You are the sales manager for a hair and facial cosmetics distributor in the Midwest and have a staff of 120 sales representatives calling on literally thousands of hairstyle retail shops. The former sales manager had segmented the sales territory into two six-state geographical regions as follows:
- Region one: North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, and Iowa
- Region two: Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio
While the brands that your company represents are competitive, a two-year downward trend in revenues in your second region has you concerned. By his own admission, the former manager never took the time to study the buying decision-making behavior of clients. Knowing that your job may be on the line, you are determined to identify the factors that influence the purchase of your products at the retail level.
On the basis of the given scenario, answer the following questions in a 2-page Microsoft Word document:
- What types of problems do you think you need to resolve?
- What are the typical purchase criteria and specifications of your average client?
- What is the nature of the organizational influences on the buying decision?
- What is the typical relationship between your sales representatives and the retail shop business managers?