Case Study: Smith's Snackfood Company - Challenges and Solutions

This case study examines the critical issues faced by Smith's Snackfood Company, including increasing competition in the snack market, changing consumer preferences, and the need for effective knowledge management. The analysis explores strategies to address these challenges, such a...Read More

REAL CHOICES AT THE SMITH’S SNACKFOOD
COMPANY

Question 1: What are some of the critical issues facing Smith’s?
Solution 1: Smith’s Snackfood Company is facing some really daunting challenges. Firstly,
there is an increasing trend of eating a wider spectrum of snack products plus healthier snacks.
This has heightened competition in the wider “macro snacking” marketplace. With growing
competition in the healthy snack segment as well, Smith’s is faced with the challenge of
competing for the already small shelf spaces in the retail stores. It is highly critical to managing
relationships with retailers and with the intensifying rivalry, this becomes harder and harder.
Identifying whitespace prospects which match the marketplace dynamics, taste preferences and
culture take a detailed and critical analysis of the retail landscape plus the customer trends which
drive buying habits. Processing so much amount of information and filtering only the one
required is another major challenge faced by the company. The challenge is to gather
information from different markets and assimilating it into one so that all members of the sales
force are equipped with the necessary information about every store (Solomon et al., 2013).
Moreover, with rising competition in the “macro snacking” market, the company faces the
challenge of deciding the type and amount of information required by its sales force to be
effective. Although the company has a knowledge management portal which offers a central
point of access to the database, however, with the changing consumer trends and buying habits,
plus rising competition, there is a need for more sturdy knowledge management.
Question 2: What strategies could be introduced to manage these issues?
Solution 2: It takes more than a hearty crunch and great flavours to sell a Snack. It is evident
through the case that capturing the corporate information and industry best practices have helped
the Smith’s management earlier in providing employees something they could use for efficient
sales. Below mentioned strategies are recommended to manage the issues highlighted above:
Employing a sales-oriented CRM system – An efficient CRM system with a sales focus can help
Smith’s salesforce in staying focused and organized. With properties like automatic reminders,
lead prioritization, and customer specific data, the sales team is likely to receive only that
information which is critical in increasing sales. With help of such system, Smith’s can expect to
experience a rise in its salesforce closing ratio together with greater productivity (Hung et al.,
2015).
Arming the sales team with collaboration and mobile communication tools – The company’s
salesforce is likely to spend most part of their time on the field, hence they require remote and
easy access to critical and timely sales and consumer information via a mobile CRM app or
solution. This will enable them to perform with real-time data and to modify a prospect’s
information instantly, instead of waiting till they come back to the office. This will also enable
managers to track data efficiently through the sales funnel (Tseng and Pin-Hong, 2014). Smith’s
must also make it convenient for its salesforce to have immediate access to the up-to-date
product specs and contracts from a device – phone, laptop or tablet. Moreover, as they will be
needing to edit or draw documents, for e.g. a contract to finalize a deal at the quarter end, the
company must make sure that they can do so easily without having to jump across multiple
devices and apps (Fu, 2015).
Using an advanced search engine – As there is no advanced search engine being used at Smith’s
currently, the company can choose from different advanced search engines available. These will
enable the users (salespeople) to find information spread in various repositories like

spreadsheets, PPTs and intranet websites. It will help the members of the sales team to reach all
the varied data sets by one view thereby refining the search and saving time (Rodriguez, Robert
and Haya 2015).
Question 3: What decision(s) do you recommend?
Solution 3: In order to implement the above recommendations, several decisions need to be
made. These include:
Company-wide communication app - Having a company-wide communication app together with
privacy and data security will result in improved customer and sales experiences and lesser
mistakes (Arnett and Michael, 2014).
Qualify leads – Smith’s will have to define its target audience and acknowledge that people
beyond this definition are likely to be wasting time than leading to sales. 3rd party behavioural
and demographic data needs to be attached to inquiries in real time to swiftly assess how much
prospective buyers match the defined target profile. It is only counterproductive to give leads to
sales if these prospects are not willing to have a sales talk. Hence, it is crucial to comprehend the
buyer’s journey, give them helpful content, and then extend them to sales only when they show
they are willing to have a sales conversation (Khodakarami and Yolande, 2014).
Obtain an advanced search engine – For starters, the company can outsource this to a company
which can build a prototype in small time employing technologies previously permitted by
Smith’s IS division (Garrido-Moreno, Aurora, and Víctor, 2014).
Offering constant training and chances for sharing best practices – The company needs to start
focusing more on the development of its sales team. From technical training on services and
products to training on the sales process, or bringing regional salesforces together every year to
exchange best practices, an extensive development and training program gives a measurable ROI
(Babin and William, 2015).
Question 4: What is the most cost-effective way to implement your recommendation(s)?
Solution 4: When implementing the CRM, the company should get its requirements and
specifications meticulously mapped out. The more detailed these requirements are, the better-
positioned companies are to give firm pricing. Firm pricing will enable Smith’s to recognize the
capabilities it can do without. Moreover, a careful requirement specification will help the
organization in identifying the functionality which it does and does not require. Through this,
Smith’s can find lower cost brands that can meet its needs. In addition to this, unless there is a
pressing requirement to use technology in a specific way, it is advised to have an open mind
between on-premise and hosted options (Filieri, 2013). Besides this, prior to choosing the T&D
program, Smith’s is advised to not make assumptions regarding its employees’ abilities and
instead survey them directly. Once feedback is received on this, the company will be in a much
better position to structure the T&D program.

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