Question

Hi, I need to "make a recommendation as to whether the company should continue to use sales agents...or employ its own sales force" and write a 500 word evaluation logically supporting my position. I have solved the problem portion of it already, now having a hard time to put my thoughts together on which side to support. This is my first time asking any questions here so not sure how these things work. I have only attach the Degree of operating leverage results that I got for my answers and they are all correct but please let me know if you need to see any other part of the problem results. Thanks!

Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company has no sales force of its own; rather, it relies completely on independent sales agents to market its products. These agents are paid a sales commission of 15% for all items sold.

Barbara Cheney, Pittman’s controller, has just prepared the company’s budgeted income statement for next year as follows:

Pittman Company Budgeted Income Statement For the Year Ended December 31
Sales				$	24,000,000
Manufacturing expenses:
Variable	$	10,800,000
Fixed overhead		3,360,000			14,160,000
Gross margin					9,840,000
Selling and administrative expenses:
Commissions to agents		3,600,000
Fixed marketing expenses		168,000	*
Fixed administrative expenses		2,120,000			5,888,000
Net operating income					3,952,000
Fixed interest expenses					840,000
Income before income taxes					3,112,000
Income taxes (30%)					933,600
Net income				$	2,178,400

*Primarily depreciation on storage facilities.

As Barbara handed the statement to Karl Vecci, Pittman’s president, she commented, “I went ahead and used the agents’ 15% commission rate in completing these statements, but we’ve just learned that they refuse to handle our products next year unless we increase the commission rate to 20%.”

“That’s the last straw,” Karl replied angrily. “Those agents have been demanding more and more, and this time they’ve gone too far. How can they possibly defend a 20% commission rate?”

“They claim that after paying for advertising, travel, and the other costs of promotion, there’s nothing left over for profit,” replied Barbara.

“I say it’s just plain robbery,” retorted Karl. “And I also say it’s time we dumped those guys and got our own sales force. Can you get your people to work up some cost figures for us to look at?”

“We’ve already worked them up,” said Barbara. “Several companies we know about pay a 7.5% commission to their own salespeople, along with a small salary. Of course, we would have to handle all promotion costs, too. We figure our fixed expenses would increase by $3,600,000 per year, but that would be more than offset by the $4,800,000 (20% × $24,000,000) that we would avoid on agents’ commissions.”

The breakdown of the $3,600,000 cost follows:

Salaries:
Sales manager	$	150,000
Salespersons		900,000
Travel and entertainment		600,000
Advertising		1,950,000
Total	$	3,600,000

“Super,” replied Karl. “And I noticed that the $3,600,000 equals what we’re paying the agents under the old 15% commission rate.”

“It’s even better than that,” explained Barbara. “We can actually save $110,400 a year because that’s what we’re paying our auditors to check out the agents’ reports. So our overall administrative expenses would be less.”

“Pull all of these numbers together and we’ll show them to the executive committee tomorrow,” said Karl. “With the approval of the committee, we can move on the matter immediately.”

Required:

1. Compute Pittman Company’s break-even point in dollar sales for next year assuming:

a. The agents’ commission rate remains unchanged at 15%.

b. The agents’ commission rate is increased to 20%.

c. The company employs its own sales force.

2. Assume that Pittman Company decides to continue selling through agents and pays the 20% commission rate. Determine the dollar sales that would be required to generate the same net income as contained in the budgeted income statement for next year.

3. Determine the dollar sales at which net income would be equal regardless of whether Pittman Company sells through agents (at a 20% commission rate) or employs its own sales force.

4. Compute the degree of operating leverage that the company would expect to have at the end of next year assuming:

a. The agents’ commission rate remains unchanged at 15%.

b. The agents’ commission rate is increased to 20%.

c. The company employs its own sales force.

Use income before income taxes in your operating leverage computation.

Compute the degree of operating leverage that the company would expect to have at the end of next year assuming: (Use income before income taxes in your operating leverage computation.) (Round your answers to 2 decimal places.)

	Degree of Operating Leverage a. The agents’ commission rate remains unchanged at 15%. 3.08selected answer correct b. The agents’ commission rate is increased to 20%. 4.39selected answer correct c. The company employs its own sales force. 8.01selected answer correct

Answer 1

Break even point in Dollar Sales = Fixed costs/Contribution Margin Ratio
Contribution Margin ratio If commission stays at 15% = (24,000,000-10,800,000-3,600,000)/24,000,000
=40%
Total Fixed costs	6488000
Break even point = Total Fixed costs/CM Ratio	16,220,000
b.CM Ratio when rate is increased to 20%
35%
Hence, break even point	18,537,143
3.CM Ratio	47.50%
Total Fixed costs	9977600
Break even Sales	21,005,474
2.Dollar sales required = (Income before tax + Fixed costs)/CM Ratio
27,428,571
3.Indifferent dollar sales = Difference in Fixed costs/Difference in CM Ratio
27,916,800
Degree of Operating leverage = Contribution Margin/Net Operating Income
3.084832905
b.Commission increased	3.168449198
c.Own Sales force	8.014623172

Recommendation

The decision should be made on the basis of financial as well as non-financial factors.

Financial Factors:

Employing own sales force will lead to an increase in fixed costs for the company leading to a higher break even point and higher risk of losses if the sales fall as represented by Degree of Operating Leverage. However, with increased fixed costs and reduced variable costs, Contribution Margin % will increase and hence, more profits can be earned by increasing sales.

Hence, own sales force to be appointed only if the estimated sales are above the indifference point i.e. $27,916,800

Coming to non-financial factors, new agents in the sales force might not be trained as the old ones which might require expenditure on training and loss of sales etc. Hence, these factors must also be considered before employing own sales force.