Meridian Systems (Brief Case)

Frank V. Cespedes; Michael J. Roberts

Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | June 2018

Meridian Systems (Brief Case)

by Frank V. Cespedes and Michael J. Roberts

Abstract

Teaching Note for HBS No. 918-533. The key issues discussed in the Meridian teaching note concern sales force deployment: decisions about how to focus sales efforts with respect to territories, customers, and products. The teaching note explains the strengths and limitations of each deployment option. As the case highlights, moreover, deployment decisions require analysis of what makes for effective selling and what is required for profitable selling. Product pricing, target market selection, and sales compensation structure affect the choice and execution of deployment options, and the teaching note explains their interconnection in the Meridian case.

Keywords: Business Startups; Sales; Strategy; Salesforce Management; Organizational Structure; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy;

Language: English

Format: Print

14 pages

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Citation:

Cespedes, Frank V., and Michael J. Roberts. "Meridian Systems (Brief Case)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 918-534, June 2018.

Sales methodologies play an important role. A common approach in a sales force allows for consistency, dissemination of best practices, acceleration of learning, and it helps the firm to scale because management then has common metrics to monitor and evaluate. However, it’s rare that the same methodology is relevant across the buying situations encountered by salespeople in a market. This article discusses and provides examples of variables relevant to analyzing sales tasks and evaluating the relevance of a selling methodology: differences within an industry, within a category, and when target buyers change.

Common advice in sales is to provide insights to customers during sales calls. But this advice generally stays at the level of “tell people something they don’t already know” and results in sales conversations littered with many irrelevant factoids. This article provides examples of how salespeople develop and deliver resonant insights in customer conversations and why the framing of insights depends upon to whom they are talking and when in the sales cycle.

Most research and training in sales focus on acquiring new customers. But winning back previous customers is increasingly important: mergers, choice in supply chains, and uncertainty about trade wars mean that B2B customers are constantly re-evaluating relationships with suppliers and making changes. Meanwhile, large buyers account, on average, for over 25% of revenues at publicly traded firms, up from 10% in the 1980s. This article discusses how and why the process for reacquiring lost customers requires a different approach than acquiring new ones and illustrates the process and its implications via a case example.

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Meridian Systems (Brief Case)

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