PRESENTATION ON SPECTRUM BRANDS, INC.

THE SALES FORCE DILEMMA

By B. Ravi Theja Raju B. Sudir Kumar Reddy R. Shiva Shankar Swathy Sateesh V. Ajay Kumar V. Sunith Gupta V. Naresh

ABOUT BOB FALCONI

Falconi had been involved in the battery business for 27 years, working his first 16 years with Duracell. He completed his Executive MBA program at the Richard Ivey School of Business in 1990.

He left Duracell in 1995 for a new start-up battery company, Pure Energy Battery Corporation.
He left Pure Energy in 1999 to serve as country manager for Rayovac Canada. Then taken on the role of vice-president of sales and marketing for Spectrum.

present i.e. year 2009

SPECTRUM BRANDS INC.

Spectrum brands products were available in over one million stores throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Brazil. Different Product Lines Consumer Battery Shaving & Grooming Products Lawn & Garden care Products Specialty Pets Supply

Acquisitions of Spectrum Brands

ACQUISITION

BENEFITS OF ACQUISITIONS
Leverage Global Distribution Channels. Purchasing Power & Operational Processes. Extended Brand Portfolio. Access to new retailers & ability to gain shelf space. Increased ability for each brand to compete within its given market. Position of Spectrum :
1st in aquatic supplies, 2nd in lawn & garden industries & Shaving & grooming industries 3rd in battery industry

CURRENT SALES FORCE STRUCTURE

Robert Falconi VP Sales & Marketing

8 Rayovac/Remington Merged Sales People

30 Nu-Gro Separate Sales People

Tetra/UPG Distributors

REAL ISSUES
To create a national sales force from the teams of the newly merged companies.
To immediately implement the plan to avoid disrupting the growth momentum of individual brands and maintain customer relationship.

SALES FORCE OPTIONS

Separate sales forces
Advantages:
Greater degree of expertise. Less or no additional training. Maintenance of momentum of sales representatives & more focused sales force capable of better consumer services.

Disadvantages:
No advantage out of synergies due to mergers, no expense reduction. No efficiency improvements by the use of sales representatives during slower seasonal periods. Duplication of efforts by sales representatives.

Merged Sales Force

Each representative is required to become an expert on all product lines & selling to their specified customers. Advantages:
Consolidation of existing teams into a smaller unit.

Disadvantages:
Difficulty in forming a efficient team. Additional training required.

Distributors
Provides sales & logistic services in exchange of commission. Advantages:
Well organized existing relationship with the retailers. Large scale group.

Disadvantages:
High service cost almost 15% of the revenue.

CASE - STUDY
QUESTIONS

1. Assess the spectrum organization and each of the market in which the company now operates. What are the key elements from each industry about which Falconi should be concerned?

Battery Market

Shaving and Grooming Products Market

Lawn and Garden Market

Specialty Pet Supply Market

2. Given the market the company is operating in , what is the best structure for the sales force ? How did you decide?

National sales Head for all Brands

Product Wise Sales Head for different products

Area Wise Sales Head

Platform Team Managers

3. What major problems might you encounter with your new sales force structure as it relates to both external factors( customers) and internal factors ( employee reactions ) ?

Bigger Sales Force

More expensive

Co-ordination is required

Increase in operations cost

4. Create an implementation plan for your new sales force structure, including how you will deal with the human issues involved?

Observe the Sales Force of some Global Companies Appoint the National Sales Head

Appoint Managers at Other Levels

Intensive Training at each domain

Target Setting

Execution

Further Improvement in Sales Force

SUGGESTIONS
Can opt for combination of merged sales force & distributors.
To create Platform Teams, business managers responsible for relationship with retailers & product experts support the managers during sales.

THANK YOU