Question

5. The Claron Corporation’s main competitor, Brighton company, just filed for bankruptcy, presenting a potential opportunity for an increase in customers and revenue at Claron. As a result, several of Brighton’s salespeople have contacted George Wills, Claron’s vice president of sales, inquiring about employment at Claron. Currently Wills has no openings on his 10-person salesforce. However, he does not want to dismiss the Brighton reps, some of whom are top performers that might be able to enhance Brighton’s revenue stream that has been falling for the past year.

            After speaking to his CEO about adding a position to his salesforce, Wills was given permission to do so as long as the new salesperson made more of his salary in commissions than base salary. Wills, however would like to add three of Brighton’s salespeople. Currently there are four salespeople on Wills’s staff that outperform the other six, who are approximately equal in talent. Yet, Wills is hard-pressed to identify a clear laggard whom he would dismiss in favor of the competition’s salespeople. Wills is also concerned that he could disrupt the team chemistry he has worked hard to build the past two years by firing some of his current salespeople and hiring those from Brighton. However, he does not know if he can pass up this opportunity to upgrade his salesforce.

            How should Wills approach this dilemma? Should he hire the new reps and deal with the ramifications of letting two of his people go, or can he afford to pass on the new reps altogether?

Answer 1

I believe that Will can afford to pass on the new reps altogether. If these sales reps were really great performers, then Brighton's would not have filed for bankruptcy in the first place as these (extraordinary) sales reps would have turned the tables by increasing revenue. Another issue with bring this new sales reps into Claron, as mentioned above, is a high probability of destructing the team chemistry that was built over the past two years. Claron's sales reps, who were all the way competing with these sales reps from Brighton would feel uncomfortable working together, under the same roof. Thus, there are high chances that the team chemistry would be impaired. Besides, Claron has been doing well so far compared to Brighton--All thanks to its existing sales reps. Thus, I believe that there is no need for Will to replace his existing, talented sales reps with those from Brighton. Another potential issue is that of ethics. Replacing equally good sales reps from Claron, who have been providing favorable results till date with those of Brighton's would be unethical as the decision is without basis. It would be another story if the current sales reps from Claron have been performing poorly and are not able to deliver results. Therefore, I believe that Claron should altogether ignore the sales reps from Brighton and continue working and training its own sales reps.