Sales Structure of Apple Inc. [PDF]

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SALES STRUCTURE OF APPLE INC.

SALES STRUCTURE OF APPLE INC.

1. Sales organization structure refers to the design of the sales team. Businesses may use an inside or outside sales model, geographic or industry territory approach, product model (split by product line or type), SMB/mid-market/Enterprise split, or some combination of the above. Sales Structure of an organization can be broadly classified as: (a) Geography/territory. Organizing your sales team by geography or territory allows each salesperson to develop familiarity with a specific geographic location. They can build rapport with local businesses, get to know regional competitors, and track target accounts. (b) Product/service line. f your company sells several different products or services, it can help to align salespeople to those products and services. Similar to geographical expertise, it allows your reps to become the expert on a specific product you sell, thereby better able to communicate its value and use case for individual clients. (c) Customer/account size. another popular structure.

Organizing your sales org by account size is

(d) Industry/vertical segment. Different industries will use your product/service in different ways. The setup made in a vertical reporting and command and control chain in an industry for flow of sales is known as vertical segment. 2. Lets have a look and analyse the Sales Organisation Structure of Cyber giant ‘Apple Inc.’ of the USA. The flowchart of the structure is as given below and shall be explained subsequently in next paragraph.

3.

The functions of various sub-units in the above structure is as follows:

(a) Apple sales International (ASI). Apple Sales International lies at the apex of Apple’s Sales structure. Its function is to control sales in the international market while the research and development of the product being made for sale remains with the Apple Inc. It provides payment to thirdparty manufacturer in China for completing their orders to distribution and retail subsidiaries of Apple and also a large number of customers worldwide. It collects the revenue of sales from these sub-units/cutomers and pays Apple Inc. for R&D. It takes the ownership of goods being made by the third party and hands over it to the buyers. However, physical delivery of goods remains from the third party directly to the buyer akin to a dropshipping concept of delivery. (b) ASI Logistics Branch (Ireland). It is a sub-unit of ASI which looks after the delegated duty of looking after logistical supply from third party to buyer and preparing invoices and other documents for the buyer. It is like a staff secretariat to ASI looking after the documentation and logistics. (c) Third Party Manufacturer (China). The third-party manufacturer in China participates in this structure by fulfilling the orders of Apple Inc. through ASI. It transfers the ownership of products to ASI while the product is directly shipped to the buyers worldwide. It deals with ASI Branch (Ireland) for documentation and issues/instructions on logistical matters.

(d) Subsidiaries. Apple has distribution subsidiaries worldwide who distribute the Apple products as per demand on a large scale. Apple also supplies directly to retail subsidiaries , stores, malles etc. through Carrier & forwarder and maintenance through FSR (Field Service Representatives)