Case Study: Otpd

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Case Description Wayne Jacobsen is Senior Vice President of Sales for On-Time Package Delivery (OTPD), a niche regional package delivery service based in New York. Jacobsen is preparing for a meeting with Justin Spencer, President and Chief Operating Officer, in regards to the performance of his sales force, which consists of two categories of salespeople: Sales representatives and key account managers. OTPD has been growing rapidly over recent years; however, sales numbers have plateaued lately. Moreover, Jacobsen has been receiving complaints from some of the company’s largest accounts in regards to follow-up and an overall lack of service. Problem Summary The first of OTPD’s several problems is the inferior goals being set by management. While the average growth across the industry is 8 percent year-over-year, OTPD is only targeting 4 percent. With such a complete lack of benchmarking, the company might as well forfeit the year before it even starts. By setting expectations so low, there’s very little for which OTPD’s salespeople can strive, which ultimately leads to unexciting sales numbers, particularly when compared to the competition. Furthermore, Dan Gunther – long time manager of the company’s top-performing Boston district – blames stagnant sales on a “run of bad luck” and claims that complaints from one of the company’s largest accounts are due to “unreasonable demands”. This sentiment is consistent with the information Jacobsen has been hearing from other district managers as well. Rather than being concerned by customer complaints, they’ve chosen to ignore them and have placed more value in their own opinions than the customers’. This uninterested management style is hurting the sales force every bit as much as it’s hurting customers. For example, through a conversation with Carol Klein, a key account manager in the company’s Philadelphia

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