Sales Team Structure, Roles and Rewards: Infinix Analysis - Case Study Example

SALES TEAM STRUCTURE, ROLES AND REWARDS: INFINIX CASE ANALYSIS Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation University Date Table of Contents Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………………3 1.0 Introduction..…………………………………………………………………………………4 2.0 Sales Team Organisational Structure & Role Descriptions.…………………………………4 2.1 Sales Team Representation..…………………………………………………………5 2.2 Sales Team Role & Responsibilities..……………………………………………………………………..8 3.0 Salary Packaging Content & Supporting Arguments..………………………………………11 3.1 Remuneration Package: Base Salary & Bonuses……………………………………11 3.2 Expenses….………………………………………………………………………….13 References List…..………………………………………………………………………………15 Executive Summary This report is focused on identifying the immediate sales organisational structure of Infinix-a Smartphone company into the Australian market for the period ending December 2016. There is a predetermined sales budget of $7.5M that is expected to cover expenses related to remuneration packages, training and development as well as bonuses for the entire sales force. It presents information related to the different positions held that include; national sales director; regional and district sales managers as well as sales-account personnel that are based on different retailing sections across all of the Australian states. The introduction of the Infinix brand into the Australian market adopts a geographical sales structure that is focused on meeting overall sales target. The structure is also adopted since it allows for easier creation of a sustainable customer relationship hence help in maintaining a loyalty base. The remuneration package is made up of basic pay and bonuses for all employees while expenses are only cut down to travel, accommodation and communication expenses within the period. 1.0 Introduction Infinix is an affordable smart mobile phone gadget that is produced for most of the markets across the world and can thus, be introduced effectively within the larger Australian market. It is important that the company focuses on building intensive customer-based relationships for purposes of maximising the level of targeted sales that is currently placed at $50M. For this case, the customers for Infinix are the different retail chains that are fairly-distributed across Australia. Through this sales distribution points, Infinix smartphones will be available to the larger Australian population. 2.0 Sales Team Organisational Structure & Role Descriptions Considering the fact that most of the retailers that include; JB Hi-Fi and Good Guys, already have a significant presence in the country, they will form the largest section of the customers for the Smartphone product at hand. In essence, a geographical sales structure is adopted for purposes of assigning different sales team to these different regions (Rugman & Verbeke, 2004). Sales workforce will be distributed and allocated duties depending with the potential market size as well as their abilities to push on the new product into the market. They are expected to provide efficient and trustworthy customer-based relationships. At the lowest –level of the sales team personnel is the sales-account personnel who will be the primary representative of the product at the market. This group of personnel ought to possess extensive skills related to the product use since they will directly relate with the customers at each point. They are responsible for enhancing positive and effective customer-relationships that is based on trust and honesty on the viability of the gadget (Homburg, Workman, & Jensen, 2000). 2.1 Sales Team Representation To successfully push the Infinix product into the market, it is expected that the different sales personnel and especially the district sales managers help in the formulation and development of positive relationship especially with retailers to ensure that the product is always availed in the shelves and maximise on customer loyalty to not only the brand but also the retailer points (Ruigrok & Wagner, 2003). The Figure 1 below shows how the sales team orgnisational structure of the company. As can be seen from the sales organisational structure above, there are regions that have been integrated in order to cut down on administrative expenses and instead use the savings to hire even more sales-account personnel that are in fact responsible for meeting the needs of the customers at each distribution point. The sales trends, customers taste and preferences for each of these four regions differ; hence it was necessary to come up with a geographical sales structure for the purpose of ensuring that districts as well as regional sales managers are aware of these aspect and plan efficiently in order to meet target sales. Regional sales managers will be only four in number to head all of the Australian states. This is also true for the district sales managers that will also be one for each state for purposes of ensuring that the costs are reduced as much as possible. The sales-account personnel will be responsible for marketing of the different Infinix phones like the Hot 2 and Note Plus models (Infinix, 2016). In essence, the adoption of a geographical sales structure for this project is set to develop a much more efficient sales force team for Infinix given that it permits both regional and district sales team come up with unique set objectives for their specific areas/states that fairly resonates with the overall goal of attaining $50M in sales revenues. The Figure 2 below shows how the map of the Australian states and how they will be covered especially by the regional sales managers. Figure 2 As can be seen from the map above, Western Australia, North Territory and South Australia are all included under a single region and thus, regional manager. Queensland; due to its large population size is solely represented under a single regional manager. Both New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory are integrated together and so are Victoria and Tasmania territories. 2.2 Sales Team Role & Responsibilities A. National Sales Director There will be a single national director that will be representing Infinix in the entire Australian market. The personnel will be an executive employee of the company and will be responsible for the following duties; Ensure to provide top-level leadership for the entire sales workforce in Australia through liaising with regional managers to fully understand the dynamics of the new market. Formulate distinctive sales plans and marketing strategies for purposes of ensuring that sales targets are met at each quota of operations. Arrange for fortnight meetings with both regional and district managers to analyse the level of penetration of the product within the periods at hand. Formulating overall sales objectives for the entire Australian market and establish the sales retailing process for the product. B. Regional Sales Manager Regional sales managers are expected to provide a clear and concise direction for sales in regards to their immediate states allocation ensure to avail state-based operational goals that are focused on meeting regional sales; and also ascertain possible recommendations best fit for the ever-changing customer tastes and preferences with each of these regions (Ruigrok & Wagner, 2003). Therefore, the below forms some of the responsibilities for these managers; Provide top-notch leadership to the district sales managers by coming up with set objectives and goals that fairly resonates with overall set goals by the National Sales Director to ensure that the sales targets are met at predetermined periods. Come up with efficient approaches to impact product knowledge to the different sales team as well as develop marketing strategies that fairly resonate with the regions for which they are supposed to head. Develop clear guidelines for purposes of employee promotion, retention and employment-termination practices. Provide timely resolutions to possible issues that could come up and thereby facilitating a clear platform for the implementation of necessary changes. Enforcing organisational operational culture to the new sales workforce in Australia. Produce quarterly sales report for their specific regions. District Sales Managers District sales managers are important sales personnel that are expected to develop and enhance their management capabilities in relation to the expected workloads of junior sales-account personnel within their specific allocated districts, providing motivation and guidance on how well they can go about with selling as well as attain overall preset sales revenues targets (Ruigrok & Wagner, 2003). Some of the notable responsibilities for these managers include; Develop and implement sales activities and targets within the district of operations. Provide pertinent leadership to the sales-account personnel that greatly involve immediate supervisions of their respective tasks on a daily basis. Formulate existing and developing customer tastes and preferences, competition and market trends in the mobile phone gadgets operational base. Ensure to identify possible gaps in regards to skills and knowledge pertaining to product use while at the same time devises; efficient training model for the sales-account personnel aimed at achieving overall sales targets. Enforce and ensure to sustain orgnisational-based policies and practices at the district levels. Devise marketing strategies and especially campaign mechanisms that would be used for each of the district that would attain overall market targets are met and on time. Sales-Account Personnel The sales-account personnel will be the lowly-placed sales workforce for Infix as they will be positioned at different sales point or rather retailers across different sections of the district. They are the immediate contacts of the company to the underlying customers hence they are expected to be knowledgeable and skilled in product handling (Tanner, 2015). Given that they are the most crucial representative workforce, they expected to conduct the below responsibilities; Ascertain their ability to avail pertinent knowledge and skills on such Infinix products as Hot 2 and Note Plus to the potential and existing customers. Develop workable communication and feedback mechanisms that are set to improve the existing relationship with the customers. Manage customer accounts by of providing timely support and assistance to customers that have already acquired the Infinix product at hand. 3.0 Salary Packaging Content & Supporting Arguments Salary package are devised and implemented depending with the different roles of each sales employee involved in the project. The package also relates to their level of experience and position within the organisational structure. Given a budget of $7.5M, at least 86.7% of it will be directed towards wages; 3.3% will be allocated to employee retention programs, training and developments while the rest (10%) will be assigned to bonuses to the entire in the event that they met the overall sales target of $50M. In essence, the remuneration package will thus constitute of 90% of the predetermined budget while the remaining 10% will be directed towards offering training and developments within the first year of launching. A substantial number of the budget money will be used for training and development of employees because they are expected to familiarise themselves with the gadget at hand and thus, acquire relevant knowledge and skills that will definitely apply at their field-days. The rationale behind spending the largest percentage of the budget amounts on remuneration is to ensure that the entire sales workforce are motivated and are thus able to perform their duties to the maximum of their abilities. It also relates to the minimum wages guidelines in Australia. 3.1 Remuneration Package: Base Salary & Bonuses At the moment, the remuneration package will only be composed of base salary and bonuses. There will be no commissions paid to any of the staff because bonuses will be used to cover for this item however; it will be introduced later probably in the forthcoming budget. This is meant to ensure that sales target is inclined towards fundamental organisational goals and objectives. It is important to note that the base salaries will be paid slightly above the recommended telecommunication industry level to motivate the personnel into putting all their level best into actualising the predetermined sales target. The Table below will be used for determining the base salaries and expected bonuses for the different sales personnel involved in the project; Sales Personnel Industry Average (Annual Pay) Infinix(Proposed Annual Basic Pay) Bonuses National Sales Director 105,000 180,000 5% Regional Sales Manager 95,000 130,000 8% District Sales Manager 70,000 100,000 15% Sales-Account Personnel 65,000 80,000 25% As can be seen from the table above, the basic salaries for the managers tend to increase with their sales organisational position, which is directly related to their sales experiences. On the contrary, the bonuses decrease with the position held meaning that sales-accounts personnel will enjoy more bonuses as compared to the others in the structure simply because they are the direct agents of the company that will engage in intensive persuasion of the Infix brand to the potential customers thereby effecting sales targets (Madhani, 2009). It is for this reason that they are expected to enjoy the largest percentage of bonuses within any given period. Other related benefits like superannuation will be introduced in the forthcoming budget when the entire sales team secures a long-term contract with the company. 3.2 Expenses: The immediate expenses for this project will involve travel and communication expenses. Communication expenses will cover all personnel will only the national sales director and regional managers will be covered by the travel expenses that include; car allowance as well as accommodation services especially when they are required to traverse their regions to ascertain the on-going activities of the brand at the grassroots level; retailing points. Position Held No. Basic Salary Bonus Total National Sales Director 1 180,000 15,000 195,000 Regional Sales Managers 4 130,000 10,000 560,000 District Sales Managers 13 100,000 8,000 1,404,000 Sales-Account Personnel 50 80,000 7,000 4,350,000 Total 68 490,000 40,000 6,509,000 Total Budget Break Down Costs Percentage Remuneration Packages: Bonuses 750,000 10% Remuneration Total 6,509,000 86.7% Expenses: Training & Development 247,500 3.3% Total 7,500,000 100% References List Homburg, C., Workman, J.P. & Jensen, O., 2000. Fundamental changes in marketing organization: The movement toward a customer-focused organizational structure. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(4), pp.459-478. Infinix .2016. About us: Product. Retrieved from http://infinixmobility.com/ Madhani, P.M., 2009. Sales employees’ compensation: An optimal balance between fixed and variable pay. Compensation & Benefits Review, 41(4), pp.44-51. Rugman, A.M. & Verbeke, A., 2004. A perspective on regional and global strategies of multinational enterprises. Journal of international business studies, 35(1), pp.3-18. Ruigrok, W. & Wagner, H., 2003. Internationalization and performance: An organizational learning perspective. MIR: Management International Review, pp.63-83. Tanner, H, F. 2015. Sales Management-Shaping Future Sales Leaders, Australia, Pearson Education. Read More