QualityKiosk: Sales Force Design for Anabot

In December of 2020, the head of product development at QualityKiosk Technologies Private Limited (QualityKiosk) was grappling with a significant issue. QualityKiosk provided application quality assurance, business automation, digital experience management, and data analytics services to financial services companies across India. Krishna had to recommend the way forward for the company’s latest product—Anabot, a new information technology (IT) journey analytics platform. The Anabot platform could provide its clients with quick insight about any IT incidents in the client’s technology services. It also provided around-the-clock intelligence to the client’s team handling those incidents. In its first year of sales, the customer journey analytics platform had been adopted by five major clients, generating over ₹20 million in revenues for QualityKiosk. However, between May and August 2020, none of over fifty potential clients who had expressed an interest in the Anabot product had proceeded to make a purchase. For the entire Anabot product team, anxiety was increasing about the future of their product. In an upcoming product review meeting with the company’s chief executive officer, the head of product development would be required to present his recommendations for the future of the Anabot platform.

This case is suitable for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on professional sales, sales force management, and business-to-business marketing. This case describes issues with the sales strategy for a new product. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to<ul><li>consider the essential role that the sales force plays in a business-to-business environment to drive adoptions and sales of new products;</li><li>understand how appropriate sales force specialization can be critical to achieve key sales outcomes; and</li><li>discuss what costs, benefits, and trade-offs are involved in different types of sales force specialization.</li></ul>

• sales management
• B2B marketing
• sales force strategy