate.

2. Self-confidence- He is certain about the skills and competencies of his enterprise and his
people and this leads to the generation of self-confidence within the individual.
3. Determination- He believes that the company will pass through these times, even though
it may take some sacrifices. He is willing to make these for the growth of the firm.

4. Sociable- He is respected and well-liked by all the employees of the firm. This is in spite of
the difficult times being faced by the firm and is hence a true sign of his level of association
with the firm and other employees.

The fundamental difference between Bob and Wilma is that while Wilma has almost given
up hope and doesn’t believe that anything can be done to salvage the situation created by
the existence of new internet players, Bob takes on a more optimistic approach wherein he
agrees to the fact that there is a grave situation at hand but refuses to let that pull the
company down or give it an excuse for underperformance.

In this situation it is extremely hard for managers to keep a positive outlook when dealing
with employees because if the employees get a wind of something being wrong or fear that
poor market conditions could lead to the termination of their services, they may start
looking at other jobs or in some cases simply stop trying hard enough. Hence, a positive
outlook must be maintained to keep employees motivated enough to perform their tasks
well.

Q3. If you were Wilma, explain how you would stay focussed on your job knowing you
had a better job offer on the table with another organisation, not in turmoil.

For Wilma, at her age, it is important to know that she will receive some sort of recognition
for her services. Having spent such a long time at her current organisation, she was entitled
to certain healthy and retirement benefits. This is particularly important for her as she
suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. This particular benefit, has not been mentioned for the
other job which while it may have been more highly paying does not guarantee her a
permanent job or a comfortable life since she would have to do a lot of travelling for the
job.

While the company is currently in turmoil, there is no reason why this should only bode ill
for the future. In fact, it offers a challenge for motivated enough managers to devise
solutions to this problem that could counter the proliferation of advertising through web
sites.

Further, owing to her age, it may not be feasible to go in for such a huge change again,
moving to another city, adjusting to a new work culture, trying out a different media
altogether and leaving behind her friends and colleagues. For her, her colleagues are like her
family and leaving them and the place that she has worked so hard at for the past few years
could lead to her readiness to accept her decision to stay on. It is also possible that being a
part of the organisation during these troubled times could lead to recognition for her, which
is an extremely important motivating factor for mature people like her. She needs to forget
about personal factors so much and focus her energies as far as possible on the task at hand
which is to achieve some organisational stability and keep the employees under her satisfied
as far as possible with the job.
 Q4. If you were Wilma, what organisational changes would you present to Bob? Make
your suggestions based on the sales staff performance data shown in Exhibit 1. What
other information about the staff might be beneficial for you to know before making your
recommendations?

Name Sales Total (in $) Online % Years of service Markets served

Tom Freeman 1,200,000 20 10 Auto/Boat Cycle dealers
and real estate
Frank Jackson 900,000 10 18 Large retail accounts
Betty Freeman 875,000 30 3 Local grocery
John Ackerman 600,000 50 2 Local Resorts, travel related
Francis Rosen 450,000 5 25 Exclusive calling in nearby
localities
Joan, Carrie, Ann 2,100,000 15 15,20,1 Phone sales for all classified
advertising a/c
Note- The cells highlighted in grey are to be restructured and consolidated

Some of the other factors to be kept in mind when restructuring decisions are being taken
are-

 Internet sites have developed sophisticated software to target customers

 The Journal’s online newspaper division has been experiencing annual growth rates
of 30% and have been able to increase ad rates by 10%.
 There is increased competition from local television and radio stations.
 Sarasota area has 10 different auto/truck/boat trader websites and all new
dealerships have their own websites
 Employment classified were now moving to sites like monster.com

Tom Freeman who handles real estate and auto dealers brings in the maximum sales and
even contributes online sales. He has been around for 10 years and hence, it does not make
sense to remove this department, since real estate always contributes significantly to the as
sales in newspapers. The same is the case with Frank Jackson who handles all the large retail
accounts and has large amounts of sales.

The roles of Betty Freeman and Francis Rosen can possibly be clubbed. Both of them handle
local sales and Rosen’s share is the smallest in the company so if someone needs to be fired
it would possibly be Rosen. If they are consolidated the efforts could be far more
concentrated and could lead to increase in both newspaper and online sales. Further, if
there is drastic need to reduce the staff, Freeman could also handle some phone sales and
perhaps Ann from the phone sales for classified advertising department, who anyway has
little experience, could be let go.
Q5. What impact does Internet have on the sales profession? Are all old market
organizations (like newspapers) going to become obsolete? Who needs to drive the need
for cultural change within an organization?

There is no doubt that the presence of the interned has impacted the sales scenario
significantly. To a large extent, companies now want to advertise on online sources as well.
This is primarily because-

 It is highly cost-effective
 There are many different and innovative types of advertising one can do apart from
banner ads like pop-up ads; sidebar ads; floating ads; and unicast ads, which are like
TV commercials that run in pop-up windows
 The ads on the internet are targeted well and as a result, largely intrusive

Each website that is present online has space that it can sell and there exist millions of such
sites. As a result the internet has tremendous scope for generating advertising revenue and
for certain industries at least could well replace the traditional modes of advertising.

While the internet is swiftly becoming a very attractive destination for sales it cannot
completely overrule the presence of newspaper sales and advertising since it is clearly
stated in the case that there are 52% of consumers who read advertisement in the
newspaper. 46% prefer newspaper to get information, 50% consider newspaper ads
valuable for planning their shopping, and 40% of the readers trusted the newspaper ads.
Newspapers must capitalize on the spread of the internet by creating their own online
websites that can support newspaper ad sales. Companies need to make the most of this
change that the internet brings on both the business and cultural level. Internet provides
access to all sorts of information and opens up employees minds to a host of ideas. The
bosses at the top level must harness this power of the internet but keep in mind the cultural
changes it can bring about. While cultural change happens within an individual at an
organizational level it must be managed by the people working at the top.

Q6. Describe the perfect sales person for Sarasota Journal. As a sales manager, how would
you find and recruit this person and what types of training and development would you
provide them?

The perfect sales person for Sarasota Journal at this point of time would be someone young,
dynamic, adaptable and open to change. The person selected should be someone
competent enough to work on both print as well as online sales, basically have working
knowledge of both the newspaper and online industry. Instead of hiring people who are
skilled only to work in a particular industry it makes sense to take someone with expertise in
both to avoid duplication of effort and employing excessive people.

The steps involved in recruiting and selecting this person would be-

1. Sending out notices for interested applicants with qualifications and qualities
required listed clearly.
 2. These notices would be places on sites like monster.com and hotjobs.com, as well as
in local newspapers and magazines
3. The CV’s that are sent in will be analysed carefully to judge competency and
candidates will then be shortlisted
4. Shortlisted candidates will be called for an interview which will consist not simply of
prior experience and education related questions but will also judge on the job skills
through tasks given during and before the interview to judge how efficiently the
candidate can carry out tasks.

For training and development, it is important that they be aware of company objectives and
the mission from the start. It is imperative to make it clear, from the onset, what the
organization stands for and believes in. Team exercises and orientation programmes will
also be conducted to familiarise the new employees with work processes as well as
organizational norms.