Universal Control Corp.

Background

Universal Control Corp. is a leading supplier for process control systems and equipment used in a wide variety of production and distribution applications. You have taken a sales representative job with Universal, and having just completed training, you have been given a territory of your own. Your district manager has provided you with a list of accounts $($on adjacent column$)$ as well as several boxes of notes and files that had been assembled and used by your predecessor. These are the accounts currently buying your products. You are expected to build these accounts and add new accounts to the list as you increase your territory$$s sales performance. You have summarized the account information into the summary set of account profiles, which follows.

Account Name Account Opportunity Competitive Position Annual Number of Sales Calls Last Year

Mueller Distribution High Low $30$

Tri$-$State Specialties Low High $20$

Birkey Paper Co$.$ Low High $26$

Normal Supply Low Low $12$

Darnell Aggregate Products Low High $21$

Reinhart Chemicals High High $26$

ACCO Manufacturing Low High $23$

Tri$-$State Manufacturing High Low $28$

Ideal Engineering Low Low $11$

Terracon High High $25$

Lowry Foods High Low $26$

SCS Industrial High High $27$

Lowell Services Low High $18$

Bowles and Sons Low High $21$

American Foundry High Low $22$

Hewitt & Associates Low Low $16$

Bright Metals Inc. High High $22$

Decatur Extrusions Low Low $14$

King Chemicals Low High $22$

Bear's Steel Corp. Low High $20$

Hoffman Pharmaceuticals High Low $20$

Barlow & Clark Systems Low High

Questions

$1.$ Develop a portfolio classification of accounts and assess the allocation of sales calls your predecessor made over the past year.

$2.$ What problems do you find with the previous allocations of calls on these accounts?

$3.$ Based on your account classification analysis, suggest a new sales call allocation strategy that would make better use of your time in the territory.