Cooper Pharmaceuticals, Inc.By Saloni Kapil (PGP 15300)

What is a good salesperson and how good or bad is Bob Marsh?An ideal salesperson is someone who is sincere, demonstrates enthusiasm, has a respectable character and appearance, and is generally affable by nature. Additionally, s/he should demonstrate the ability to learn new skills and knowledge, have great organizing and planning capabilities, and should also be able and motivated to achieve realistic but ambitious sales targets while maintaining and improving customer engagements. Other traits, which are specific to any employee in general, include respecting the company rules, norms and culture, and exhibiting loyalty towards the company.

Bob Marsh seems to be good on all the soft aspects of the job. He has also been reviewed positively in sales specific KPIs (he is exceptionally good in driving sales and having valuable interactions with the physicians) except in organizing his detailing bag and car, and ability to push new products. There have also been some instances of tweaking with the company norms and culture.

What is a good DSM and how did they perform vis-a-vis Bob?A good DSM is chosen on the basis of exemplary performance in leadership, and administrative/selling activities. They are expected to develop and motivate their personnel, and provide them with effective, timely feedback to enable them to improve. A good DSM is expected to objectively evaluate their personnel on the relevant, specified and agreed-upon KRAs and KPIs and thereby determine their compensation.

John MeredithBill CouchJim RathbunVince ReedTed Franklin

Leadership initiativesGoodUnclearGoodGoodPoor

Administrative AspectsPoorPoorGoodPoorGood

Personnel EvaluationGoodGoodGoodGoodGood

Feedback and Guidance GoodPoorGoodGoodPoor

ObjectivityGoodGoodGoodFairPoor

What are good salesforce Management Practices and how did the company perform?Good salesforce management entails a clearly defined design, selection, training, supervision, motivation and incentives procedure to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the sales force. Design encompasses the type of sales teams, their responsibilities, strategies and objectives; while selection deals with the actual process of recruiting the sales personnel. Training is necessary to impart the required skills, while supervision is necessary to ensure correct direction. Incentive is a major part in a variable-compensation incentive structure like sales. Motivation factors also become necessary in high-pressure jobs like sales.CPIs design seems to be outdated, as they have adopted a simple territorial division of salesforce, with little emphasis on type of product promoted etc. The selection and training procedures are up to the mark. The supervision, evaluation and incentive process, however, is not as streamlined and standardized, and seems to be highly dependent on the DSMs perception and prejudices.

What to do with Bob Marsh?I believe Bob Marsh should be reinstated into CPI as he was always meeting his sales quota and had an exceptionally good relation with his target list physicians. Since these are the primary criteria of evaluation, and he has been consistent on these aspects, he should be recognized for this. As regards to his drawbacks of being poorly organized with less respect for company norms, he should be sensitized to this aspect by some HR personnel, as this is not directly related to his behavior as a salesperson, but an employee in general. Simultaneously, CPI also needs to standardize its performance evaluation and appraisal system for the sales reps, as a large component of the compensation is variable and any amount of subjectivity due to appraisers should be minimized.