A major food products company uses sales representatives to work with wholesalers and supermarket chains. The representatives’ chief tasks are to sell new products, secure adequate display in stores, and coordinate promotions. Each representative is solely responsible for a district. Yearly volume of sales in the district is the primary measure of the representative’s effectiveness. Below are some descriptive statistics relating to the sales from last year (in thousands of dollars). Sales volume by district
N Mean Median Std Dev Min Max Q1 Q3
118 4336.2 4334.0 401.4 3058.0 5301.0 4154.2 4551.8
a. The company attempted to set up the districts to have equal sales volume potential. Do you think that this has been achieved? Explain your answer.
b. A junior manager examined last year’s sales volume data and noticed that half the sales representatives were performing below average. The manager felt that this fact indicated deficiencies in the company’s training or in the representatives’ motivation. Is the manager’s reasoning valid?