General background
Designs by Kate is a company that sells women’s jewelry using the direct sales method. DBK has seen sales success and growth despite unfavorable economic conditions and slow growth in the retail industry. With all of this being said Kate Creevey founder and CEO of DBK is concerned with her company’s top-line growth trajectory which has slowed down as of late. This issue has been attributed to a couple factors. The first factor is a “slowdown in the rate at which new sales representatives were transitioning to “leader” status and beginning to build their own teams.” This is a major issue because team building is central to DBK’s business model and success. The sales growth at DBK has been driven by the growth in the number
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The research was based on their thoughts on becoming a team leader and moving up the corporate sales ladder. Firstly, a lot of the sales representatives believed that financial rewards being offered for “leading” were not worth the effort it took to earn them. Secondly, many of these representatives believed that recruiting friends and colleagues to become sales reps would be counterproductive to their sales figures. They believed that recruiting and team building would lead to a reduction in their own sales due to the overlap between their social networks.
Main Problem #1: The DBK Business Model
I think the DBK Business Model is great. However, a lot of sales representatives do not feel the same way. The DBK Business Model has plenty of opportunities to advance and a very progressive commission system. DBK representatives earn a base commission of 25% on all sales. If a representative were to sell more than $1,000 in a given month, that rate would increase to 32% across all sales.
Management at DBK has even designed a complex system where many of the representatives can earn “leadership dollars.” For example, if a representative were to recruit three of her friends she would now become the leader of a Level 1 team. She would earn commission on her own sales and 5% to 12 % commission on her team members. This system of leadership dollars stops at Level
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Firstly, sell products on TV networks such as QVC and HSN. The application process for QVC is quite simple and can be filled out on their website. The product you are selling must pass 4 sections which I already pre-approved: 1.) The product must be successful and not just an idea, 2.) You meet with a representative and if they believe in your product they will give you a purchase order. 3.) The product goes through Quality Assurance 4.) Once approved you must ship the product order 2 weeks before the scheduled date, 3.) Product must generate a certain amount of sales per minute to be considered a good seller or it will be removed, 4.) Finally, you take all the risk if it the jewelry sells out then you get paid in 60 days, if not you take the remaining product home and can sell it through the DBK parties or
Ms. Powell is a leader who gets results. She uses three distinct leaderships styles. These styles are authoritative and coaching. Amazingly enough Ms. Powell is very flexible and able to move between the three rather easily. When using her authoritative approach, she is acting as an expert and defines goals for her team ("Authoritative," n.d.). Usually, authoritative leaders allow their team to figure out the best way to achieve the established goals. However, this is not the case, nor the preferred method as a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. Instead, Ms. Powell provides a step-by-step path to success that is provided to her from the Mary Kay Cosmetics Headquarters. These step-by-step guides are considered training and provide the requirements to achieving specific levels of professionalism within the company. Thus, these leaders tend to look for people to work with them, people who can mobilize toward a vision (Goleman, 2000). Ms. Powell displays this characteristic when working with her beauty consultants. However, another major characteristic of Ms. Powell is she recognizes that not all of her consultants will be as energetic or eager as she with regards to selling cosmetics. Therefore, she moves toward a coaching style of leadership.
TQL can put a single sales supervisor into place and divide teams and appoint team leaders immediately. Due to the lack of managerial experience among the account executives the Executive Sales Managers may wish to hold the sales supervisor position until a manager can be placed and properly trained. During this time, non-montary methods of rewards should be discussed for the team leaders duties. TQL should start low and move up with rewards based on performance as a team leader. Some may currently act as an unofficial team leader and may not expect significant reimbursement and TQL should take advantage of these persons.
Spokane Industries has contracted Franklin Electronics for an 18 month product development contract. Franklin Electronics is new to using project management methodologies and has not been exposed to earned value management methodologies. Even though Franklin and Spokane have worked together in the past, they have mainly used fixed-price contracts with little to no stipulations. For this project, Spokane Industries is requiring Franklin Electronics to use formalized project management methodologies, earned value cost schedules, and schedules for reports and meetings. Since Franklin Electronics had no experience with earned value management, the cost accounting group was trained in the methodology in order to bid for the project.
The only concern is the ability and attitudes of the sales teams. The company needs buy-in from sales as that is where the customer interaction is and where the profit comes in. Dynacorp redefined their jobs without their input, should they perceive their influence on company decision making there will be more buy-in as they would feel like they are involved and are important to the company.
This case study demonstrates a young woman leader, Toby Johnson, who used to serve in the military as a pilot and attended Harvard Business School, joined PepsiCo’s Leadership Development Program (LDP), and was working in the management team at the Williamsport plant. She determined to forge ahead, and led the plant to achieve the Level 3 CI and also won the Doolin Award, which the Williamsport plant had never achieved before. The problem that Johnson encounters currently is that if the plant should continue to forge ahead and achieve the ultimate Level 4 CI, which will cost huge amount of money and efforts with the risk of her sudden leave of plant.
In organizations aspiring for growth and continual improvement, relationships are more intricate and alternatives more numerous than the either/or imposition implied by the notion of leaders and followers. Practically no one leads all of the time. Leaders also work as followers; all in all, “everyone uses a portion of their day following and another portion leading” (Galie and Bopst, 2006, p. 11).
As all organizations are striving to meet goals and objectives of the business, so must any comprehensive staffing strategy. Applying this to Tanglewood, the leadership realized that the business must remain competitive with their rivals of Kohl’s and Target. Even so, the company’s culture and values has set them apart, where employee involvement, engagement, and recommendations have been truly valued.
Creating change and initiating goals and strategies is another making of a good leader. During her employment with Nike Jones formed The SB&I team, which is made up of 140 people from different company departments and locations. These team members are dedicated full-time to providing excellence, creating innovation, and enhancing sustainability. This team who in some fashion has sustainability related to their position with Nike, are influential in making decisions regarding improving labor conditions, expanding the companies supply chain, and more cost-effective purchasing. Nike has approximately 36,000 employees who could ...
The leadership of an authoritative figure can create success or lead to failure in an organization. The medium-sized manufacturing company, Microstar Industries, has the ability to be successful and collaborative. But in order to achieve this goal, all departments and employees within the company need to work together cohesively and coherently. The following report will address the following problems determined in the sales departments:
Hutchinson, Paul. "Building Effective Teams." OB 221 Lecture. Boston University School of Management, Boston. 12 Feb. 2014. Lecture.
Seevers, Matthew (2007). "A Social Network Perspective on Sales Force Ethics". The Journal of personal selling &sales management (0885-3134), 27 (4), p. 341-353.
Managers should be able to lead the members of their work groups toward the accomplishment of the organization’s goals. Leading is defined as motivating and directing the members of the organization so that they contribute to the achievement of the goals of the organization. In order for leaders and managers to be effective they must understand the dynamics of individual and group behavior, to be able to motivate their employees, and be effective communicators. It is said that a good ...
Staying ahead of the competition and increasing profits are the fundamental objectives for every organization. However, many firms today continue to invest extensively in business development activities and less on employee productivity. This mindset ignores the firm’s chief asset and its core foundation, its workforce.
Effective teams are groups of individuals who meet to discuss ideas for achieving a desired outcome by the leader of the group. According to a study of characteristics about how and why effective groups develop, Carl Larson and Frank LaFasto found “a clear and elevated goal” to be the top attribute on the list. (Engleberg and Wynn, 2012. p. 33). Members of the group are more productive when they see their goal as meaningful and lofty. Therefore, when a group of salespeople set a sales plan in action, it may have more importance to the group when it is challenging. Each member of the team has a chance to be part of a cohesive team. “Clear, elevated goals create a sense of excitement and even urgency in groups”
With the current revolution in the corporate world, many organizations find the need to keep up with the set trends in the corporate scene. This is essential for them to maintain relevance as well as achieve set targets and strategic objectives. One of the aspects business management is sales personnel management. This is an important business aspect that can lead to efficiency, as well as effectiveness in business, if executed accordingly. This study will seek to analyze the various tools and techniques used in sales personnel management.