Originally Published MX November/December
2001
ADVERTISING, DISTRIBUTION, & SALES
Imbalanced Workloads
Workload imbalance exists in the sales forces of many medical device, diagnostic, and medical supply companies. The figure below shows the estimated workload for a medical sales force with 185 territories. The account workload in each territory has been calculated and indexed on the vertical axis.
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The territories
have been sorted from highest to lowest workload, and each territory is plotted
as a point along the curved line on the graph. The "average territory" line
on the graph represents the annual workload capacity of one salesperson. The
territory with the highest workload on the graph has more than twice the workload
of the average territory. Conversely, the territory with the lowest workload
has less than 40% of the workload of the average territory. More than 50% of
the territories have workloads that deviate by more than 15% from the average.
Alignment imbalances like those shown in the figure are typical. Such imbalance
leads to suboptimal sales results.
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| Workload imbalance in medical sales territories leads to suboptimal sales results. Source: ZS Associates (Evanston, IL). |
Copyright ©2001 MX
