Romano Pitesti Case
Question One

Ridnour defines sales culture as a growth orientated facet of the market orientation in which all employees are expected to contribute to the creation of value for customers by actively participating in the selling process. It can be seen in the Romano Pitesti case that both Tickford Flexible Products and Samuel Jones Ltd had very different sales cultures and operate in different markets, therefore have different customers. Ridnour goes on to state a marketing orientated organisation not only wants it keep its customers happy, it also wants to grow existing relationship and create new ones. It is evident that Tickford Flexible Products wants to grow and create new relationship as they want to merge with Samuel Jones Ltd, the managing director of Tickford Flexible Products says that “put our expertise in moulding technology alongside their distribution network, and it could be one of our main product lines”. The managing director sees the merger as an opportunity to create relationships and strengthen existing relationships. Ridnour proposes several variables which can indicate a strong or weak sales culture, these are; sales training, performance pay, selling activities customer service and commitment. At Samuel Jones Ltd employees were paid a commission on top of their salary, this promotes employees to work harder to be rewarded and a high sales culture. Although, at Tickford Flexible Products employees were not paid a commission just a salary, this promotes a low sales cultures. From the case we can reasonably infer that Samuel Jones staff were trained in sales, received performance pay and therefore committed to the company. When staff are committed to the company they have a high level of sales culture. The staff of Samuel Jones are much like the staff of Tickford Flexible Products, although they do not receive performance