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StepSmart Fitness Case Study

Sales Analytics Business Brief

Date:

From:

To: Board of Directors or other Key Stakeholders.

The StepSmart Fitness company manufacturers exercising equipment in the United State.

As of 2011, its sales were about 18% of all the sales in the industry, which corresponds to about

$3.5 billion. StepSmart currently categorizes its customers in three groups. The largest group is

the retail products which constitutes 63% of its sales and 27% market share. The Private and

Institutional constitutes 7% of the sales and 10% market share. The third group is commercial

products which generate about 30% of the company’s sales and 17% market share.

Defining of the problem

Currently, there are issues which StepSmart Fitness company is going through. The sales

team in New England are unable to meet their targeted sales and revenue which was set the

previous year. Now the main reason of running a business is making profit. Since the New

England team is unable to meet their target sales and revenue, there is a high chance that the

company is hardly generating any profit, or incurring losses. The email Caitlin wrote to cooper

specified that, “the challenges are significant – but not insurmountable” (Dolan, Shapiro &

Zalosh, 2017). The CEO of the organization, Mike Wallace illustrated the reduction in revenue

in the district and the financial opportunity available.

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Key Variables

To be able to use an analytical approach in understanding and resolving the problem, we

need to collect sufficient data. there are several variables which we should keep in consideration

so that we can be able to have sufficient and relevant information. The variables and their

meaning are described below.

Agent Name – the name of the agents who are currently employed by StepSmart Fitness

Territory – the area which the agents are working in.

Buying power – the buying power of each agent.

Actual Sales – the total sales which the agents have been able to bring to the company.

Expenses – the amount the company spends in each agent.

Salary – the salary of each agent

Total compensation – the total compensation of each agent they receive from the company.

3. Stakeholders for the problems

Stakeholders are the people which are able to make decision which will ultimately

influence the activities of a company. There are various stakeholders of the problem we have at

hand. The managers of StepSmart Fitness are on the front row. They are the ones who can offer

financial support and make the study to rectify the problem a success. Caitlin Sheridan, the new

regional vice president of sales for the northeast and also Ben Cooper’s manager is a key

stakeholder because she is responsible for the sales department in StepSmart Fitness. She is
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responsible for developing selling and sales management strategies, collaborating with marketing

on pricing and promotions and also in advising product management on product management on

product design and functionality.

The District Sales Director is also an important stakeholder for he is responsible for

monitoring and guiding the sales activities of their district sales team. Lastly, the salespeople are

vital in the decision making for they are the ones who actually conduct the sales. They are

responsible for collaborating with marketing so as they can identify prospective new clients,

establishing contacts with health clubs, educating decision makers through meeting conducted,

executing sales transactions and lastly providing ongoing service to the existing clients.

4. ways of addressing the problem beyond what is presented in the case

Two ways can be used to address the problem of sales. One of the ways is to terminate

employees who are not bringing any benefit to the company’s table. Grant Foster, New

Hampshire sales representative used to be a high performer. However, significant personal issues

have affected his overall productivity because of the ethical dilemma she is currently in. On one

hand, it might appear unfair to terminate an employee who was once considered to be a great

asset for the company and would make sense if the company waits for him to recover from this

tough times is his life. However, on the other hand, the significant drop of his performance have

caused several complaints from clients and therefore, appropriate actions need to be taken.

Therefore, Foster should be placed in probation.

The second way in which the company can deal with the issue would be to stop firing

representatives but add more salesforce. In each territory, an additional salesperson will allow

the sales representatives to focus more on their work. However, the high performance might be
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against this move because additional sales representatives would hinder them to remain above

average.

5. analytical story.

StepSmart Fitness company is currently facing problems in its sales department and there

is a need to come up with a solution so as to mitigate the problem. Cooper, under the supervision

of the Vice – president has decided to step up and deal with the problem. The main choice of

tackling the problem is to use the available data to make informed decisions.

6. findings of similar previous cases.

Companies which have undergone through the same problem used analytical methods to

deal with sales problems of the company. Past studies have been successful because analytics do

not use human emotions, but mathematical relationships to understand the sales. Starting with

the selling strategies of the employee and how it relates with the profit generated to the company

by the employees.
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References

Davenport, T. H., Kim, J., Sklar, A., & Hoopla digital. (2014). Keeping up with the quants: Your

guide to understanding & using analytics. United States: HighBridge, a division of

Recorded Books.

Dolan, R. J., Shapiro, B. P., & Zalosh, A. (2017). Havard Business School. StepSmart Fitness,

9(914), 509th ser.