Initial situation

The German subsidiary of a major international Swiss corporation in the mechanical engineering sector has been complaining about stagnating sales for 4 years. Most of the market development is done by sales representatives. In contrast, group subsidiaries in other countries work with their own sales organizations. The group decides to change to its own sales organization in Germany.

Task/Objective

Establishment of an efficient and effective sales organization for Germany with clearly defined long-term growth targets.

Implementation

At the beginning there is a detailed analysis of the existing sales structure:

• Size of sales territories and customer structure
• Sales potential and market exploitation in the territories
• Sales representative turnover and field sales force capacities deployed

Based on the results, the required sales force capacity is determined and the future sales territory structure is developed. A comprehensive step-by-step optimization process systematically takes into account and balances all criteria that are important for territory structure optimization.

Result

The three sales regions North, Central/West and South were retained. However, the number of sales regions was significantly reduced. Special characteristics of the regions, such as the density of industry or road traffic conditions in conurbations, determined the size of the territory to be covered by the sales force. The new territories contain very balanced potentials and thus a high degree of equality of opportunity for the sales forces.