SCENARIO:

Ferno-Washing (F-W), an emergency medical products supplier in Wilmington, Ohio, has organized its sales force around broad groups of customers.  The company sells to three kinds of clients: ambulance manufacturers, national emergency medical service companies, and medical supply distributors (i.e., wholesalers).  Ambulance manufacturers purchase products based on their technical specifications, safety, and the configuration of space within the ambulance.  Meanwhile, national emergency medical service companies are in the business of running emergency centers for hospitals.  They are most interested in distribution issues such as timely delivery and consistency.  Pricing is also important and usually based on a negotiated contract.  Finally, the most important success requirement for distributors is to get them to push the Fern-Washing product line against F-W’s competitors.  This means getting your products in front of the distributor’s clients and getting your share of their salespeople’s selling time.

It has been some time since Ferno-Washing has reviewed its sales organization and they have asked you to take a look at their organization to see if it is best organization for their sales force.  What are the benefits and shortcomings associated with this type of sales organization and are their any possible alternatives to consider?  What information would you need to determine if an alternative type of organization is most appropriate for Ferno-Washing?

QUESTIONS

1. What are the benefits and shortcomings of this type of sales force organization.

2. Are there other possible sales force organizations alternatives to consider?

3. What Information would you need to determine if an alternative type oforganization is more appropriate for Ferno-Washing?

Step One: Answer the above question in 150+ words.