Changing a Promotion System
What is the likely cause of CSD's problems?
The problems in the Commercial Sales Division (CAD) aren't Tom's; they are the lack of succession planning, management and leadership training offered by the company. It can be inferred from the case study that Bioglass at a corporate level and CSD specifically lack the necessary training to ensure high achieving sales personnel step into a leadership role. This is a common problem across many business-to-business (B2B) enterprises who highly value sales performance yet perennially struggle with how to turn it into excellent leadership (Butler, Reese, 1991). As the book indicators, many enterprises settle for a mediocre level of performance when it comes to leadership overall, and this is especially the case in the area of sales as high achieving individual performers often struggle with the transition into management (Heneman III, Judge & Kammeyer-Muller, 2012).
This is implicit in how Tom Caldwell's replacement struggles to attain results in his role. Of the many sectors of B2B marketing and selling, manufacturers struggle most often with standardizing selling processes, ensuring smooth and profitable transitions from one sales representative or manager to the next (Rajagopal, Rajagopal, 2008). The lack of consistency of process is undermining Tom's replacement and paradoxically also is hindering his performance as a sales manager. Bioglass at a corporate level and CSD specifically need to put into place entirely new, standardized sales processes to ensure the success of their CSD division and company overall. In conjunction with the training that Tom needs to excel at his job, Bioglass needs to define more effective…
