The Case of the Poorly Performing Salesperson
Read the Case of the Poorly Performing Salesperson in the text. In a three to five page paper, please address the following:
Assess Ed's actions in working with Jane and explain if his actions have been fair and appropriate.
Explain alternate steps Ed should take now in dealing with Jane and the situation.
Identify the factors that may explain Jane's poor performance.
Explain the steps Ed should take to identify the training Jane may need.
Summarize the steps Ed should take to document training or, if necessary, disciplinary action to avoid legal liability. Provide examples.
The paper
Must be three to five double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must use at least two scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Case The Case of the Poorly Performing Salesperson
Ed Markham, the African American sales manager at WCTV, is considering how to handle a problem with one of his salespersons, Jane Folsom, who is White. Ed was promoted to sales manager three months ago after working at WCTV for 2 years. He earned his promotion by exceeding sales goals every month after his first on the job. He developed a research report using secondary data like MRI and the Lifestyle Market Analyst to analyze the market. His former boss praised the report, gave a copy to all salespersons, and included a summary of it in the rate card. When his former boss left for a new job in a larger market, he recommended Ed as his replacement. Jane has been a salesperson at WCTV for 2 years. For most of that time, she has exceeded sales quotas about as much as Ed had. For the past 3 months, she has not met sales quotas. After his second month as sales manager, Ed talked to Jane about her performance.
She attributed her below-average performance to the closing of a major advertiser, Anthony's Fashions. This local clothing store closed because several major retailers, including JC Penney and Dillard's, had opened at the local mall. Ed listened to Jane's explanation and then suggested ways to obtain new clients. He asked Jane whether she had set personal sales goals, set up a prospect file of new and inactive advertisers as well as existing businesses that were potential clients, come up with research and data on the market to use in presentations and reports to clients, come up with new ideas or opportunities to advertise for clients, or asked her clients about their needs and goals (Shaver, 1995). Jane said no, she simply telephoned or visited her clients regularly to see if they wanted to run ads. Ed also asked Jane why several of her clients had not paid their bills. He explained that a salesperson must check out a client's ability to pay before running a schedule. Jane replied that she was not aware of that fact and that no one had ever trained her to sell.
She had sold time for a radio station before, but that was all the training she had. Ed's predecessor had just hired her and cut her loose. Ed gave Jane a memo after their first meeting a month ago asking her to focus on sales training for the next month. First, she should read Shaver's (1995) Making the Sale! How to Sell Media with Marketing. He gave her a copy, told her to read it, and asked her to contact him if she had any questions. After reading the book, he told her that she should establish written personal sales goals, begin to develop a prospect file (with two new and two inactive clients), and develop three ideas for new advertising opportunities for existing clients. In the memo, Ed told Jane that he would not hold her to sales performance standards that month. He wanted Jane to focus on doing the background work he assigned to help her improve her future sales performance. At the meeting a month later, Ed discovered Jane had made only a halfhearted attempt at training.
For example, she had not developed a prospect file; she told him she had no idea how to do it. Ed asked her why she had not contacted him to set up a meeting to discuss questions she had about the book or completing the assignments, as noted in his memo. She said she had forgotten. Asked specific questions about Shaver's (1995) sales book, she was unable to respond, suggesting she had not read it. Ed asked Jane to read the book again, and scheduled a meeting with her to discuss the book. He instructed Jane to have a written memo ready for the next meeting that identified the assistance or training she needed to accomplish the tasks he had set for her the previous month. "Base your needs assessment memo on the Shaver book and be prepared to discuss the book fully," he told her. Ed said he would send her a memo about their meeting, outlining what he had verbally asked her to do during the next month as well as the consequences of not completing these tasks. Ed told her, "Jane, if you don't start to make a serious effort in participating in your training, and ultimately improving your sales performance, your job here could be in jeopardy." He followed through and sent the memo, keeping a copy for his files. Ed's gut feeling was that something else was bothering Jane.
He wondered why she had gone from exceeding sales quotas to below-average sales performance. He was surprised an employee would respond half-heartedly to a written notice of unsatisfactory job performance. He wondered if there was another reason she was not responding to his attempts to help her.
Ed wanted Jane to succeed because he thought she was a good salesperson despite her apparent lack of formal training and her poor recent performance. He wanted to give her a fair chance to improve, but knew he would have to fire her if she did not take her training seriously and improve her performance. He wondered how to be fair to her while protecting the station. He had never faced this kind of problem before. "Welcome to management," he told himself.
Sylvie, George; Wicks, LeBlanc, Jan; Hollifield, C. Ann; Lacy, Stephen; Sohn, Broadrick, Ardyth (2009-03-04). Media Management: A Casebook Approach (Routledge Communication Series) (Kindle Locations 3150-3169). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.