Hanover Bates Case

Introduction

Hanover-Bates chemical corporation is a company that makes products for the chemical plating industry. There are not many ways to differentiate their products from competitors apart from the sales force team and strategies.

The product line consist of iridosmium phosphate cleaner, amnesic aldahyde brightening for zinc plating, cadmium plating etc. Where by the highest gross margin is of chromate dip, with a gross margin of $90. They have four plants that are located in Huston, Los Angeles, Chicago New Jersey. Also their sales areas or territories are divided into multiple districts.

A total of 7 districts are present. North East District was where there needed to be changes brought. Recently there was a new district sales manager hired by the name of James Sprague. He was perceived to be less experienced, as many people who worked under him were more experienced.. He had pressure from the top to make things improve in that districts.

Carver the industry's leading sales person did not like the new policies of Sprague. He threatened to leave the job, and this made things difficult for the newly appointed sales manager. Basically he expected that he would get the job and thus he had his issues with the person Sprague who took his job.

Company sales in 1996 were 23.89 million which was a 8.6 % increase from 1995. The gross profit in 1996 was 3.822 million, a 20 % increase from 1995. This means that one may assume a good performance overall. Some districts had better performance than others and the reasons were to be figured out.

The company has a strong balance sheet. The company basically processes a wide range of materials including industrial components, industrial fasteners and other material that needs to be plated.

Qualitative

• Hanover Bates was a leading producer in processing chemicals for the chemical plant industry.

• Northeastern region rank third in dollar sales but is the worst district in terms of profit.

• Caver opposed Sprague significantly. He was against his ways of doing sales. It was Sprague's 3 days into the job and his most experienced sales representative threatened to quit the job.

• District 7 , north east is considered one of the best for the company.

• Industry tends to perceive minimum quality differences among products produced by Hanover bates and its competition.

• National sales manager : Benefits of his program

- Sales volume per account greater

-Sales representative could justify spending more time with an account. Be more knowledgeable about the account

-Full