Case Summary Bob Marsh Kramer Detailer considered hardworking, loyal,

dedicated, with good rapport building skills worked with Kramer for 12 years Bob Marsh was fired after 12 years of services on grounds of non performance After his dismissal company received a number of letters and calls from pharmacists and doctors in the territory of Bob Marsh expressing surprise, perplexity and disbelief at Kramers decision Rare case customers are seldom seen to react in this manner in response to an employees dismissal Sales Vice President decides to look into the case in detail since Kramers reputation in the industry for the practice of enlightened management techniques seems to be in question and at stake

Distribution Chain at Kramer

General Public Manufacturer (Kramer)

Wholesalers

Drugstores

Hospitals

Physicians

Sales Force at Kramer

Sales Vice President
6

6 Zone Managers
6

35 District Mangers
14.58

500 Detailers

 Responsible for about 200 physician and hospital accounts in an assigned geographical territory Expected to make 6 9 doctor or hospital calls every day Describe the product line of Kramer to these doctors and medical personnel and persuade them to use and prescribe new and existing Kramer products Were usually pharmacy school graduates who had joined Kramer after a few years as registered pharmacists in retail drugstores

Job Description of Detailers

Age profile of Detailers

Age (in Years)
Less Than 30

30 - 40 More than 40

Experience Profile of Detailers

Experience (In Years)
Less than 5

5 to 10 More than 10

Detailer Remuneration
Total earnings ranged between $20,000 - $36,000 Received 15% of total sales as corporate sales Attrition levels very low 8% every year due to resignations, discharges, retirements and deaths

Detailer Training
Each new Kramer Detailer received a month long training in product characteristics and selling skills at company headquarters in Denver Both new and existing detailers received on-the-job training from 35 district managers 10-15 days of field visits every year depending on experience and performance All Kramer representatives returned to headquarters regularly for continued training throughout there careers

Detailer Performance Evaluation

Evaluated both in terms of sales volume as well as improvement in relationships with customers Evaluation done by District Manager Frequency of evaluation: (a) Formal Once a year (b) Informal Whenever required Quotas established yearly stimulate proper concentration of detailing efforts

Bob Marsh
32 year old at the time of joining Kramer Manager of the prescription department in a major drug store in Toledo, Ohio Graduated from top flight pharmacy school in 1960 Experienced U.S. Naval pilot with fine officer service record Joined Kramer in 1966 after a few rewarding but unexciting years in retail pharmacy, at a salary of $14,000 below his salary at the drugstore was assigned to a territory in Toledo Was interviewed by John Meredith - District manager in Toledo who was very impressed by the skills of Bob Marsh and expected him to do very well as a Kramer detailer

Bob Marsh Life and Performance at Kramer

Supervisor Period Salary ($) Performance Observations Meredith felt that Bob was loyal and dedicated and was very well received by physicians indifferent towards organisation, judgmental and unorganised however, finally rated him as completely satisfactory

John Meredith
John Meredith John Meredith John Meredith John Meredith

1966
1967 1968 1969 1970

14,000
15,000 16,000 17,000 18,000

Excellent (Entry)
Below Standard Below Standard Standard Above Average

Bob Marsh Life and Performance at Kramer

Supervisor Bill Couch Bill Couch Bill Couch Period 1971 1972 1973 Salary ($) 20,000 21,000 22,000 Performance Satisfactory Satisfactory Satisfactory Well Above Average Observations Gave Bob satisfactory ratings across the board with the exception of planning and record keeping impressed with attitude and the reception Bob received by physicians happy with improvement in sales

Bill Couch

1974

24,000

Supervisor

Bob Marsh Life and Performance at Kramer

Period Salary ($) Performance
1975 24,000 Satisfactory

Observations

Jim Rathbun

Dissatisfied with Bobs record in establishing new products put on probation of 90 days probation removed later as performance found satisfactory Initially was happy with the performance later gave a completely unsatisfactory rating and put bob on probation

Vince Reed

1976

25,000

Satisfactory

Supervisor
Tom Wilkens

Bob Marsh Life and Performance at Kramer

Period Salary ($) Performance
1977 25,000 Completely Unsatisfactory

Observations

Probation evaporated by default Quite unhappy with Bob chalked out a rehabilitation routine for him weekly reports, reading assignments, questionnaires however found Bob to be moody, lethargic, unfriendly and indifferent finally asked him to resign

Tom Franklin

1978

25,000

Asked to resign

Strengths of Bob Marsh

High grasping power grasped all facets of job quickly Was received well by physicians and hospital personnel excellent customer rapport Was received well by peers Was willing and open to criticism and change Good in personal selling sales showed significant growth

Weaknesses of Bob Marsh

Lack of attention, planning and organisation Irregular at following up Unplanned approaches Tendency to question the logic of the companys promotion programmes Deciding himself which products to promote Less focus on the promotion of new products Tendency to pre-judge

Sales Management Policies at Kramer Pharma

1 district manager has approx 14.6 sales reps to supervise Each sales rep has 200 accounts and 7.5 calls per day The district manager is ultimately responsible for: 14.58 X 7.5X 200 calls = 33,930 calls per year.

1.69 million calls per year for Kramer!

Sales Management Policies at Kramer Pharma

1 district manager has approx 14.6 sales reps to supervise Each sales rep has 200 accounts and 7.5 calls per day ~ 1688 calls per year is 8.44 calls per account/per year ~ every account is visited once in 27 days (250/8.44) The district manager is ultimately responsible for: 14.58 X 200 X 7.5 calls = 21, 780 calls per day.

5.25 million calls per year

Sales Management Policies at Kramer Pharma

1 district manager makes 12 field visit per representative per year No of field visit days per year = 12 * 14.58 = 183 days

Total number of working days available in a year = 52 * 5 = 260

Marshs district Managers

Person John Meredith Experience High Role Benefactor Evaluation Low ok

Bill Couch Jim Rathburn

Vince Reed Tom Wilkins Ted Franklin Pete Mallick

High Low
Low Low Medium High

Manager Investigator
Persecutor-1 No action Persecutor- 2 Historian

Ok-high Ok-prob-ok
Probation Prob evaporates Fired Fired

Managements Handling of Bob Marsh Management was unwilling to compromise on rules and methods

of selling Frequent change of management sometimes managers younger and less experienced than Bob Marsh Continuous focus on shortcomings key strengths not developed and achievement of growth in sales ignored The increment system was used as a tool of reward or punishment not as a tool for motivation Did not consider moving Bob Marsh to a different territory Did not make efficient use of the database Bob Marsh had built with over 12 years of personal selling experience Did not realise what an asset Bob Marsh could be to competitors

 Bob was a good personal seller this should have been used for companys leverage Bob should have been constantly trained in introducing new products and through him new products should have been introduced to existing customers He should have been moved to new areas to build customer database He should have been used to get on board new clients and then follow up could have been handed over to someone else He should have been kept under a constant mentor if possible who was capable of constantly honing his skills He should have been continuously monitored and told he performed well under constant training and supervision

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