1. How was the Hill Rom sales force organized prior to the reorganization?
Prior to the reorganization, Hill-Rom sent multiple sent multiple sales force specialists to call on different people within the same medical facility, resulting in overlapping coverage. A customer would contact a Hill-Rom sales representative who would try to locate the appropriate service or support resource.

2. How did Hill Rom segment their customers before the reorganization?
Hill-Rom’s segmentation strategy was based on the size of the health care facility, depending on attributes such as number of staffed beds and medical care specialties. For example, the more beds a hospital had and the more services it offered, the greater the likelihood that capital funding would be set aside on a regular basis to replace or acquire equipment.

3. What disconnect did the project team discover in sales resource allocation?
The project team found Hill-Rom’s sales approach based on facility size alone to be problematic. While the size of the facility was indeed important, it was not useful for discerning patters of purchasing behavior or for understanding customer needs, which could be quite heterogeneous. Less obvious characteristics such as customer’s capital spending, profit margins, occupancy rate and facility’s mix of insurance payers also affected purchase behavior.

4. How did they segment their customers as a result of their study?
Based on the characteristics in (3), Hill-Rom segmented its customers into eight segments and divided these segments in two groups: Key and Prime customers.

Key customers had higher capital expenditures on medical products. They not only bought equipment more frequently, but also were more likely to seek in-depth, customized consultation. They looked for comprehensive solutions to their problems and saw purchases as investments.

On the other hand,