Place yourself in the position of a CEO who is  contemplating a reorganization of your company  and has received conflicting opinions from two of  your trusted reports. Presently you are a wholesaler  with 45 regional warehouses who acquires products  from manufacturers and distributes them to retailers  and service establishments. You have over 100,000  SKUs (stock keeping unit) ranging from ACE  bandages to Ziploc bags. You have 825 field-based  sales representatives who represent all the products  within a geographic area.  One of the ideas that has been brought up by the vice president of marketing is to specialize the  salesforce into three groups, fashion retail, general  retail, and services. Basically, individual sales  representatives would be able to specialize with  greater expertise and product knowledge to better  serve customers. The vice president of sales fears  that many of her salespeople will leave due to the  expanded geography that this change would  require.  What process would you take to address the  concerns of your managers? How would you  implement the plan? What customer considerations  would you need to address?

Marketing
20th Edition
ISBN:9780357033791
Author:Pride, William M
Publisher:Pride, William M
Chapter8: Business Markets And Buying Behavior
Section8.2: Salesforce.com Uses Dreamforce To Reach Business Customers
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Place yourself in the position of a CEO who is 
contemplating a reorganization of your company 
and has received conflicting opinions from two of 
your trusted reports. Presently you are a wholesaler 
with 45 regional warehouses who acquires products 
from manufacturers and distributes them to retailers 
and service establishments. You have over 100,000 
SKUs (stock keeping unit) ranging from ACE 
bandages to Ziploc bags. You have 825 field-based 
sales representatives who represent all the products 
within a geographic area. 
One of the ideas that has been brought up by the
vice president of marketing is to specialize the 
salesforce into three groups, fashion retail, general 
retail, and services. Basically, individual sales 
representatives would be able to specialize with 
greater expertise and product knowledge to better 
serve customers. The vice president of sales fears 
that many of her salespeople will leave due to the 
expanded geography that this change would 
require. 
What process would you take to address the 
concerns of your managers? How would you 
implement the plan? What customer considerations 
would you need to address?

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ISBN:
9780357033791
Author:
Pride, William M
Publisher:
South Western Educational Publishing