Reference no: EM131225656
What does the case indicate about the training "readiness" of the company's salespeople?
Case Study
Meadowbrook Golf, Headquartered in Championsgate, Florida, is a leader in golf course management, maintenance, and supplies in the U.S. Today the organization is compromised of four companies that meet the demands of the market: Meadowbrook Golf provides the management, International Golf Maintenance provides the maintenance, and Golf Ventures East and West are the golf supply arms of the business.
Ron Jackson is the CEO of Meadowbrook. The turf business is a highly specialized, tight-knit industry. The company’s strong reputation was built on its expertise in providing superior products and services to golf courses and municipalities. Ron knew the only way he could take the company to the next level was not to only find the right people with the specific experience they needed but to find a what to keep them happy and motivated so they would stay. Jackson learned of a behavioral assessment tool called Predictive Index, produced by the Wellesley, Massachusetts-based management consulting company PI World-wide, and brought it into Meadowbrook as a way to help the managers understand what motivated their employees to come to work every day. By obtaining this insight, Jackson says Meadowbrook was able to keep its talent by “managing them for their individual success.” Meadowbrook also realized that their top performers possessed very similar behavioral characteristics. Using this information, Meadowbrook was able to incorporate this information into its hiring process.
Golf Venture West, the supply division of Meadowbrook in the western U.S., offers equipment that ranges from a string trimmer to a $70,000 rotary motor, along with fertilizers, seed, and specialty products. Mike Eastwood, the president of GVW, had the best talent in the industry, long-time clients, and very low turnover. While it all seemed idealistic, Eastwood had a problem. He needed his team to sell more.
The challenge was how to identify what they needed in sales training to help them grow their sales. In sharing his concerns with Jackson, Eastwood learned that the publishers of the Predictive Index also offered a selling training tool that identified the strengths of salespeople and areas for their development as well as offered customer-focused sales (CFS) training. To explore the tool further, he and his senior management team took the assessment themselves. The results accurately identified Eastwood’s selling style. His general managers most over 30 years in the industry, scored in the mid to high range. Next Eastwood gave his sales team members the assessment. However, their overall scores were in the mid-to-low range. Eastwood quickly realized that despite the talent of his sales team, 80 percent of them did not know how to sell. The results of the assessment showed that most of them were not asking enough investigative questions when speaking with their clients.
This was a huge breakthrough. Eastwood’s team members then took the CFS workshop to learn how to think like customers do and investigate and uncover their needs. The results? “My most senior and successful salesperson followed the CFS process and closed a $40,000 deal with a customer that had only purchased from our competitor for the last ten years,” says Eastwood. In another instance, Eastwood had a sales person who was underperforming but knew he had the potential to be successful. This salesperson went through the sales training and was moved to a new territory.” In 4 months he has sold more in his new territory than he had in a year in his original territory” says Eastwood. Apparently, the training is paying off. Even though golf courses, in general, have been struggling in recent years, Golf Ventures West has expanded its operations r a number of new locations across the country.
Write work breakdown structure for the project
: MaryJo and her fiancé, Bobby Doe, have decided to get married on November 30, 2016. This project will define, plan, execute and implement the wedding. The aim of the Project is to plan a wonderful wedding experience for both families and also for the..
|
Draw process diagram for process of taking hamburger meat
: Draw a process diagram for the process of taking hamburger meat, grinding it, and then flattening it and cutting out presized hamburger patties. The meat that is in between the parties is reinserted into the process just after the incoming meat is gr..
|
Write a project charter and work breakdown structure
: Write a project charter and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for the following project: You have been asked to plan a major international soccer competition. The scope of your responsibility is reserving the sports venues, acquitting the athlete accomm..
|
Document during project planning is the project charter
: Another important document during project planning is the project charter. What is the difference between an SOW and the project charter? Who writes the project charter? What is the importance of a project charter to the success of a project?
|
About the training readiness of the company salespeople
: What does the case indicate about the training "readiness" of the company's salespeople? Meadowbrook Golf, Headquartered in Championsgate, Florida, is a leader in golf course management, maintenance, and supplies in the U.S. Today the organization is..
|
Explain what a quality management philosophy
: Explain what a quality management philosophy is and then identify which quality guru best fits your organization’s quality management philosophy or the way that you would want your organization to operate. Dig deep into the thought leaders—perhaps a ..
|
Portfolio management process
: Bender (2010) suggests the importance of understanding the project management framework and structure for portfolio management. Do you agree? Why or why not? Why is it important to understand this framework in order to follow the portfolio management..
|
How much of the time is new copier available for faculty use
: The Management Department recently purchased a small copier for faculty use. Although the workload of the office staff has improved somewhat, the secretaries are still making too many trips to the Dean’s office when the departmental copier is out of ..
|
What are the pros and cons of each option
: What tactics are Better world Books currently employing? What are other actions that they should consider (minimum three) in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage? What are the pros and cons of each option? Which option or options does..
|