Florida Sales Team

Antoine Goeuriot

Case 1

1. Why is the Florida sales team withholding information?

2. If you were Brenda Cooper, what actions would you take?

1. It would be detrimental to the Florida sales team to share information. The have disincentives to share information because if they do their quotas will increase, and they will have a harder time getting their bonuses. They have a prime status within the company and they don’t want to lose it and are trying to take advantage of their position as long as they can: therefore, they keep their goals low and beat them so that they get a large bonus. They are always playing with the threshold. It creates competition within the company and mistrust for the Headquarters. If they do give out information, they will earn 500$ which is nothing compared to the yearly bonuses they are cutting out for themselves.

This situation has created a lot of mistrust for the HQ, as we can see from the reaction to the researcher and from Neil’s perception of what the HQ are doing: only there to increase pressure on salespeople and harass them with paperwork when they just want to do their job and work hard.

I think the main reason why the group works is because they trust each other and rely on each other to do a good job, but that is only possible because they have known each other for such a long time. The fact that they are defiant to the HQ actually makes them work better in a way because they feel like they are taking advantage of the system (“in it for the money”) rather than working for it. Moreover, the cultural differences between salesmen (“go do”, “hardworking” types) and the management, usually college graduates, make the discussion even harder for everyone.

2. If I were Brenda, I would first repair the incentives so that the salesmen feel they have an interest in making the company better. She should put in a company-based performance bonus so that everyone is rewarded if the company is doing well. That...