Question

• Complete the questions at the end of the case.

  Universal Control Corp.

  Background

  Universal Control Corp. is a leading supplier forprocess control systems and equipment used in a wide variety of production and distribution applications. You have taken a sales representative job with Universal, and having just completed training, you have been givena territory of your own. Your district manager has provided you with a list of accounts (shown below) as well as several boxes of notes and files that had been assembled and used by your predecessor. These are the accounts currently buying your products. You are expected to build these accounts and add new accounts to the list as you increase your territory’s sales performance. You have summarized the account information into the summary set of account profiles, which follows.

  Account Name	Account Opportunity	Competitive Position	Annual Number of Sales Calls Last Year
  Mueller Distribution	High	Low	30
  Tri-State Specialties	Low	High	20
  Birkey Paper Co.	Low	High	26
  Normal Supply	Low	Low	12
  Darnell Aggregate Products	Low	High	21
  Reinhart Chemicals	High	High	26
  ACCO Manufacturing	Low	High	23
  Tri-State Manufacturing	High	Low	28
  Ideal Engineering	Low	Low	11
  Terracon	High	High	25
  Lowry Foods	High	Low	26
  SCS Industrial	High	High	27
  Lowell Services	Low	High	18
  Bowles and Sons	Low	High	21
  American Foundry	High	Low	22
  Hewitt & Associates	Low	Low	16
  Bright Metals Inc.	High	High	22
  Decatur Extrusions	Low	Low	14
  King Chemicals	Low	High	22
  Bear’s Steel Corp.	Low	High	20
  Hoffman Pharmaceuticals	High	Low	20
  Barlow & Clark Systems	Low	High	18

  Questions

  1. Develop a portfolio classification of accounts and assess the allocation of sales calls your predecessor made over the past year.
  2. What problems do you find with the previous allocation of calls on these accounts?
  3. Based on your account classification analysis, suggest a new sales call allocation strategy that would make better use of your time in the territory.

Answer 1

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1.

Account Name               Account Opportunity        Competitive Position       Annual # of Sales Calls Last Year

Mueller Distribution                      High                                        Low                                                    30

Tri-State Specialties                      Low                                        High                                                   20

Birkey Paper Co.                           Low                                        High                                                   26

Normal Supply                               Low                                        Low                                                    12

Darnell Aggregate Products         Low                                        High                                                   21

Reinhart Chemicals                      High                                       High                                                   26

ACCO Manufacturing                  Low                                        High                                                   23

Tri-State Manufacturing              High                                        Low                                                    28

Ideal Engineering                           Low                                        Low                                                    11

Terracon                                         High                                       High                                                   25

Lowry Foods                                  High                                        Low                                                    26

SCS Industrial                                High                                       High                                                   27

Lowell Services                              Low                                        High                                                   18

Bowles and Sons                           Low                                        High                                                   21

American Foundary                     High                                        Low                                                    22

Hewitt & Associates                      Low                                        Low                                                    16

Bright Metals Inc.                         High                                       High                                                   22

Decatur Extrusions                        Low                                        Low                                                    14

King Chemicals                              Low                                        High                                                   22

Bear's Steel Corp.                          Low                                        High                                                   20

Hoffman Pharmaceuticals High Low                                                    20

Barlow & Clark Systems Low High                                                   18

Responses are going to vary.

The previous salesperson usually made some decent sales appointments. As shown in the following table, the salesperson has assigned the time equally to high-or low-competency clients. There has been little less exposure to the consumers defined as low account capacity and high competitive position. Finally, the next highest category has focused approximately half of customers who are subject to low account opportunities and low competitive position.

Average of Annual Number of Sales Calls Last Year by Category
	Competitive Position
Account Opportunity	High	Low	Grand Average
High	25.00	25.20	25.11
Low	21.38	10.75	17.83
Grand Average	22.58	18.78	20.95

2.

Each should include a connection to the fact that both the' big, large' and the' medium, low' groups were given too much time by the previous sales individual. The dealer should have provided the first two classes with more sales calls. Each should also remember that the dealer had to give Bright Metals, Inc. more time.

3.

All of these would represent a redistribution of the weighted sales calls to the first two groups with the lowest distribution in the last group (low, low). Therefore, the total sales call count is not expected to exceed the previous record (468). The following table is an example of an exchange of portfolio analysis-based sales calls.

                                                        Account                             Competitive                Annual # of Sales

Account Name                         Opportunity                             Position                      Calls Last Year

SCS Industrial                                  high                                        high                                      40

Reinhart Chemicals                         high                                        high                                      40

Terracon                                            high                                        high                                      40

Bright Metals Inc.                            high                                        high                                      40

Mueller Distribution                         high                                         low                                      37

Tri-State Manufacturing                high                                         low                                      37

Lowry Foods                                     high                                         low                                      37

American Foundary                        high                                         low                                      37

Hoffman Pharmaceuticals            high                                         low                                      37

Birkey Paper Co.                              low                                         high                                      11

ACCO Manufacturing                     low                                         high                                      11

King Chemicals                                 low                                         high                                      11

Darnell Aggregate Products            low                                         high                                      11

Bowles and Sons                              low                                         high                                      11

Tri-State Specialties                         low                                         high                                      11

Bear's Steel Corp.                             low                                         high                                      11

Lowell Services                                 low                                         high                                      11

Barlow & Clark Systems                 low                                         high                                      11

Hewitt & Associates                         low                                          low                                        6

Decatur Extrusions                           low                                          low                                        6

Normal Supply                                  low                                          low                                        6

Ideal Engineering                              low                                          low                                        6

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