Sales Force Management at Nobel Ilac
The case opens in 2017 as Hakan Sahin, CEO of Nobel, the Turkish pharmaceuticals company, reviews Nobel’s year-to-date performance. The case describes the pharmaceutical market and sales channels in Turkey and provides a background on Nobel. The case also provides details regarding a transformation strategy; particularly, a customer segmentation plan, whereby the sales force began to use a scientific matrix when determining their call plans. As a result, between 2014 and 2017, Nobel increased its sales significantly, and its previously negative EBITDA reached double-digit positive numbers. In 2017, two key issues still remained: growth was not as high as desired, and the voluntary turnover rate for the sales force was very high. Given that the sales force was the only go-to-market channel for Nobel, Sahin needed to do something to reduce the sales force turnover without affecting the positive trend in sales and profits. He contemplated the options with his executive team where many proposed a change in sales force compensation. Should he increase the fixed base salary, increase the performance-based variable pay, or change the fundamental structure of compensation? Or should Sahin keep compensation the same and adjust other factors such as the recruitment criteria, mentoring, and (or) training?
Keywords: Sales strategy; compensation; Employee Retention; recruiting; Pharmaceuticals; Salesforce Management; Strategy; Organizational Design; Human Resources; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Retention; Recruitment; Training; Emerging Markets; Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Pharmaceutical Industry; Turkey;
Citation:
Chung, Doug J., and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Sales Force Management at Nobel Ilac." Harvard Business School Case 519-067, February 2019. (Revised July 2019.) View Details