Bob Falconi Must Solve Must

¶ … Bob Falconi must solve must be approached on several levels: on a superficial level it is about organizing and managing the company's sales force in order for the company to successfully reach its objectives, while on a higher level it is about integrating cultural diversity within the organization. In other words, the problem refers to developing a corporate culture that supports and integrates the different sales forces from each business Spectrum Brands has acquired. There are several factors that must be addressed when developing such a strategy.

The diversity of the newly acquired sales force is reflected by the different customer segments they address, the different types of products they sell, and the different sales strategies they use. These differences make it very difficult for Spectrum Brands to develop a unified sales force strategy that must reach the company's objectives. Therefore, the issue in this case also relies on identifying the common motivators that are able to determine different sales forces to join efforts.

Recommendation When developing a unified sales force strategy the company's managers must understand the type of culture each sales unit works by. This allows them to identify the strategy that is most efficient for the sales force while reducing costs and keeping customers satisfied. In other words, the needs of the sales force must meet customers' needs, and company's objectives. There are different strategies that the company can develop in its attempt to organize the sales force in an efficient manner (Miller & Fernandes, 2009).

The company can use a top to bottom approach or a bottom to top approach. In addition to this, it is important to identify the levels that this strategy applies to. It is recommended that the company applies this strategy on environmental, behavioral, skills, values and motivation, and identity level. The environmental level refers to the workplace in which the sales teams must develop their activity. It is expected that company locations are used by all sales teams.

It is important to develop a sales center where customers can easily contact the sales people for the products they are interested in. There are situations where after mergers and acquisitions, the poor communication within the company and between the company and the public determines low quality customer service. Customers find themselves in the position of calling different phone numbers where they get in contact with different people for the same thing. The behavioral level refers to behaviors sported by the sales force.

These are important because they send messages about the company and its products. Therefore, the behavior of the different sales forces within the company must send a unitary message to customers. The skills or abilities level refers to the skills that are needed by the sales force in order to reach their objectives. The difficulty in this case is that the different types of products that they sell and the different customer segments they address require different skills.

This mostly refers to technical skills, while the required sales kills are basically the same. The values and motivation level is very important because most of sales people's performance is determined by their motivation which is determined by their values. Having the same values ensures that the different sales teams work together in reaching the company's objectives. The identity level refers to the company's identity if the mergers and acquisitions are successfully integrated. In other words, the company's identity is how it is viewed by the public.

There is an important difference between a company that is an industry leader focusing on providing high quality products and a company focusing on cost efficiency. In order to successfully integrate and manage these different sales forces, the company can develop a top to bottom or a bottom to top approach. The top to bottom approach is based on developing a unitary identity of the company where the objectives of each purchased business unit can feel represented. The other levels are derived from this.

If the company addresses the bottom to top approach, this means it should start by focusing on the environment level, which is not as productive as the top to bottom approach. In addition to this, it is important that the company develops a sales force design study. This is intended to help the company assess the most efficient sales force design that would determine increased profits while joining products, customers, and employees from different business units (Moorman & Ruddell, 2009).

Specialists in the field recommend to start with analyzing customer needs, purchasing behaviors, and business opportunities by large product groups. This ensures that customer segments are correctly identified. This is also helps the company identify the most important sales force activities for providing each market segment with the necessary products. This allows to develop efficient sales models based on cost efficiency and addressing market opportunities. This also efficiently reorganizes ownership of sales roles, and account type ownership.

Some of sales forces' activities should be assigned to internal sales and to different units ensuring service support. This sales force model requires that representatives with technical activities should be prioritized before the most important accounts if the situation requires it. Rationale There are several challenges that management must address in this case. Communication is one of the most important challenges identified in merger and acquisition situations. Success interpretation can be different for different sales forces.

What is considered successful for certain sales teams can be considered normal standards for other teams. Therefore, this can affect the bonuses.