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Sales Management
April 2022 Examination
Q1. You are a Start-up selling GPS connected Helmets for Bikers. You have set the business 5 years back and current have a revenue of Rs 1 crore. You are based in Mumbai and would now want to expand across India in FY 22-23. What will be your Sales organization structure and types of sales person for this expansion? (10 Marks)
Answer 1.
Introduction
International organizations that hire individuals in India have to remember the distinctive variances now, not just when choosing as well as hiring people in India, in reaction to converting desires and management shape – mainly every time developing an accountable advertising branch. India is heavily laid low with a pyramidal social hierarchy, visible within the class diagrams of Indian and transnational
Q2. You are Head of International Sales selling GPS connected Helmets for Bikers. You have been asked to expand in Sri Lanka. The company has never operated in Sri Lanka. What would be the Sales process that you will adopt for this expansion? (10 Marks)
Answer 2.
Introduction
The global market has never been relatively solid: it is continuous and ever-changing, and purchaser spending continuously evolves as requirements, preferences, and technology evolve. As nothing more significant than a result, businesses should constantly look at the corporation’s services and seek methods to guarantee that they would be current and follow consumer options. Decisions regarding whether or not one needs to introduce new items must always be addressed
Q3. There’s another one!” Cameron Burke’s son said, pointing to a darkened streetlight across the park. “But it’s out too!” Cameron regretted having started this game with his four- year-old. His company, Lumiscape, produced smart, connected streetlights, which had been installed in cities throughout the United States— including Cleveland, where they were now, visiting his parents. He and Graham had decided to squeeze in a walk to Forest Hill Park before bedtime, and he’d challenged the boy to count all the lights he could find. But they’d already seen three that weren’t working properly. Even my hometown can’t get our products right, Cameron thought as he chased Graham over to the playground. He always vowed to stop obsessing about work when he was with his son, but it was a losing battle.
Lumiscape was six years old. Cameron had founded it with the idea of building an LED streetlight that would use a mobile signal to notify public works departments when the bulb needed to be replaced. He’d been an aide to the mayor of Philadelphia at the time— his first job after graduating from Villanova— and knew well how much time city workers spent documenting and following up on complaints about broken lights.
But Cameron also had a bigger vision: Lumiscape’s products were designed to gather all sorts of data, including humidity, motion, and seismic activity, and—most important— UVA, UVB, and ambient light so that they could save electricity by dimming when appropriate. The innovative system promised to reduce local governments’ energy consumption and maintenance costs and improve their image with constituents. Headquartered in Philly, Lumiscape now had customers in nearly every U.S. state and a few European countries. Cameron felt contented about how well the system worked in some cities. But not here, he thought. And he’d seen and heard about similar cases of misuse elsewhere. Some localities had bought lights but failed to fully utilize the accompanying technology, which meant they couldn’t service them properly or achieve the hoped-for energy saving. Others had used their existing supplies of high-pressure sodium bulbs, rather than the smart LED ones, in the new lights. Some customers had failed to even install all the lamps they’d bought. Cameron hadn’t realized how difficult it would be for local governments to change the way they did business, even when they had the best of intentions. The year before, prompted by all this, Lumiscape’s leadership had decided to pivot from a sales model to a subscription model. Instead of selling the streetlights and leaving the cities to manage them, the company would rent them out for a monthly fee with installation, maintenance, and monitoring software all included. In three sites Lumiscape had also piloted a program to add Wi-Fi connectivity to the lights, allowing those cities to offer internet service in public spaces. The board had unanimously approved the proposal from Cameron and his COO, Stacy Hamiko, to shift to a subscription strategy. It would position Lumiscape’s technology platform for growth as the smart-cities movement began to take off. And it would give the company more control over its product and brand and a more stable cash flow, which would translate into higher multiples from would-be investors. “Higher!” Graham shouted. As Cameron pushed the swing, he felt his phone buzz. Assuming that it was his wife, who was at a conference on the West Coast, he looked at the text. It was from Stacy:
“Houston’s live again. They want to buy 5,000 streetlights.” “Houston?!” he said aloud.
“Texas!” Graham yelled. Cameron smiled and said, “That’s right, bud.”
Houston had been one of Lumiscape’s first customers, six years earlier. The city manager had originally wanted 6,000 lamps but had cut the order back to 1,000 for budgetary reasons. Neil Hart, Cameron’s head of sales, had kept in touch, hoping that the larger deal could be resurrected at some stage. And now, according to Stacy’s text, it would be. There was just one problem: Lumiscape didn’t sell streetlights anymore. They’re Back Later that night, after Cameron had put Graham to bed, he called Stacy. She explained that she’d been copied on an e‑mail to Neil from Houston’s manager, who said that he’d finally gotten approval to buy the additional 5,000 lights. “He mentioned something about surplus in their public works budget and some federal money they needed to spend,” she said.
“It’s just horrible timing,” Cameron said, shaking his head. “Do we know whether Neil has talked to them about subscriptions?” “Not yet,” she said. “We all assumed the deal was dead. They were on our list but pretty far down it, to be honest.” “Would they consider it?” “Neil says not a chance. Even though this new pricing model would probably be better for them— a lower procurement threshold and all—Neil thinks that if it took the city manager this long to get approval for a purchase, there’s no way he’ll go back and say, ‘Never mind. Could we rent instead?’” Cameron was torn. The mental math was easy: 5,000 lights at $600 apiece meant $3 million. It would be the largest sale to date for Lumiscape, which had taken in $30 million in revenue the year before.
But the company had committed to this new subscription strategy, and with good reason. In fact, he and Stacy had used Houston as one example of why selling the streetlights didn’t give customers enough benefits or Lumiscape enough control. It had taken the city several years to install its initial order—and it hadn’t even installed all 1,000 lights.
Worse, it apparently hadn’t hired or trained anyone to use the software tools. “I should tell you that Andrew is already talking about drawing up the purchase agreement,” Stacy said.
Cameron sighed. “Of course he is.” Andrew Lowell, Lumiscape’s CFO, had thought it was a mistake to move exclusively to contracts. He felt that the company’s engineers should be held responsible for making a product that customers could use correctly and that Cameron should push them harder before changing the model. Andrew had wanted to both sell and rent the streetlights, preserving all sources of revenue and converting customers to the subscription model over time if need be. Stacy and Cameron had disagreed.
Too many customers weren’t using the lights to their full potential. The straight sales model simply wasn’t working. And given the budgeting process in most city halls, it was far easier to go to market with only one type of offering. Even with just two options on the table, officials would feel obligated to run both to the ground with all the agencies involved. “I’ll e‑mail Andrew and tell him to hold off,” Stacy said. “Good idea. But let’s call a meeting for first thing tomorrow morning and figure out our strategy.” “You’re going to fly back?” she asked, concerned. “No, but I don’t think this can wait.Let’s do a video call. We don’t want to lose Houston’s attention.”
The Next Morning Cameron sat at his parents’ kitchen table and adjusted his laptop screen so that he could see Andrew, Neil, and Stacy sitting in the small conference room at their Philadelphia office. “Sorry I can’t be there in person,” he said. “Is the picture okay?” Andrew spoke up. “Yes, except for that grim look on your face, Cam. Remember: This is good news.” “I completely agree,” Neil said. “We’ve got their attention.” “We’ve got their business, it seems,” Andrew said. “Not so fast,” Cameron said. “We can’t sell them 5,000 lights—not after all the work we’ve put into the new strategy. Not with all
the potential.” “Moving to subscriptions is a long term strategy,” Andrew said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be a clean break from the product model. Lots of cities still own their lights, and we aren’t going to buy them back. It will take years before we can convert our existing customers to subscriptions, so there’s no reason we can’t just grandfather Houston in.”
“He has a point,” agreed Neil. “But don’t you think it will be confusing to talk with potential customers about the subscription product when they know that we just sold Houston 5,000 lights?” Cameron asked. “I think we can explain the rationale,” Neil replied. “We’ll look like we don’t have a strategy—like we’re being opportunistic,” Stacy chimed in. “This is a moment to test the new model. If we can convert Houston to subscriptions, we’ve got a great story to tell, not only to other potential customers but to investors.”
“I’ve already floated the idea, and it’s not going to fly,” Neil replied. “He said they have the $3 million to spend this year. How can we leave that money on the table?” “Exactly,” Andrew said. He clearly had a strong opinion on this, as any good CFO would. But Cameron was reluctant to go back on their strategy decision so soon.
Andrew seemed to have read his mind. “I know I promised to support your decision on the model,” he said. “But I still don’t understand why we can’t do both. If different customers want different things, shouldn’t we meet them where they are?”
“Not if where they are is taking a pass on the best aspects of our product once it’s in the field,” Stacy said. “And failing to take advantage of the upgrades we’re going to continue to offer. We have to consider the brand.” Cameron sat back and watched the three of them continue to debate. He knew it was on him to make the call, but he was still uncertain.
Lights Out That night he went to Forest Hill Park on his own. He needed the fresh air, and his parents were happy entertaining Graham. He sat on a bench and looked across the park at a flickering streetlight. He could tell from the way it was going on and off that it was using the wrong kind of bulb. This meant that it was not only creating an unpleasant experience (who wants to walk through a streetlight?) but also pulling more energy from the grid.
He got up to walk home and noticed that someone had spray painted lights out on the base of one of the broken streetlamps his son had noticed before. It was as if the universe was telling him that Lumiscape had to take better control over its product. If cities couldn’t maintain the lights on their own, the company could help them by bundling the software in the subscription, installing the units, fixing broken hardware, upgrading the lights as new features became available, and making the package affordable.
Cameron had felt sure that subscriptions were the way to go. They provided more value to customers, relied less on them and their workers to make the product succeed, and guaranteed more sustainable income for Lumiscape. It was a better model and would help him raise the valuation before the company went out for the next round of funding.
But could the team really afford to say no to a $3 million bird in the hand? Was Andrew right to suggest a hybrid model? Or could they make this final sale and then shift their strategy once and for all?
a. According to you, was it appropriate for Lumiscape to change their business model for sale to subscription model? (5 Marks)
b. Having changed the model, should they now shift their strategy for one customer (5 Marks)
Answer 3A.
Introduction
Many individuals feel that organizations are incapable of selling to the government. They admire the government’s desire to do terrific while concurrently making money. But, worldwide public management is a big phase that we should target to tackle significant problems. Corporations often underestimated the challenges of changing consumer behavior and providing alternatives to
Answer 3B.
introduction
The marketing approach pertains to the enterprise’s business rationale, how something runs, and how it offers growth and profitability. The choosing of advertising approach into which the organization would perform in the opposition is known as techniques.
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