OVERVIEW
Larry Barr, the District Sales Manager for General Electric Appliances, faces the problem of allocating sales quotas
for the coming year. He has received a fourteen percent (14%) quota increase for his district in total and must
decide how to parcel this out among his various salespeople, a decision which will affect everyone’s earnings,
including his own. This problem is compounded by the fact that different territories include different customers and
have, for a variety of reasons, different potentials. In addition, the territory that is known to be the toughest
will soon require a new sales rep.
REQUIREMENTS
Prepare a professional APA formatted document not exceeding 15 pages* (not including title page, table of contents,
or bibliography). It should be double spaced in 12 point font, and submitted in Microsoft Word format.
*It does not have to be 15 pages. You should just write enough to sufficiently answer the case problem).
Address the following:
Is the current incentive system working? Explain your answer (Be sure to include analysis of the different sales
people, their territories, and their performance).
What improvements would you suggest for their incentive plan?
What options do you see for Larry’s quota-setting challenge?
Use appendices as required to support the document. Use the General Electric Appliances case study found on pages
361-372 of the Sales Management in Canada text, the text, and other properly cited sources to support your position.
Visuals such as charts and graphs may be useful to communicate your strategies more effectively.
Your paper should include the following:
Problem definition:
What is the problem to be solved? This section should include a definition of the problem as you see it. Be careful
not confuse symptoms with problems. This should be exhaustive of the problems you plan to solve, but also extremely
concise. If this is longer than a few sentences you are doing it wrong.
Situation analysis:
What factors effect the decision makers ability to solve this problem? Examine the company, the industry, and the
marketplace and other relevant factors as they relate to the problem. You should use additional sources beyond the
case material. The process of assessing a situation is widely accomplished through the use of SWOT Analysis and/or
other analytic tools (i.e. 5 Forces, PEST analysis, Gap analysis, etc.). But is very important that you do not use
these tools just for the sake of using them. You should only employ tools that effectively contribute to your
analysis.
Recommendations:
In your expert opinion, what is the best way to solve the identified problems? This section should include viable
alternatives for addressing the problem. Be sure that your alternatives and especially your recommendations are
consistent with things like company goals, company culture, and the unique value proposition of the company. It is a
good idea to use some sort of quantifiable decision making matrix to rationalize your recommended action. Remember
your actions will require resources such as time and money. Be sure to consider ROI and opportunity cost.
Remember that you are playing the part of a sales management consultant. Businesses hire consultants that come up
with solutions they could not have found on their own. Your recommendations need to make sense but they should also
be innovative.
You really need to “sell” your recommendations. Convince the reader why you have provided the best possible choice.
Be sure your recommendations are backed up with course material. Show me you have learned something in this course.
Implementation plan:
What does the client do from here? It is important that you leave your client with a clear and detailed short,
medium, and long term implementation plan. You should also show an understanding of potential risks and have a plan
for how to minimize and mitigate them. You may want to use a GANTT chart here.