Shield Financial Management is a large insurance company with a corporate office in New York and four regional offices. The company provides a variety of insurance products for businesses. A case study of Shield Financial Management reveals that the new Des Moines sales manager, Doug, has assigned leads to his sales team. The leads were generated via a lead generation program that had not been used for some time. In this process customers return postcards or send emails to indicate that they would like more information regarding a company’s product or service. Doug re-launched the lead generation program in response to poor results in sales for the first quarter. During a sales meeting Doug has discovered that several members of the team …show more content…
Not following up on the leads can cause the prospect to lack confidence in the firm. If the firm fails to follow up on a lead how can they be relied upon to provide effective service? It is also important that leads be followed up in a timely manner. If too much time passes the prospect may lose interest in finding out more about the product.
Doug is not taking an effective leadership approach by developing a standard plan for his sales team. One of the responsibilities of a sales manager is to coach his or her sales team. Cron & DeCarlo (2009) suggest that coaching involves providing “one-on-one” feedback” (p. 14). Doug should first address the salespeople that failed to follow up on leads individually. In meeting with each salesperson Doug could use the Five Why techniques (Clark, 2013). This is a counseling technique that can help determine if there is an underlying issue for the poor performance. Once the problem(s) has been identified, Doug and the salespeople can brainstorm to come up with a strategic plan that fits each salesperson’s individual personality and sales technique. Cooper (2013) states, “Sales leaders help their reps develop personalized sales plans and development objectives” (para. 7). As a leader he can help his sales team reach individual long term
…show more content…
Doug should assess his own performance particularly as he is a new manager. Why were the first quarter sales results disappointing? Has he been a good role model? Were his intentions and instructions clear regarding the sales leads? Leaders should be open to learning. Doug may need to seek a mentor to help him to be a more effective leader and to help deal with personnel issues. Additionally, he should try a different leadership approach. A participative or democratic leadership style would appear to be more effective with a sales team. Also, he might implement peer coaching. This can be an effective means of not only team building but another tool to help employees reach their goals. A reward system can also be implemented to recognize the sales team, individually and corporately, for their
After thirty years as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Fortuga Artisans, Peter Fortuga is retiring from the company he started to manufacture home decor. As a result, the company conducted an extensive search and found an ideal candidate Doug Jeffers. However, two years into his tenure as CEO Jeffers and Fortuga experienced a high turnover rate with numerous key resignations. During a resignation of his executive assistant, the employees and managers at Fortuga determined Jeffers is the cause of the organizational concerns. Consequently, Jeffers became introspective, and he questioned his ability to lead. In fact, Jeffers would be astute to conduct a personal assessment of his leadership style, capabilities,
Ms. Powell is a leader who gets results. She uses three distinct leaderships styles. These styles are authoritative and coaching. Amazingly enough Ms. Powell is very flexible and able to move between the three rather easily. When using her authoritative approach, she is acting as an expert and defines goals for her team ("Authoritative," n.d.). Usually, authoritative leaders allow their team to figure out the best way to achieve the established goals. However, this is not the case, nor the preferred method as a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. Instead, Ms. Powell provides a step-by-step path to success that is provided to her from the Mary Kay Cosmetics Headquarters. These step-by-step guides are considered training and provide the requirements to achieving specific levels of professionalism within the company. Thus, these leaders tend to look for people to work with them, people who can mobilize toward a vision (Goleman, 2000). Ms. Powell displays this characteristic when working with her beauty consultants. However, another major characteristic of Ms. Powell is she recognizes that not all of her consultants will be as energetic or eager as she with regards to selling cosmetics. Therefore, she moves toward a coaching style of leadership.
...he increase traffic on the internet there is a high volume of data clutter concerning various vendor promotions, however there is less traffic on mobile phones. As such they should also develop a lead capture page that offer promotional offers such as free or reduced shipping expenses or product discounts (Mirman, 2010). The main objective will be to get as many leads as is possible that would end in confirmed sales.
This case arose when I went out of town on my first business trip. I have been a sales trainee for the last six weeks, and my supervisor felt it was time to send me out. I was lucky enough to get sent with the number one sales rep for the company, Vince Collier. I was excited because I knew that if I was going to learn the best ways to make a sale, it would be with Vince.
TQL can put a single sales supervisor into place and divide teams and appoint team leaders immediately. Due to the lack of managerial experience among the account executives the Executive Sales Managers may wish to hold the sales supervisor position until a manager can be placed and properly trained. During this time, non-montary methods of rewards should be discussed for the team leaders duties. TQL should start low and move up with rewards based on performance as a team leader. Some may currently act as an unofficial team leader and may not expect significant reimbursement and TQL should take advantage of these persons.
Capital One uses IT through its information-based strategy (IBS) to “record, organize, and analyze data on the characteristics and behaviors of their customers,” as stated by CEO Richard Fairbank. Their philosophy was to exploit information by constructing scientific models that could be used to both assess the creditworthiness of potential cardholders through FICO scoring, and to customize product offerings for existing ones. This was done through data mining, sorting, customizing offers and marketing campaigns, and then analyzing this data to see what campaigns worked – for what reason and what it returned in revenue and profit generation. This differs from other financial institutions in that these other institutions were compiling data manually, accepting applicants based upon debt-income ratios and were all charging the same interest rate and annual fee.
Ramsey, R. (2006). Lead follow or get out of the way: How to be a more effective leader in
According to Riggio (2009), the most popular theory of leadership is transformational. Many believe that these leaders get the job done through inspiring, modeling, and helping others develop their skills as leaders. Research provides clear evidence that groups lead by transformational leaders have higher levels of performance and satisfaction than groups led by other types of leaders (Riggio, 2009). Clear communication is vital to transformational leadership and in order to succeed further, one will need to work on their own skills, and set aside time and space for personal development (Manktelow, 2005).
Comcast Corporation is a company that specializes in cable networking and high speed internet access for residential and commercial customers. “Comcast Creates More Than 5,500 New Jobs as Part of Multi-Year Customer Experience Transformation” (Comcast.com, 2015). I spent a total of three years working for them in a call center atmosphere before relocating my family. This job was one of my most memorable and enjoyable mainly because they followed the management practices which allowed everyone to function efficiently. Nominally “The primary function for most call centers, also known as ‘inbound’ call centers, is to receive telephone calls initiated by customers. Inbound call centers typically spend 60–80% of their budget on staff members who handle phone calls” (der Horst, et al., 2012, 435). My days were spent with between eight to twelve hours a day attached to a desk and phone system monitoring all aspects of job performance. Comcast “today announced a new, multi-year plan to reinvent the customer experience and to create a culture focused on exceeding customers’ expectations, at all levels of the company. The plan centers on looking at every decision through a customer lens and making measureable changes and improvements across the company” ...
Northouse, Peter G. Leaderhip Theory and Practice. Ed. Fifth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc, 2010.
Regions are divided into branches and sales teams covering specific customer industries and sectors. Martha Pauley, a Branch Manager, manages multiple sales teams in the Northeast Region. Previously branches sold all products in a specific city/area; branches are now tasked with selling one product group over a much larger geographic area (Dynacorp Revisited, 2005: M-2, 86). The sales ...
· The fund account balance totals $50,000 or more and the fund account has been established for at least ten years. (Registration for online account access on Vanguard.com® is also required.)
After completing the “Leadership Style Questionnaire” and analyzing my results, I have learned what my preferred leadership style is and how that influences how I lead and may be perceived from members of the group. From the results attained from the questionnaire, my preferred style of leadership is directing. This type of leadership style is best for individuals who have a low competency and high commitment level. These types of leaders are highly focused on tasks and less focused on relationships. They make decisions without consulting with the group and communicate without regarding the group’s concerns or suggestions. This type of leader also supervises the followers intently. They are very successful in creating objectives for each follower and the group as a whole to guide the group in reaching a certain goal.
If I were Alex, I would use the amiable coaching style to help James stay productive and perform to the best of his abilities. One main concept of this coaching style is to connect with the employee on a personal level and develop the employee. James seems to be very smart, but he needs someone to show interest in himself and truly want him to succeed. When James was most successful, his manager was personable and was invested in helping his employees succeed. Along with being personable, Alex should develop employees and invest in his/ her future. Developing an employee should include training or continuing education opportunities that helps the employee develop into a well-rounded employee that feels comfortable with his/ her manager and organization (Aguinis, 2013). By a manager investing in the employees and of...
Bass, B. M., & Bass, R. (2008). The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, & Managerial Applications (4th ed.). New York, New York: The Free Press.