Welcome to sales management: Addition by subtraction?

• Main Authors: ZERRILLO, Philip Charles, KIM, Francis D., BOSE, Dibyendu
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2024
• Subjects: Sales forecasting; resource management; distribution channels; Distribution Strategy; marketing mix; marketing plans; Business Administration, Management, and Operations; Marketing
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cases_coll_all/492; https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/case/6146
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This case deals with the marketing and sales functions of an educational organisation. The case is set within the Executive Education department of the Nagopian School of Foreign Trade (NSFT), a hypothetical private university located in Southeast Asia. This group is tasked with running for-profit training programmes for would-be participants. The university president has instructed Rakesh Sharma, the newly appointed head of Executive Education to turn around the financial fortunes of the unit. However, he has also stated that he would not get any more promotional budget, nor headcount. NSFT offers three types of Executive Education Programmes: Public Short Programmes, Custom Programmes, and Diploma Programmes. The students are given some revenue and cost information from the past performance of the Executive Education unit and are expected to give recommendations for how to improve its financial performance. The case provides information on the sales force size, the number of hours it takes to sell a typical short course programme, the advertising expenditure for each type of programme (and the per programme expenditures for each individual short-programme, and the number of attendees of short programme offering). Sharma must make decisions about the product portfolio, sales force allocation, and promotional expenditures that will best impact his financial performance. The case deals with resource allocation, profitability, sales force efficiency, and portfolio management in a profit-seeking organisation.