Sales Management

Sales Management CASE 2 (20 Marks) The O’Brien Company The O’Brien Company manufactures and markets a wide range of luggage including suitcases, handbags and briefcases. The company is organized into two divisions — consumer and industrial. The consumer division sells mainly through retail outlets whereas the industrial division markets direct to companies, who buy luggage (especially briefcases) for use by their executives. You have recently been appointed as a salesperson for the industrial division and have been asked to visit a new potential client with a view to selling him briefcases. The potential customer is Brian Forbes, the managing director (and owner) of a medium-sized engineering company in the Midlands with subsidiaries in Manchester, Leeds and Bristol.

They employ a sales force of twenty men selling copper piping. In addition, it is estimated that the company employs around forty marketing, personnel, production and accountancy executives. The O’Brien company markets two ranges of executive briefcase. One is made from good quality plastic, with imitation hide lining. It is available in black only and is priced at £25 for the lockable version and £22 for the non-lockable type. The other deluxe range is manufactured from leather and real hide and is priced at £95. Colours available are black, brown, dark blue and claret. Additional features are a number-coded locking device, a variable depth feature which allows the briefcase to be expanded from its usual 875 mm to 1375 mm, individual gilt initialing on each briefcase, an ink-resistant interior compartment for pens, and three pockets inside the lid to take different sized papers/documents. The plastic version has only the last of these features and is 75 mm in depth.

Questions What are your sales objectives? What extra information would he useful? Prepare a sales presentation for the briefcases. Prepare a list of possible objections and your responses to them.