Edward Adams is the new sales manager for Wolfe Corporation. He has just come aboard to head up a sales force of seventy sales professionals, all of whom possess at least a Bachelors degree, many of whom have Masters Degrees. Mr. Adams' sales reps sell highly complex instrumentation systems that are used to analyze a variety of different materials in laboratory environments. The instruments, sixteen in total, are used to analyze gases, liquids, and blood. Each product is very technical and customers expect their Wolfe sales rep to be very knowledgeable about the technical applications and analysis requirements of their laboratories.

Each sales professional covers an assigned territory, which usually comprises one to two states depending upon the geographic area and amount of industry. The sales team has been divided into twelve teams around the country, with each team having its own sales manager and five to nine sales reps, all of whom call on a variety of customers. Sales teams operate out of the same office, located in a major metropolitan area (e.g., Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, etc).

Sales rep turnover has been about 15% annually the past few years, and Mr. Adams sees it as imperative that he do something about this. Annual sales have been averaging a 3-5% increase each year over the past five years, but the corporate president wants more. Your competition has been averaging 6-8% sales growth increases in revenue each year.

Analyze the sales force structure. What is the current sales force strategy that is being used? What might be the limitations of the current sales force structure? What changes, if any, would you suggest that Mr. Adams consider making to the sales force structure to effect increased sales?