Competency

Create a strategic sales plan.

Scenario Information

You are the regional sales manager for International Herb Express (IHE) which is a large, US-based spice & herbs supplier. IHE sells to other businesses that purchase bulk spices and spice blends for use in their end products. The primary customers are baking and soup mix corporations that sell to other businesses, for example, bakeries, restaurants, other food-service, and regional grocery chains. IHE is launching a new spice blend that reflects a more diverse cultural & ethnic flavor profile than IHE’s traditional offerings.

The abridged marketing strategy for this new spice blend is to target both current customers, but also to reach new customers that are target regions with higher ethnic diversity and/or the more adventurous “foodies” market. The marketing efforts will focus on taste testing, sampling, and on-site promotion. IHE is launching this marketing plan to help create a product offering that is not as commodity-driven (as most spices and herbs are the same quality no matter where they are purchased) and can potentially offer higher profit margins.

It is important to note that spices and other ingredients are raw goods and traded as commodities. The raw price for these goods changes on a day-to-day basis. Pricing is based on classic supply and demand, though nature is a key contributor to the supply–extreme weather as well as health of crops have a direct impact on the supply chain and access to the raw goods.

Instructions

Having recently been promoted to Director of New Business Sales, part of your new responsibilities is to create a presentation for the next sales managers’ meeting. Since you are still relatively new at giving presentations, you want your slides and corresponding notes on the slides to offer enough detail to make you prepared for the open “question and answer” session that will immediately follow your presentation.

Your presentation will be delivered via PowerPoint slides to highlight main ideas and will utilize the PowerPoint notes feature to include specific details for each slide that will reinforce the communication provided via the slide.

The PowerPoint presentation should include:

• Strategic sales plan overview for the new spice blend including:
  • Sales vision statement
  • Sales force’s objectives/goals that compliments the marketing plan
  • Recommended sales tactics to meet the sales objectives
  • Suggested metrics that will evaluate success in meeting objectives
• Evaluation of the suggested sales plan through the key questions:
  • Who: Target buyer overview
  • What: Key selling features and benefits
  • Why: Highlight comparison to competitive products
  • When: Timing of sales events (ie, launch, promotional periods if you recommend them, etc)
• Recommended communication style the sales force should use for the product launch with customers

Please note any details not noted above can be created by the student, but must be consistent with acceptable and common business scenarios.