Case Study

Wilkinson Sword USA March 10, 1986

After a years gestation period, Wilkinson Sword USA has its first sales force.
mission: Seize 10% of the wet-shave market.

Its

On Nov. 5, 1984 Wilkinson Sword USA consisted of two people, Norman R. Proulx
President and Ronald E. Mineo, Vice President Sales. Today the total head count of
the re-organized company is rapidly approaching 100 and includes a 34 person sales
force, the first direct sales force the company had had since its formation 35 years ago
as the U.S. arm of London based Wilkinson Sword Ltd.
We need to be able to control our own sales force, says Mineo, explaining the change.
If we (continued to use) brokers. Wilkinson could not get the kind of focus our product
lines require to compete efficiently. All our competitors are our there with their own
sales forces
During its checkered sales past, Wilkinson Sword had sold its razors and blades and
recently, its self-sharpening knives and scissors, through manufacturers reps. or
through the sales forces of other companies. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, for
example, the Colgate Palmolive sales force took on the line. We parted with Colgate in
the early 1970s says Proulx. We brought in our own senior sales types, but went to the
manufacturers reps for drugstores and brokers for food stores and our share kept
declining Proulx (pronounced prue) explains that even a company like Colgate was in
effect a manufacturers rep for Wilkinson and would sell the thing thats easiest to sell.
Beginning in 1981, sales, marketing and distribution were taken over by the sister
company, Scripto, a unit of Allengheny International, which had acquired Wilkinson
Sword in 1960. But in late 1984, lighter and writing instrument marketer Scripto was
purchased by Tokai, a Japanese lighter manufacturer. Wilkinson found itself with no
sales force, no marketing management and no distribution.
Then it became apparent that Proulx, the then Vice President and General Manager of
Scripto, was not going to stay on. Allegheny International offered him the opportunity to
take over Wilkinson, which he agreed but only on the condition that the company have
its own direct dedicated sales force. No longer, he says. Will our products be
sixteenth in line in the manufacturers reps bag. He then offered Scripto Vice
President of sales Mineo the same post at Wilkinson.
Wilkinson at that point was fighting for its very life. Its market share, which had peaked
at a respectable 7.9% in 1974, had fallen to a mere 0.7% by the end of 1984, says
marketing Vice President, William R. Gauch.
Lack of dedicated sales force was not the only problem. In 1974, the parent company
had withdrawn advertising support and focused on Europe. Without ad support, the

product slips in the market place.

intervene.

Mineo says, and there was no sales force to

Mineos view is supported by Ken Kerns, a buyer for mass merchandiser Fishers Big
Wheel, based in New Castle, PA. Kerns says Fishers had carried the Wilkinson line
about 10 years ago but dropped it. They stopped advertising and it stopped selling.
He says.
Another problem, says Proulx, is that there were no products to keep the Wilkinson
name before the consumer. But when Proulx and Mineo took over the company, their
primary concern was to build a sales force that could command the attention of the
trade and would give both existing and new products the attention needed to make
them sell.
The new sales force, plus a strong new product, the Retractor disposable razor, plus the
beginning of a two-year $23.5 million advertising campaign agency: (Eurton-Campbell,
Atlanta), moved Wilkinson Sword USA to a 1.6% dollar share of the wet-shave market
by the end of 1985, says Gauch. That market is variously estimated at $450 million $500 million at factory level, which makes each share point worth $4.5 million - $5
million. Strong year-end activity brought the companys exit share to about 3.5%
however. Total 1985 sales for razors, blades, and cutlery were expected to be about
$12 million. Our goal, says Proulx, is 10% of the wet shave market by the end of
1987.
Those are brave words for a man whose goal was simple survival more than a year
ago. On Nov. 5, 1984, Ran and I walked into a small temporary office. Proulx says.
In the back of that office was an open warehouse, with a bit of a heater, where people
worked at card tables. One day we had 11 people at a meeting Proulx says and we
had only 10 chairs. People had to take turns standing
Adds Mineo. All we had was our briefcases. We couldnt even take any information
with us until the transaction (the Tokai purchase of Scripto) was completed. The phone
rang, and we didnt know what to do. He jokes. A secretary from Scripto volunteered
to help us. She got us a typewriter, and got the phone lines switched.
Men at Work
Meanwhile, says Proulx, the Scripto sales force continued to sell Wilkinson products for
two months, but for a fee. Obviously, the two men had to work quickly.
Step one in building the new sales force was account identification. Wilkinson sells
primarily through food stores, drugstores, and mass merchandisers. We identified the
leading secondary regions, Mineo says, and made them our target list. Twenty-five
leading national accounts, which would be handled out of Atlanta headquarters, were
identified.

The next tier was regional accounts. These accounts would be assigned to a
salesperson at the field sales manager or area manager level, Mineo says. The third
group was accounts that would be called on by the key accounts of sales or sales rep
level.
Then Mineo partitioned the country into three divisions east, central and west. He
segmented each division into an average of five areas and in each area, created one or
two territories. All that was completed in November and December 1984. The next step
was building a sales organization chart.
The 25 key accounts were to be assigned to two key account managers. The other 400
primary and secondary accounts would be spread among field sales, area, and territory
people. The latter category includes key account people and sales reps. A field sales
manager was needed for each of the three divisions. For each of the 15 or so areas,
there would have to be area sales managers and in some cases, key account managers
and sales reps. The initial goal was a total force of 24 people.
But organizing is the easy part, Mineo says. The hard part is finding the people.
Proulx says there were times when he and Mineo were interviewing a candidate and Id
look in Rons eyes and hed look in mine and we could see that we were thinking.
Please we want to hire you, dont say the wrong thing.
One of the most difficult areas to staff was New York. Mineo says. It took four months
to find the two people needed. New York and New England are where the Wilkinson
Sword business is heavily rooted. Mineo says. We had several millions of dollars tied
up in that market and didnt want to risk it. He explains that the New York market in
particular is very price-sensitive, very demanding.
What really kept the pressure on was that while people were being recruited, the
business in that market had to be maintained. I made sales calls. Says Mineo,
and Norm did. Shelly (eastern field sales manager Sheldon R. Babel) would run out
and make calls whenever he could.
We were primarily looking for people with five years of experience-and-up in the finer
health and beauty aids companies. Mineo says. The new hires do in fact, included
people with experience at P&G, Colgate, Richardson-Vicks, Gillette and WernerLambert. Given where we were in the marketplace. Mineo says, We couldnt hire
new recruits. We absolutely had to have people with basic selling experience behind
them.
Hiring a totally new direct sales force of that caliber is a costly proposition. Mineo
estimates that the first years recruiting, training, salaries, bonuses and related costs
totaled about half-a-million dollars. We pay as much as $15,000 to an agency to recruit
one person, he says.

Brokers risky
When setting salaries, we polled some companies and came up with a package at
least as good as the competition, and may be 10 per cent better, Mineo says. There is
also a field sales bonus program that allows people to earn a maximum of 60% of their
salaries. The broker route costs significantly less, Mineo says, because the cost of
sales is of commissions only. And your risk factor is under control. He points out,
however, that the risk factor in terms of business that brokers generate is greater and
that is the risk that Wilkinson could no longer afford.
Proulx and Mineo alerted search firms to their needs in December 1984, and began
interviewing the first two weeks of January 1985. By Feb. 4, the first seven sales people
were on board. By April 2, eight more people had been hired. By May 1, 18 people of
the 24 had been hired, and by mid-September of last year, the final 6 were in place.
But in the meantime, management got budget approval from the parent company to hire
10 more key account managers and sales reps. The additional 10 people will meet
more of our secondary and tertiary accounts, Mineo says. Measuring the
accomplishments of the original 24 people against the objectives showed that the dollar
volume and the numbers of people appeared to be gelling, he says. So when, he and
Proulx identified the accounts we can reach with additional people, and the revenue
wed realize they go the ok.
The new sales force does include 5 people who had been with Scripto when it handled
the Wilkinson line. Mineo stresses, however, that there had been an agreement that
Wilkinson could not actively recruit people from Scripto for a specific period, and that
agreement was honored. A number of Scripto people became free agents, and
contacted us, he says. We did not could not recruit people while they were still
employed by Scripto.
Adhering to those contract requirements was particularly illustrating when Mineo was
trying to fill the position of Vice-President Trade Relations. The person in that position
represents Wilkinson at trade shows and social events, and his function has a lot to do
with personality and style, Mineo says. The person Mineo wanted, but couldnt get, was
Tony Taggart, who was at Scripto. So Mineo conducted a casual search for other
people, all the while hoping that Taggart would eventually become available, which he
did.
Wilkinson still has seven manufacturers reps in areas where management couldnt
justify a direct sales person Hawaii, Alaska, Arizona and Oregon among them.
Established rep organizations had also been kept on to continue handling catalogue,
department stores and military sales.
At the national sales meeting in January, management announced that it is now
beginning to put in place retail merchandisers who will support sales people by reducing
out-of-stocks, building incremental facings and displays, and monitoring pricing. The

use of retail merchandisers was successfully tested beginning of last September, and
the goal is to have 29 people in place by end of August.
Retailers had become apathetic toward Wilkinson Sword Proulx says. Also, they felt
they werent treated well. The constantly changing sales force was another problem,
says Proulx, When we announced our own sales force, they said. Yeah, thats this
week.
Kick the doors down
Meanwhile, Fishers Big Wheel, which dropped the Wilkinson line 10 years ago, has
been carrying it again since last August. National accounts manager James A. Musarrra
calls on buyer Kerns regularly, and is knowledgeable and aggressive, Kerns says. All
salesmen push for something they believe in. I can tell he believes in his products.
Competitors, meanwhile, are unwilling to say much more than that Wilkinson is not a
factor in the market. Bic marketing manager Keith Koski does say that the company is
just making a return but will not comment on its prospects.
Ohio-Atlantic area manager Mark Cavalier has no doubts about his prospects, however.
Cavalier joined Wilkinson in February 1985, coming over from sunglasses marketer
Foster Grant. Looking to the future, he says, We have may be a 24- to 30- month longrange plan to become the number 2 razor blade company in the country. Weve opened
the doors. In 1986, we need to kick the doors down.
1) Please evaluate the selling (and marketing) strategy and policies of Wilkinson
Sword USA adopted in 1985. This would probably involve among other things
evaluation of:
a) Basic decision to operate through company owned sales force,
b) Policy of organizing sales force around National accounts, regional accounts, key
accounts etc., dividing the country in three geographical divisions, several areas, and
territories etc.
c) Determination of sales goal of 10% market share of Wet Shave market by end of
1987
d) Policies of hiring of experienced personnel (five years)
e) Sales personnel compensation policy as good as that of competitors or 10% better
than competitors
f) A sale bonus program which allows an individual to earn maximum of 60% of his
salaries as bonus
g) Continuing the practice of selling through manufacturers representatives in selected
areas
h) Future plan of adding 29 retail merchandisers.
2) On an overall basis, please state and explain two major strengths and two major
weaknesses of the companys selling strategy and policies.

3) Using Wilkinson Sword USAs experience as an example, please identify two / three
Indian organizations which made substantial changes in their selling strategies and
policies. Describe the circumstances which stimulated these
organizations to
make these changes their selling strategies
and policies; what were the specific
changes that were made? How
were they implemented? And what was the
outcome of introducing such changes?