Outdoor Sporting Goods Case
Background
Outdoor sporting productions manufactured and distributed sporting equipment, clothing, and accessories nationwide. The company has annual sales volume between $6.2 million to $6.8million with approximately 700 items in its catalog. Those items can be group into three segments: fishing supplies, hunting supplies and accessories.
Sales Force & Issue Sales forced played an important role in the company, since the company doesn’t use any magazine, newspaper, radio or other media advertising. Outdoor has 11 full time sales peoples in total, ranging from 23-67 years old, and each salesperson is required training to learn the product before they take over a territory. Each salesperson is responsible for their own territory, they can plan their own terms and amount of time they spend on the sales call. Chief Operating officer, Hudson McDonald, held semiannual sales meeting with all the salespeople to introduce new product and any changes in sales and company policies. On every Monday Mr. McDonald has a telephone conversation with each salesperson to learn changes in pricing, any special promotions, and delivery schedules. Mr. McDonald wastes a lot of his own and his sales staff’s time on telephone conversation every Monday. This could be better put to use with face to face interaction with the sales team and time spent overseeing the daily activities of the sales force.
Compensation & Issue Each salesperson is paid straight commission base on dollar sales volume annually. The commission rate is 5 percent on first $300,000, 6 percent on the next $200,000 and 7 percent for sales over $ 500,000. By having a straight commission it can motivate salespeople to work extra time and effort to get the sales, but this may also make some new or unskilled salespersons feel unsecure since there is potential to not make a decent wage. Another problem is the company has to ensure proper treatment of customers since there is an increase of outdoor sales at
Outdoor sporting productions manufactured and distributed sporting equipment, clothing, and accessories nationwide. The company has annual sales volume between $6.2 million to $6.8million with approximately 700 items in its catalog. Those items can be group into three segments: fishing supplies, hunting supplies and accessories.
Sales Force & Issue Sales forced played an important role in the company, since the company doesn’t use any magazine, newspaper, radio or other media advertising. Outdoor has 11 full time sales peoples in total, ranging from 23-67 years old, and each salesperson is required training to learn the product before they take over a territory. Each salesperson is responsible for their own territory, they can plan their own terms and amount of time they spend on the sales call. Chief Operating officer, Hudson McDonald, held semiannual sales meeting with all the salespeople to introduce new product and any changes in sales and company policies. On every Monday Mr. McDonald has a telephone conversation with each salesperson to learn changes in pricing, any special promotions, and delivery schedules. Mr. McDonald wastes a lot of his own and his sales staff’s time on telephone conversation every Monday. This could be better put to use with face to face interaction with the sales team and time spent overseeing the daily activities of the sales force.
Compensation & Issue Each salesperson is paid straight commission base on dollar sales volume annually. The commission rate is 5 percent on first $300,000, 6 percent on the next $200,000 and 7 percent for sales over $ 500,000. By having a straight commission it can motivate salespeople to work extra time and effort to get the sales, but this may also make some new or unskilled salespersons feel unsecure since there is potential to not make a decent wage. Another problem is the company has to ensure proper treatment of customers since there is an increase of outdoor sales at
Cited: McShane, Steven L., and Mary A. Von Glinow. Organizational Behavior. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010. 143-45. Print.