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Sales Force Management of

ACME Agrovete & Beverage Ltd.

Chapter-1

Introductory Part

1.1 Introduction:

Being a student of BBA program, every student is bound to complete his/her 3 months internship under corporate environment. After completing the forty courses I was placed to ACME for my internship program. There I worked under the department of marketing.To become professional expert I kip looking for doing study on the topic where I would be given the opportunity to observer and learn about marketing performance of a company. I found an opportunity in ACME Agrovet and Beverage LTD.I worked as an intern under the sales and brand department of ACME. This report is prepared based on the work that I have learned from ACME.

1.2 Origin of the report:

Bachelor of Business administration (BBA) is a four year long Bachelor program. As a student of BBA of Daffodil International University under the Department of Business administration, it is a requirement for me to accomplish the program. Student who have completed all theoretical courses of BBA are eligible to commence in to an internship program. After finishing all courses I was given an opportunity to complete my internship in Acme Agrovet and beverage Ltd. During the period attachment I was authorized to learn how the organization works. Upon the successful completion of job attachment I have prepared this report.

1.3 Scope of the report:

The report covers the detailed description of the sales force management of ACME, establishing the link between the desired traits and the firm’s success to implant those traits into their sales people through various HR programs. In short this report judged the effectiveness of the sales force management process of ACME Agrovet and Beverage LTD.

1.4 Objective of the report:

The main objective of this report is to identify the management process of sales force of Acme Agrovet and beverage Ltd which includes:-

· Designing and management of the sales force.

· Manpower planning, recruiting and selection of sales people.

· Qualification, Training and development of sales force.

· Duties, responsibilities and packages for the sales personnel.

· Motivation through genuine appreciation, inspiration and compensation.

1.5 Methodology:

The report is descriptive in nature. Mainly observation and daily learning process is used to prepare this report.

1.5.1 Data sources

This report was developed by using both primary and secondary data collected from the related people including Territorial Manager, Sales representatives, marketing experts and most importantly the sales force members. The internet was widely accessed to find vital data regarding the current trends and the organizational data. In addition to that, several magazines and journals were used to get detailed idea about this industry. Most of the data will be used in this report regarding the company policies and management practices are collected from the employees of ACME Agrovet & Beverage Ltd. at the corporate headquarters.

1.6 Limitation of the study:

· The report covers only the sales forces management of ACME.

· It was very difficult to collect the information from various personnel for their job constraint.

· The sales personnel are very busy with their job, which leads a little time to consult with.

· Every organization has their own secrecy that is not exposed to others. While collecting data they did not disclose much information for the sake of organizational confidently.

Chapter-2

Organizational Part

2.1 Background of ACME Agrovet & Beverage Ltd.:

ACME refers the “the apex” or the “highest point”. Health vigor and happiness is the philosophy of the ACME Laboratories. Its endeavor is to produce, distribute best quality drugs for the society and maintain the quality of the product in every steps of production. it also accelerates its activities for materializing the WHO ( world health organization) ensuring health for all with in 2015.

ACME Group is one of the leading and diversified global conglomerates in Bangladesh, with offices in all major cities, employing over 3000+ employees and dedicated to bringing the highest quality products and services to our customers. ACME continuously seeks to expand its production facilities, add employees and increase its sales and marketing efforts. According to the latest statistics, out of about 300 pharmaceutical companies in the country, The ACME Labs is one of the top four.

The ACME Laboratories Ltd, the pharmaceutical major and the flagship Company of the ACME Group, is a Manufacturer and Global exporter of Human, Herbal and Veterinary Pharmaceutical products. Our comprehensive Product List ranges from Antibiotics to Histamines to Vitamins.

2.2 Objective of ACME Agrovet & Beverage Ltd.:

The objective of the organization is to become number one organization in Bangladesh.

2.3 Mission, Vision and Goal

Mission:

The holistic approach of ACME to ensure Health, Vigor and Happiness for all by manufacturing ethical drugs and medicines of the highest quality at affordable prices and reaching out even to the remotest areas by proper distribution network. They view them selves’ partners with doctors, the customers, the employees and our environment. At present, Globalization is the top corporate priority.

Vision:

The Vision is to reach out even to the remotest areas of Bangladesh and improve lives with quality products at an affordable price.

Goal:

The goal of ACME Agrovet & Beverage Ltd is to raise market share.

2.4 The Board of Directors of ACME Agrovet & Beverage Ltd:

1. Md. Hasibur Rahman Sinha-Chairman

2. Md. Mizanur Rahman Sinha-Managing Director

3. Md. Afzalur Rahman Sinha-Deputy Managing Director

4. Md. Tanvir Sinha-Director

5. Md. Fahim Sinha-Director

6. Md. Himel Sinha-Director

2.5 Organizational Organ gram

Organogram: Organization Structure

2.6 Products of ACME Agrovet & Beverage Ltd:

The ACME Agrovet and Beverages Ltd. started its venture in 2005 with orange and mango juice. Then it introduced drinking mineral water. Latest of their product is ACME Premium Gold Tea. It has established a modernized plan in Bangladesh located at Hemayetpur. The plant is equipped with modernized technological facilities and run by qualified personnel in accordance with the stringent guideline of BSTI.

ACME Chilli, Coriander, Turmeric and Cumin powders

A little bit of care, A little bit of love, A little bit of happiness, A little bit of hope, A little bit of hospitability, When a little bit of everything means everything. That’s when everything becomes natural and pure. Just like ACME spice.

ACME Spice has the essence of the actual spice’s pungent taste and aroma, required in small quantity and makes food simply marvelous.

So bring home a pack of ACME Chilli, coriander, Turmeric or Cumin powders. Because for gourmet food, you need lots of quality and a little bit of ACME powder(s). Add the two to delight the mind of others.

• No Colors
• No Additives
• Available in 200gm, 100gm,50gm and 15gm packs.

ACME Juices:

Premium Classic Mango, Orange &

Mangorange juice

ACME Premium and Classic mango, orange and Mangorange juices are unique because of their taste and flavor.

ü Available in 1000ml hygienic UHT packs.

Premium Classic Mango & Orange juice

ACME Premium and Classic mango and orange juices are unique because of their taste and flavor.

• Available in 250ml hygienic UHT packs.

Classic Mango & Orange juice

ACME mango and orange juices are unique because of their taste and flavor. They are nutritionally rich, free of noxious preservatives.

· Available in 150ml hygienic UHT packs.

ACME Premium Drinking Water

ACME premium drinking water is synonymous to purity. Arsenic Free Mineral water contains proper mineral balance, is suitable for all age groups and bottled in Environment friendly PET bottle as per guide line of BSTI.

• Available in 500ml, 1000ml, 1500ml

Bottles

ACME Tea Premium Gold

ACME Tea premium gold, a supreme blend of CTC clones. It is unique for its aroma, color and taste. It contains natural antioxidants. Its natural extracts refreshes and revitalizes you and keeps you fresh and healthy.

· Currently Available in 400g pack.

· Different size tea packs will be available in 10g, 50g, 100g, 200g & 500g packs.

2.7 Financial Performance:

The last three years selling performance of ACME Agrovet and Beverage Limited are given bellow-

2.8 Corporate and social responsibility:

As a part of Corporate Social Responsibility, ACME Agrovet and Beverage Limited have been extending medical facilities and other support to 23 HIV positive patients since 2006.

ACME stands by disabled and underprivileged children.

ACME IT has awarded scholarship to 65 meritorious and needy students.

2.9 SWOT Analysis:

The Company’s Competitive Condition and Industry Analysis

Strength:

1. The ACME Agrovet and Beverage Ltd have got the investment backing of The ACME group. The goodwill of the Pharmaceutical business and also the marketing channels and distribution resources are being used as far as possible.
2. The experience, Office premises, Management and manufacture of the ACME group is a huge advantage for The ACME Agrovet and Beverage Ltd.
3. The Quality of the products of The ACME Agrovet and Beverages Ltd. is better than most of the local FMCG companies. Comparing the quality, the prices of the products are within the range of the target segment.

Weakness:

1. ACME group is doing business for more than 50 years. Therefore, this may result in traditional thinking in the top management level. Their experience is rooted by pharmaceuticals which is a totally different product from FMCG. Even the other departments in the group which are providing services to the Agrovet sector, have to understand the dimensions of Agrovet in order to provide the standard of Agrovet that it needs.
2. For poor salary structure or weak corporate culture, the employee turnover rate is increasing in the whole ACME group. This also affecting the Agrovet sector. The employees lack motivation and productivity among themselves.
3. At present, there is no specialist Research and Development team in the Agrovet. It has become a barrier in effective and efficient market research, new product development, corporate strategic planning etc.
4. This FMCG market needs lot of promotional communication in the market. It is an expense for the management. Not only ACME group, every management should understand how brand triggers sales and they should respond accordingly. This has been the problem of the local companies where they are falling back of the MNCs like Unilever who are doing it better.
5. The Agrovet is fully dependent on either the import or local buying of raw materials depending on the product. We do not have our production facilities.
6. Due to difference in the business ways, Agrovet is facing poor coordination among chain management from all other departments. Any support Agrovet needs from the other departments, they are not been able to deliver properly because they are trained for printing press, pharmacy, IT and other departments, Agrovet needs specialists.
7. In order to maintain the product quality, Agrovet lacks competitive pricing and pricing experimentation.

Opportunities:

1. Currently, the government is giving priority in expanding and promoting local agro-based business in the country. This is a huge advantage to any Agrovet business. The bank loans regarding the Agrovet industry has decreased due to government intercept to encourage the business.

2. The society is changing. People are becoming very conscious about what they are consuming. This is a good prospect for beverage industry. Now-a-days, people lack interest in drinks like Coke, Pepsi and are more inclined towards having juice, tea and when they are outside, having mineral water. May be now the rate is very low, but it is increasing. It shows the prospect for FMCG products.

3. The number of dual income families is increasing at an alarming rate. The lifestyle of people is becoming faster and this leaves them with minimum time to cook. Therefore, it is a huge opportunity for spices market.

4. Our country is rich with natural fruits and productive land. This can be used as a source of our raw materials needed for the manufacturing of ACME products. We can build ways to production in our own country.

5. Globalization is a major factor for us to increase our market scope in the international arena. For Globalization, it is much easier now to enter foreign market and increase our exports to earn higher margin. It would also enable us to set up our office premises and our manufacturing plant elsewhere where it would be sustainable for us to create an MNC.

6. In our country, the supporting industries are also growing at a faster rate. There is more number of local TV channels going international, new competition in the advertising, market tension, and other factors as well. These things would help us in our reach to our customers and also in other part of our business, for example, more number of TV channels and newspapers would mean more promotional activities and decreasing advertising cost.

Threats:

1. Globalization can also backfire. There are many corporate giants which are trying to enter our market. Being a third world country, our country is a market place for everything. Terrorists, smuggling, counterfeiting, product dumping and many other things. First world countries use our country by exerting pressure on our governments to sell their low graded products in our country. These products take away the market from our local products. But generally they are very low in quality.
2. With increasing technology, our country being high in corruption, use those technologies in order to make fake products under different brand names. ACI, ACME and Coke are victims of such fraudulent activities. These technologies help these people to make similar kind of product packages and sell them by using the reputation and goodwill of those products.
3. The ACME Agrovet and Beverage Ltd is a sister concern of The ACME Laboratories Ltd. Therefore, the goodwill and reputation of the products and services is like a chain that is binding all of them. If there is any problem with the reputation and quality of any one sister concern, the effect would be on all of them. So all the concerns have to maintain the same standard.
4. The current corporate giants are the biggest threats not only in terms of competition but also in ways of how they are exploiting or using the supplying industries for their own operation. This can be in terms of their cost of raw materials. They can use low quality raw materials and can easily cut their cost of manufacturing. This would give them a price advantage and greater profit margin.
5. The unstable political condition is a big threat for any company. Sudden hartal or blockage may result in the delay or no distribution of products. It can also hamper the regular official work if there are any downtown abnormalities due to political issues.
6. The corruption in the government can result in certain changes of rules and regulations. Any foreign company can easily bribe or can do heavy lobbying in order to enter the market with a product of better brand image.

2.10 PEST Analysis:

Political Situation:

The political situation is a big factor in any industry. This is a general factor for all of the business entities. Any political disorder results in problems of the organizations’ daily hazards. For example, hartal, strike etc can hamper the normal product distribution of ACME to the local or regional distribution.

Economic:

It is a general factor that affects any profit making organization. It explains the market demand supply, public disposable income etc. ACME would export product to that countries which has got people with high disposable income. The prices of the products are to be set accordingly. In the national level, few districts have higher sales, higher profit margin and also higher distributors or trader profit. For example Dhaka, Chittagong, Bogra, Sylhet, it can also be based on area, Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Banani etc.

Social:

This general factor is important because it defines the culture, rules and norms and other influences of the Society that the country is operated in. ACME cannot easily have higher profit margin because our society is not accustomed to habit of having Juice or Tea in a regular routine manner. They do not understand the importance of juice in their daily diet or having pure refined mineral water on roads. They do not understand how having branded tea is useful to their health. So, it is affecting ACME.

Technology:

ACME is a manufacturing company. So technology is a big general factor for any manufacturing company. The machineries that are being used are a part of the technology. Different machines have different production capacity. They need trained personnel to operate them. So the training facilities come into play as well. The workers of the plant need to be aware of the upcoming technologies and their preliminary education is also a factor. Here comes the question of their payment. This shows how important technology is and how it is affecting the operation of the organization.

Chapter 3

Learning Part

Figure-3: Sales force management process

3.1 Designing the Sales Force:

Big Companies spend over millions annually on personal selling. This is more than ACME spending on any other promotional method. Furthermore, majorettes of part-timers are employed in sales and related occupations. Sales forces are found throughout the business environment from the insurance industry to college recruiting and just about everything in between. Therefore, ACME carefully considers how to design and manage its sales force in order to be successful in the marketplace. This paper will discusses how businesses should design a sales force and how managers can effectively manage their sales force. When designing a sales force, a company must thoroughly consider several issues in order to establish an efficient sales system. These issues are: the development of sales force objectives, strategy, structure, and compensation of the sales force. Sales force objectives are the specific goals that companies expect their sales representatives to achieve. Sales quotas inform a salesperson of exactly what their objective should be for a given period of time.

Additionally, besides quotas, there are other ways of delineating sales objectives. For example, objectives commonly defined by companies in addition to quotas are: prospecting, targeting communicating, servicing, information gathering, and allocating. Essentially, companies must clearly define the specific objectives they want their sales force to achieve and, if these objectives are met, it will lead to product sales for the company. With respect to strategy, ACME uses sales representatives strategically so that they approach customers at a time when they are most likely to buy. There are several approaches that can be used by salespeople depending upon which best fits the situation. For example, an individual sales representative can approach a particular individual buyer or a buyer group. Or, a sales team can approach the individual buyer or buyer group. Also, sales representatives can employ a technique called seminar selling, where a company team conducts an educational seminar for the customer company about state-of-the-art developments. Once ACME decides on a sales approach, it maintains a market focus. This means that salespeople know how to analyze sales data, measure market potential, gather market intelligence, and develop marketing strategies and plans. Finding the right resources to accomplish these goals is something that ACME take into account when designing a sales force.

3.2 Management of the sales force:

In any organization or company, there must be an effective management to let the goal achieved by using the employees. Without having a very strong and clear management procedure; it is next to impossible to survive in the business industry. This is true for all the industries of the world.

Once the sales force foundation of ACME has been effectively designed, the next step on the road to building a successful ACME is successfully managing the sales force. There are various procedures and steps that they utilize to effectively manage a sales force. For example, there are four main steps involved in ACME for managing a sales force: training of the sales representatives, supervising the sales representatives, motivating the sales representatives, and evaluating the sales representatives. Training is the first essential step in managing a sales force in ACME. New sales representatives who are sent directly into the field with little or no training beforehand are rarely successful. Customers expect a sales representative to be knowledgeable about not only the product they are selling, but also about the customer’s needs. Thus, for ACME proper training is a crucial step in managing an effective sales team. Supervision of sales representatives is also a critical area in managing a sales force. In general, sales representatives who work on commission in ACME can be supervised less closely than those who are salaried. Motivating sales representatives is another area where ACME is successful. Evaluating sales representatives in ACME is another step in successful managing of a sales force. Evaluating salespeople frequently involves the use of sales reports, which tells the manager exactly how competent the sales representative is in selling the product.

3.3 Manpower planning:

The penalties for not being correctly staffed are costly in ACME. This is because:

ACME realizes the Understaffing loses in the business economies of scale and specialization, orders, customers and profits.

ACME believes Overstaffing is wasteful and expensive, if sustained, and it is costly to eliminate because of modern legislation in respect of redundancy payments, consultation, minimum periods of notice, etc. Very importantly, overstaffing reduces the competitive efficiency of the business.

Planning staff levels requires that an assessment of present and future needs of the organization be compared with present resources and future predicted resources. Appropriate steps then be planned to bring demand and supply into balance. Thus the ACME takes a ‘satellite picture’ of the existing workforce profile (numbers, skills, ages, flexibility, gender, experience, forecast capabilities, character, potential, etc. of existing employees) and then to adjust this for 1, 3 and 10 years ahead by amendments for normal turnover, planned staff movements, retirements, etc, in line with the business plan for the corresponding time frames.

The result is a series of crude supply situations as would be the outcome of present planning if left unmodified. (This, clearly, requires a great deal of information accretion, classification and statistical analysis as a subsidiary aspect of personnel management.) What future demands will be is only influenced in part by the forecast of the personnel manager, whose main task may well be to scrutinize and modify the crude predictions of other managers. Future staffing of needs in ACME are derived from:

• Sales and production forecasts
• The effects of technological change on task needs
• Variations in the efficiency, productivity, flexibility of labor as a result of training, work study, organizational change, new motivations, etc.
• Changes in employment practices (e.g. use of subcontractors or agency staffs, hiving-off tasks, buying in, substitution, etc.)
• Changes in Government policies (investment incentives, regional or trade grants, etc.)

What should emerge from this ‘blue sky gazing’ is a ‘thought out’ and logical staffing demand schedule for varying dates in the future which can then be compared with the crude supply schedules. The comparisons will then indicate what steps must be taken to achieve a balance. That, in turn, will involve the further planning of such recruitment, training, retraining, labor reductions (early retirement/redundancy) or changes in workforce utilization as will bring supply and demand into equilibrium, not just as a one–off but as a continuing workforce planning exercise the inputs to which will need constant varying to reflect ‘actual’ as against predicted experience on the supply side and changes in production actually achieved as against forecast on the demand side. Ultimately, managing a sales force in ACME is to effectual training of the sales representatives, supervising the sales representatives, motivating the sales representatives, and evaluating the sales representatives.

3.4 Recruiting and Selection procedure:

Recruitment refers to the process of finding right people for the right job or function, usually undertaken by recruiters. It also may be undertaken by an employment agency or a member of staff at the business or organization looking for recruits. Advertising is commonly part of the recruiting process, and can occur through several means: through online, newspapers, using newspaper dedicated to job advertisement, through professional publication, using advertisements placed in windows, through a job center, through campus graduate recruitment programs, etc. Suitability for a job is typically assessed by looking for skills, e.g. communication skills, typing skills, computer skills. Evidence for skills required for a job may be provided in the form of qualifications (educational or professional), experience in a job requiring the relevant skills or the testimony of references. Employment agencies may also give computerized tests to assess an individual’s “off-hand” knowledge of software packages or typing skills. At a more basic level written tests may be given to assess knowledge and literacy. A candidate may also be assessed on the basis of an interview. Sometimes candidates will be requested to provide a résumé (also known as a CV) or to complete a Job application form to provide this evidence.

3.5 Recruitment and selection of employees:

Recruitment in ACME is preceded by an analysis of the job (i.e. an analytical study of the tasks to be performed to determine their essential factors) written into a job description so that the selectors know what physical and mental characteristics applicants must possess, what qualities and attitudes are desirable and what characteristics are a decided disadvantage;

In the case of replacement staff a critical questioning of the need to recruit at all is prepared (replacement should rarely be an automatic process).

Effectively, selection is ‘buying’ an employee in ACME (the price being the wage or salary multiplied by probable years of service) hence bad buys can be very expensive. For that reason ACME uses external expert consultants for recruitment and selection.

Equally ACME exists to ‘head hunt’, i.e. to attract staff with high reputations from existing employers to the recruiting employer. However, the ‘cost’ of poor selection is such that, even for the mundane day-to-day jobs, those who recruit and select are well trained to judge the suitability of applicants.

The main sources of recruitment for ACME Agrovet and Beverage Ltd. are:

• Internal promotion and internal introductions (at times desirable for morale purposes)
• Careers officers (and careers masters at schools)
• University appointment boards
• Agencies for the unemployed
• Advertising (often via agents for specialist posts) or the use of other local media (e.g. commercial radio)

Where ACME does its own printed advertising it has some identifying logo as its trade mark for rapid attraction and it takes care not to offend the sex, race, etc. antidiscrimination legislation either directly or indirectly. The form on which the applicant applies (personal appearance, letter of application, completion of a form) varies according to the posts vacant and numbers to be recruited. It is very desirable in many jobs that claim about experience and statements about qualifications are thoroughly checked (the latter is not necessarily injurious to the applicants’ chance of being appointed as firms are required to employ a percentage of disabled people). Before letters of appointment are sent, any doubts about medical fitness or capacity (in employments where hygiene considerations are dominant) should be resolved by requiring applicants to attend a medical examination. This is especially so where, as for example in the case of apprentices, the recruitment is for a contractual period or involves the firm in training costs.

Interviewing in ACME is carried out by individuals (e.g. supervisor or departmental manager), by panels of interviewers or in the form of sequential interviews by different experts and can vary from a five minute ‘chat’ to a process of several days. Ultimately personal skills in judgment are probably the most important, but techniques to aid judgment include selection testing for:

• Aptitudes (particularly useful for school leavers)
• Attainments
• General intelligence
• (All of these need skilled testing and assessment.) In more senior posts other techniques are:
• Leaderless groups
• Command exercises
• Group problem solving

(These are some common techniques – professional selection organizations often use other techniques to aid in selection.)

Training in interviewing and in appraising candidates is in practice in ACME recruitment. Largely the former consists of teaching interviewers how to draw out the interviewee and the latter how to rate the candidates. For consistency (and as an aid to checking that) rating often consists of scoring candidates for experience, knowledge, physical/mental capabilities, intellectual levels, motivation, prospective potential, leadership abilities etc. (according to the needs of the post). Application of the normal curve of distribution to scoring eliminates freak judgment.

3.6Minimum Qualification Required:

ACME has some specific criteria to recruit some particular sales force employee. They have different designation or post to recruit sales force employee. So for the different designation, they required minimum level of qualification for recruiting or selecting the candidates. Minimum level of qualification is set by different designation. This is given below:

3.7 Training & Employee Development of Sales Force:

Supervision

What is “Supervision”?

There are several interpretations of the term “supervision”, but typically supervision is the activity carried out by supervisors to oversee the productivity and progress of employees who report directly to the supervisors. For example, first-level supervisors supervise entry-level employees. Depending on the size of the organization, middle-managers supervise first-level supervisors; chief executives supervise middle-managers, etc. Supervision is a management activity and supervisors have a management role in ACME.

What Do Supervisors Do?

Supervision of a group of employees in ACME often includes

1. Conducting basic management skills (decision making, problem solving, planning, delegation and meeting management)

2. Organizing their department and teams

3. Noticing the need for and designing new job roles in the group

4. Hiring new employees

5. Training new employees

6. Employee performance management (setting goals, observing and giving feedback, addressing performance issues, firing employees, etc.)

7. Conforming to personnel policies and other internal regulations

3.8 Effective Employee Supervision:

In ACME every interaction with the customer is critical, presenting an opportunity to either positively or negatively affect a purchasing decision. At the heart of these interactions is the way in which management has selected, trained, and treated their employees.

At ACME it is becoming increasingly clear that the hiring and management of employees and the development of workplace culture is vital to the success—and often instrumental in the failure—of a company. Specifically, there are four key employee factors to evaluate that bear directly on the success or failure of interactions between an employee and a customer.

1) The employee’s competence.

2) The employee’s attention to detail.

3) The employee’s workplace attitudes.

4) The employee’s commitment to the success of the organization.

In ACME each of these factors can be positive or negative, but—most importantly for our purposes—each can be positively affected by good management practices. Employees possess the necessary skills to do their jobs well, but consistent performance requires a commitment to excellence and a focus on the details that create a positive customer experience.

The single most common complaint heard from business owners is that employees aren’t committed to the business. When we consider that management cannot possibly oversee every interaction between employees and the customer, the idea of commitment begins to take on critical importance. Employees, for reasons we will discuss, have the capacity to derail the most resourceful organizations. Even companies with innovative products and services, the best facilities, the largest advertising budgets, and the finest customer support systems can be sorely compromised by one under-performing employee.

Ultimately in ACME, a significant number of past employee failures can be traced to management dysfunction. First, management is responsible for the hiring decisions (controlling who comes into the organization), and second, leadership and control practices are determined by management (deciding how employees are directed and communicated with). It would, therefore, be much more effective to first examine management’s performance in these two areas prior to blindly assigning the blame for all performance failures exclusively to employees. But, these days, learning from the bitter experiences, ACME Agrovet and Beverage Ltd. are far more careful in the field of sales force management.

3.9 Structure of the Sales Force:

Basically the Sales Force Strategy has implications for the sales force structure. ACME sales force structure depends on the company’s sales objective, Resources, Condition of the Market and Economy. The Sales Force Structure of Acme is as follows.

· Territorial: It means a geographical boundary where ACME has to sell product in many locations.

· Product: This Company producing too many products for their customer to satisfy and they are also providing a value added service.

· Customer Group: Company has specialized for their Sales Force along with their related industry or, customer line.

· Complex: ACME serves their products in wide market.

3.10 Size of the sales force:

• Total Sales representatives: 269

• Distribution points: 269

• Territory sales assistant: 14 persons

• Territory Manager: 49

• Area Manager: 6 persons

• Zonal Manger: 1

• Regional Sales Manager: 1

3.11 Duties and Responsibility of the Concerned Personal:

As this report focuses on the sales force of ACME Agrovet and Beverage Ltd., this segment will concentrate solely on the responsibilities and tasks of the direct sales people or the grass root level employees as they are the ones executing the sales process. Normally, the post of sales people is known as medical representative.

The key responsibility of this post is to assess demand by medical stores, promote new products and closing the sale by delivering medicines. However, the task of the upper management is quite different. The upper management deals with strategy formulation and execution. For example, at ACME Agrovet and Beverage Ltd. the job responsibilities of sales manager at district or territory level is like this:

• Achieving sales objectives through the sales force
• Prepare marketing plans to expand market share of assigned brands.
• Feed the market demand with innovative ideas, information and strategies
• Visit customers as and when required to assess implementation and outcome of given strategies as well as to identify newer needs of the market.
• Evaluating performance of the assigned sales force
• Exploring new markets and identifying new customers

Whereas these jobs are about managing and supervising the grass root level sales force, the responsibilities of the actual sales force is quite different:

• Fulfilling the quota assigned in terms of sales
• Keeping excellent contacts with the super store and shops.
• Ensure customer service and maintain customer relation
• Ensure party-wise products distribution
• Expand market share of assigned brands
• Implementing the company sales policy by attaining sales goals
• Conducting promotional activities to promote new products
• Collecting info about competitor’s offerings, current trends and upcoming demands from the market
• Ensuring liaison between the organization and the market

In short these are the key responsibilities of the sales force of ACME Agrovet and Beverage Ltd., which is the prime concern of this report.

3.12 Packages for the sales personnel:

As might be expected, employers ranked wages as the item they felt workers cared most about, while employees ranked wages fifth on their list. Is adequate pay an important consideration to an employee? Of course it is; it’s just not the most important consideration. Not surprisingly, these results have been replicated with little variance in each of the last three decades. However, employees at any level require the following guidelines:

• Do I know what is expected of me at work?
• Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
• At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
• In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
• Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
• Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

These factors not only provide clear guidelines for the employees but only boost the moral of employees enhancing employee performance and most importantly, employees consider these issues as compensation factors.

Encouragement and praise are two additional parts of effective employee communication, and they also play a significant role in building trust with a manager. If that’s not strength for your managers, it’s time to get some help in that area as well.

To retain good staff and to encourage them to give their best while at work, ACME provides attention to the financial and psychological and even physiological rewards offered by the organization as a continuous exercise. Basic financial rewards and conditions of service (e.g. working hours per week) are determined externally (by national bargaining or government minimum wage legislation) in many occupations but as much as 50 per cent of the gross pay of manual workers is often the result of local negotiations and details (e.g. which particular hours shall be worked) of conditions of service are often more important than the basics. Hence there is scope for financial and other motivations to be used at local levels. Hence while the technicalities of payment and other systems may be the concern of others, the outcome of them is a matter of great concern to human resource management. Increasingly the influence of behavioral science discoveries is becoming important not merely because of the widely-acknowledged limitations of money as a motivator, but because of the changing mix and nature of tasks (e.g. more service and professional jobs and far fewer unskilled and repetitive production jobs).

As a result, employee motivation has become a vital issue for the management of any firm. So ACME takes the following initiatives to motivate its employees:

3.12.1 Employee Motivation by Building Satisfaction:

ACME believes that only way to generate sustained profits is to build a work environment that attracts, focuses, and keeps talented employees. In other words, they have to be motivated to show up, get committed and perform at a level of excellence. Employee motivation as it relates to employees satisfaction is vitally important. And, it goes way beyond just a “happier workforce”. Because there is an undeniable link between satisfied, motivated employees, and satisfied customers. In other words, focus on creating satisfied employees, focus on employee motivation, and those motivated, satisfied employees will take good care of customers.

3.12.2 Motivation through Genuine Appreciation:

At times, Managers unknowingly sabotage employee motivation by failing to recognize the positive behaviors and achievements of their employees. As a result, employees don’t know whether or not they are doing a good job. Fortunately, managers can improve employee motivation by rewarding employees with personal attention. This can include a pat on the back, a hand-written note, or a quick comment in the hall. When showing appreciation, be specific. Instead of just saying, “We really are grateful for the good job you do around here,” the approach might be, “I really appreciate how you handled the Franklin Industries account last week when we had to get their rush order out late Friday afternoon. Your effort really made a difference.” By being specific, the employer comes across as much more sincere, and the employee realizes their actions are truly being watched. And, a highly level of employee motivation is the natural result. All these practices are evident in ACME Agrovet and Beverage LTD.’s sales force management.

3.12.3 Motivation through Recognition:

Many people will do for recognition what they will not do for money. And, this is the manager’s secret weapon for employee motivation. Some people are motivated by the opportunity to get their name on the wall, receive a trophy at an annual banquet, or see their name in the company newsletter. It gives them an “emotional payoff” for their actions.

Look for ways to increase employee motivation by recognizing excellence in the workplace. Ring a bell every time an individual or team hits the production target. Put up posters with the photographs of team members who have had the most days without accidents. Give out awards for attendance records. Just do something. It is so inexpensive, yet highly effective in your efforts of employee motivation.

3.12.4 Motivation through Inspiration:

Inspiration comes from leadership. This form of employee motivation includes the company’s mission, purpose and goals. People want to be part of an organization that is going somewhere, that stands for something, and that provides a meaningful service to the marketplace. In order to lead an inspired, mission-guided organization, ACME follows these steps to enhance employee motivation:

• Have a clear mission – in other words, know where you are going.
• Be excited and passionate about your mission. After all, if you don’t get excited, they won’t either.
• Be able to communicate the mission, its value to the marketplace. In other words, why it’s worthwhile.
• Make sure everyone in the organization understands and can communicate the mission.
• Be sure employees understand how they fit into the process of fulfilling the organization’s mission.
• Make the connection between the mission and the individual values and goals of your employees.
• Keep your mission in front of everyone in the organization.

3.12.5 Motivation through Compensation:

Some employees are motivated by money. In fact, most are motivated by money; at least for their basic needs. Employee motivation through compensation can come in the form of raises, performance bonuses, commissions, profit sharing, or any number of “extra benefits” like, automobiles, vacations, or other tangible items purchased and used as rewards.

During our visit to the ACME Agrovet and Beverage ltd. corporate HQ, we noticed an interesting program there. They have a sophisticated system for rewarding employees based on customer feedback. On a regular basis, ACME Agrovet and Beverage ltd. conduct customer feedback surveys to determine the level of satisfaction among its customers. When customers comment on the performance of selling personnel, the employee accumulates points that can be used to purchase rewards like trips, gifts, and other incentives. Besides these secondary compensation packages, ACME provides the acceptable salary among other FMCG to its employees which is why the best sales people go to ACME.

3.13 Sales force Compensation:

1. Sales Representatives (SR):

Position: (Sales Representatives)	Salary(Tk.)
Basic	3500
Per day working(100*26)	2600
Mobile Allowance	300
Travel Allowance	1000
Total	7400 Tk. (approx)

2. Territory Sales Assistance (TSA):

Position: (Territory sales Assistance)	Salary(Tk.)
Basic	5500
Per day working(150*26)	3900
Mobile Allowance	1500
Travel Allowance	2000
Total	13000 Tk. (approx)

3. Territory Manager (TM):

Position: (Territory sales Assistance)	Salary(Tk.)
Basic	8000
Per day working(150*26)	3900
Mobile Allowance	1500
Travel Allowance	2000
Total	15400 Tk. (approx)

4. Area Manager (AM):

Position: (Area Manager)	Salary(Tk.)
Basic	10000
Per day working(200*26)	5200
Mobile Allowance	2000
Travel Allowance	3000
Total	20200 Tk. (approx)

3.14 Last Recent Primary sales report of ACME with corresponding to the Target & Achievement on different location of Bangladesh.

Statement of Primary Sales report from 01.05.09 to 31.05.09

Name of the Sales Center	Target	Direct sale	Dis. sale	Total: dir+dis	Ach %
Bogra	2555391	0	1298996	1298996	50.83
Rangpur	1166656	0	659588	659588	56.54
Dinajpur	1095082	0	821957	821957	75.06
Rajshahi	1993367	0	1170795	1170795	58.73
Mr Mubarok (ZM) Total	6810496	0	3951336	3951336	58.02
Mymensingh	3847001	0	3080833	3080833	80.08
Mr: Azibor(AM)Total	3845001	0	3080833	3080833	80.08
Savar	5117960	59616	4546931	4606547	90.01
Mr………. (AM) total	5117960	59616	4546931	4606547	90.01
Barisal	4552101	88001	3156229	3244230	71.24
Faridpur	1286332	0	1033713	1033713	80.36
Khulna	2512247	0	1528335	1528335	60.84
Jessor	2404164	0	1650635	1650635	68.66
MR Munirul (RSM)Total	10754844	88001	7368912	7456913	69.34
Chittagong	4609364	51940	3066079	3118019	67.65
Chakaria	2626765	10179	1575334	1585513	60.36
Comilla	3604840	253541	3356341	3609882	100.14
Chowmuhoni	2517426	50000	2360554	2410554	95.75
Sylhet	3244536	169177	2162136	2331313	71.85
Mr Zamal (RSM total)	16602931	534837	12520444	13055281	78.63
Dhaka city North	10842894	0	6434834	6434834	59.35
Mr istiaq AM total	10842894	0	6434835	6434835	59.35
Nayangong	3485408	0	2668821	2668821	82.31
Dhaka city south	9776680	0	6845404	6845404	70.02
Mr allauddin ZM total	13262088	0	9714225	9714225	73.25
Mr Rahimullah TM total	4315911	0	2129121	2129121	49.33
Assistance sales manager		0	475989	475989
National	71554125	682454	50222626	50905080	71.14

3.15 Effectiveness of sales force of ACME Agrovet and Beverage LTD:

Before starting this report, we conducted a survey among Territory Manager, sales to find out the factors that determine the success of a sales person in this sector. These are the findings:

• A rational rather than emotional appeal
• An empathetic attitude
• A unique style of communication
• Thorough idea about the product
• A positive body language
• Superb product demonstration
• Answering the queries and questions of the client
• Repeated sales calls
• Honesty and Trustworthiness
• Corporate image of the organization
• Sense of humor
• Excellent educational background and energetic physic
• Listening attitude
• Soothing appearance and spoken skills

From our survey these factors emerged as success factors for the sales people in the pharmaceutical industry. However, this report shows a very close relation between the management of sales force at ACME. And these factors. The whole management of sales force is targeted towards achieving these factors or traits in the selling people. Some of these traits are gained by nature, but ACME. Strives to train up their sales people in these aspects to develop their deficiencies. From that point of view, it can be said that, ACME is perfectly aware of the market needs regarding the sales people and they have a consistent sales force management technique that ensures the availability of the right type of sales people. Perhaps, this is the main reason behind ACME continuous dominance in the Bangladeshi FMCG industry, being able to recruit, nurture and retain the right type of sales people desired by the customers.

Chapter Four

Findings

Recommendation

Conclusion

Findings:

· The recruitment decision making process is lengthy, which consume time and cost of the company.

· The sales target fixed by the company for each and every sales people which is too high to achieve, sometimes create frustration among sales people and ultimately they become demotivated.

· Any HSC (Higher Secondary Certificate Qualified)pass student can apply for the post of sales representative in ACME Agrovet & Beverage Ltd. Which need to be modified.

· Salary structure is not satisfactory, so the sales representative’s turnover rate is high.

Recommendation:

From the report it is clear, Acme Agrovet and Beverage Ltd has positioned itself as the renowned firm in the FMCG industry in Bangladesh. Through continuous innovation and a quest for effective sales force management, Acme Agrovet and Beverage Ltd has differentiated itself from its competitors. Therefore, the success of Acme Agrovet and Beverage Ltd. is no surprise at all. The future is uncertain and Acme Agrovet and Beverage Ltd. should always be alert to capitalize on any future opportuni