Requisitos de inscripción
MIEMBROS PARTICIPANTES DEL SUBGRUPO Por Guatemala
What do I do when I’m not working?
A)I enjoy golf, coaching soccer, and traveling.
First job out of school?
A)NCR sales rep right after college.
My motto to live by?
A)Passion, integrity, and effort.
What drives me?
A)A sense of accomplishment and the belief in what I do and the impact it can have on our customers.
My management style?
A)I am very transparent and direct.
Don’t do this when interviewing with me?
A)Come unprepared.
My pet peeve?
A)People who don’t assume accountability for their results.
NCR had just released a new generation point-of- sale (POS) workstation that was ahead of the com- petition by almost a year. The POS workstation is the computer that drives the retail checkout process. It is responsible for accepting input from the scanners and other peripherals, pricing the merchandise, offering discounts, calculating tax, and finalizing the transaction via cash, credit, debit, or other financial instrument. The official launch oc- curred in January at a major trade show. This launch was to be followed up by other indus- try shows and events, webinars, and adver- tising. As Brad and his colleagues planned these events, they questioned NCR’s partici- pation in a particular trade show because this would entail a significant amount of re- sources. The company had sent representa- tives to the event for many years, and many of its customers regularly participated in the show. While it had traditionally been a great venue for meeting with key clients and mar- keting NCR’s newest solutions, in recent years attendance had been waning and other competing shows had grown in popularity. Suffering from this down- turn in attendance and increased competition, the event had decided to combine with another event to boost the number of attendees. This combi- nation involved moving the venue from its traditional location and renaming the combined show.
With a superior solution to promote and a legacy of attending the show, the retail division’s sales managers made an impassioned case for NCR’s continued participation. They felt that this venue would be their last chance to demonstrate the new workstation before the competition re- sponded with its own next-generation product. NCR would miss a golden opportunity to capitalize on its market leadership. In the end, the discussions became quite political as these managers argued their case. The discussion was extremely difficult as a number of key sales leaders were pushing to at- tend while Brad felt it would be best to skip the show.
Complicating this situation, NCR’s retail division (the organization re- sponsible for developing and selling solutions to retailers) had “shared” a booth with another division in prior years. Despite being told of the retail di- vision’s concerns, the other division proceeded on the assumption that retail would again participate and fund a significant portion of the event. As the event drew closer, this group pushed hard to force the retail division to con- tinue to fund the event.
Brad considered his Options
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Attend the show as in past years. This would allow Brad’s di- vision to reinforce the product launch and further solidify its market leadership while the competition again showed an out- dated product. But attending the show would consume limited sales and marketing resources. The cost per touch (that is, the number of potential clients the team could talk to at the show divided by the total cost of exhibiting at the show) would increase as the
number of people attending the show declined. See what option Brad chose on page 177
Skip the show this year and reallocate sales and market- ing resources to one or more of the other alternatives for marketing the new workstation. The freed-up budget would allow NCR to attend two smaller but more targeted events in which the company had not previously participated. Because these events are highly targeted and have more of a conference format, they tend to be more intimate, and NCR’s representatives could spend more quality time with retail clients. However, while costs for these smaller shows would be lower, since NCR hadn’t been to these shows before Brad didn’t know what kinds of opportunities to interact with customers would actually occur, so it was hard to predict the cost per touch.
Forgo the show this year and find out whether the changes in venue and sponsorship would really diminish the value of the event. If it turned out that the newly com- bined show continued to draw enough attendees, NCR could participate the following year. Sitting it out would let the retail division conserve its limited marketing resources. On the other hand, NCR would miss the window to further exploit its market leadership by showcasing its new POS product. And, if Brad decided not to attend, the division would lose its position in the booth selection process. This loss of “seniority” could mean a poor position on the show floor in subsequent years, which would result in decreased foot traffic if NCR’s booth was in an out-of-the-way location.
Now, put yourself in Brad’s shoes: Which option would you choose, and why?
You Choose
Which Option would you choose, and why?